What to do when you’ve got the flu! 🤧

Hi everyone! How have you been doing? Anybody else have a cold? I don’t know if I’ve got a cold or the flu but for the purpose of this post I’m going to be acting like they’re one and the same. I think I started feeling symptoms of the flu either last Friday or Saturday and as I’m currently typing out this post it is the next Thursday on from then. I’m already feeling WAY better and I thought instead of dwelling on the fact that I’ve got the flu around my birthday (which is tomorrow 🥳), it would be a good idea to share what I think has made my cold pass so fast! I’m no doctor so take what I say with a grain of salt (or is the saying “pinch” of salt 🤔) but there are a few things that I have found very helpful and I’d love to share them with you! Let’s jump right in, here are my tips for when you’ve got the flu, starting with:

Drink Cranberry Juice

I knew this was good for uti infections so the other day I was wondering if it’s good for the flu too so I Googled it and apparently cranberry juice helps reduce flu symptoms!! Since I found that out I’ve been drinking a glass a day (I think that is as much as you can have) and I really think it’s played one of the biggest roles in how quickly I’m getting over my cold. As the days go on I notice different symptoms (such as the shivers, a sore throat, a blocked nose and a cough but each phase only has its one big day before I feel like my body moves on, I believe cranberry juice has played a part in that!).

Try to get enough sleep 😴

I know it’s tough when you’re not feeling well, I’ve had my fair share of sleepless nights but when you eventually feel like you can get some sleep, do it! Sleep is super important in order to give your body a rest and to allow it to recuperate. You really do feel it when you don’t manage to get that sleep, me personally I feel it in my head and that can’t be healthy so try your best to give your body the sleep it deserves. Sleep is always essential but when your body is trying to recover from something it’s even more so.

Get your greens in! Especially microgreens 🌱

Wanna know a fact about me that you never asked for? I love microgreens! I used to plant them and very much want to get back into doing that. They are packed with nutrients and are perfect meal toppers! Whenever I have soup I sprinkle some microgreens ontop, I have ones that are good for immune support and others that are rich in fibre from Tesco. They are just so good! And even tho the fibre ones taste a bit earthy, I have the flu of course so I can’t really taste much anyway 🤷🏽‍♀️🤣. It feels good to know I’m getting something extremely healthy especially in a time of need. I would 1000% recommend microgreens to you 🌱 and as an extra little point I disapprove of sugar when you’ve got a cold as that only fuels the virus! I once heard somewhere that sugar feeds bacterias growth 🤢.

Drink loads of water! 💦

It’s important to wash out all the bad stuff  and to keep you hydrated! I always keep a bottle with me and since I’ve been finding that paracetamol helps the cold more than murofen does personally I like to drink water to wash those meds through my body incase I need to take more later on and then I feel better about it if I do. Some days I’m really bad about remembering to drink water but I always have a bottle beside me and I make a conscious effort to drink it, not only when I don’t feel well but perhaps I’m more inclined to remember to reach for it when I don’t feel great. Regardless of my habits, make sure you get in your 2 litres a day if not a little less!

Have a nice cup of tea with honey 🍯

In our house we have decaff tea so you can drink as much of it as you like without feeling any side effects for lack of a better word, I like drinking later in the day so if I wanna sleep then decaff is the way to go! 😂 When I first got the flu last week, my mum surprised me with a nice warm mug of tea with a bit of honey in it and it was so soothing and went a long way in helping my sore throat which was my initial symptom! Now I make it myself and I tend to add too much honey but it’s good for you right!? 🤣 It has antibacterial properties and I love knowing that not only does it taste good in tea but it’s good for me too. My mum used to try get my sister and I to have a spoonful of honey a day when we were little and I absolutely hated it, I’d literally gag but I’d happily eat honeycomb ice cream 🤣. Now I like to think that I’m less picky seeing as I enjoy it in my tea!

Eat homemade chicken soup!

Random I know but my mum makes this delicious chicken soup that’s been passed down through generations, maybe out there there is some long lost family of mine who make it too. It has pearl barley in it if that strikes a note with you? It’s so darn delicious and I could happily nosh down a bowl of it, especially when I have the flu because it feels so healing and cosy. I’ve heard that chicken soup contains anti-inflammatory properties and I’m no expert but that sounds like a good thing when it comes to not feeling well! 🤣

Drink healthy shots!

I’m talking about ginger or turmeric shots! I’m a bit addicted to them and I know the best places to buy them where I live 🤣 (Dunnes Stores if you’re in Ireland or Spain do a really good one and the bottle is bigger!). They are a great immunity boost and so tasty too. When I drink the ginger ones I grimace at first because it’s a shocking flavour and so raw but I absolutely love it! I’d love to make a home batch one day, it’d be oh so potent 😂.

---

And those are my tips for if you have the flu! They are fairly simple so I daresay they are common knowledge but I thought I’d share them anyway because why not!? We can all use a helping hand when we’re not well.

What are your tips for if you have the flu/a cold? I’m all ears because I wanna completely get rid of it! Tell me all of your secrets 🫣🤣.

I’ve gotta go now but I’ll be back again next week. Tomorrow is my birthday so my next blog post might revolve around that 😏🎂. I hope you have the best week and that you don’t have the flu like me, but if you do then I also hope that this post has come in handy, I’m nothing if not hopeful 🤣. Bye guys ✨️💗.