Natural immune boosting ideas
Brrrrrr! It’s getting chilly, isn’t it? Hellooooooo, Uggs!
As the colder weather sets in, there are heaps of things we can do around our nutrition and general practice of self-care to boost our natural immunity to keep bugs at bay this winter before we hit the pharmacy.
Try out these natural immunity boosting tips to get you going:
Bone broth:
At the first sign of cooler weather, I make up a huge pot of this and stock up my fridge and freezer. I use it in soups, stews, slow cooked one-pot wonders… or even just drink a cup of it, like you might with miso. I swear by this! There is so much immune-boosting goodness in those bones! There’s a recipe in my book, The Juicy Movement: A Holistic Approach to Clean Living and it really is so simple. To make bone broth, it’s literally a pop on the stove and let simmer-type thing, no effort really, or you can buy good quality ones at health food stores or specialty grocers. If you do make it, make a big batch and freeze it.
Fermented foods:
Again, really immune boosting because they are good for the gut – and we all know the gut is literally at the centre of everything to do with our health. So, ideas for these are kefir, kombucha, saurkraut, kimchi. There are recipes for both kefir and kombucha in my book, or all the above are available at good health food stores and specialty grocers. Just be sure to read the labels and choose wisely!
Sleep
Sleep is soooo important to our overall wellbeing. It effects how we think, function, process emotion, and how efficiently our bodies can fight off bugs, so put it high on your priority list. Your average night should see you getting around 7-8 hours.
Sweat
Doing regular exercise and sweating helps you flush out the system and exercising outdoors has the added benefit of Vitamin D. Win, win! Try to get outside and be active at least half an hour a day.
Hydrate
Make sure you’re drinking heaps of water each day. I find mixing it up with herbal teas or warm water with ACV or lemon juice helps me feel warmer in winter. Add in some fresh ginger or ginger juice for extra immune-boosting zing.
Get steamie
If you’re starting to feel a cold coming on, hop in the bath with some Epsom salts and just let the steam do its work. Sauna’s (infrared or normal) and steam-rooms do wonders, too.
Sprinkle spices
Ground cinnamon, turmeric, ginger and paprika are all fantastic anti-inflammatories, so sprinkle whenever you can. I’ve included the super easy Turmeric Latte recipe from my book for you here. Just scroll to the bottom of the blog.
Wholefood loading
With the colder weather, we often search out comfort food, which is totally ok, but let’s make that comfort food nutrient-dense as well as delicious. Eat the rainbow, right? So, add heaps of colour to your meals, cook up trays of veggies to eat with roasts or stir through quinoa or rice for an easy lunch. Make mixed veg mash, rather than plain potato, and add texture and colour to soups, stews and casseroles with kale, cabbage, root veg, beans etc.
Supplement your diet
No matter how healthy we are and how much we concentrate on eating well, it is pretty difficult to load our bodies with the huge amounts of nutrients required to live optimally simply via what we eat and drink. There’s heaps of reasons for this: the quality of the top soil, the sheer amount we’d have to eat… So, to really load-up on the good stuff, I definitely recommend taking an all-natural, premium quality wholefood supplement. Your body and mind will LOVE you for it! My wholefood supplement gives me the goodness of around 30 plants each and every day, without any nasties, and is a complete non-negotiable for. Have a read of My Nutritional Philosophy for more details and reach out if you’d like more info.
Garlic
Raw, is better, but any which way is better than nothing. I know, it can be a bit stinky, but garlic is a really powerful anti-inflammatory and has amazing immune-boosting properties. I’m not suggesting eating a raw glove of garlic! Just load up your hummus and other dips, make some garlic butter, aioli, that sort of thing, and also just cook with it.
For more immunity tips, tune in live to my upcoming webinar on Wednesday 16 May at 7pm WST. Visit my events page for details.
Keep warm and stay juicy,
Carla xx