Lifestyle, exercise, nutrition and immunity health go hand-in-carefully-washed-hand. This has always been a reason that I’ve known I should be taking diet and physical activity seriously, but after the last two years – and as things continue as they have been, these practices seem more important to me than they have been before.
Keeping a Focus on Exercise, Nutrition and Immune Health
I used to bump up my efforts for exercise, nutrition and immune health for cold and flu season each year. Now, with the pandemic, the newly arrived (in the US) monkeypox outbreaks, and who knows what else in our future, I’ve started to take these practices a lot more seriously. I’ve started to keep up this focus year-round.
I don’t pretend that eating apples and carrots and going for a run will guarantee me good health. Of course, that’s not the case. But it also doesn’t hurt. Making sure my immune system has everything it needs to give infections everything it’s got is a good idea, in my opinion. I can do what I can to stop myself from being exposed to various things, but after a certain point, there is some risk in everything if I’m going to be able to leave my home, let alone live my life. So, I am taking care of myself so that myself will take care of me!
Steps I’m Taking to Keep Myself at My Best
- Keeping up exercise – I’m still running on a regular basis, but I also go for walks, do a bit of strength training, yoga, and even a touch of tai chi now and again.
- Eating probiotic foods – In particular, I eat yogurt with active cultures on a regular basis, but also sauerkraut, kombucha, kefir and miso on occasion.
- Eating prebiotic foods – A Harvard health article I read on the subject also recommends prebiotics, so I make sure I cook with lots of garlic, onions, asparagus, bananas and even seaweed snacks. This is on top of the other fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains I add to my diet to round everything out.
- Immunity Supplement – I’ve started taking an immunity supplement, since that same Harvard article indicated that “a deficiency of a single nutrients can alter the body’s natural immune response”. Since I’m already eating my best sustainably possible balance, I top that up with immune support vitamins to be sure that at the very least, I’m supplementing the nutrients that are best for immunity support.