Cold and flu season is upon us. No matter how hard we try to nourish our bodies to have the strongest immune system, we all catch a common cold once in a while– and we all have tried-and-true remedies that we swear by. Today we’re sharing our best tips in the hopes that we can help you kick your cold to the curb and be back on your feet in no time.
- Eat all the oranges. This one my Dad taught me– and it works! As soon as I feel a cold coming on I start eating as many oranges as my body can handle. Freshly-squeezed OJ works too.
- Neo Citran. Also a habit inherited from my Dad. I drink two mugs of this a day when I’m sick with a cold and it makes me feel better every time. It’s also great to put you to sleep when a cough is keeping you up. This stuff is powerful.
- Sri Lankan Ayurvedic tea. When I was traveling in Sri Lanka earlier this year, I came down with a nagging cold. There was no sign of Neo Citran and the oranges couldn’t battle it off on their own, so I thought: “might as well try to cure it the local way!” Some of the locals I talked to recommended this tea, which is a blend of herbs and spices, and it worked pretty well. I brought it home with me and now I use it every time I have a cold. It might just be the placebo effect or the natural course of the cold, but I really do believe it works. It doesn’t taste great (I think it tastes like my hot yoga studio…) but it works. Like Buckley’s, but healthier. You can get it on Amazon!
- Hot showers or baths. I find the steam really helps with sinus blockage. Diffuse some essential oils while you’re in there.
- Sweat sesh. Don’t do this too soon– you need to rest when you’re sick. But, I always find that if I go to hot yoga on the tail end of my cold, it really helps to sweat it out and keep it from lingering. Going hard at the gym or visiting a sauna might work too.
What are your holy grail flu hacks? Let us know in the comments or share them on social media (@twowildtides), we would love to try them!
Feel better soon!!
char
The next morning, we went downstairs at 8:30 am thinking we’d just be walking out to the street in front of the hotel to ride bikes for this guy’s video. Nope. There was a driver waiting for us in a very nice car. He got out and introduced himself as being a tour guide for the Sri Lankan Tourism Board. Turns out that we were about to be a part of a very legitimate ad campaign.
We were so grateful to have had this experience. We felt great because it was spontaneous and unique and a hell of a good story. We would have never gotten such an incredible view of Pidurangala and Sigiriya had we declined. We were treated like stars and got to meet some really friendly and talented locals. Then they asked if they could use us for more scenes because we ‘fit the image.’ We accepted, partly out of politeness and partly out of interest to see what else was in store.
After the coconut scene, we had been out filming with these people for more than three hours! We were pretty tired. They asked us to do one final scene. This time, we accepted purely to be polite. This final scene was so corny– and intense. We had lines to say, marks to hit, and two co-stars. It was hot and we were tired. But we did it, and they dropped us off safely at our hotel FIVE HOURS after they picked us up. What we expected to take 15 minutes took way longer than that. The crew understood that we were tired and that they had asked way more of us than was expected. Even though my friends and I were a little irritable by the end, it was so worth it. It was a really fun day and an experience that we could have never paid for or planned. Plus, we have this cool memento of our trip:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 4
