OPINION: Not quite in tip-top shape

I’d love to hear everyone’s best tricks for feeling better when sick. At the moment, I have a minor cold. This is something I wouldn’t normally talk about, but since I’m leaving in a couple days for Yellowstone, I’m in a bit of a rush to be in tip-top shape.

The cold came in on Monday. I had no symptoms except a throat as dry as the Sahara Desert. Considering I’d been around a bunch of sick people recently, I knew this was a bad omen, so I threw back a couple cold meds and planned to chug water all day.

About halfway through the day, I was frustrated. All the water was doing was making me feel bloated, not helping my throat at all. Fine, I thought. I’ll run to the grocery store and grab something for extra hydration.

The rest of the day, I chugged Gatorade and Liquid I.V. in the hopes it would help. Unfortunately, Tuesday morning I woke up feeling like I had a full-on cold and not just a dry throat. Darn, my hydration didn’t work. I started looking up what foods help get rid of a cold.

According to Dr. Google, I need to stock up on foods rich in vitamin C, vitamin D and zinc. Well, the Liquid I.V. is jam-packed with vitamin C, so I’m good on that front. Vitamin D can be found in fatty fish, dairy and egg yolks. I won’t be consuming much dairy, so breakfast was fried eggs and lunch included tuna. I made sure to snack on nuts during the day too, in order to keep my zinc intake up.

I also been having a Starbucks medicine ball each day. People who know me understand that I don’t like tea or hot drinks in general. Unfortunately, the medicine ball is exactly that. However, it’s been a lifesaver every time I’ve gotten sick, so I put on my big girl pants and force myself to drink it.

Apparently probiotics are also great in both preventing and reducing the length of a cold. Like most people, I instantly think of yogurt when I think of probiotics. Since I will not be eating that, I learned about some other foods with probiotics: kimchi, pickles, sourdough bread and dark chocolate all have probiotics. Looking at this list of foods, I think the rest of the meals I eat this week will be a confusing blend of everything.

News Clerk Mandy McDowell said I’m just like her son when he feels ill before a theatrical performance - finding each and every way I can think of to feel better. I’m adding honey to everything and will probably have chicken noodle soup for dinner tonight, despite how hot it is outside.

Of course, I know sleep is also important, but we don’t really have time for naps in the newsroom right now.

Do you have any other ideas on what I can do to flush this out of my system as soon as possible? I plan on hiking around a national park next week no matter what, but I’d prefer to do so without all the symptoms of a cold.

Thank you in advance, and best of luck to any of you who are also sick out there.