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Far 2 Fabulous
Join Catherine & Julie, your feisty hosts at Far 2 Fabulous, as they lead you on a wellness revolution to embrace your fabulousness.
Julie, a Registered Nutritional Therapist with over 20 years of expertise, and Catherine, a former nurse turned Pilates Instructor and Vitality Coach, blend wisdom and laughter seamlessly.
Off the air, catch them harmonising in their local choir and dancing to 80's hits in superhero attire. Catherine braves the sea for year-round swims, while Julie flips and tumbles in ongoing gymnastics escapades.
With a shared passion for women's health and well-being, they bring you an engaging exploration of health, life, and laughter. Join us on this adventure toward a more fabulous and empowered you!
Far 2 Fabulous
Holistic Remedies and Nutrition Tips for a Stronger Immune System
Unlock the secrets to nurturing your immune system and embracing wellness, even when life tries to push you into overdrive. This episode challenges societal norms, particularly those nudging women to soldier on through sickness, and advocates for a much-needed mindset shift. We explore the impact of these attitudes on children, highlighting the importance of balancing school commitments with health needs. Our discussion offers practical nutrition tips, such as boosting zinc and vitamin C intake, to speed up recovery and ensure your body's needs are met for optimal health.
Journey with us to the icy wonderland of Lapland, where we share the joys of whipping up potent natural remedies, from turmeric-infused concoctions to the healing powers of garlic and onion. Discover how holistic practices like meditation and visualization can be seamlessly integrated into your daily routine to enhance wellbeing. We also dive into the world of traditional remedies, celebrating the nourishment of homemade chicken soup and the ease of revitalizing smoothies. Through these insights, we aim to provide you with a comprehensive toolkit for reducing inflammation and maintaining overall health through natural and holistic means.
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Welcome to Far Too Fabulous hosted by Julie and.
Speaker 2:Catherine, join us on a mission to embrace your fabulousness and redefine wellness. Get ready for some feistiness, inspiration, candid chats and humour as we journey together towards empowered well-being. Let's dive in Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of Far Too Fabulous. So last week we were talking about the immune system. We were getting to know all the points about it.
Speaker 1:So this week we thought that we would just get down and dirty with the practical things that you can do to help yourself before and during if you're feeling poorly yeah, I think having some ideas of what to do when you're under the weather can be really, really helpful, and it will depend a bit on what you've got wrong with you, because there is a slightly different way that you might treat something like a cold or flu versus a stomach bug, for example. Generally speaking, here are some of the things that we do when we're under the weather and some ways that have been proven to help you recover quicker if you do become ill. Because we haven't got time for that, have we no?
Speaker 2:we're not available for it. You know we're not. So the first one is is rest, obviously, I mean, your body makes you do it anyway, doesn't it?
Speaker 1:it floors you I think it does, and I know we spoke last time about this, when whenever I'm ill, it's normally because what I actually needed was some time off. Yeah and to, but I find that difficult to do.
Speaker 1:I know you do as well. We're just the type of people that just get on with stuff and we're busy. And, of course, if you're someone who runs your own business, you also know that taking time off isn't as easy as maybe it might be if you were employed by someone and had your set hours. But anyway, rest, yeah, the minute that your body is telling you. If it hasn't floored you and you're at that stage where you think normally I get, I'll be thinking to myself, I feel a bit colder than normal, I always feel a little bit cold and I'll be tired, yeah, and then slows you down, doesn't it?
Speaker 2:what's really interesting is you. You're talking about us plowing through, and again, I think this is a learned thing. Maybe I mean probably through men and women, but certainly women have got this thing about plowing through and I'm really conscious, when the kids are poorly, to be mindful not to make them push through. Yep, I used to hold their attendance certificate like they'd come out with their 100% attendance certificate. I used to think that was for me. Yeah, you know what I mean, even if they're like half dying, pushing them into school and I genuinely don't think that that is productive. If you are not very well, you don't. You're not going to work very well in school, you're not going to work very well at home. It would be better to take a day or two's rest, rest up properly, recover properly and then go back to work, go back to school all guns blazing, rather than kind of drag it out until the weekend, um, and then eventually try and get some.
Speaker 1:get some rest and recuperation I think you just make yourself worse. Anyway, if you, if you ignore those early signs or you try and push through, you just prolong the thing you've got going on, don't you? Of course, with children, the brain learning is taking a lot of energy. So if you then send them in to use their energy for their brain, they're not going to be using. Of course, with children, the brain learning is taking a lot of energy, so if you then send them in to use their energy for their brain, they're not going to be using their energy for their immune system, are they?
Speaker 2:No, absolutely. And for them learning that, regardless of how I feel, I've still got to get up and go to school, I've still got to get up and go to work.
Speaker 1:That's just utterly ridiculous, that your health and your well-being is put second, to like whatever you're forcing yourself to go to, although we do need to be aware that sometimes the kids will say they're under the weather because they don't want to go to school and actually they're perfectly fine. So you've got to know, haven't you? I think, as mums, we tend to know, don't?
Speaker 1:we, we do know that stuff. So yeah, rest, rest, rest, know your body, know the signs. The the more sleep you get, the more repair and rejuvenation you can do, the better and quicker you'll recover.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. The next one this is this is right up julie's street. We've got to boost our nutrition and nutrients within that yeah, so.
Speaker 1:So one of the things that I will do if I've got a cold is I will really push up my zinc intake with my vitamin c, and that is because studies have proven that a high dose zinc and you're only talking about a few days before the people start freaking out about over supplementing, but a high dose of zinc, so we're talking about most zinc tablets will be about 15 milligrams in a multi. You'll probably have about 10 to 15 milligrams. I'm going to do 60 milligrams for a couple of days until I feel better, and then, on vitamin c, I will do up to what's called bowel tolerance, so vitamin C will relax the bowels. When you reach that, you know that that's your bowel tolerance level. So I will do a thousand milligrams of vitamin C every hour until I hit bowel tolerance and then I know that one back from there is actually what my system needs, so it will actually give you a a real I was gonna say a real solid sign, but perhaps the opposite, that quickly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but those two nutrients together. I remember last week when we were speaking about what those are actually doing. It's going to make a huge difference to how your body is going, to the rate of recovery, I think. And do they work?
Speaker 1:well together as well yeah, yeah, you can put them together. There's no competition between those two. So that's fine. Yeah, zinc and vitamin c I will definitely increase the vitamin d. You can also increase when you're ill, so you can boost up. So again, the recommended daily allowance for vitamin D is 400 IU for children and 1,000 IU for adult. You can push that up. You just have to be careful for some people, if there's any kidney issues, vitamin D does retain calcium and it can impact the thyroid. So you've got to know. You know, don't go putting in 10 000 iu of vitamin d, but you could if you've got a supplement. Most of them you spray in your in your mouth, but if you've got a supplement that's a thousand iu, then you could just take a couple. Yeah, take it up to 2000 iu because again, vitamin d is going to go in and things and regulate. And then just a food that I find really useful is honey, but proper honey. Yeah, we've spoken about this before honey didn't we?
Speaker 1:and manuka honey, yeah, really good. So it's pricey, but if you're, if you're off work and you've got problems, then honey is really good for the immune system as well.
Speaker 2:The properties in honey antibacterial, antiviral properties in honey yeah, it's no mistake that these things have been passed down through generations and they're they're put in sort of hot waters and things for for you to for you to drink, not just as a like a soothing thing. But uh, that's got properties that will help you.
Speaker 1:there are things that will coat the mucous membranes that can help if you've got irritation in, like your throat or in your lungs. So honey will definitely do that, also marshmallow but not not your ones that you toast, uh-huh and licorice will also do that, and slippery elm. So you can get like tea with those in Marshmallow, slippery elm and licorice. Licorice is really good. It coats the membranes and stops that irritation.
Speaker 2:As we're talking about this, I kind of feel like I want to keep clearing my throat Just thinking about it. I remember when we went to lapland when the kids were smaller and we were all poorly and I spent about four days before we were going and I had googled every single, like we would. We were taking the vitamins and we were still sort of taking paracetamol bits and pieces, but I googled everything that I possibly could. We came up with this kind of shot with turmeric, orange juice, ginger, cayenne pepper. Well, I don't know what that did. I think we were well enough to go, but we were still quite poorly.
Speaker 1:Oh, how annoying.
Speaker 2:Anti-inflammatory cayenne pepper Honey. I'm sure was in it as well. Yeah, ginger is a as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, ginger is a great one. Yes, that can really help support the immune system. And, of course, lemon has got your vitamin C in, hasn't it? Yeah, so Garlic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, garlic.
Speaker 1:Garlic is another good one. Antiviral, antibacterial properties again, yeah, and it's a good onion now I?
Speaker 2:what did I hear? I? This is another thing, yes, and it's. You. Only go and look for these things when you're feeling desperately rubbish is it for a cough?
Speaker 1:it was yeah something about drawing it out or something yeah, so I don't know if it works because I've never actually done that. Yeah, the onion garlic family. They've got properties in them that could certainly help calm the irritation that you get. Yeah, from from a cough. Yeah, but normally when we're coughing, of course it's because our body's trying to help us and it's trying to expel stuff from the lungs. It's so irritating having a cough. We were talking about this earlier on, weren't we? Because, especially when you get to a certain age and you're very active and you've got, maybe, an overactive pelvic floor, having a cough it's an absolute nightmare isn't?
Speaker 2:it? Yeah, absolutely. It's not good for singing either. Remember abby saying that when you, if you feel like you're going to cough to have a to have a sip of water instead because it's not very good for your vocal cords, there you go, do listen yeah, so another talking about foods and things.
Speaker 1:One of the foods that I particularly like if I'm under the weather is beetroot, so you've got to be a fan of beetroot yeah, this one on board because it's quite, maybe it's a bit of a bit of a marmite vegetable yeah, yeah, I mean I really like beetroot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know people don't, but beetroot can stimulate the nitric oxide, which helps with dilation of blood vessels and that helps with blood flow, so it can be really useful and it has an affinity with the lungs, a bit like elderberry similar color, right, so maybe something to do with the um, whatever antioxidant is in that it gives it that color, yeah, and calms inflammation, amazing.
Speaker 1:So we're back to that calming inflammation again. When you're talking about your turmeric and your ginger and your cayenne pepper, you're talking about things that calm inflammation, yeah, so inflammation is going to be your snotty nose, your sore throat, your your cough, your wheeziness, your aching body that's all inflammation, right?
Speaker 2:yeah, oh, that's amazing, yeah, and I've been an eating beetroot anyway. It's really dense in nutrients, isn't it? So, as a as a preventative as well, is a yeah, good thing to be getting in there, it would be a good thing for you to drink for your marathon training.
Speaker 1:Oh, really, yeah, because if you increase the blood flow, you're going to help endurance. Yeah, my breathing my lungs.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness. Okay, we're going to have to devise a recipe for that, because I'm pretty sure that just blended beetroot is not going to be fun or eating loads of it, juicing it.
Speaker 1:You can get beetroot juice. You can buy beetroot juice, yeah, and that's again. There's quite a lot of studies done on that, because they used beetroot with the british cycling team when they won all that, you know, when we were rubbish and then we were really good and they brought on extra help. They brought in a nutritionist and various other people and they used beetroot juice.
Speaker 2:See, I love this that people are finally embracing all of the things we've all had available to us all of this time, isn't there? Oh, there's a sports team I don't know if it's a football team or something that have embraced. Things like a lot of the plot is is fairly regularly used within sports now, but things like breath work, meditation and visualization and things people are bringing those in it's just been available to us forever, always have been used and again, I think I've said this on nearly every single episode for the last three weeks losing touch with these things, like letting go of our connection with nature and things and then just coming back and realise that we're all connected and it's all here. It's not a coincidence that this stuff helps us.
Speaker 1:No, it really isn't. One of the things that we should have mentioned last time. Which we mentioned now is hydration so hydration as a preventative, but then hydration when you're, when you are ill. Yeah, that is so, so important on so many levels. Yeah, it's, yeah, it's got so many jobs. Yeah, loads of jobs. I think you know one of the main things is to be able to get waste away.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And when your immune system is working hard and creating loads of mess, you want that waste to be able to get away. Yeah, and then helping that balance between sodium and potassium so that you can get things in the cell, get stuff out of the cell, you can get things in the cell. Get stuff out of the cell, you can make energy.
Speaker 2:The digestive system, everything isn't it, yeah and, to be honest, that's probably all you feel like you want to do, isn't it? It's just, it's just drink something. It doesn't have to necessarily be just your plain water, your sort of your herbal teas, and things would be great, nice and soothing I mean when I was a kid, if you were ill, you got leukazoid.
Speaker 1:When I was a kid, if you were ill, you got Leukazade. Did you get Leukazade when you were ill?
Speaker 2:You know I was talking about when I was in hospital. I said in the last episode I remember my hospital locker being full of Leukazade. It was so funny.
Speaker 1:And that used to be really exciting when we were kids, that that would be a proper treat to get lucozade when we were ill, yeah, but it was just full of sugar.
Speaker 2:Brilliant marketing, yeah incredible yeah, amazing, let's hope they got paid a lot of money for that because it really really worked and still, it's still a bit of a knee-jerk reaction, isn't it for people that if somebody's not very well, then then lu lucasade is the answer? Yeah, yeah, and and ironically it probably it probably does more harm than good. Yeah, it probably does all that sugar again, all that sugar like the isotonic bits and pieces in it you can have without the sugar and the color of it.
Speaker 1:That's not natural, is it no? Luminous orange? I don't know what we were thinking. I don't know. Tell you what we were messed up in the 70s, early 80s.
Speaker 2:We really got it all wrong that's because we're all on drugs before then yeah, blame the 60s generation, okay.
Speaker 1:So the other thing that I will do and I think again, this is a natural thing that happens is I won't eat for 24 hours and and we know that for like a stomach bug, don't we? But anything I will just not eat for 24 hours and rest because I want my energy to go to my immune system and just get it done with.
Speaker 2:It makes sense, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then when I do want to replenish, using liquid foods can be really, really good Because, again, you're not overloading the digestive system and you're able to get in maximum nutrition in a very easy way. So smoothies and soups and even juices, but I would tend to do them fresh and don't forget you take the fibre away if you juice it.
Speaker 2:Whereas if it's a smoothie.
Speaker 1:You've got your fibre fiber in there and you can't go wrong with soups, the chicken soup. I know you're a vegetarian so chicken soup is not for you, but chicken soup is very well known for having healing properties and it's mostly because it's warm liquid. There are traditionally made chicken soup does have the nutrients from the stock. If you do the stock properly and you access the collagen and the glutamine and everything that you get from from the bones there, you do get benefits from that. Yeah, and then you put your veggies in, don't?
Speaker 2:you? Yeah, but is the soup is synonymous with being ill, isn't it? It's like someone's poorly. That's what you give them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, give them soup, yeah, but it works, yeah. And then you can put all your other things in that you mentioned earlier on your ginger and your garlic and your onions and your turmeric and whatever else, all your anti-inflammatory stuff.
Speaker 2:Well, you don't have to do that. You go and get your loved ones to do that because you're busy resting.
Speaker 1:This is true yeah, I'm laughing to myself now because I'm thinking no one's going to do that. I have to do that myself.
Speaker 2:Just sit there with a, with an instruction manual. Now chop this. This is where that lives.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, at least with smoothies, like if I am having to look after myself. I'm joking, really. You know, I do have people in my house that can make a soup for me, but I find smoothies really easy. Yeah, it doesn't take a minute and you can be really under the weather and be kind of like, you know, looking like the ET, you know, when he's got the yeah thing over your head. Yeah, and then you could just make a smoothie really quickly. It's not a problem.
Speaker 2:That's just reminded me of the other thing. That's great. You said thing over your head Steaming, steaming.
Speaker 1:Yes, ste, steaming, steaming, yes, steaming, oh my goodness me, yes, steaming. I have a blend of essential oils, because essential oils are very, very powerful, um, for things like antibacterial, antiviral properties, immune boosting things. And I have one that I can't remember the the make of it. I'll put it in the facebook group, the one that I use because my achilles heel being my respiratory issue. Yeah, as soon as I'm under the weather, I will steam with this stuff, because it's got things in that help support the lungs amazing.
Speaker 1:But steaming is is brilliant and I I find it really nice to do when I'm feeling ill it's like getting a free facial as well, isn't it? There is that there is that aspect as well yeah, no, I love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, tea tree's got uh antibacterial properties, isn't it? Things like eucalyptus are just, oh, they just. It feels lovely, doesn't it?
Speaker 1:you just breathe that in yeah, yeah, my, my blend has got eucalyptus in it, actually, and rosemary, I think, is in there but. I know you have to be, you know you have to be a little bit careful. Don't just, please, don't just pile a load of essential oils into a bowl of boiling water and breathe that in, because that would not be right. This is a specific blend that's made up for inhaling, you know, but it is lovely and it does you.
Speaker 2:It does feel better and again, there's no drugs involved. There's no nasties involved in it. It's just something that you can do for yourself that makes you feel better and also for maybe some people that are on this podcast and listening that probably would prefer running around doing things. You're stuck to a bowl with a a towel over your head, you can't do anything, so then I just sit and meditate. I just and especially if you're breathing like you really concentrate on your breathing really fill up your, fill up your belly, and I I play around with it.
Speaker 2:Sometimes I'll breathe in through my nose, sometimes I'll do a big like big gulping through my, through my mouth and just yeah and just concentrate on me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can't be scrolling on your phone when you've got your head over a bowl of steam. Absolutely not cutting out dairy, because that is mucus forming and it is quite a heavy food for the body to break down. So if I am the snot factory, I am not going to be eating any dairy foods for sure. I'll cut down on caffeine and certainly wouldn't drink alcohol if I was under the weather. It's just so. Your body just can't deal with that, it's bad enough as you like it.
Speaker 2:Do you? I think no, with, uh, with alcohol, your body, your body knows at that point yeah, yeah, it does, although I do know people that still do drink.
Speaker 1:And, of course, what's the? The hot toddy remedy? Oh yeah, you know, things like that come up, don't they? Or just have a, have a whiskey, you'll be fine, yeah, so no, no to the alcohol. And the caffeine is going to stimulate your adrenaline, you're. It's going to punch your adrenals where your body's already under stress doing it. So any stress management that you can put in as well, especially if you're someone that's that is dealing with kids and stuff. Sometimes you've got to ask for help, yeah yeah, yeah, absolutely, and that's yeah.
Speaker 2:That's okay and that could be part of your, your defense against this to actually ask for help, ring up and get somebody to take the kids off your hands. Maybe someone will bring you some soup round, maybe somebody will feed the rest of the family, and people want to help yeah, they do yeah ask for it yeah, exactly so.
Speaker 1:Those are like our tips, for you know, if you're under the weather, then there are some things that you can do that help speed up your recovery or help you feel better and basically support your body.
Speaker 2:Really, yeah, let us know as we're going into this cold and flu season. Not that we're affirming that because we know that the mindset is very important. So keep yeah, keep affirming that we are fit, healthy, vital beings. But if it does catch, you make sure that you uh have a listen to this and uh and tell us what you've put in place and and how it went for you yeah, absolutely take it easy, we'll see you on the next episode.
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Speaker 2:Make it a fabulous week and we'll catch you in the next episode.