The Blog

Oct 31

How To Avoid The Office Cold

Any office worker dreads the cold and flu season. When a cold makes its way into the office, it’s only be a matter of time before it spreads around your colleagues and reaches you. There are some ways you can fend off a cold, without resorting to wearing a mask at work every day, or taking to spraying your colleagues with anti-bacterial cleaner.

Look After Your Health

The best way to avoid catching a cold is to make sure your immune system is strong. Take care of your general health to help you avoid catching a cold or to fight it off faster if you do catch one. Fuel your body properly and make sure that you are eating plenty of fruits and vegetables. Try to ensure you get enough sleep, so you don’t feel run down. If you can, maintain an exercise routine to keep your body fit and healthy. However, if you do have any concerns about your health, see your general practitioner for advice on how to care for yourself better.

If you’re feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, and not eating well, your body will be less able to fight off the flu or a cold, meaning that you will be sick for longer than necessary.

Keep Things Clean

The best way to combat germs is to keep the things around you very clean. Even if your office has a cleaner, you can keep you own desk space extra clean to help combat the spread of germs. Keep some anti-bacterial spray or wipes in your desk drawer and give the surface of your desk and your keyboard a wipe down every day. Wipe down anything you touch a lot, like your desk phone, mouse, and even your stapler. If someone with a cold borrows something from your desk, give it a wipe when you get it back, too.

Wash your hands more often during flu season, or use an anti-bacterial hand gel if you’ve touched anything that a lot of others will have touched, such as the photocopier or the door handles.

Avoid Areas Where People Congregate

Where there are people gathering, there are germs spreading. Try to stay away from high traffic areas in the office, like around the coffee machine at lunch time, or around the water cooler.

Remember that germs will also gather where lots of people have put their hands. This means that things like the button of the photocopier, office phones, and door handles could possibly be breeding grounds for germs. Try to avoid touching these areas too much, and make sure that you wash your hands after you have touched them.

Get A Flu Shot

If you work in a busy office, or in an industry like healthcare or education, you’re exposed to all kinds of germs. The flu can take you out of action for quite a while and will make you feel much worse than a regular cold. Flu shots are completely voluntary, but ask your doctor about getting one to add an extra layer of defence against illness.

At the end of the day, you’re working in an enclosed space and someone is always bound to catch a cold. Before you know it, everyone in the office will be suffering equally, the virus being passed around like clockwork for the duration of the season. By following the tips and tricks that I’ve laid out today, you will be saved from a winter of incessant coughs and sniffles.

Prevention begins with you! How do you avoid catching (and spreading) colds in the winter months? Let me know your ideas in the comments below.

Emily

Oct 9

Give Cold and Flu the Boot with Natural Ingredients

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Cold and flu season is back once more, and many of us have already started suffering from the symptoms of the common cold. When the seasons change from summer to winter, our bodies become more susceptible to disease and viruses such as the common cold and influenza (flu), which swoop in and take advantage. If you want to stay healthy and sniffle-free this winter, there are a few things that you can try.

Today, I’m specifically taking a look at natural ingredients and cold remedies that will help you get over and prevent a cold without reaching for paracetamol or cannabis edibles for help. These are the top remedies you need to know, in order to ready yourself for the cold and flu season.

1. Gargle with salt water

Salt water, or saline solution, is the best remedy for cleaning out your throat and getting rid of tough mucus. When you suffer with a sore throat, it’s because your cells are bursting in your throat and your body is fighting back. To aid your troops in their war against the virus, gargle some salt water to help clean out cell debris and mucus, as well as draw virus cells out of your throat. Do this as soon as you start feeling sick, twice a day until you are better!

2. Honey

Honey not only tastes amazing, but it has some effective properties for fighting illness. Due to the dense texture of honey, it is wonderful for coating the throat and keeping it soothed. Swallowing either a tablespoon of honey or a honey and lemon mixture will coat the throat and suffocate virus cells to prevent them from spreading. Taking this a few times a day will aid in your recovery and will make a huge difference to you.

3. Ginger Shot

Ginger is a spice that is often used in medicine due to its powerful anti-inflammatory properties. Ginger is effective in reducing swelling both inside and outside of the body and can make a world of difference to you when suffering with a cold. N0t only will the strong flavour of ginger be something that you can taste, but it will help to reduce throat swelling and congestion, thus allowing you to breathe more easily. Take ginger minced up in water as a shot for a powerful boost to your immune system. This is also a good preventative measure, as well!

4. Elderberry syrup

Elderberry is one of those fruits that is often forgotten and taken for granted, but it is a great berry to enjoy for all occasions. Elderberry has lots of vitamins and antioxidants to help your body fight back against colds, and it has proven to shorten the length of a cold or the flu. Take elderberry syrup every day until you are feeling better once more.

5. Garlic

Have you ever noticed that when you feel down in the dumps, you crave garlic? The reason for this is that garlic is an incredible pick-me-up and it is packed with antioxidants as well as vitamin C. It also has powerful antibacterial properties and can be taken in meals to bring out a delicious flavour, as well as help you to fight your cold.

With the cold and flu season returning just around the corner, it’s high time that you knew the natural way to give it the boot! These 5 natural remedies for beating the cold and flu season are sure to come in handy in the coming months, and will keep you healthy and functioning at 100%.

What are some natural ways that you help prevent colds and flus in advance? How about ways in which you naturally treat it once they’ve set it? Let us know in the comments below.

Emily

*This is a collaborative post. See the disclaimer & privacy policy for more information.

Oct 7

Clever Hacks to Halve the Cost of Your Wedding

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If you are concerned about the cost of your wedding, then you are certainly not alone. With my mum recently getting married this past weekend and having some experience under my belt with the whole process, I’ve come to the realization that there are many ways that you can cut back without compromising on your big day. Here are some of the things that you can consider when planning a wedding, either your own or someone that you are helping.

Sep 21

How To Set Up An Online Craft Store

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If you have ever had the desire to make money out of your busy fingers, there has never been a better time. Handcrafted products have not enjoyed this level of popularity in decades. With a significant shift in buying habits, many people now enjoy giving handmade gifts as they seem more personal and thoughtful — even when made by somebody else. The idea of cottage industries is also experiencing a rise in recent years, with many people favouring to shop with independent retailers for many ethical reasons, along with the fact that they know that someone’s livelihood depends on each sale.

Websites such as Etsy have given small and independent craft business a platform on which to make a living, and there are some very successful businesses operating off of it. Thus, if you have a passion for a craft that you want to share with the world, now is the best time to make some money from your talents.

Aug 8

Balancing A Social Life With The Working World

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You’ve got two elements to your life: your professional persona and your private and personal life. You need to maintain the both of them, to make sure you’ve living happy and fulfilled at all times… But that can be hard, can’t it? It can be difficult to find a balance between the working world and your ‘normal’ one. It can be hard to see your friends and families as often as you want, simply because a career can be all-consuming by its very nature.

But stepping back a little, to assess the situation and see what needs changing, is the first step to finding the kind of balance you desperately need in your life. And hopefully, this post can help you do just that.

Jul 5

After Graduation Clear Out – Focus On The Future

Picture by Emily Ranquist

It all happens so fast. You can probably remember the first day you picked up your student card or sat in your first lecture, and you most likely thought that you had ample time ahead of you. Now you’re graduating, or have already graduated. It’s happily and sadly the end of an era. Though there’s nothing for you to do but reflect, move on, and turn over to the next chapter of your life that awaits you, to make your transition from student to whatever your dream (or transition) career is, sometimes we need to organize and even get rid of things from our past that could stop us from moving forward in our future.

Jun 18

Advice For Planning A Last-Minute Wedding

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The days where engagements had to last a lifetime are well and truly gone. While many couples still start their wedding planning with years to spare, others choose to leave it until the last minute, giving themselves just a few short months or even weeks. Planning your big day in this way is definitely exciting, but is also stressful (to say the least). The key to success lies in organization and flexibility. With that in mind, here are six tips for planning the perfect last-minute wedding.

May 14

Coping With Sacroiliac Joint Pain

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If you are experiencing sacroiliac joint pain, a professional physiotherapist can assist you. Of course, you should also look into the prospect of pain medication, as well. In today’s post, you’ll find more details to assist you on this exact topic.

Your sacroiliac joints are an essential linkage system between your pelvis and lower spine, which connects your pelvis and tailbones. If you are experiencing issues with your sacroiliac joints, it can be extremely painful, as it can lead to sciatic pain, buttock pain, hip pain, and lower back pain. Resources like Inspire can be ideal in terms of finding the exact assistance that you require.

Mar 13

Calmness & The Cause: Learning How To Relax

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As there’s an abundance of stress in the modern world, it’s far more difficult than ever before to embody a sense of relaxation. When you’re looking for your own specific way to wellness, you have consider if you are living a relaxed life, or if are you simply more likely to be predisposed to stress than the person next to you. Learning how to relax isn’t necessarily a difficult concept to grasp, but to begin on this journey, you must determine how stressed you are in the first place.

Jan 16

Incredible Canadian Experiences Not to Miss

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When you think of my homeland of Canada, you probably think of lots of ‘typically Canadian’ things. From poutine to ice hockey, maybe you believe that you have a pretty good idea of what Canada is all about, and what you can do here. Even if you’ve been to Canada before, have you really had a true Canadian experience? It’s a massive country, so getting a feel for it isn’t something that you can do in one short trip — in fact, I haven’t truly developed a sense of my own country until I began travelling from province to province in the past couple of years. There’s a lot to see and do, and you don’t want to miss out on some of the most essential Canadian experiences available.

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