5 Tips To Boost Your Immunity During The Holidays

The holidays can get really stressful, especially if one doesn’t know how to handle stress and if one is too sick to even handle anything. But this shouldn’t be so. This is the season of celebration and merriment, and clearly, sickness and stress has no space for a festive time like this. So why is it that every holiday season, we hear and read stressing news about how the occurrence of diseases are high during the months of January and December?

Saddening as it already is, CNN even mentioned about several studies that show how a person has a greater chance of dying on Christmas, the day after Christmas or New Year's Day than any other single day of the year.

The holiday season is the perfect time for family reunions and celebrations so isn't it just ironic that statistics says that it is also one of the most dangerous times of the year. Lucky for you, because this blog is specifically written to help you avoid adding up to the numbers of the deadly statistics. So read on to know how you can stay healthy and strong during the holidays in five easy ways which is really easy to remember, just remember your FERN-C!  

Food plays an essential part in every living thing’s overall wellness and health. While it is a fact that eating is necessary to survive, we should not eat voraciously that we turn this tool for survival into a tool for our non-survival. 

On many occasions, we take our health for granted. We often forget (or rather, disregard) the right kind of food to eat and the right amount of food to consume. What more now that the holiday season is fast approaching? It is during this season that we attend parties after parties, reunions after reunions and gatherings after gatherings. Add to that the fact that the bulk of the food laid on the dining table are those that induce either hypertension or diabetes (and at times, both). Considering all these, how then can we stay healthy (but not starved) during the holiday season? 

It’s actually pretty simple: eat the right kind of food at the right amount. Now, you won’t read anything on here asking you to cross out lechon and leche flan on your Noche Buena list, but rather, you’ll come across tips that will help you enjoy tasty dishes while still staying healthy. 

Cooking your own holiday dishes means that you prepare your own food. You see, meals served at fast food chains and restaurants are not always supervised. More so, improper preparation of food may lead to contamination when certain types of ingredients, especially those which are raw, have not been washed well. This is why it is very important that each time we prepare and cook dishes, we must always make sure that the kitchen, tools and ingredients are all properly cleaned to avoid food contamination.

More often than not, Christmas desserts like leche flan include too much sugar that will undoubtedly make everyone extra hyper and extra closer to having diabetes. As an alternative, instead of using processed sugar (those that can be bought almost anywhere), you could use kalamay, panutsa, honey or even the juice you get from fruit cocktails. It is as sweet as the processed sugar but with less risk for diabetes. 

As an even healthier alternative, instead of preparing too sweet desserts, why not prepare slices of sweet fruits instead? Your family and your guests will surely satisfy not only their sweet tooth but their health as well! Here are some of the easy-to-find fruits that will surely boost your immunity: 

All these fruits are packed with Vitamin C, an immune-boosting essential. They are also loaded with bioflavonoids which are phytonutrients. For a quick explanation of what phytonutrients are, these are naturally-occurring compounds that cause beneficial reactions in the body, including an added immunity boost. So make sure to include these fruits on your Noche Buena and Media Noche! (Adapted from Source)

Make use of your resources! Search the net for over thousands of healthy recipes. You could even ask the help of the seasoned cooks in your family for their recipes. If, for some reason, you can’t find a healthy recipe, you could still use the traditional recipes, all you have to do is substitute a few artificial ingredients for a healthier alternative. Here are some commonly used artificial ingredients / drinks with their immune-boosting and more natural alternatives:

Wondering how you will avoid the irksome and annoying greetings of “Uy, parang tumaba ka!” come January when work and school resumes? Exercise! Physical activities as simple as regular walking or jogging help antibodies and white blood cells move through the body faster, which then helps in detecting illnesses earlier. Aside from this, exercise also aids in increasing the blood circulation which may help trigger the release of hormones that "warn" immune cells of intruding pathogens (infectious agents that cause disease or illness to its host).

So start moving your way to a healthy and strong holiday season thru this simple exercise tips (they're so easy you won't even notice that you're actually exercising):

Right after attending the early morning Simbang Gabi, why not go for a jog and see the sunrise instead of going back to sleep? You could even ask your friends or relatives to go with you to make it more fun (and probably more bearable)! You’ll also find that eating steaming hot bibingka and puto bumbong is even more enjoyable and guilt-free when done after an hour or so of walk-jog-run, instead of doing your usual routine of Simbang Gabi → bibingka / puto bumbong → sleep again.

If you're feeling extra challenged, why not do this Holiday Workout Challenge that I've prepared specifically for this occasion! It's pretty simple: each you time hear the sentences (written in red), you must do the corresponding exercise (written in green). You don't have to do them right away after you hear these words, you could simply make a tally and do the exercises during your allotted time for exercise (you must allot a time for exercise). Having lived in the Philippines for all my life, I'm pretty sure that most (if not all) of these will be uttered to you by your friends and relatives during the months of December and January!

Make use of the long vacation to exercise! Since your friends and other relatives are on vacation as well, why not make them your exercise buddies? You could even use the lively Christmas songs as your playlist for the exercise! Hearing Christmas songs such as Feliz Navidad will really make you jump and hop and clap and sing for no reason at all. You could even be your younger nieces’ or nephews’ dance instructor for the traditional intermission number in every Christmas family reunion. Here are some song suggestions:



Additional calories are burned if you also sing while dancing! If you don't have any idea what to do, remember this: everyone is entitled to their own dance steps! Go crazy and invent your own dance steps, even if they consist only of repetitive jumping, clapping and waving your hands every now and then. The important thing is that you move and burn those extra fats. Although, if you really want to do some serious exercise steps, you can follow Neila Rey's Christmas Wrapper exercise sets:

For a more comfortable sleep, make sure that you change your bed linen, pillow case and blanket on a regular basis. Doing so will not only help you get rid of undesirable microscopic bugs lurking in your bed but it will also help you from developing allergies. Also, changing your bed essentials will help you ensure a good night sleep, which is one of the easiest and surest way to boost your immune system. With proper sleep, your immune system will be able to store the information that it collected from invaders, making it easier for it to recognize germs readily and to get rid of invaders effectively.

Since it is the holiday season, it is understandable that getting enough sleep would be a hard feat to achieve. One way to work around this problem is to make sure that you give yourself ample naps throughout the day. According to research, 10 to 20 minutes of nap is best and is enough to make you feel alert. It is also advisable to divide chores to avoid stress from rushing to get all the holiday preparations ready. This way, all members of the family won't feel overworked and groggy during the Christmas or New Year countdown. 

Surround yourself with kids and feel young-at-heart! This is one good way of saying "no" to vices such as smoking and drinking. I've noticed that adults don't smoke or drink whenever they're near children, so use it as an opportunity to slowly stop from doing these deadly vices which compromise your immune system. Being around children also makes you happier than usual (honestly, who can't be happy when you're with children?). On that note, did you know that having a happy mood and a daily dose of laughter can boost your immune system? You see, laughter stretches your muscles, burns calories and produces a natural energy booster!

When in parties, offer to drive for your friends or relatives so that they won't force you to drink. You could also bring your car when attending gatherings, and be sure to tell your friends about it so that they'll be responsible enough not to let you drink and so that you'll know that no matter how insistent your friends/relatives can get, you have to say "no" for any invites to drink. Better to pass up for some alcohol shots than to pass up on a good holiday season because of a driving accident.

One way of ensuring that you have your daily dose of Vitamin C is by taking FERN-C. It is sodium ascorbate, a form of Vitamin C which is more bioavailable and alkaline (this means that FERN-C can be taken even by acidic people). For over ten years, FERN-C has helped in keeping every Filipino family strong and healthy by boosting our immune system. It is also a potent anti-oxidant that increases body resistance against infectious diseases. So this holiday season, complete your immune system booster pack with FERN-C! For daily maintenance (not just during the holiday season), take 1-2 capsules. If you're experiencing symptoms of colds, take 3-4 capsules daily. FERN-C may be given as is, or dissolved in fruit juices, water, or any cold beverage of your choice. FERN-C can also be taken even on an empty stomach, so even if you don't have the appetite to eat when sick, you can still take FERN-C.

Because of the hundreds of benefits that one can get from this vitamin, it is no wonder that different types and brands of vitamin C have proliferated in pharmacies nationwide. As a guide for would-be buyers, I've summarized some of the advantages of sodium ascorbate (FERN-C) over ascorbic acid:

As shown above, we can see that both forms of vitamin C boost our immune system and act as an anti-oxidant. But, the similarities end there. Unlike ascorbic acid, sodium ascorbate (FERN-C), is more reactive in building connective tissues and antibody structures, more effective in killing some viruses and bacteria, and is also more soluble (which means that it is absorbed better by the body). Aside from this, sodium ascorbate also has additional benefits which ascorbic acid doesn't have, including sodium ascorbate's function in preventing cancer, in improving cardiovascular diseases (like heart attack and stroke), in hastening wound healing and in promoting good eye health (by promoting healthy capillaries and soft tissues which are abundant in the eyes).

FERN-C, being the first non-acidic vitamin C in the Philippines, has undoubtedly changed the way Filipinos view the importance of boosting their immunity. It is manufactured by FERN, Inc (Filipino Entrepreneurs and Resources Network, Inc), a company which develops entrepreneurs through distribution of high-quality products, including FERN-C. 

Having been in the market for 10 years, FERN-C has helped a lot of users with their different health problems. To hear about their testimonials on how FERN-C has positively changed their life, watch this video:

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