How I Stay Healthy in a Pandemic

Ok, I know, that is a weird title for an equestrian blog. But right now, I feel it’s important. The more information we can get about how others are staying healthy during this pandemic the better. So I wanted to share with you the different things that I am doing in order to stay healthy in a pandemic, and what I do on a regular basis.

To begin, I want to preface this for informational purposes only. Please do not take this as official medical advice. Instead use it as an informational tool, and if you find anything that might be helpful for you to apply in your own daily decisions, that’s great!

The things that I do seem to be keeping me healthy despite being around a lot of sick people, and then allow me to spend time with my horses, which I love. So this is why I wanted to share with you what I am doing to stay as healthy as I can during this very stressful time.

Trust Me, I’m a Nurse

It’s true. I am a nurse. And I am currently going to work 5 days a week. The clinic I work in is still open. And we are still seeing patients on a daily basis. While I am not in a hospital setting (yet), the staff in the clinic are still being exposed to this stupid virus.

Case in point, right now we have 3 staff members who are out with presumed COVID-19. Meaning they have the symptoms that makes one think they probably have it. We also have 5 staff members who have recovered from their symptoms, and they are back to work.

And I have been around all of these people on a regular basis both before, during, and after they make it back to work. As of writing this article, 2 have tested positive for COVID-19. The others, even though they had all the symptoms, they weren’t tested. This makes no sense to me. But knowing so many people personally that have been effected by the virus (or presumably effected) I take no chances. I assume everyone is infected, and I protect myself accordingly.

How to Stay Healthy

There are a lot of things that I do on a daily basis to hopefully prevent the virus from effecting me, and my husband. And this is what I want to share with you today.

Wash Your Hands, Repeat

This is by far the most important thing you can do to decrease your risk. Wash. Your. Hands. Period.

As horse owners, I’m sure you are well aware of all the little nasties that are around horses, and their manure. So washing your hands or using hand wipes while you are working with your horses is probably second nature. But are you doing it right? Or even enough?

First things first, learn to wash your hands the correct way.

How To Wash Your Hands

Let’s make this as simple as possible. Washing your hands isn’t brain surgery. But so many people don’t do a good enough job washing their hands. So here is the process.

Turn on the water (warm is good) and apply soap to both of your hands. Now SCRUB! Friction is your friend, and lots of it. So move your hands back and forth, and really make sure to get all surfaces of your hands.

And you want to do this for at least 20 seconds. That is important to remember – 20 seconds of friction and scrubbing to get your hands clean. You can sing Happy Birthday, or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star while you are scrubbing. And there is even a version of Baby Shark with the words…Wash your hands bop ba da da bop bop, wash your hands bop ba da da bop bop… Yeah, sorry for getting THAT song stuck in your head for the day. But it works.

And once you have scrubbed for at least 20 seconds, then you rinse the soap away. But you don’t want to have your hands hanging down. You want your fingers pointed up toward the water stream, and let the soapy water run down. Keep your hands in this position until all the soap suds are washed away.

Next, take a paper towel, or wash cloth, or towel and dry your hands. Then you turn off the water faucet WITH a towel, or something else, but not your freshly washed hands.

Think about it, you turned the water on with dirty hands, do you really want to turn it off with clean hands? NO. So use something else to shut off the water. You could even use your elbow. Just don’t use your clean hands.

Boom. You just learned how to correctly wash your hands!

Clean All Frequently Touched Surfaces

I know, this is a no brainer right? Right now everyone’s homes are sparkling clean because of all the cleaning we are doing to hopefully prevent us from getting sick. But I would be willing to bet there are a few frequently touched areas that you are forgetting about.

To keep this simple, I am going to list them out. I could talk about them all individually for hours. But I will try and control myself. Here is my list of frequently touched areas of your home that you need to clean daily:

• Door handles (and sides of the door you touch)
• Light switches
• Toilet handles
• Sink faucets
• Hand railings
• Cell phones
• Computer keyboards
• Computer mouses
• Cabinet handles and drawer pulls
• Car steering wheel
• Car keys
• Debit or credit cards (I wouldn’t be handling paper money right now)
• TV remote controls
• Video game consoles and controllers
• Your toothbrush

What do you think of my list? Any surprises on there for you? These are things I clean on a daily basis in our home.

You can use commercially prepared disinfectant wipes, or disinfecting solutions, or you can make your own. I prefer to make my own because it’s cost effective, and I like the way it makes everything smell. It’s made using an essential oil blend that I have talked about before, Thieves essential oil blend. I love this stuff.

And it’s easy to make a spray with this. I take a 32 ounce spray bottle, add about a cup of white vinegar, 2 Tablespoons of Dr. Bronner’s liquid Castile Soap, 50 drops of my Thieves essential oils and then I fill the remaining space with warm water. Then I shake it up, and start spraying it everywhere! I also only use each scrub rag in one room. SO I use a rag for my bedroom, then a separate one for my bathroom, living room, kitchen, and well…you get the idea.

I wash my walls, floors, fixtures, and everything on my above list with this stuff. And I have always done this every winter when cold and flu season comes. But this year, now, I am being even more diligent with my cleaning.

Little Hand Sanitizers

I also have multiple small hand sanitizers that I keep in my coat pockets, my purse, and even my car. This way when I can’t wash my hands, or need to clean something right away, I always have a little bottle of hand sanitizer available.

I got these way back in December from Bath and Body Works when my daughter was getting married, and they had a set of 12 of these on clearance. I know they probably don’t have them right now, but if you have any, I would keep it close by so you can easily access it. They work great on debt cards.

Wear A Mask

Anytime you are outside of your home, you should be wearing a mask. Well, that is my opinion. I do. I wear a mask at work, as well as anytime I go into a store.

In Colorado our Governor issued an order that everyone wear a face mask out in public, and even if you feel weird about doing it, I would really encourage you to do so. It can be uncomfortable at first. But trust me, you’ll get used to it.

I know that finding pre-made face masks right now is impossible. But there are lots of ways to make a face mask. And some, you don’t even have to sew them. There are no-sew versions that can be made with things you already have at home. And think about things like ski masks, and even scarves. There are lots of options here that you can use for personal protection.

If you are going to be sewing face masks, I would use a cotton fabric – not fleece! The reason I say no fleece is because fleece against your face gets really hot when you have to wear a mask for any period of time. So use fabric that will not make your face feel like 10,000 degrees when you breath into it.

I also prefer elastic instead of rubber bands to hold the mask in place. Because when you are wearing a mask for long periods of time, the rubber bands can be too tight and rub on your ears, and even your face.

Don’t Touch Your Face

I know, this is easier said than done. Did you know that on a daily basis the average person touches their face 23 times per hour? Yep, 23 times per hour = 552 times a day you are touching your face. You just touched your face didn’t you? And when you touch your face, especially close to mucous membranes such as your mouth, nose, and eyes, you are setting yourself up for a potential infection.

This is why hand washing is so important. But even more important is to not touch your face. The problem is you do have bacteria on your hands, and potential viruses as well. And when you touch your face, you are increasing the odds of transmission into your body. So please, stop touching your face.

I think it’s also worth mentioning that just because you have a mask on, or gloves for that matter, you are not 100% protected. If you touch your face, even with a mask on, you are still increasing the odds that you could become infected. So try very hard not to touch your face regardless of the PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) you are wearing.

Clean Your Shoes

Every day that I come home from work, the first thing I do after slathering my hands with hand sanitizer is remove my shoes. Not my socks, just my shoes.

Then I flip them over and spray the bottoms with a disinfecting spray, like Lysol. Unfortunately, finding Lysol spray in the store or online is pretty hard right now. So when my can runs empty, I will be making my own disinfecting spray. I’ve done it before, and it’s really easy.

DIY Disinfecting Spray

• 1 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 1/4 cup isopropyl alcohol (or vodka – as long as 60% alcohol content)
• 15 drops lemon essential oil
• 15 drops peppermint essential oil
• Glass spray bottle

Put all the ingredients into the bottle, give it a shake and you are ready to disinfect! The glass spray bottle is important, because of the oils. So use glass.

Easy peasy right? Yep! And you can spray this door handles, light switches, etc. To keep surfaces germ free. I would just use caution on some surfaces, like granite counters for example. I have heard that you shouldn’t use vinegar on granite.

Supplements

Now this can be a bit controversial. I have no idea if these supplements work or not. But I use them. And so far, I haven’t gotten sick. Maybe the supplements help? I don’t know. But I do know they don’t hurt anything, so I choose to use them.

Vitamin C Tablets

Personally, I like chewable Vitamin C tablets. I take 1 tab in the morning, and 1 in the evening. Each tablet is 500 mg of Vitamin C, and it’s a water soluble vitamin. Meaning what your body doesn’t need, you will get rid of. This is why I take 1 tab twice a day. No sense in wasting vitamin c right?

Melatonin

Melatonin is helpful if you have difficulty falling or staying asleep. And I don’t know about you, but with everything going on in the world today, staying asleep can be a problem when you brain is racing with worry. This is why I take melatonin. It helps me fall asleep, and stay asleep. And one way to stay healthy is to get enough rest.

Melatonin is a hormone that is produced by the pineal gland in the brain. And sometimes you may not be producing enough of it to help you get to sleep. This is where the supplement comes in, and which is why I use it. I hate not being able to get to sleep. And even worse, getting woken up, and then not being able to fall back asleep. I find that the supplement helps me to get better sleep every night.

Getting Some Exercise

And of course my favorite form of exercise is being with my horses! So I make a point to get outside every day and work with my horses.

But I am not pushing myself, or doing activities that might put me at risk for injury. So I have toned down just what I am doing with my horses. It could be something as simple as going for a walk around the back pasture, or spending some extra time really currying. Anything to work up a sweat, and kick up the heart beats for cardiovascular health.

And it’s good to get outside, and just forget about all of the stress that is happening. SO some exercise is good for the body, as well as the mind.

Relaxing is Good Too

And I can’t leave out the relaxation piece of this. Although I stay really busy, I do try and take some time to relax too.

And one way I do this is by chilling out in our hot tub. Not only is it VERY relaxing after a long day, there have been some studies done on the benefits of sitting in a hot tub. So not only do I get to relax, but there are health benefits to my hot tub. Bonus!

How I Stay Healthy in a Pandemic

Well, there you have it. These are the things that I am personally doing right now during this COVID-19 pandemic. And like I said in the beginning, this is not medical advice. These are just the things that I have been doing, and so far, it seems to be working.

Hopefully I will continue to stay healthy, and be doing my part to help others who are not as fortunate. I know it may sound silly to say we are all in this together, but honestly we are. If we all do our part to stay healthy, and protect ourselves as well as our loved ones we can beat this thing. We have to beat this thing.

I hope you are doing well, and staying healthy and safe during this very challenging time we all are living through right now. My thoughts are with you, and I am sending lots of happy and healthy thoughts right to you.

Stay safe, and stay healthy!