Planet-based & in the raw content
Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Blender Muffins
Fibroid Surgery: Behind the Scenes
Healthy Vegan Potato Crust Pizza
My Plant-Based Journey
Menu

I Refuse to Get Sick… Who’s With Me?

November 11, 2015

Guys, flu/cold season is coming up and let’s be real… Who has time to take a sick day? In the next month I’ll be traveling to NYC, Miami, Cabo, Big Sur and Sacramento for Breaking Vegan’s book tour and for the holidays… I don’t think I have much time to breathe let alone get sick.

And trust me, even though I am a busy person I by no means am one of those people who thinks or acts like they are busier than everyone else. We are all busy, we all have a lot going on and we all do our best to juggle what we can while staying present in our own lives. And in order to stay present, we have to stay healthy.

I went through a phase in college where I got sick all the time. I mean ALL of the time. I was sick more than I was healthy for my first two years of school in LA. It was either a raging cold, the flu, or (my very least favorite thing in the world…) STREP THROAT. I subsisted on only Vitamin-C filled smoothies for weeks at a time because my throat would get so inflamed.

Appropriate college photo because these were the years where I was ALWAYS sick. Not this day, but after the debauchery of this day definitely!

Appropriate college photo because these were the years where I was ALWAYS sick. Not this day, but after the debauchery of this day definitely!

Can you say #NOTFUN?

Then I discovered the art of healthful living, otherwise known as eating super well and getting enough sleep. Sleep is a biggie, we all know. And it’s especially hard to fall asleep and get good rest once we are already sick — talk about lying in bed with a miserable stuffy nose, ugh — so when I am sick I turn immediately to VICKS’ NyQuil to help me clear up and fall asleep soundly. (I have been doing this since I was a child — thanks to my Dad for the inspiration!). Now they have NyQuil Severe for your worst symptoms.

To give you a glimpse into just how much I CANNOT get sick right now, let me tell you about a day I had last week where I pushed through while not feeling so hot…

I took a last minute trip to New York last week to promote the book (woo!) and take part in a super fun photoshoot with SELF Magazine. I will leave the details of the shoot for a future post, because it’s a little too early to release exactly what we were shooting for, but I can promise you it’s an inspiring and awesome story they are working on.

I woke up at 6:30am to get a bunch of work done and run a few miles before hopping on a plane from LA to NYC (5+ hour flight). Because of the time difference, I landed in NYC at 3:30pm, got my bags, got in a cab, picked up my mom who had flown into a separate terminal (yes, she met me there and yes, it was so great having her there to join in the fun and the madness), drove to the hotel, checked in and unpacked.

Once we did all that it was already dinnertime, and we were both already pretty much zombies. Knowing that I had an early call time for SELF the next morning, we decided to grab a quick bite near our hotel and then call it an early night to get some rest.

Screen Shot 2015-11-10 at 2.08.16 PM

Cheers to our first night in the city!

But, alas, Manhattan is Manhattan and there is no such thing as an early night in that city. Every time I am in town I have so many great friends I want to see, and because we are all busy peeps during the day, we like to meet for drinks at night.

I did that and still managed to make it home at a decent hour, but I was so excited about the shoot the next day let’s just say I didn’t sleep my soundest.

We got up for coffee and breakfast in the morning and headed to SELF for our early call time. The day was a WHIRLWIND in so many amazing ways. It was by far the most efficient and fun shoot I have been on in such a long time, and everywhere we turned around there were more people to meet, chat with, and gain inspiration from.

Screen Shot 2015-11-10 at 2.09.02 PM

On set at SELF!

It was late afternoon by the time we emerged from the super cool Pier 59 building where the shoot was, and duh we were going to make the most of the rest of the day so we bounced around downtown and then met one of our dear friends for dinner at Da Silvano.

THEN time to answer the onslaught of emails I had not been able to look at all day, and hop on the phone for some quick phone interviews about the book (because Pacific Standard Time is still a thing, even when you’re on the east coast…). THEN writing captions for partnership photos. THENNNNNN bedtime.

By the end of the day… it started to hit me that I was beyond the point of exhaustion.

I was delusional. And I had a stuffy nose.

Screen Shot 2015-11-10 at 2.10.55 PM

The end of the craziest day!

Crap. A stuffy nose. I knew it was a terrible time to get sick and that the next day would only be as busy as the last. Not to mention a race with my marathon team the morning I landed back in LA and a segment with The Today Show the following morning.

So what did I do? I loaded up on NyQuil Severe and DayQuil Severe to combat the oncoming sickness!!!

And guess what?? Here I am, 5 days later, feeling healthy, well-rested, and ready to tackle my trip to Miami this weekend.

BOOM!!!

Who else knows they can’t afford to get sick days?! Tell me about the craziest day you’ve had where you had to push through getting sick or being super tired.

Screen Shot 2015-11-10 at 2.14.02 PM

Selfies at SELFFFFF. Had no idea at this point that I was exhausted / getting sick — I was too excited!

Also, follow @NyQuilDayQuil’s brand new Twitter channel! They have some awesome blogger takeovers going on right now with a few of my favorites. And join in the #NoSickDays challenge with us and tell us how you stay healthy!

unnamed