By Emily McLaughlin

As you see from my sporadic posting of what the journalism world would call the fluffiest of fluff, I’ve been busy — busy moving, busy working and busy being sick. Let’s look at my first excuse… I MOVED! I am all settled into my new apartment anxiously awaiting the arrival of my two beautiful roommates. Moving has brought my stress levels down to all new lows as work is only 15-20 minutes away (I can even bike or take public transportation if I pleased), I have a kitchen to prepare yummy meals in and a comfortable work space for blogging and working-from-home.

My lovely new work space.

Work has been a little crazy as well. This is a particularly busy time of year for TechTarget as we wrap up this year and plan for the next. I’ve had projects to work on daily (which I love!) and have been spending some time after work doing a little extra research for said projects.

But… The real topic for discussion in this post is fighting off that awful common cold that has been going around. Catering to my health has been my priority the past week or so.  Approximately 12 days ago, I felt symptoms of tiredness and congestion, which I attributed to my lack of sleep on my visit to Amherst (Amherst apple picking post to come). Come Monday, I was still feeling kind of  ’meh’ but I decided to go on my scheduled 3-mile run. After running, I felt great! Well… that was temporary. The rest of the week my condition worsened and I was overcome by rotating symptoms of stuffiness, tiredness, feeling feverish, etc. Awesome, right?

The whole week I did my best to drink lots of water and tea. When Friday rolled around, I was still feeling pretty awful, so my mom took me to the CVS Minute Clinic for a quick diagnosis and possible strep test. Turns out, I was over the cold and experiencing symptoms of post-nasal drip which was leading to my sore throat and congestion. Gross.

The only advice the doctor had was to drink lots of fluids, continue to rest and avoid all exercise. There was no option to sweat this one out.

My advice to you cold-fighters out there? REST, GOSH DARNIT. If you aren’t feeling so hot, do your body some good and lounge around. Drink more water than you ever have before and start exploring all of those tea flavors you have in your cupboard. There is nothing else you can do. When it comes to fighting off the common cold, you may feel like exercise is the only thing that will make you feel better, but it will only prolong your illness. I know you can only watch so many repeat episodes of the Kardashians before you rip your eyes out, but tough it out for a few days.

If you aren’t sick, please avoid getting sick by practicing good hygiene and eating your daily dose of fruits and veggies. Prevent that cold by boosting your body’s natural immunities.

Stay HEALTHY, stay happy. <3