As a soloist, what do you do when you get sick? If you take time out to recover you could lose business or miss deadlines. If you keep working, your performance level may drop or you may get sicker. Staying healthy at work is very important.

Let’s face it; everyone gets sick at some stage and most of us fall ill at least once a year. With winter upon us it is a good idea for all soloists to start looking after your health and to have a back up strategy in place if you do fall ill.

In this 3 part series, we will look at ten tips for staying healthy at work this winter.

Tips for staying healthy at work this winter

• Make sure you keep warm. Simple, but often overlooked. A lot of soloists work from home and dress casually. If it is cold, wear socks and a sweater.
• Drink plenty of water, and maybe try some herbal teas instead of coffee and tea.
• Eat a wide variety of foods, including plenty of fresh and seasonal fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds.
• Minimise junk food, takeaways, saturated fats and processed foods, which we tend to crave during the cold months.
• Keep up the exercise during winter, but make sure you keep warm during and after the exercise. And if you do feel ill, either stop or decrease the amount of exercise.
• Keep up with (or start) stretching. This will help to keep you loose and supple, increase flexibility, increase blood circulation, kick start your metabolism and keep your body warm.
• Reduce or minimise the stress in your life. Winter is often the time that the body finally gives up and says enough is enough. Stress also depresses your immune system.
• Avoid smoking and passive smoke (and pollution) as this irritates the respiratory system and in winter is more likely to lead to a cold or flu.
• Have some fun! Staying happy and smiling is known to scare off the bugs.
• If you don’t mind taking supplements, consider taking a B complex, Zinc and Vitamin C. Or find a good multivitamin/mineral. For doses contact a competent health care or nutrition professional.

So stay healthy this winter to keep yourself living and working at 100%.

Want more articles like this? Check out the health-and-wellbeing section.

Next time I’ll give you some tips on how to keep your business running while you are sick and then some tips to help you on the road to recovery.

Note: The information in this article should not replace the advice of a competent health care or nutrition professional, and it is only intended for information purposes only.