No Colds Or Flu This Winter
I just finished the coldest ski season I can remember as we had a long, brutally freezing cold winter here in Ontario (and I’m sure in many other regions of North America). With a FULL ski season which means being outside for several hours for an average of four to five days EACH week all winter long, I was exposed to the elements a lot more than most people who get to stay warm indoors working inside offices.
However, despite the coldest winter on record, I still did not catch a cold or flu all season long. In past winters even when it was not as cold, I usually did get a bout of cold and cough at least once which would last anywhere from two to three weeks of nasty symptoms. But this winter, I did not get sick even once!
How To Prevent Getting Sick During Winter
As an avid working ski instructor, I do not want to miss one single ski day since our ski seasons are relatively short here in Ontario lasting from three to four months at most. So as skiers, we have to make the most of it while the snow is here.
I was delighted to be able to get in a record number of ski days this season. I lost count but I’m estimating that it was over 70 ski days in total! From a ski instructor point of view, I also did not have to cancel any of my teaching commitments to my ski students. And this season I had the most ski students I ever had in my Ski Meetup Group.
So I was asking myself what I did this winter to prevent getting sick all season long. Did I do anything different this winter compared to past winters?
Dress Appropriately For The Winter
One obvious thing I did which all folks who spend a lot of time outdoors during the winter was to dress appropriately for the weather. I bundled up on multiple layers and never had much of a problem keeping warm on the ski slopes.
The only exception to this was I did get a bit of frostbite on my nose during a ski trip to Lake Placid. I could have worn a ski mask but this is not very practical when teaching skiing to a group of students. Since I have to talk when teaching, wearing a mask would seem like Darth Vader is trying to teach my ski students.
I probably spent too long outside skiing with not enough breaks inside the chalet during this trip so my overenthusiasm to get in as much ski training time as possible after I finished teaching my class resulted in my frostbite.
The above photo shows the ski mask I tried to wear but it did not stay on very long even when I was not busy teaching ski classes. I find it hard to breath whenever I wear a ski mask so I switched to a neck warmer.
But then again, frostbite is not a cold nor flu so technically I did not get sick.
Eat Healthy All Winter Long
I always eat a healthy diet and as cheap health insurance, I also take a multivitamin, and extra vitamin C as well as an extra vitamin E on a daily basis. I’ve been doing this for years and despite this healthy habit, I still got a cold most past winters. So even though a healthy diet is important for overall health, I don’t think this was the big difference this winter that prevented illness for me.
Getting A Flu Shot Before The Season Starts
For the last several years, I got a flu shot. In my case, I never get any side effects from the vaccine except for a sore arm for 24 hours. I always made sure I got a flu shot before my ski season started.
Although it was reported that this past flu season’s vaccine was not as effective as past vaccines, I still opted to get it because I’m in front of lots of coughing and sneezing ski kids all winter long!
So in my mind, the flu shot was still worth getting in my case. However, since I did get the flu shot each year and with the lower efficacy of this past season’s vaccine, I don’t think this was the main difference this winter for me either. I still got sick once per year in the past although it was never the flu.
I’ll still keep getting a flu shot before each ski season because of my exposure to all those ski kids each winter.
Being Careful What I Touched In Public Places
So if it wasn’t my way of dressing for the winter nor my diet nor the flu shot, I had to think about what else I may have done differently this past winter that was the main factor why I did not get sick. After some thought, the only thing I can think of was that I was extra careful of what I touched with my hands this winter.
Whenever I was in a public place outside of my home, I minimalized what I touched with my bare hands. For example, whenever I opened public doors, I always had my gloves on. If I did not have my gloves with me, I actually used the sleeves of my jacket.
Whenever I filled up my car with gas (which I did a lot during the ski season because of all those long drives to the ski slopes), I put on my gloves before handling the gas pumps. Imagine how many people with colds touch gas pumps just before your turn filling up.
When I shook hands with people, like my ski students, I usually did so with my ski gloves still on. In the case when I did shake somebody’s hand without my gloves on (inside the ski chalet for example), I would make sure that I did not touch my mouth or nose with my hands afterwards until I went to the washroom to wash my hands.
Now this might seem paranoid to many of you but I’m just being honest with what I did. I normally would not go to such extremes during other parts of the year but during the winter, ie, flu season, I certainly did.
Being extra careful with what I touched with my bare hands during the winter cold season is the only thing I could think of in terms of what I may have done differently this year compared to past years. And given that there were a lot of people who did get sick this winter and I was most certainly exposed to them in public, I’m guessing that this was the main difference in my cold and flu prevention habits.
So next winter and flu season, I will continue with these habits including shaking peoples’ hands with my gloves on whenever possible!
Here’s the video version of this blog post.
Share This Motivational Video About Preventing Colds And Flu With Others
Please share this post and motivational video with others. There are buttons on the blog post to easily share it on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and by email. All past episodes are at my Motivational WebTV Archive.
The last episode before this one was quite a long time ago in 2014 and it was one why some people get better at things while others do not – see it at WebTV #85.
Feel free to enter your comments below.
