Burning your candle at both ends?

I feel like the following information is super important for both parents and our kids. I do want to preface this with *** I'm not a Doctor, this is just my personal experience. Do what works best for you.

In this blog I'm talking about exhaustion, getting sick, and burning your candle at both ends. I am notorious for burning my candle at both ends (until there is nothing left to burn). For those of you who haven't heard this expression, I'm talking about doing so much, all the time. Trying to do EVERYTHING, and overworking yourself. This could be jobs, tasks, activities, competitions, traveling, or just trying to get by.

I know I have a tendency to overload my day and just power through. Between both jobs, school, kids, travel, and other projects I'm working on, it does eventually catch up to me and then I get run down and "sick". My daughter does this sometimes as well, especially on competition weekend (or this spurt of back-to-back weekends we are about to have". Essentially we burn our candle at both ends until there is no wick left to burn.

I just had this discussion with my daughter last weekend, after our first weekend of 7 travel weekends in a row). Not only are we traveling so much (which I feel like this ups the risk of getting sick) but we are also in the middle of flu season. We also don't have time to get sick. I don't have time to get sick, as I still have to work AND drive her to and from all these weekend trips. So, I need to be on my A-game as well. She doesn't have time to get sick because she has school, rehearsals, training, and most of all has to be on her A game and put her best version on stage, if not for herself, but for her team. She has competed while she was sick before ( many years ago), she was a trooper, but man she was not feeling too hot and was so exhausted. She didn't want to let her team down.

I know me personally, when I start running low on sleep, my body gets run down and is more susceptible to getting a cold. After we got back from our first weekend away, for the next 3 days I just felt like I had been hit by a truck. This weekend wasn't even a full weekend, but we did get home super late Sunday night and then I had to get up for work the next morning. This got me thinking... I hadn't prepped my "immune kit" for comp season and hadn't taken care of myself. This got me thinking even more... my daughter needs to start boosting her immune system in preparation for the next crazy and demanding 7 weeks.

Now you might be asking "what the heck is an "immune kit"?". I'll get into that in a minute. I first want to start out with the basics that I try to stress for myself and have stressed for my daughter to start working on for herself. Here are my own personal methods to insure I have done everything I can to boost my immune system and help to not get sick

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1) Hydrate!

I can not stress this enough. I'm already a big water drinker, but my daughter is awful about drinking water (so much so that it leads to other issues with BP and heart rate that she has had to deal with). I personally shoot for as close to one gallon a day as I can. Now, this is often hard to get that much water in during the day, but I do get pretty close. I think the trick is to find how you like your water. I only do well with drinking a lot of water when it is ice cold. I also like to add a little bit of lime juice to my water, just for a little flavor. For my daughter, we get her Liquid I.V. powder for her water. These things are pretty handy for her as she HATES water. The liquid IV essentially has the electrolytes of 3x the drink. Plus she likes the way it tastes so she drinks that well. You can get them with added vitamins and immune boosters as well. For me, the key is having a cup or water bottle that keeps my water super cold and my ice good to go. I really like my Reduce water bottle I got at target. It's basically a cheaper version of the Stanley cups everyone is all about right now.

2) Zinc

So I personally swear by Zinc. I started putting liquid Zinc drops in my water every day, even when I'm not sick, just to give myself a year-round boost. I started doing this last year after I got Covid for a THIRD time ( i told my son that covid must be like pokemon, I've got to catch them all! hahaha lame mom joke I know). The dops that I use, I got off amazon and they don't have any flavor so they are perfect to put in my morning drink. If I don't put it in my water for the day, ill put it in my Body bloom drink.

3) Nutrition

Next is nutrition! Proteins and veggies to be exact. This again is something that we struggle with due to our crazy schedule, but I am trying to get better about it for both me and my daughter. For me, it's finding time to meal prep for the week, and for her, it's finding high-protein quick eats. She relies a lot on protein shakes she can down super quick and protein bars.. and fruit, veggies, and turkey bites she can snack on. I've really been taking advantage of one-sheet pan prep meals. My favorite lately has been sheet pan fajitas. If you know me, you know I love Mexican food, and fajitas are some of my favorites. It's super easy to make and I can eat it for lunch every day during the week for work. Wraps (with low-carb wraps) have also been a go-to for me. We've also been eating cuties (mandarins) like crazy. We ALL really like those. I'm sure it's not the best as eating a "clean" diet, but it's better than nothing. This is still (and will probably always be) a work in progress. I'm always trying to find ways to incorporate more fruits and veggies into our meals and still make them easy and portable. My family defiantly is not a conventional family, we do not have time to sit down as a family every day at 5 and eat a meal together. We typically are lucky if we can do that one day a week. Normally on that day, we are all so exhausted we are too tired to cook or we just want to rest.

4) Sleep

Again, this is something we struggle with. I struggle with this even on our off weeks. I have a hard time falling asleep and I wake up early for work. On days when we travel, driving makes me exhausted (even tho I enjoy it). Not to mention sometimes we don't get home until around midnight or one o'clock in the morning, depending on where we are coming from, what the schedule was where we were, and when the event was over, then I normally have to get up Monday morning to go to work. I'm also a super light sleeper. My daughter has a hard time winding down in the evening and getting to sleep. Now, when she's asleep, she's O-U-T. She is such a hard sleeper... and she typically sleeps in the car on our drive home. When I was talking to my daughter about this the other weekend, I basically explained to her that I know it's hard for us to catch up on sleep because of her busy schedule so I told her she is just going to have to find and take advantage of any time she gets. Even if it's a 30-minute break, just go find a quiet place and take a few moments to relax or catch a cat nap. Easier said than done I know. Luckily she's young and I don't think this affects her as much as me. I know I personally get migraines when I don't get enough sleep, which also makes me feel even more exhausted and can make me pretty useless until I kick it. So moral of this story, sleep and rest is important for your body!

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Now for my "Immune kit". These are some items I have started packing and traveling with. I have a small zipper pouch that fits everything conveniently in my suitcase.

Immune Kit

• Liquid I.V. Hydration Multiplier Electrolyte Powder (We like the watermelon flavor)

• Suja Organic Immunity Elderberry Shot with Zinc & Probiotics

• Liquid I.V. Hydration Multiplier+ Immune Support Electrolyte Powder (Tangerine Flavor)

• OLLY Immunity Gummy with Elderberry, Zinc, and Vitamin C

• Zicam Zinc Cold Remedy RapidMelts Quick-Dissolve Tablets Citrus Plus Elderberry

• Oscillococcinum

• Essential Oils and Diffuser

• Vitamine D 3

• Zinc

• Water

• Lost of Vitamin C full foods!

Now to break it down a little...

I've already talked about the Liquid IV powders, zinc, and water, but the other items (for us) are just as important.

The Suja immunity shot is something we just recently tried. While they don't taste great, they are doable. I only get these when we are feeling the onset of something or are feeling extra run down. The flavor that we tried was Elderberry Shot with Zinc & Probiotics. I chose this one because we are not huge turmeric fans and I felt the extra since and probiotics would be a nice little addition. I tried to find something that would be on the sweeter or fruitier side ( so I could get my daughter to take it).

OLLY Immunity Gummies are something we always seem to have in the house. The kids of course love gummy vitamins over tablets. I also like the fact that the OLLY ones have the elderberry in them already, which means one less thing to pack. My kids have both used elderberry vitamins in the past with good success. I think elderberry has had great benefits for my family and immunity boosting.

I like to pack some Zicam just in case any of us come down with anything while on the road. This obviously is not something we take every day, it's just there in case we need it. Oscillococcinum is another item I never go on a trip without. This was introduced to us by another dance mom many years ago when Kamdyn was super sick on a trip. I swear by this stuff now. It's homeopathic and just knocked her cold out of the park and gave her a burst of energy. This only work if you take it a the onset of something, so I like to have it on hand.

When it comes to my oil diffuser and essential oils, I have heard there are health benefits to essential oils, but I also am slightly skeptical. But you know what, I still bring them because even if they are not ACTUALLY doing anything for our immune system or to make us get over a cold faster, they make me feel good. The sents I use help me sleep at night and help me feel relaxed. When I'm stuffy, they help clear my sinuses, so it's worth it to me. I have a small travel diffuser (that actually can be used in a car as well). I love eucalyptus and mint scents. I also really like clove and citrus scents. They make our hotel room smell nice and make it more relaxing.

Last, D3 is something that I take daily (at the director of my doctor). My daughter does not take it, however, she does take a multivitamin and iron supplement (at the direction of her doctor). That being said, this is just for us. **Again, like I said at the beginning, I'm not a doctor, don't take this blog as medical advice.

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One thing that I have learned is that you can't wait until you're sick to try to boost your immune system. It's something that you have to work on BEFORE you need it. I've been trying to work on this more over the last year and trying to get my daughter to do so as well. When you know you have some intense weeks coming up, take care of your body ahead of time. Build up your immune system so that when you need to use it, it's in tip-top shape. Find what works best for YOU! I told my daughter, if you need your body and immune system to take care of you, you need to take care of it first. Another important thing to note is it's not as simple as taking a multivitamin and saying "I'm good to go". Taking care of your body involves SOOOO much more.

Plan ahead, start early and take care of your body and it will take care of you!

-Rothrock Mom