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Top Tips To Boost Immunity… Naturally!

March 18, 2020realadmin_adminEducation

Now, more than ever, is time to make a conscious effort to give not only your overall health a boost, but in particular, place a high priority on boosting your immune system. 

With COVID-19 becoming more and more prevalent, we MUST be taking steps to ensure we give ourself every opportunity to stop this virus in its tracks should we become exposed. And that comes to your immune system!

Before I delve into my immunity boosting tips, I first wanted to give you a run down of what your immune system is and the role it plays. 

The role of the immune system, a collection of structures and processes within the body, is to protect against disease or other potentially damaging foreign bodies. When functioning properly, the immune system identifies a variety of threats, including viruses, bacteria and parasites, and distinguishes them from the body’s own healthy tissue. 

INATE vs ADAPTIVE IMMUNITY

The immune system can be broadly sorted into categories: innate immunity and adaptive immunity.

Innate immunity is the immune system you’re born with, and mainly consists of barriers on and in the body that keep foreign threats out, according to the National Library of Medicine (NLM). Components of innate immunity include skin, stomach acid, enzymes found in tears and skin oils, mucus and the cough reflex. There are also chemical components of innate immunity, including substances called interferon and interleukin-1.

Innate immunity is non-specific, meaning it doesn’t protect against any specific threats.

Adaptive, or acquired, immunity targets specific threats to the body, according to the NLM. Adaptive immunity is more complex than innate immunity. In adaptive immunity, the threat must be processed and recognised by the body, and then the immune system creates antibodies specifically designed to the threat. After the threat is neutralised, the adaptive immune system “remembers” it, which makes future responses to the same germ more efficient. 

Now that we’ve gone over the boring stuff, let’s get to what we can do to combat foreign nasties entering our system. 

DIET

First and foremost, NUTRITION! Following a diet rich in antioxidants is essential to supporting your immune system. Abundant in many fruits and vegetables, antioxidants combat free radicals—chemical byproducts known to damage DNA and suppress the immune system. Some excellent sources of anti-oxidants include pecans, blueberries, strawberries, artichokes, goji berries, raspberries, kale, red cabbage, beets and spinach. 

Choosing healthy fats (such as the omega-3 fatty acids available in oily fish, flaxseed, and krill oil) over saturated fats (found in meat and dairy products) is generally recommended by health authorities. As well, it may help increase your body’s production of compounds involved in regulating immunity. 

Drinking plenty of water helps cells operate efficiently and allows your body to process food and eliminate waste.

For an additional immune boost, try adding garlic (shown to possess virus-fighting and bacteria-killing properties) and ginger (a natural anti-inflammatory) to your meals on a regular basis.

EXERCISE 

The good news is that regular moderate-intensity exercise confers several benefits to the immune system. A 2019 study shows that moderate exercise mobilises immune system cells, helping the body defend itself against pathogens and cancer cell growth. Those who regularly engage in this type of exercise have fewer illnesses and less systemic inflammation. Exercise may also protect the immune system from the effects of ageing. 

STRESS REDUCTION

Chronic stress can have a negative impact on immunity, according to a landmark 2004 review of 293 studies with a total of 18,941 participants. The review suggests that while short-term exposure to stressors can rev up your immune defence, prolonged stress may wear down the immune system and increase your vulnerability to illness. 

Addressing chronic stress is something you can take action on. To keep your stress in check, incorporate a relaxing practice like meditation, yoga, or deep breathing into your daily routine. 

SLEEP

Another healthy habit vital to preventing sickness is getting a full eight hours of sleep each night, which may help regulate immune function. 

A study of over 22,000 people found that those who slept less than six hours per night or who had a sleep disorder were more likely to have colds and other respiratory infections. 

HERBS AND SUPPLEMENTS 

Antiviral herbs inhibit the development of viruses. Many of the best antiviral herbs boost the immune system, which allows the body to attack viral pathogens. This can be even better than attacking specific pathogens, which antiviral drugs are designed to do, because pathogens mutate over time and become less susceptible to treatment.

Not only do antiviral herbs fight viral infections, boost the immune system and work as flu natural remedies, but they have a number of other health benefits, such as cardiovascular, digestive and anti-inflammatory support. The best ones to keep an eye out for include: 

Echinacea, Calendula, Elderberry, Garlic, Astragalus Root, Cats Claw, Licorice Root, Olive Leaf and Oregano. 

The take home message is this… pay attention to your nutrition. Add variety. Include more colours to your diet than you would normally. Keep up regular exercise. Get your immune system cells mobilised and fighting off pathogens. Engage in stress reducing activities like those mentioned above and SLEEP! Get good quality sleep each night to allow our system to regulate immune function. 

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4 ways to manage stress eating 1. Check in with y 4 ways to manage stress eating

1. Check in with yourself before eating 🙇🏻‍♀️: over consuming when you are stressed out is a generally unconscious act, meaning you don’t think about the fact that you are stress eating, you just feel like eating. Bringing awareness to the reasons why you are eating before you do it can help you to recognise the pattern you’re in and avoid continuing it. Before you eat something, you can ask yourself whether you’re feeling stressed, lonely, anxious or just hungry
2. Don’t over restrict 🙅🏻‍♀️: if you stress eat and then feel guilty about it later, causing you to restrict your intake after over consuming; it is highly likely that you will binge again which will increase your level of stress and continue the cycle. If you do over consume due to stress, just eat how you normally would at your next meal and get back on track
3. Develop stress management practices💆🏻‍♀️: this may be obvious but by managing your stress, you will reduce the impact it has on you day to day but you will also have a practice to complete instead of eating when you are stressed. This could include meditation, exercise, stretching and mindfulness practices
4. Remove temptation 🍫: very simple; if you don’t have the food in your house, you have nothing to stress eat. Try to have whole food snacks in your cupboard to promote better choices on a regular basis
It doesn’t matter how humid or sticky it gets, t It doesn’t matter how humid or sticky it gets, these Wednesday legends still get in and get it done 💪🏼🏋🏻‍♀️ love it
6 Things that are More Important for your Health t 6 Things that are More Important for your Health than you think 🤔 

What are your top priorities for your health and wellbeing? Where are you centring your focus?

More often than not we tend to centre our focus on areas of our health that aren’t really as important as we think. For example, we focus on the timing of our meals, like not eating any carbs after 7pm or getting the next biggest fat burner supplement or even getting banged up on scale weight from day to day when so many factors play apart into this. Maybe you even find yourself feeling guilty or angry with yourself when you miss a workout, or you even catch yourself trying to find the next biggest FAD or superfood diet to get you to your result faster.

Rather than doing these things focus your attention on factors that are actually going to assist you in the long run like maintaining overall balance in terms of your nutrition, eating ample amount of protein 🥩, eating from wholefood 🥗 sources and drinking a minimum of 1L of water 💧 30kgs of body weight.

You should also take the time to ensue your body is getting enough sleep 😴 for the exercise and work load you have. Be kind to yourself if you’re getting worked up over missing a workout, take a breath relax try some stretching or some yoga 🧘🏻‍♂️ not every day needs to be beast mode. Lastly try keep your non-exercise activity high ensure your moving for a minimum of 8500 steps per day 🚶🏽‍♀️.

Remember getting 1% better every day is better than taking 2 steps forward to take 3 back, focus on being consistent and nailing the basics which is what is going to allow you to hit your goal faster.

COACH DAMON 🤟🏻
Shizzz!! What an epic morning with the FITFAM To Shizzz!! What an epic morning with the FITFAM 

Todays sweat session did not disappoint! Today session was full to the brim and the vibe was absolutely electric 

A total of 4000 cal was burnt with one team smashing a whopping 603 calories in the 45min session 

Well done to all those that came! I hope you are all taking some time to recover 😉
LEGEND OF THE WEEK: MEET WARRICK T! This legend h LEGEND OF THE WEEK: MEET WARRICK T!

This legend has been absolutely knocking it out of the park since kicking it off with Real Fitness 10 weeks ago!

Warrick came to RFT with the goal of wanting to feel better and make regular strength training apart of his lifestyle as he has saw the benefit to his overall health. With Warrick it has been all about knuckling down on a few lifestyle habits to allow him to work towards his result. Warrick has centred his focus on eating 2 palm sizes of 🥩protein at every meal, 💧hitting 3L of water per day, 🏋🏻‍♂️strength training 2x per week and completing 2 🏃🏻‍♂️conditioning sessions and at least 1 cycle 🚴on his off days, He has also ⬇️ halved his alcohol intake with no alcohol Mon-Thurs and no more than 10 standard drinks per week.

Emphasising these habits have resulted in Warrick dropping 4kgs, loosing 4% in body fat, putting on 500g of muscle 💪🏻 and dropping 2 levels on his visceral fat score ✅ Not only that he also brought up his 16 week goal at the 10 week mark 🤩which is an amazing representation his effort!

Congratulations Warrick, RFT and myself are so proud of your effort and achievements, can’t wait to see what we can achieve in the future!

COACH DAMON 🤟🏻
What a way to start Positive Vibes Monday! Anothe What a way to start Positive Vibes Monday!

Another remarkable ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review for the @realfitnesspt team and coach @kylebanfieldfitness 

Thank you Matt for taking the time to share your experience! Your journey so far has been amazing to watch!

Keep up the awesome work 💪🏼💪🏼

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