Garlic is an AWESOME immunity booster!! Stay healthy!

You might remember a little while back I posted one of my favorite tips for avoiding the stomach flu!  Well, I'm back to throw out another one that I like even more!!
Garlic!

I found out about this from my nutritionist.  I was telling her about my grape juice trick and she said SHE would do garlic-- it works even better and you steer clear of all the sugar.  It naturally kills viruses, bacteria, fungus and more!  It's like a natural antibiotic that you won't develop a tolerance to.

I'm always up for new ideas so I gave it a try!  That was November and let me tell you-- I've been healthy ever since, dodging germs, colds, and all kinds of other fun stuff left and right!

So here's what I do:

1. Grab a bulb of garlic from Target or anywhere... they're so cheap... less than $1 for sure.
2. Peel off the paper-y layers.  Pick a clove or two and get ALL the paper off it.  
3. Chop it up into little pieces. (I pop a mug of water into the microwave while I'm doing this)
4. Grab a spoon and shovel it in!  It might be good to chew it a few times, but if you've chopped it up a lot, you won't need to do a ton of chewing.  You could maybe just swallow it all like you'd swallow a pill.
5. I chase it with the warm/hot water I fixed while I was chopping the garlic.  For me, the warmer water seems to take away some of the "burn" of the garlic.  Okay, don't be scared- it doesn't really burn, but it's just kind of an interesting, hot sort of taste.  Hard to describe, but not that bad!  I'd rather that a few seconds of ICK, than a few weeks full of SICK!  Right?? :)

So here are other important tips I learned from reading things and talking to people:  

• It's key to eat it right away after you chop it up.  If you let it sit out, refrigerate it, or cook it, it loses some of it's amazing benefits.
• Be sure to have some food in your tummy when you eat the garlic!  Even when I do, I still sometimes have to lay down for just 2 minutes afterwards cause it feels icky (only once in awhile-- not often-- but just saying cause if this happens to you, the feeling will go away fast!  No worries!).
• The hot/warm water is also helpful for beating down germs! 
• Some people eat a clove or more a day as part of their daily routine-- just to boost their immunity!
• Unlike the grape juice trick, even if you already have a cold-- it's NOT too late to try this solution!  Taking garlic several times per day can shorten or really relieve cold symptoms!

Now if you DO find yourself suddenly sick in the middle of the night, don't panic if you're a K-1 teacher because you can just whip out your "Super Speedy Sub Plans!"... YESSSS!  But here's to hoping that never needs to happen.

I'm so excited about this, I just had to pass it on!  I KNOW if you try it out, it will help you stay healthier and avoid some of those icky bugs flying around the schools this time of year!  Several times I've felt a headache or a sore throat coming on, but then I take my garlic and BAM!  All better and nothing ever comes of it.  It's too, too cool.

If anyone has any other tips for how to stay healthy or do the garlic thing- leave me a comment!  I love to learn!

Cheers to staying healthy!