I was bedridden for the most part of the weekend, clocked in close to 35 hours of downtime due to an important factor – overeating dried foods and not enough water intake, causing dehydration.

For obvious reasons, I ate a considerable amount of Chinese New Year cookies and tarts, jerky and a variety of other dried foods that one would only consume during the festive season. I topped that by taking a break from my routine run on the pretext that I was traveling. I basically found myself an excuse to binge on food and being idle, temporarily forgo all principles of eating in moderation.

For three days, my body was running a fever. I can’t say I didn’t see it coming, but I forgot how awful the combination of sore throat, cough, headache and muscle aches would feel until I succumbed entirely to the symptoms of a fever.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”, despite regular exercise and plenty of rest, one can never rule out the importance of stay well hydrated with water and herbal teas (my personal favourites are peppermint tea, Earl Grey tea and Genmaicha).

My key learning from this: Do things in moderation. The same goes to every other aspect of our lives. Quoting William Shakespeare, “Love moderately. Long love doth so. Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.”