Neither my husband nor I have had a single cold this winter. For some people, this might not seem like a big deal, but since our 7-year-old started preschool, I don’t remember either of us making it through this many months without a nasty, grumpy period of annoying congestion (I get the extreme runny nose; he gets the long-lasting coughs). What’s more, my 7-year-old has not had more than a couple of days of the sniffles either this entire school year. Maybe we’ve all finally built up a certain level of immunity to the most common schoolyard germs. Maybe my kid is finally getting serious about washing his hands for two full rounds of the happy birthday song. Maybe second-graders in general keep their germs to themselves more effectively.

Or maybe this super-immunity is the result of the fact that we bought a fancy blender in the fall and have been drinking fruit-and-vegetable smoothies every day. In the spirit of the Working Mother “No Excuses” campaign, we blend up kale and spinach with bananas, pears, carrots and frozen pineapples for our son, and then we throw in tomatoes, more carrots and ginger for ourselves. We estimate that we’ve at least doubled our intake of produce overall, and we’ve increased our son’s intake of leafy greens from none to some almost every day.

I’m not a smoothie evangelist – I won’t get into the Vitamix vs. Blendtec blender power debate or try to convince you that kale is really tasty as juice (though you’d be surprised). I will say that we’ve all found it surprisingly easy and pleasant to dramatically up our intake of vegetables and fruits by making these smoothies, and even if it’s not the single reason for our pleasant stretch of good health this winter, I’m happy about the change we’ve made for the sake of long-term health benefits.

However, this commitment to eating much more healthfully is, for our family, really dependent on the fact that my husband is self-employed and works at home. On the days I telecommute, I help wash and chop vegetables, but even though this isn’t a very labor-intensive project, it still takes that 15 minutes that I never feel like I have on work-in-the-office days.

I think the health benefits of flex are often overlooked: It’s a no-brainer that squeezing in a sweaty workout is much easier on days when you don’t have to spend time commuting or showering for the benefit of your coworkers. And, as I’ve discovered over the past several months, it’s also much easier to shop for and prepare healthy food for yourself and your family. There’s some data to back me up: a research review published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews in 2010 found that people with more control over their work schedules – including shift workers who were able to choose their own schedules and people who ramp their work hours down in gradual or partial retirement programs – had lower blood pressure and heart rates as well as better sleep profiles.

Some families with parents who work regular full-time in-office schedules might be able to afford a private chef or at least a steady stream of fresh green smoothies from the local organic café (I’m looking at you, Marissa Mayer), but for the rest of us, eating good food does take a little extra time. I know all the tricks—slow cookers, freezing the week’s meals on Sunday, etc.—but somehow, the one thing that’s made a big difference for me and my family has been having someone who’s home enough to spend a few extra minutes in the kitchen every day and a few extra minutes in the produce aisles of Costco every week.

(Also, here’s a secret tip for anyone who makes green smoothies: One day, I absent-mindedly stuck the bag of pre-washed baby spinach into the freezer instead of the refrigerator. When I realized what I’d done, I thought the greens would be ruined, but they were actually fine for blending into smoothies. You would NOT want to put them in a bowl for salad—as the leaves thaw they turn completely limp—but as long as you’re just juicing them, it’s no problem. Now we put some spinach and kale directly in the freezer when we bring it home from the store, and we don’t have to worry about it ever going slimy!)

Krista Carothers is senior research editor at the Working Mother Research Institute and Working Mother magazine.