Allergy season is upon us - Natural way to help stuffy nose

Ah Spring. Time for new life, rain and allergies.
I am allergic to some pollen and dust. It hits me bad in the spring and fall.
I get stuffy nose and 10 years ago, there was no pill to address this.
They only had allergy pills to address runny nose, itchy eyes etc.

When they finally made pills that address stuffy nose as well, they were freaking huge and I hate pills :(
And I was so dependent on the pill it was horrible. If I miss taking it, I just suffered.
But since I hate pills, I avoided it and suffered for years.

So a couple years ago, my co-worker told me about neti pot. I looked it up, what it does sounds gross but I gave it a try and I was so happy I did.

Pills suppress the symptoms but never fixes it.
I found that the irrigation actually helps get rids of the symptoms rather then suppress it.
I found that over time, I actually didn't have to wash as much and still get by the day without really congesting.

However I still found the pot somewhat hard to use. When I'm super stuffed up, it just didn't work. The pot can be very frustrating and time consuming and it just turns me off from using it when that happens.
An other friend told me to try the squeeze bottle, but I was very skeptical about it. Finally when I had to get new pot, I decided to try the bottle and now I can say I'll never go back to the pot again.
The bottle is awesome. Maybe because you can control the water pressure and make it work even if it's super stuffed up, it's awesome.
I used it when I have a cold and for allergies to wash out bacteria and pollen/dust.

Please use boiled water and not water straight from tap. Apparently there are parasites in unboiled water that can potentially latch on to things inside your body (like your brain) when you do the wash so just to be safe, use boil water.
When i'm in maintenance mode, I don't have to wash twice a day. I can wash maybe once a day of every other day just to keep from getting a pollen and dust build up.
I'm also able to get away with half a packet of salt rather then a whole back when I'm in maintenance mode.

Yes it's a bit gross, but the relief you get is totally worth it. It's natural and actually helps solve the problem rather then just putting a band-aid on it.

Happy Spring :)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Propolis Honey for skin care!

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) is not only good for salads, but it's actually good for your skin!

I only made this discovery a few years back and I wished I made it a long time ago to help my brother's skin problem.
He has eczema and seasonally, it gets really really bad. He's tried everything when he was a kid. The Dr recommended using Aveeno or the special prescribed cream we have to get at the pharmacy and honestly, none of them really worked. We found that he has to constantly put on the cream as he's dependent on the cream and if he forgets to put it on, it will show. The cream never heals his skin, just keeps it moisturize.

A couple of years ago when I was doing more research into natural skin products and do it yourself stuff, I started looking into Olive Oil and honey.
Someone used EVOO for a face mask and she found her skin became really nice and soft after.
Another masked she liked to do as aspirin mixed with honey. I tried both and found nice results after.
So that got me thinking where else can I use those 2 items and I did some further research.

The Greeks have used it in ancient times for multiple reasons including on skin and hair.
EVOO is high in anti-oxidant and it's anti-inflammatory.

So I experimented on my dry hands in the winter. Once I noticed it actually improves the quality of my skin, I tried it on my brother.
Within a week, his skin started looking better. It wasn't as dry and he only had to apply at night.

Then we tried propolis honey. The problem with propolis honey is that it's a bit sticky and in liquid format, it has alcohol content so it can sting if your skin is broken.
Due to the fact that it's a bit sticky, we only tried experiment at night after showers and before bed time so the skin had time to absorb before going to bed.
Propolis honey is anti-inflammatory, high in anti-oxidant and anti-bacterial.

We found that when we combined the 2, honey first and then olive oil after, his skin actually healed.
He can put it on every night, and his skin actually looked normal by the end of 2-3 weeks of using honey+EVOO. That was something creams were never able to do.

I highly recommend giving it a try during the dry season.
I put it on a couple nights a week during the winter season to help prevent my skin from becoming dry.
If you're doing this as a maintenance program, usually you don't need to use the honey. The olive oil will be enough.
If your skin is in a really bad state, I find the honey helps speeds up the healing.

The most common question people ask when I tell them I use EVOO on my skin is "isn't it oily?"
Well, yes it's oil, but if you use extra virgin, I find that your skin absorbs it rather fast so you would not get it all over the place.
It's natural and absorbs nicely.

There's a lot more research now into EVOO and Propolis honey since people have turned their attention to using natural items.
So if you want to look up what specific properties are in each that helps, it's easily available now on the internet.
I just wanted to share our experience and hope it helps others.

Cheers

Dragon Fruit

 So you might have seen this in the supermarket and wondered what are they and how do you eat it.
Some find dragon fruits tasteless but I find them sweet.
They're also very easy to eat.

Because the fruits are imported from far away from where I live, I find that most of the time the fruit is a bit bland. I suppose it's one of those fruits that don't hold it's flavour as well. Once in a while, I'll get lucky and get one with more flavour and sweetness.
Hopefully just because it's picked before it's ripe doesn't make it lose too much nutritional value.

So how to choose the fruit?
Look for a fruit without spots and is not too hard and not too soft.
Unless you live in a country that grows the fruit, chances are most of them are on the harder side because they pick the fruit before it's ripe in order to ship it.
If it's squishy then it's probably bad.
I buy ones that are slightly soft to the touch and I find them sweeter.

The flesh and the seeds of the fruit is edible.
Cut the fruit into slices.
And then you can peel the skin away from the flesh to eat it :)