Two Helpful Allergy Remedies: the Neti Pot and Quercetin & Bromelain

If you live anywhere remotely near the central east coast, you might be feeling a little off this year. It seems like every year the pollen count is competing to outdo previous years. And I seem to forget every spring that now I have allergies.

Thank you, my thirties and my son. You both have thrown me under the bus when it comes to make my susceptible.

When my son was an infant, I thought I was suffering cold on top of cold only to discover that they were in fact allergies. Since that time I’ve taken an allergy pill a day. But when spring arrives, even that isn’t enough. My throat gets that tell-tale scratchy quality which isn’t quite a cold, but is still painful. My sinuses stuff up. I grow lethargic and s-l-e-e-p-y. Basically, I’m nearly worthless.

Enter natural remedies…once the fog lifts enough to remember my tricks.

I discovered the Neti pot during my pregnancy when I found out that one of the many side effects of growing a human is nasal stuffiness. (I could write a book—and perhaps one day will—about all the secrets no one ever broadcasts about pregnancy and owning an infant. For now, Jenny McCarthy’s Belly Laughs will have to do. While unorthodox, she’s pretty much right about it all…except nasal stuffiness. I don’t remember her touching on that one. But here I am, chasing a rabbit once again…)

Back to the Neti pot. Basically, you buy a pot designed specifically for the purpose of watering your nose. You can find them at your local health food, vitamin, or big box store (everyone carries them these days). Once home, unbox and do the following:

1. Sanitize the pot. Since mine is plastic, I simply throw it into the dishwasher after each use. I’ve heard great things about ceramic pots, but when I bought mine I was planning to travel with it. Plastic seemed the way to go, and I love not worrying about it breaking.
2. Prepare two cups of distilled or seriously filtered lukewarm water and a scoop of your Neti saline solution in a clean container with a spout. Pyrex is my preference, and I get my solution at the Vitamin Shoppe, but you can get this just about anywhere as well. Amazon always seems a safe bet.
3. Take your pot, your solution, and a box of tissues into the bathroom with you and shut the door. Seriously. No one needs to be a spectator for the actual nasal irrigation process. There are reasons my husband calls this my snot pot.
4. If you have long hair, pull it up and get it out of the way. Especially if you’re already prettified for the day.
5. Pour half of your liquid into the Neti pot, bend over the sink, tilt your head to about 45 degrees, and fit the spout gently into the upper nostril. Slowly begin pouring the liquid through that nostril and allowing it to exit the lower one. If liquid is pouring into your throat (they’re attached, after all), adjust your angle until it feels right. Or as right as can be when you’re getting used to something this insane.
6. Step six involves lots of tissues, nose blowing, and a sensation somewhere between relief that you can now breathe, and horror that you now need to repeat step five through six-A on the second nostril.
7. Now you can breathe, relax, and go enjoy the rest of your day.

There are some precautions to take when using a Neti. LOOK THEM UP BEFORE DECIDING TO TRY THIS FOR YOURSELF. Done wrong or with an unsanitary pot or unclean water, nasal irrigation can be dangerous. Done right, it’s one of the best things you may ever discover.

Now on to remedy two. Add Quercetin and Bromelain (Q&B) to your daily supplements. Correct dosage depends upon where you purchase your Q&B and what brand you acquire. But here’s what you need to know: Quercetin blocks histamines. This means you’ll be breathing more clearly. It’s combined with Bromelain because this enzyme helps relieve sinus symptoms. Basically (remembering that I’m by no means a medical professional), it’s a natural form of allergy medicine. At least that’s how I understand it. And time and use has proved that to be true in my case.

Of course, I hope you don’t even need any of this information because you are one of the lucky ones who love every single aspect of spring, including the pollen. But if you suffer from allergies at all, I’d love to hear if you use either of these remedies and how you feel about it.

Breathe easy, my friend!

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Please consult with your doctor or other medical professional before trying either of the remedies listed above. I am not a medical doctor, nutritionist, or anything remotely scientific. I’m just sharing what works for me.

Quotable Friday: Dreams

Monistat: The Best Affordable Makeup Primer I’ve Found

Last week on a trip to my bathroom, I was appalled to see a tube of my favorite makeup primer sitting on the counter. It wasn’t that someone else got it out or was using it or the fact that I’d left a little clutter behind during my morning routine. No, the fact is…if someone saw this tube and the way it’s almost all used up, they might get the wrong idea about me.

You see, my makeup primer of choice is, ahem, Monistat Chafing Relief Powder-Gel. Mm-hmm. Mildly untraditional, but it works. And after a severe breakout in early 2013 after trying a well-known brand’s primer for a few weeks, cheap, safe, and does-the-job without breakouts works for me. But the without breakouts part has been a discovery of trial and error.

Since this product isn’t specifically made to prime your skin, allow me to share my regimen. While I initially applied a small portion of the gel after my moisturizer had dried, I altered this after noticing a few areas of breakout. Having the skin of a 14-year old (meaning acne-prone, not dewy and wrinkle free), I’m not 100% sure this was due to the Monistat or just some more of that wonky body chemistry I’ve mentioned before. Either way, I discovered that mixing a dab of gel with a drop of moisturizer does the trick. So here you go:

1. Beginning with clean hands, squeeze a dab of Monistat gel onto the closed fist of your non-dominant hand.

2. Squeeze roughly the same amount of moisturizer on top of the gel.

3. Blend with index finder and then apply evenly to face. (I apply straight moistirizer to my neck. After all, who puts foundation on their neck? Oh, sometimes you do too? Well, ok then. But let’s just keep that between ourselves, shall we?)

4. Proceed with normal makeup regimen.

One last secret: I apply my liquid foundation with a brush rather than a sponge. It soaks up–and thereby wastes–less foundation while still giving even coverage. I’m sure there are great brushes specifically for this, but I just grabbed this one at Ulta sometime last year and it works for me.

Quotable Friday: Love

With today being Good Friday, this quote really stands out to me as a picture of how Jesus loves us.

Love is giving another person what they need the most when they deserve it the least at great personal cost.
-Chip Ingram

Have a beautiful Easter!

The Easter Spider Web: My Parents’ Remix on the Egg Hunt

With Easter coming up this week, I thought it would be fun to share what my parents bravely did for their eight children each Easter Eve. As you can imagine in a family of ten, Easter baskets could take up a ton of room and cash, so early on they thought up a brilliant alternative.

 Photo by Tina Phillips, courtesy of FreeDigistalPhotos.net

Now, hold on before you decide to judge. While it may sound creepy, this is actually one of my favorite holiday memories. (And just to be fair, some people call it a yarn maze, but spider web sounds much more interesting.)

After most of us were tucked into bed (or confined to our rooms, in later years), Mom and Dad would spend an hour or two and eight different colors of yarn to create a fantastic spider web throughout the main floor of my childhood home. Leaving each ball of yarn at the top of the steps, they went to bed knowing that any child who attempted to go downstairs before the appointed time would risk losing their Easter gift.

When I asked my mom last week where they came up with this idea, she told me this was how her freshman group of sorority sisters found their big sister. Count on my mom to think it’s appropriate to play sorority games with her children on a religious holiday, but whatever.

Since many of these mazes were made back in the day of actual film (the first was created in the late eighties), I sadly cannot find a photo from my childhood. But about eight or so years ago a friend and I decided to reenact the maze for my youngest siblings. This was when I discovered that creating the web is perhaps more fun than navigating one.

So if you’re game, grab enough yarn colors for each participant (or if you’re mean, enough skeins of the same color), some super fun gifts for the end of the web, and make this Easter hunt one of your most memorable.

Quotable Friday: Nothing is Impossible

 

Image courtesy of pat138241 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

 

Life is Too Short to Wear Ugly Clothes

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Clothes

I’ve been purging my closet recently, piece by awful piece. Some of them weren’t always quite so awful. It’s just that they’re no longer wearing well (either their material or my body—I’m not sure who to blame) and I don’t feel fabulous in them.

So I’m pitching them.

If I think someone else might actually enjoy an item, I’ll put it in the donation box. But otherwise, into the trash it goes.

Seriously. Think about it. If we wear the same outfit/article of clothing a minimum of twice a month for, say ten years, that’s over 200 wears. Why make yourself miserable for that many days? Instead, take those one or two outfits/tops/jeans/articles you love and wear them more!

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that the accessories make an outfit, so you may have a mediocre top that will look over the moon awesome with the right shoes, jewelry, and bag. But otherwise? Pitch it.

I don’t know about you, but when I feel less than fabulous, I act way less than fabulous. Which means I treat myself and those around me—especially the really important people—less than fabulously. It’s just wrong.

When I feel less than fabulous, I act way less than fabulous.

I keep coming back to this, but if you can change something you don’t like, change it.

Throw that sweater away.

Trash those old shoes.

Do you really think that dress will be in style when it fits again? Let it go.

And focus on being fabulous today, whatever size you are and whatever is left in your closet. Because life is too short to be anything else but your best.

Quotable Friday: Habits

Image courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti, FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Literal Stationery in a Digital World

There’s a stationery shop in my town with a banner out front that reads:

 

I smile every time I pass there because, well, my mama did raise me right. Of course, a mild paper addiction has fed the process, but stationery is just one of my many paper weaknesses.

This past Wednesday I had written two thank you notes. My toddler was whining at the door like a puppy, asking to go outside despite the frigid temps and awful wind. So, in an effort to paint a picture of why we weren’t playing outside, I bundled him up and took him on a walk to the mailbox. Being a fun mom, I let him hold one of my letters. The one in the white envelope.

Big mistake.

His tiny hands lost their grip on the envelope just as we were placing it in the box, floating it across the street into a snowy field. There it began bouncing across the snow corner by corner. Pushing the hair out of my eyes, we ran across the street only to discover there was no possible way to find that—did I mention?—white envelope.

Thankfully, or perhaps sadly, it was a card for my parents. I shot them a quick text, telling them about the beautiful card I had written them that was floating off into Neverland. My one consolation is that I wrote in a Sharpie pen. Neighbors have been known to deliver mail that has escaped our mailbox before.

What really made me sad about this whole incident is that I was so excited to be sending cards. These days, it’s normal to give a verbal thank you, or perhaps to text or email one, while cards aren’t quite so common. But think about the last time you received a card or letter in the mail from a person. Not an institution, or your dentist or doctor—something from a friend or family member.

While I love gifts of all shapes and sizes, the best thing anyone can give me on a birthday or special occasion is a personal card. Back in my teens and early twenties, it seemed like I was always sending notes to others. Do you remember back in the dark ages when you had to use a stamp or make a call to hear from someone far away? I’m all about digital communication, but those were the days. I have boxes filled with handwritten communication from dear friends, and I treasure these collections.

My new challenge to myself is to write five notes of gratitude each week. They might not necessarily be thanking someone for an act or gift; perhaps it’s just to tell them why they mean so much to me. Whatever the message, I will put pen to paper and stamp to envelope, keep the US Postal Service in business, and brighten someone’s day.

Whose day will you try to brighten?