It’s itchy knitted jumper time!

We’re coming into winter now and you know what that means! It’s time to bust out the old itchy knitted jumpers! No? It must be cold and flu season then! Yay sick days…. Hmm… maybe not.

I can pretty much guarantee that come change of seasons, I’ll get a cold. I’m always looking for a home remedy before I turn to antibiotics. There is one thing I always do as soon as I feel something coming on and that’s taking some olive leaf extract.

While for me it doesn’t stop it in its tracks, it does lessen the length and severity of the cold. I had a look online at some more home remedies and here are some I came across.

Echinacea is said to have antiviral and antibiotic effects as well as boosts the immune system, relieves pain and reduces inflammation. Like Olive leaf extract, Echinacea should be taken at the first signs of a cold or flu. I have tried Echinacea in a liquid form before and I thought the taste was pretty foul, so I didn’t take it again after that. Olive leaf extract does the same thing, but when mixed with water is a bit more palatable.

Gargling a mixture of water and salt is said to help anything from a tickle in the throat to a sore and swollen throat. It helps to disinfect the throat membranes or moisten a dry sore throat. While also not very tasty, it does help.

When going to bed with a stuffed nose or chesty cough, try sleeping with an extra pillow or elevating your head. I do this and found it really helps. Working in childcare, we do this for kids who come in with coughs and colds. It helps to keep sinuses and chests from “filling up”.

An old one but a good one is hot tea with lemon and honey. The warm tea helps to soothe a sore throat and warm you up when you have the chills. Honey and lemon are both great for soothing and disinfecting a sore throat. The mixture is pack full of antioxidants and helps to fight the virus. I love this when I’m sick, I find added extra lemon helps to numb my throat as well.

Garlic and ginger are also great. Garlic help to boost your immune system and ginger helps to tame nausea. These can be added to chicken soup which everyone loves when they’re sick. This to helps when suffering from a cold or flu. The salty broth helps to thin mucus and the chicken contains protein to boost your immunity and produce disease fighting antibodies.

Then there is the tried and tested, steam. I always feel better after a hot shower when I’m sick. Steam helps to shrink mucus membranes and encourages them to drain. When I have the chills, I’ve found a hot shower helps to relieve it.

So what doesn’t work? Antibiotics attack bacteria and colds are viruses, so these don’t help.  The only reason you would take antibiotics for a cold is if it turns into an infection. You can take panadol or ibuprofen can help to provide short term relief for the symptoms of a cold and reduces a fever.

At the end of the day it’s best to try to avoid colds but maintaining a happy and healthy lifestyle. This means regular exercise, healthy eating and maintaining decent hygiene, especially washing your hands!

Stay warm!

I quit! Sort of….

Hi, my name is Danielle and I’m addict. My poison… refined sugar… You probably are as well but just may not know it. More and more research is coming out about the dangers of refined sugar. The damage it does to your body is quite scary. So I set myself a challenge, to quit sugar, being typical me I went in to it with all guns blazing. This didn’t work as sugar is in pretty much everything. I sat down for a few minutes to figure a few things out, I came to the conclusion that before quitting it all together I need to cut down and then phase it out over the following weeks.

The first thing to go was soft drink from the fridge and then the sugar from the cupboards. I threw them both in the bin. It probably took about 2 weeks to completely rid the house of sugar and replace it all. I also banned any artificial sweeteners from the house, anything that contains aspartame. We use stevia for a sweetener which is a natural plant derived sweetener.

Sugar is a real addiction. I can honestly say that I suffered withdrawals from it and it’s not pleasant the first few days because I was irritable, I had a headache and I was tired. I wasn’t the best person to be around. I knew though, that I had to see it through at least 2 weeks.

I did make it 2 weeks and felt amazing at the end of it. My skin looked great, the dark circles under my eyes were gone and I have never felt more positive about life than after those 2 weeks. However, it’s really hard to eliminate sugar 100% from your diet 100% of the time.

I decided to talk it out with Mum on the phone as she was doing the same thing as I. (I must add we were super inspired at this stage after attending a lecture by Dr Gabriel Cousens) In the end it came down to just doing the best I can.

The only bit of sugar I keep in the house is individual sachets of sugar for guests, otherwise Cameron now uses stevia in his tea and coffee and I don’t add anything to mine.  When I wanted to drink soft drink I found I could trick myself into thinking I was by drinking soda water. I think it’s the bubbles, whatever it was, it worked. Whenever I have a craving for something sweet, I eat a teaspoon of raw, organic honey. This is just enough to satisfy my taste buds, and it’s not a refined sugar, in fact honey has fantastic benefits for our bodies. The juice from lemons and limes in water was another way that helped to get rid of sugar.

If I go out to eat, I won’t deny myself but I try to choose the best option and if I have any sugar then I don’t have any for the rest of day.

What I have found is that if I binge on sugar for a few days I definitely notice. All of a sudden I’ll be tired again and lacking in motivation.

Give it a go, you won’t be disappointed. Do a little research and find out the truth about refined sugars. If you decide to cut back or quit sugar, find a way that works for you. Good Luck!