Home Remedies for Health and Beauty

Chapped Lips?

2006-05-22T15:23:00.000-04:00

Suffering from chapped lips and have no access to lip balm?

Here's a handy tip to ease the pain (if you dun mind it, that is)

Rub the corners of your nose to collect some of the oil there on ur fingers as they could act as instant relief for your chapped lips. Afterall, the oil is essentially what the lips need as they can trap moisture in.

DONT think that licking your lips would help. In fact, licking chapped lips would actually make things worse because once the liquid from your saliva evaporates, your lips are going to be in worse conditions.

Always Eat Fruits First!

2006-05-19T13:22:00.000-04:00

Many people have the habit of eating fruits after their meals. That is actually not the best way to absorb all the nutrient that fruits have to offer. Why not, you might ask?

Here's why:

Fruits typically take about 30- 40 min to digest, while carbs and protein take about 2 hrs. Digestion is a huge project on the body as it drains away a lot of energy. (main reason why ppl feel sleepy after a full meal)

In the order of first come first serve, if you were to consume your carbs and proteins before you eat fruit, it will take more than 2 hrs for your carbs and proteins to be digested. By the time your stomach juices can really start to digest your fruit (eaten more than 2 hrs ago) your fruit would have started to ferment in the harsh environment of your stomach and intestines. (now you know why you get a lot of gas and all the burping and flatuating for having fruits after a meal). The fermented fruits would also form a environment for bacteria to flourish! Not a good idea.

So then, what is the best time to eat fruits? Yes, you got it! Before meals :)

Since fruits only take about 30-40 mins to digest (juice takes about 20 mins),take them before your main meal so you can absorb all the goodies (nutrients, minerals and vitamins) that fruits have to offer! Plus, you don't even have to wait too long (just 40 mins at most) before you can eat your main meal. This is what i call optimization of food:) Remember, you are what you eat!

Drop me a comment and let me know what you think :)

Essential Ingredients for Great Home Facials!

2006-05-15T18:36:00.000-04:00

Imagine this...

It's a lazy sunday afternoon. You are alone at home and dead bored. You look into the mirror and you draw back immediately. You didn't want to see how bad your skin condition is in. NOooo!Depressed, you decided to raid your kitchen for some comfort food. All you see is a bottle of honey, an almost empty box of oatmeal, a bottle of full cream milk, half a cucumber and carrot from last night's dinner, a single piece of banana, a bottle of white vinegar and some baking powder.

Your brain goes into a fizzle. Two options lay ahead of you.

1. Make yourself a bowl of banana oatmeal( more of banana, less of oatmeal cos there isn't much to go around)

or~

2. Treat yourself to an impromptu one day home spa experience!

What do u choose?

If you chose option 2, this is what I would recommend you to do.

First, take equal portions of baking soda and warm water and gently rub the mixture on your nose. This baking soda water mix is especially effective in loosening blackheads. Wash off with warm water.

Then, for a good facial scrub, mix oatmeal and honey, in the ratio of 2:1. Create a paste and give your skin a good scrub. Honey has good antiviral properties(for those vicious zits) and oatmeal has a healing effect on rough skin. Wash off with cool water.

Next step- FACIAL!

If you have dry skin, mash half of the banana and add a teaspoon of honey. Don't overmash the banana or it'll be too runny and yucky.

If you have combination skin, mix 2 teaspoons of milk with half a banana that was mashed to create a paste.

If you have oily skin, boil the carrot till soft, mash them and add 2 teaspoon of honey and create a paste.

Then, create the correct atmosphere for your one day home spa experience. Turn on some soft music, and dim the lights (or pull the curtains) and find a comfortable spot to lie down. Armed with whatever facial concoction you have and 2 very thinly sliced cucumber slices. Get ready to relax and wind down. Place the cucumber slices under your eyes to get rid of those irritating eye shadows and apply your facial concoction on ur face, including your neck. (get ready, it could be quite messy) Lay down and relax for 10 mins before washing off the concoction with cool water. Viola! There you go, a perfect and simple way you could enjoy a one day home spa experience with the common stuff you can find in your kitchen!

(A little digression, if you are suffering from a dandruff attack, mix white vinegar with water, with part ratios of 1:3. Apply to dry hair and wrap in towel for 10 min. You can do this as you do your facial. Just remember to wash off with shampoo afterwards and condition!^^ )

Try it and let me know if it worked for you. My banana facial works miracles to my skin!

Fever Blister? NO FEAR~

2006-05-15T00:22:00.000-04:00

Okie, a dear friend asked me recently if I have any home remedy for fever blister and unfortunately, I didn't have one at that time.So being the home remedy guru that I am(yeah, i'm barfing too) , I was determined to dig it out. So here are 5 ways i thought could be easily done with a couple of stuff we could grab from the refrigerator!

But first, what is a fever blister?

Fever blisters are painful fluid-filled small red blisters (bubbles) that appear in the areas of lips, nose, and outer edges of mouth. Usually appears when there is a lack of calcium in your diet or when you have a cold. Also known as cold sores.

And our handy homemade remedies are as follow:

1. Use ice and press against the fever blisters when they are just starting. This should curb the further development of fever blisters.

2. Apply a cornstarch paste for ten min and wash off with warm water.

3. Apply common powdered salt onto the blisters for 30 secs. Do it twice a day till it heals.

4. Rub aloe vera juice or gel onto the blister till it heals.

5. Apply a warm teabag onto the blister for 20-30 min. The tannic acid in tea have antiviral properties and should curb the development of the blister.

Hope these are helpful! Try anyone of them or use them concurrently and do let me know if it works. Send me an email at lifedadventurers@gmail.com or leave me a comment!

Total Body Cleansing: Part 1

2006-05-14T18:27:00.000-04:00

For the past 2 weeks, I have been drinking a glass of warm water with a thin slice of lemon every morning. Sometimes with honey, sometimes without. On an empty stomach.

What's the reason for me doing this?Well, i've been feeling lethargic and having bad skin (enlarged pores and a couple of pimples here and there) and i wanted something natural, rather than something that is manufactured chemically. I looked around,snooped and talked to friends, when someone mentioned to me how the morning lemon water regime has done wonders to his mom. She's almost 50 BUT looks as if she's in her early 30s cos she has done this regime all her life.

So u'd ask,THERE YOU GO! she did it all her life, that's why it worked for her~~ Well, if you ask me, it's never too late to start. It is only when u didn't try, that you have truly lost.

My lemony water review?

EXCELLENT!!

My pimples cleared up, and heal faster when they appear. Skin texture has considerably improved cos of the vitamin C. Vit C is essential for the synthesis of collagen, a key structural protein of the skin. Very important cos collagen's the stuff that keeps our skin taut and youthful looking!Plus the fact that I have remained resistent against the vicious flu bug that is making its way around my office. My boss and a colleague have already fallen prey to it. (FYI, my office, at any one time, usually only have 3 people, including my boss) It's been one and half weeks and i'm still going strong. Not even a dry throat. So, some credit have to be given to the lemon water.
The warm lemon water regime now only has one major test left that it has to pass to gain my complete approval - the menses. When the body of a woman gets ready for menses, the whole hormonal system generally gets messed up and that's when women experience bad breakouts. So i'll be waiting to see how it works. Will keep you posted!

My recommendations:

1. Drink the lemon water on an empty stomach at least half hour before you go about your daily activities. Gotta give yourself some leeway to drop in the loo for toxin removal in the form of bowel activities eh? :)

2. Buy a decent lip balm. (the ones with honey wax inside are my fave) I find that drinking lemon water has a tendency to dry lips. The skin on our lips are actually very vulnerable and it's (1) uncomfortable (2) unsightly to walk around with dry lips. The top model in Taiwan, Lin Chi-Ling claims that her fave cosmetic must-have is the lipbalm cos it keeps her lips soft and very kissable. Not too bad a person to follow her advice, right?

3. A thin slice of lemon would suffice. If you drink the water and had to squint your eyes often, it's TOO MUCH!

Or, alternatively,You can alternate drinking warm lemon water; with warm water with a litte pinch of sea salt. (Sea salt is also effective in drawing out toxins). Ex-Hong Kong Beauty queen and famous actress Maggie Cheung claims that she keeps her skin in tip top condition by drinking warm water with sea salt every morning on an empty stomach.

See the trend? Basically, the holy grail to good skin is to get rid of toxins in the body and the best ways and times to do it, is to drink warm water ( + lemon or + sea salt or anything that detoxifies your system) on an empty stomach in the morning. Pooping is good. It gets rid of the toxin in your body so the body can run more efficiently. So rejoice everytime you poop and tell yourself, "now, tt's less toxin in my body and hello good skin!"By the way, homemade remedies like these are genderproof. Men should try it too!

Do try it and let me know if it works for u^^

May 14 (Updated): I've recieved feedback from a couple of friends on the different ways they use the above concoction. ^^ thanks for the vote of trust! One of them told me he started drinking warm water with a pinch of sea salt during the day. However, I would generally recommend u try the lemon water instead because 1. lemon water is more effective 2. salt water promotes water retention if not drank on an empty stomach. NOT a good thing is you wanna lose weight or detox!

Also, the most effective time to drink this is really in the morning on an empty stomach. If your stomach is weak, do add less lemon juice to the warm water^^

Have fun detoxing!