It’s been a real roller coaster over the last year …hope…disappointment…pride…frustration…anxiety…relief… Yet, in the end, I’ve come to realize that although I haven’t achieved exactly what I had planned to, exactly the way I had wanted to, in the time frame I thought I would, I am still happy with where I am and excited for what lies ahead.  A friend recently shared a quote that says it best:

‎”We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.”
- Joseph Campbell

Getting rid of the life we’ve planned is surely much easier said than done, especially if you are ambitious and like to be in control (like me).  I definitely feel like I’ve been through all the stages of grief/change: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.  In fact, I can pinpoint going from depression to acceptance just a few weeks ago, and it’s funny how things seemed to start coming together and smoothing out once I reached acceptance.

I feel like this journey toward reaching my professional goals has somewhat mirrored my journey toward healing on the anti-inflammation diet.  There was excitement at the prospect of not having to feel lousy anymore…disbelief at the sacrifices it would involve…bargaining and cheating (which still happens from time to time)…anger and frustration at how much planning needs to go into what I eat…but eventually, I did get to acceptance when I experienced relief from symptoms that had plagued me my entire life, having more energy than I’d ever had before, and realizing how important this way of living is to reduce the risk of several other problems and diseases.

Along this journey, I’ve come across several people who have asked for guidance and pointers either because they are having similar symptoms or know someone who could use the anti-inflammatory benefits for other reasons.  In fact, in the last three weeks alone, three people have approached me about this lifestyle and wanted to know more about how to get started.  Typically, I have directed them to this blog and to my doctor (if they live in Chicago).  However, I’ve realized that what I’m missing here are the basics…the real essentials to get started that I wished someone had given me when I first started.  And so I’ve decided to start a series on this topic, and I plan to cover the following: the basics of this diet/lifestyle including some of my favorite products, breakfast basics, lunch/dinner basics, and snack/dessert basics.  If you are interested in hearing about anything else, let me know and I will definitely include it!

Here’s to new beginnings!

Sadly, it’s somehow been 6 months since my last post.  I’m a little embarrassed to even make my way back to this blog after such an absence…but I do so with a tasty gift!  I managed to convert one of my favorite holiday recipes into a gluten-free version which just took second place in an office bake-off!  These tasty little treats are so good I can’t keep them to myself (though I am tempted to start selling them as a source of income…)

Chewy Ginger Spice Cookies

2 cups Pamela’s Gluten-Free Baking and Pancake Mix, spooned and leveled

(OR replace gluten-free baking mix with 2 cups all-purpose flour + 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda + 1/2 teaspoon salt)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon ground ginger

1 cup sugar + ½ cup sugar for rolling (I used raw turbinado sugar)

3/4 cup unsalted butter(or Earth Balance Buttery Spread), softened

1 large egg

1/4 cup molasses

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt (or gluten-free baking mix) and spices; set aside.

2.  In a shallow bowl, place 1/2 cup sugar; set aside. With an electric mixer, beat softened butter and 1 cup of sugar until combined. Beat in egg and then molasses until combined. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in dry ingredients, just until a dough forms.

3.  Pinch off and roll small amount of dough (about 1 Tbsp) into a balls, rolling in reserved sugar to coat.

4.  Arrange balls on baking sheet lined with parchment, about 3 inches apart. Bake, one sheet at a time, until edges of cookies are just firm, about 10 minutes (if you overbake them, the cookies will be crunchy not chewy).  Cool 1 minute on baking sheets; transfer to racks to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

The result is about 3-4 dozen deliciously spicey and surprisingly chewy little treats that are so beautiful, several people have commented to me over the years that they look store-bought!  I hope you enjoy these yummy cookies for the holidays!

All the craziness and excitement of finishing grad school has been somewhat overshadowed by the stress of trying to find a job.  Yes, in my last post I’d mentioned an interview, but as you can tell, that unfortunately didn’t work out.  That’s been the only bite so far, and I’ve applied for so many jobs it makes me sick.  Obviously the need for a paycheck ASAP is becoming more and more anxiety provoking, but equally bothersome to me is the lack of purpose that I feel.  I started my first job almost 15 years ago, and since then I’ve had either a job, a couple jobs and/or school…and a few weeks ago, suddenly I had nothing.  That Monday after graduation what the longest day of my life.  I’ve been going stir crazy, obviously trying to keep busy with the job search and stuff around the house and studying for my licensing exam…but I feel purposeless.  I like getting up and knowing I’m contributing toward something bigger…enjoying other people’s company…troubleshooting and thinking critically.  I don’t get to be part of something anymore, and I don’t get the intellectual stimulation that I crave.  And boy am I restless.

Since I (regretably) have all this free time on my hands, I’ve been trying to spend some of it outside.  I have to say, Chicago in the summer is really phenomenal, so I suppose I ought to be happy that I get to go enjoy some time at the lake and in the parks.  As I was walking around the other day, I was stopped and asked for directions.  A little while later while running errands, I was stopped again!  While considering that I must get asked for directions more than the average person, a third person approached me and asked…I kid you not!  3 times within 24 hours is my new record, though I usually average about once or twice a week.  While I was thinking about this, I chuckled to myself as I thought, “I must look like a girl who knows where she’s going!”

What’s most amusing to me about this is that I am a transplant, having moved to Chicago about 7 years ago. Apparently, I must look like a native since people seem to think I know where things are…though I usually do.  As I took the bus down Addison, past Wrigley Field, past my old neighborhood, I started to remember my first few weeks in Chicago.  In fact, my first few weeks in Chicago were technically spent in the suburbs.  My very generous aunt and uncle offered to let me stay with them until I got a place to live and had a job lined up.  So for about a month, I would take the train into the city in the morning and spend the day checking out apartments and dropping off resumes before taking the train back out to the ‘burbs in the evening.  I had been here a few times before to visit friends and my (now) husband, but the city was huge…bigger than Minneapolis where I’d gone to college…and much, much bigger than the little cornfield in Iowa where I come from.  Yet, I never found it intimidating.

Someone once asked me, shortly after I’d moved here, how I’d managed to learn so much of the city so quickly.  I told them I spent a month getting lost and finding my way again.  I’d get off one train at the Metra station and walk a few blocks to the El and then figure out which train to take and where to transfer.  I’d look in awe at the huge, shiny buildings that whizzed by and whose tops I couldn’t even see from the train windows…and occasionally I’d miss my stop.  Gripping the list of addresses I had to visit, I’d casually stroll off the train and non-chalantly make my way to the platform for the train going back the way I’d come from, walking confidently and trying to non-verbally convince those around me that I absolutely meant to be here and definitely didn’t mean to get off two stops ago.  And though I had a map with me, I rarely took it out in plain view, having planned the night before where to walk from the train to get to where I needed to go.  Like any good Chicagoan, I quickly oriented myself to the lake to get my bearings, but even so, I’d sometimes get turned around or take a hard right instead of a soft right at a 6 way intersection.   But when I got lost, I didn’t worry or panic…I’d just go back to the last place where I had my bearings and go from there.  I may not have known where I was, but I knew where I had been and I knew where I was going.

And I still know.

I know where I’m headed, but sometimes routes have to change when you come upon something unexpected.  I’m not a big fan of detours…in fact, I really prefer not to stray from my perfectly mapped out plan.  But just because I’m not where I’d like to be doesn’t mean I’m lost.  And I won’t be intimidated by this big unknown, either.

After all, I’m the girl who knows where she’s going.

A family friend from childhood has been battling a brain tumor, and the sister of a fellow intern has also been fighting a brain tumor.  (Both of them around 30 years old.) My dear friend “Simple Girl”, whose blog I often share, has miscarried twice in the past 6 months.  There have been oil spills and flooding…crime and violence…injustice and irresponsibility.  Where does it all end?

Sunday evening I was anxious, worried about finances and cursing the fact that I had to do this unpaid internship.  At 1am, I was desperately combing the internet for jobs to apply for that I might have missed. As I scrolled and searched, I was thinking about my fellow intern…I had received a call earlier in the day that her sister took a turn for the worse over the weekend.  I was frantically looking for work, worried about an income, while her family was dealing with so much more than I could comprehend.

So I gave up.  My thoughts and feelings blurred together.  I can’t quite describe what happened, but it was a mess of pain, hurt, worry, sadness, fear, and confusion.  I tried to make coherent thoughts and phrases, but they didn’t come out.  I decided to just pray with feelings.  At some point all the negative feelings left me, I let go, and I finally fell asleep.

Yesterday after I woke up, I had an email waiting for me, inviting me to a job fair at an organization for which I would love to work.  I hadn’t received any response from the applications I’d submitted, so finally getting some kind of response was exciting!  A few hours later, as I was checking my email at my internship, I had another message…this time a direct request for an interview!  I was in shock, and utterly thrilled….I thought about jumping up and down, but thought better of it.  When my supervisor arrived, I told him the good news.  He had even more good news…my fellow intern had called to say that her sister, who had been unresponsive and on a ventilator, was now alert and talking to her family.  The doctors had no explanation and had never seen such a reversal occur.

As he was telling me this amazing news, it was as though an inaudible voice inside me stirred and said, “I heard you.”  And I knew.  I didn’t have to have all the right words in the right order.  I didn’t have to even have words.  The jumble of emotions and fleeting, unconnected thoughts spinning through my head all made sense to the One who knows how to translate all of it.  Lucky for me, He’s also the One in control.

It remains to be seen how things will pan out in either situation, but I know these wordless prayers will be answered in their own way, in their own time, as He knows best.

I’m not sure why, but we have taken an interest in documentaries since watching Food, Inc.  I saw it a couple months ago but my husband finally got around to watching it earlier this week.  He’s been sick the last few days and so we’ve been laying low, watching movies online via instant Netflix.  In the last 48-72 hours, we’ve also watched Capitalism: A Love Story, Super Size Me, and Walmart: The High Cost of a Low Price.  All interesting, all eye-opening, all appalling.  Now I’m the first to realize and admit that these film makers are trying to tell their side of the story and that every one of them is biased.  However…facts are facts, folks, and I’ve come away from watching all these films utterly disgusted at how large corporations are running, and ruining, this country.

It might seem like this rant is a tangent not related to the title of this post, but I beg you to consider the truth of the subtitle “the high cost of a low price”.  Whether it is the unethical treatment of factory workers and store associates that allows Walmart to offer “Always Low Prices”, or Big Food driving down the cost of junk food made with HFCS and fillers and driving family farmers out of business…this is wrong.  And I won’t support it.

People often ask me why I shop at Whole Foods…or scoff when I tell them I do…or comment on how expensive it is.  In fact, I found out a family friend refers to the store as “Whole Paycheck”.  I could write a short novel on all the reasons and all the circumstances, but I will boil it down to these few points:

-they sell foods that are part of my anti-inflammation diet and are difficult to find

-they sell wholesome, local products and natural, non-toxic personal care and cleansing products

-I support their business model, values, and I know they treat their employees well

-they give back to the community and care about the environment

-there is a store 3 blocks from my house

-believe or not, their prices are reasonable

I know some people are going to read that last one and laugh or simply not believe me.  But the truth of the matter is that with planning and wise choices, shopping for good, wholesome foods is financially feasible.  And it doesn’t have to be at Whole Foods, there are most definitely other places to buy healthy foods…but I wanted to use Whole Foods as an example because there is a misconception that it costs an arm and a leg to shop there.  Since being at this internship, which required leaving my job, we’ve had to be more conscious of our money and have a tight budget.  And we’ve sacrificed some things…a Starbucks habit…eating out for lunch…even cable TV.  These things are not essentials, but healthy, whole foods that are building blocks to good health and decreasing the risk for some diseases, are essential.  Eating well on a budget takes time and energy, but it’s possible and it’s worth it.

Let me give you an idea of my weekly routine.  On the weekend I plan dinners for the week, and sometimes I will stop by the store on Saturday and see what sales are going on so I can plan for meals that include sale ingredients.  When I cook dinner, leftovers usually serve as our lunches.  Sunday afternoon or evening, we go to the store then I come home and make dinner.  I don’t typically cook again until Wednesday nights because I’m at my internship in the evenings Monday and Tuesday, so on Wednesday I cook again and we’ll have leftovers for the next couple days.

I just got back from the grocery store with this week’s food.  What’s on the menu this week?

-chicken and veggie stir fry

-lemon & white wine quinoa (modified from this WF recipe)

-tacos

-mexican taco stew

Notice that these are healthy meals prepared with whole, mostly unprocessed ingredients.  Some of the veggies I got are organic, some are not.  I try to shop based on the Environmental Working Group’s Shopping Guide to Pesticides.  We had a few of these ingredients at home, but I did have to buy most of them.  Lots of fresh veggies, some grass fed ground beef and free range chicken breasts, a few canned items and some brown rice.  The total bill for this week’s groceries?  $41.42.  And I even got myself a bottle of iced tea.

Consider that the next time you think eating well and buying from a socially responsible company is too expensive.

Banana Chocolate Almond Smoothie

1 medium banana
1/2 cup vanilla soy yogurt
1 Tbsp almond butter, preferably room temperature (or more, to taste…I use a heaping Tbsp)
2 tsp unsweetened cocoa or carob powder (or more, to taste)
1/2 cup ice

Blend well and enjoy!  I love it because it tastes similar to the banana-chocolate Vivanno that I used to get at Starbucks…same concept I suppose, only with some almond butter and soy yogurt as the protein

(A side note….if you use a stick blender with an open mixing container like I do, mix the cocoa powder in a little first otherwise it makes a big cloud of dust when you start the blender.  If you use a conventional blender, this shouldn’t be a problem.)

If by some chance this doesn’t sound amazing to you, I’ll share one other piece of heaven that I recently discovered….

I have been drinking Rice Dream’s rice milk since August when I switched to the anti-inflammation diet prescribed by my doctor, and I saw an Oprah show on which Alicia Silverstone talked about several things, including her Kind Diet (basically vegan as far as I can tell), but also mentioned Rice Dream “ice cream sandwiches”.  They are sold individually and I tried a Chocolate Mint one that was…well…pretty great, except the sandwich cookies were definitely not gluten free.  The ice cream inside, however, was amazingly good, so I told myself I needed to find out if they just sold that by itself.  I could not find it at my local Whole Foods which is 3 blocks away.  I did find a strawberry flavor which I tried.  It was ok, but definitely didn’t taste like strawberry ice cream…it actually tasted like strawberry Laffy Taffy.

I was determined not to give up hope, so last week I went to the gigantic Whole Foods that is a short bus ride away, and lo and behold….

This isn’t the same as the ice cream in the sandwiches, but it is just as great!  Cool, creamy, refreshing, and just a hint of chocolate flavor from the carob chips.  What’s even better is the nutrition facts…160 calories, 6 grams of fat, 12 grams of sugar per serving.  (Keep in mind, there are 4 servings in a pint.)  Just as delicious as regular mint chip ice cream, but non-dairy and less fat and calories.  I should, however, mention that this is not gluten-free. The carob chips are sweetened with malt barley, unfortunately…however that is so slight that it’s works for me.  Unfortunately, it will not work for those with true Celiac’s disease.  However, if you are lactose intolerant or want a healthier alternative to regular ice cream, this creamy concoction really is a dream come true!

As I write this, it’s Saturday morning, I’m looking at my laundry list of things to do…which includes laundry…and am trying to prioritize and plan out my day.  I’ve found this difficult to do the last few months because my entire schedule changed.  It’s very difficult to adjust from 7+ years of wake up, eat breakfast, work 9-5, come home, make dinner, relax/do things around the house, go to bed around 11…to a sudden shift of wake up, eat breakfast, try to do things around the house, get ready for work, work 2-10:30pm, eat a small dinner at work, come home, eat a snack, study/job search, go to bed around 1.  It’s amazing how work schedule, sleep schedule, food schedule, not to mention changing your entire diet, can impact one’s ability to think and plan.   I feel so disorganized right now that something’s gotta give.  I think that I might try scheduling out my days hour-by-hour.  We ask this of our patients as they try to build structure in their life as they are recovering from their addictions and to make sure they are incorporating the activities they need to.  Adding structure and planning our necessary activities…seems like a good place to start.

The other problem is that I’ve realized I’m a procrastinator.  I always knew I was a procrastinator in terms of school work.  (In fact, I have a research proposal due in just over a week and I have yet to sit down and pick a topic.)  But I guess I also procrastinate in life…at least with those things that I’d prefer not to do.  For example, on my to do list today: laundry, clean house, make vegetable soup, make granola, make cornbread, as well as other things.  In case you missed my recent post, I hate doing laundry.  And in case that post with all my cleaner recommendations made you think that I love to clean the house, let me clarify…I don’t.  I do, however, enjoy cooking and spending time in the kitchen…and in fact, those activities are what I’d plan to do first today.  The problem is that now the house has been neglected so long that I can’t concentrate on anything else…so now I have to put off doing what I want to for my own sanity.  I suppose that’s part of adulthood. (Wait…didn’t I just say that in my laundry post? Am I really just accepting adulthood at 28?)

I feel like I’m rambling incoherently, but what I’m trying to get at is that I feel out of balance. My body has been in pretty good balance until just recently when some of my symptoms starting coming back. My doctor said that I need to stop cheating as much on this diet, which I’m fine with, but which requires more time and planning. I also recently started physical therapy for my lower back problems, and I’m hopeful that that will help me avoid the back spasms I’ve had, but in the meantime it hurts something awful. As I mentioned, I’m having a hard time prioritizing and concentrating because I feel like there is just so much to do. I can’t concentrate as well, which I guess is probably because I have so many things I’m trying to accomplish and balance. I find myself tired and irritable lately, which is not the person that I want to be, but I’m not sure how to address that. I’m trying to get enough sleep, but that depends on how you define “enough”…if I sleep until I wake up without an alarm, that’s usually 8 1/2 to 9 hours. I can do that on the weekends, but if I do that on week days, I don’t have much time for accomplishing anything in the mornings before work…and it’s often too late for me to do things around the house after I get home around 11:30.

And so, I am feeling a little bit stuck. The good news is that my internship will be over in less than 3 months, though I’m not sure what’s coming after that. But if I have taken away anything from learning about 12-step recovery, it’s the motto “One day at a time.” And sometimes I think I need to take things 1 hour at a time…and that’s ok.

First, she has some delicious cookies.  My favorites are here mini chocolate chip cookies and her shortbread swirls.

But not only does she have pre-made cookies and tasty goodies, she also has baking mixes.  First and foremost I have to mention that her chocolate cake mix is phenomenal.  It’s hands down the best chocolate cake I’ve ever made, and I’d say it’s better than most chocolate cakes I’ve eaten.   I made this for the first time last week and made chocolate cupcakes. (Instead of the 1/2 cup oil I used 1/4 cup oil and 1/4 cup applesauce.)  I frosted them with Cherrybook Kitchen’s gluten-free, dairy-free, peanut-free vanilla icing.  Although I wasn’t fond of the thin consistency of the icing, it tasted great, and combined with the rich chocolate cake, the cupcakes tasted like Oreos!  Mmmm!  (Sorry I don’t have pictures.  Myself, my coworkers, and my grad school cohort gobbled them up right away!)  When I told my coworkers that the cupcakes were wheat-free/gluten-free/dairy-free, they couldn’t believe it.

Lastly, Pamela makes a baking and pancake mix that came highly recommended.  I bought a small package and tried my hand at making banana bread based on a recipe from the Pamela’s Products website.

4 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar or honey
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup banana, mashed
1-3/4 cups Pamela’s Baking & Pancake Mix
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Beat together butter, sugar or honey, eggs and banana. Add remaining ingredients and mix together. Pour into a large greased loaf pan. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 1 hour, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

I would show you a picture of the finished product that I made two days ago, but I will admit…I ate the whole loaf in the last 48 hours.  Perhaps that will tell you how it turned out.  :)  I will say that I would recommend adjusting the cooking time to about 45 minutes though.  This makes a smaller amount of batter than I expected and was glad I used a smaller loaf pan.  It didn’t rise a whole lot and ended up making a pretty small loaf.  I checked the loaf at 50 minutes and was glad I did because the edges were starting to get too dark and the middle was definitely cooked through.  I also threw in some mini chocolate chips because I love banana chocolate chip bread…in case my eating the whole thing didn’t make that clear.

So far I’ve only made banana bread with this mix, but the bag is covered in recipes and there are tons more on her website as well.  She’s also got lots of other baking mixes and products that I have yet to try, but so far, these are my favorites!

One of the new favorite things in our house lately has been chili.  Not only is it a hearty meal in cold winter months, it can also be an easy solution for a week’s worth of lunches!  I’ve been making a batch of chili on Sunday and both my husband and I have had it for lunch through most of the week.  This recipe calls for lots of canned items, like beans.  Someday I will figure out the whole buying in bulk, soaking dried beans method…but that day is not today.  If you would like to substitute non-canned equivalents, I fully support your decision to do so!  However, note that when I buy canned ingredients, I almost always buy organic and I try to get those with no salt added.  This recipe is adapted from a friend’s recipe which called for mostly meat and beans, but we like lots of veggies and variety in our chili, which is why I added veggies and call this garden chili.

(there are some ingredients missing from this picture)

1 lb ground turkey

1 green pepper, diced

1 small onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cayenne

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1 can kidney beans (or your favorite beans)

1 can black beans (or your favorite beans)

1 can chick peas

1 can corn

1 large can (28 oz) diced tomatoes

1 large can (28 0z) tomato sauce

salt to taste

In a large pot, brown turkey.  Add onions, peppers, garlic, and seasonings.  Combine well and cook until onion starts to turn transparent.  Add beans, chick peas, corn, and diced tomatoes.  Add 1 -2 cups of tomato sauce (depends on how soupy you like your chili).  Simmer for about an hour and add more chili powder and salt, to taste.

The seasoning measurements are estimates and this turns out with good flavor and a medium spiciness.  If you want to add some heat, up the cayenne and/or the red pepper flakes.  This makes a large pot, so invite some friends over or enjoy it throughout the week like we do!

I recommend it if you get a body aches-fatigue-headache-fever kind of flu…but you have to take it just as soon as you start feeling sick!  This company also makes ColdCalm, which I have not taken myself but have absolutely seen it work in several people when taken at the first sign of runny nose-sneezing-sore throat symptoms.  These are both homeopathic remedies which are not like most other OTC medicines, but if you can get over the tiny little tubes of tasteless pellets that you dissolve in your mouth (Oscillo) or the “every 15 minutes for 2 hours” dosing (ColdCalm) I bet you will be surprised and pleased with the results.  My other standby which I’ve used for several years now is Airborne.  If I can catch a bug right away, at the first little tickle in the throat, and take this a few times a day, it has knocked out the bug before it had a chance to turn into something nasty.  As is implied by the name, I also take it before and after flying, as there are so many germs and such in the recirculated air.  However, my doctor has now recommended a straight up vitamin cocktail for these situations.

Daily dosing for prevention:  Vit. D 5000mg; Vit. C 3000mg.

Dosage when starting to feel ill or with travel: Vit. D 10,000mg; Vit. C 5000mg; Vit. A 100,000 iu  (for 3 days after starting to feel sick or for 3 days prior to travel)

Another remedy I will share with you is Natural D-Hist for allergies.  My doc recommended this to me when I complained of a constant runny nose and she figured out it was allergies and not a cold.  This stuff is amazing.  The loading dose is a lot of pills initially for 7-10 days but 1 pill a day for maintenance is manageable.  If you are skeptical (I was too) just read the reviews on Amazon from the link above.

One final recommendation, but this one is not a pill or a tablet.  It’s an ingenius, albeit initially intimidating or revolting, invention called the neti pot. In case you are unfamiliar, neti pots are used to irrigate the sinuses passages and help with sinus congestion from allergies, colds, sinus infections, etc.  I’m not going to lie…when I first heard about them and had someone recommend that I use one, I cringed and probably exclaimed that I could never do it because I’d drown myself.  However, after seeing my doctor and figuring out that my acute onset of digestive symptoms was kicked off after taking 2 rounds of antibiotics for a very resistant sinus infection, I have decided to do whatever I can to avoid taking antibiotics.  I also happen to get lots of sinus infections, probably 2 every year for the last 8 years or so.  So, when I started to feel stuffy and felt my ears starting to get plugged up, I decided to be brave and give the neti pot a shot.  I shopped around at Walgreens, CVS, but finally went to my trusty Whole Foods store and found this little guy on sale.

I am very happy I went with this one mainly because the others I had found were ceramic…and I can about guarantee one of those would be shattered into pieces by now.  This one is made of a lightweight, biodegradable plastic, and I think the design is pretty user-friendly…some of the other styles look more like watering cans or tea kettles.  I was really nervous the first time I used it because I was actually pretty sure I’d drown somehow.  When I was a kid, I actually came close to drowning so water in my face, up my nose, etc. makes me pretty nervous.  And I won’t sugarcoat it…at first it does kind of feel like drowning, or at least very odd.  I’m sure most people are not used to the feeling of water filling up their sinus passages.  Although it felt weird, I managed to stay calm and breathe out my mouth and I did not drown!  I did, however, make the rookie mistake of tilting my head too far and the water came out my tear duct!  (Not pleasant, but not the worst thing I’ve experienced.)  So why go through this bizarre process and subject myself to this?  Because it works.  I have not had a sinus infection for the last 6 months and managed to avoid one during the height of cold and flu season.  Plus, and I need to stress this, it gets better and more comfortable after a couple times.  For beginners, I have a few pointers:

1)  Watch this video from the makers of this neti pot model for tips on proper form.  :)

2)  I use filtered water instead of tap and heat it and the salt up in the microwave in a glass container and then pour it into the pot.

3) DO NOT use hot or cold water!  Make sure the water is slightly warm to prevent discomfort.  Similarly, do not use too much salt to prevent burning!

4) Be careful not to tip you forehead too far forward, as this can lead to the tear duct flooding that I experienced.

I hope these remedies are as helpful for others as they have been for me…but I hope even more that you don’t need to use them any time soon!  And as a reminder…like it says at the very bottom of this site…I’m not a doctor, so you should consider consulting with a medical professional before using any of these.  All these remedies are available over-the-counter, but you should definitely consult your pharmacist to ensure there will be no interactions with any medications you may be taking.