5 Natural Solutions To Ease Cold Symptoms

This past weekend, I have encountered a cold. By the way it is not enjoyable. Sitting around in boredom, I decided to see if there are natural remedies to make a cold go away faster. I found many solutions and tried them all, but the 5 listed below worked the best.

1. Sleeping with head elevated~ Once I did this, my stopped-up nose disappeared. Putting an extra pillow under your head while you sleep lets you fluids drain from your nose. Doing this, you runny, stopped-up nose will disappear. 
2. Gargle Salt~ I have done this multiple times and hated how it feels in your throat, but it always feels better afterwards. Salt by it self is an all natural anti-bacterial. It cleans out all the bacteria and germs in your throat when you are gargling it. Also, if you ever have been in an ocean this is why wounds heel faster, and why they have a sharp sting when you do this.
3. Rest~ Obviously, rest is a great way to ease the symptoms of a cold. Your body needs time to fight off the cold, so naturally you will need 10-14 hours of rest, to speed up the time that you have a cold. 
4. Steamy Hot Showers~ Steamy hot showers, always help get rid of the congestion. The steam acts as a humidifier, loosening up the liquid in your nose. This can also help your sore throat, and a headache. 
5. Hot Compress Around Congested Area~ Putting a wet hot rag around your nose feels like such a relief when trying to ease your cold symptoms. All you need to do is get a washcloth put under the faucet wait for hot water, then lay in bed and put over your nose. It feels great. This remedy loosens up your congestion. 

Media~ www.realsimple.com

Finishing Finally

Today I finished the phenomenal book named Diary of a Young Girl~Anne Frank. It was an overall amazing book, she depicted it so amazingly with vivid imagery. I also loved how she worded things, even though I did not understand half of them, I think I learned some new vocabulary any way. I strongly recommend this post to anyone who wants to increase there knowledge of the Holocaust. 

I read for 4 hours and 23 minutes this week, along with two hours on my paper. That is a total of 4 hours and 23 minutes

Lee Daniels Butler

Over, this past weekend I viewed the movie named Lee Daniels Butler, that is based on a true story. My Grandmother recommended it to me and said it brought her to tears. So, when my mother and I went to go see the movie we had high expectations. Those expectations were satisfied by the touching story of the butler. It was life-changing and eye awakening to see how poorly African Americans were treated down in the south.

It is about a boy and his life and how he started working in a cotton-field and ended up working as a butler for the white house. It started off with him as a young boy working in the cotton field and one day his mother was sexually abused by the farm owner. The boy knew what was happening to his mother and encouraged the Dad to do something about it.  The dad just said one word to the farm owner, "hey!" he said. Then the employer put a gun up to his head and shot the dad. The son was devastated.

As he grew up he went through a series of adventures that made sure he nor his family would ever see a cotton field again. This film also corporates the bombed bus, the KKK, the sit in, and other significant events that were happening during the civil rights movement. I would recommend this movie to anyone who wants to learn more about there countries history in an entertaining way.

 

Media~
http://docesousalgadas.blogspot.com/2013/09/o-mordomo-lee-daniels-butler-de-lee.html

Ready, Set, DASH!

Today is the day that I run. You can feel the excitement and nervousness in the air. You can also feel the sweltering hot sun on your shoulders.  As a couple hundred people line up on the finish the line, Jill and I stood next to each other and wished each other good luck (even though she didn't need it). A lady walks on the field announcing that this is the first free race that they put boys and girls together, and then wished us good luck. As she walks off the field another man walks onto the field before us. He speaks in to the bull horn saying “If you would like to run 2 miles you take the left and if you want to run 3 miles you take the right." I instantly think in a panic what happened to the one mile? The man continues to speak. "Now on the sound of this gun you will start." Oh great here it is! "Get set, BOOM!"

As I start my seven seconds sprinting, with wind in my hair and just trying not to get caught in front of anybody.  I find no one else in front of me so I slow down. Then I find Jill, we made an alliance to stay next to each other. So, I started to run with Jill, but I figured out that I am not as fast as her, nor do I have a comparable stamina against Jill. Naturally, I fall behind probably 5 people have passed me already and I become discouraged. I see this figure ahead, a long blond ponytail, starting to walk. Then I ponder if she walks, I walk. As we walk next to one another for 30 seconds or so. She says gasping out breath "We can finish together." then rethinks her choice of words "if you want to". I ponder for a brief second and say "Sure, you want to start jogging at this cone up here?" This cone was maybe 2 meters away at the time. Then the girl says "maybe". Obviously she was just trying to be polite I comprehend that she wants to walk a little more. As the orange cone reaches my feet I start to jog again.

1 mile has passed, and it feels like 3. Coach Cole announcing at the 1 mile split that I ran one mile in 7 minutes, and 32 seconds. Impressed with my mile time I continue to jog for probably about another quarter mile. Sadly, the sweltering sun on your back is not to encouraging for you to keep running. So I stop about another 3 people past me, then I start running again. I am having a hard time keeping a steady pace. I start jogging again then I hear these two boys talking and walking, then one boy exclaims "I respect what cross country does so much more!" I laugh to myself inside. He must be doing this race for another sport. I past the two boys, finding myself among two Episcopal cross country girls. We only have one more quarter mile then I can stop!

As I am jogging down the hill that is by the straight away for the finish line, I see coaches and team-mates yelling at one another to run as hard as they can; even though none of the coaches or, team-mates was on my team. I become encouraged and start running a little faster than before. Then I see the finish line! I was so excited, I started running, as fast as I can with my worn out legs. Now I am about 8 yards away from it and team mate’s parents and coaches are on the side saying "Go Josh!" "Finish Strong you can do this!" and another saying "Go! Kaylin!" As I look to the right I see my parents in excitement for me to finish. I pick up my pace up my pace a little more. Then I finish! This woman handed me a cup of water. The water was not cold, but it was still very thoughtful of her. Then another woman ahead is pouring water down the runners back. Enthralled what is about to be poured on me I walk little faster. As the cool water trickles down my back, I begin to cool off, and realizing it is finally over. The water felt amazing! I loved it! I wanted a thousand more people to pour water on me! Then I see this episcopal runner giving out ice cold rags! I was so excited you wouldn’t understand! I was sweating like I never did before! Now I am going to get an ice cold rag! She gives me a rag and I put it around my neck. My body cools off slowly. I put it on my face, because it feels like an oven. I look down at my cross-country uniform and realize i just doused in water, and now soaking wet.  

As I see my parents walking I wave my hand as a sign that I was alright. When we finally meet each other they congratulate me on my time! My time, I forgot about my time, this will be the second time I forgot to check. I cannot believe it I am so mad at myself. Then I hear my dad say

“What did she get Jen?”

“Her time was 20:02 I think!”

I instantly think what a poor job I did, but I did push myself and that’s all that really mattered to me.

Media~http://www.freewebs.com/rhsxcountry/

Reading and Working

I spent my required minutes reading the Diary of a Young Girl ~ Anne Frank. I have still not finished it yet, because the vocabulary still tends to challenge me, though I still enjoy the book and recommend it highly to anyone who would like to learn about those tragic times. I have enjoyed this book so much I have decided I am going to make this my focus on my social studies project. Anyway I have spent 30 minutes working in class time on top of the 95 minutes I read this week. Which is a total of 125 minutes.

Anne Franks House

Media~ http://www.triloquist.net/2010/06/touched-by-anne-frank-house.html

5 Natural Household Ingredients To Get Rid of a Sunburn

Over Labor Day weekend I spent a majority of my time on a boat; in result I have a pretty bad sunburn. I needed natural ways to make my sunburn would go away faster. So I started looking online and found all natural ingredients to help my sunburn. The way you get a sunburn is when the UV rays come in contact with your skin an they over stimulate your melatonin in your skin. 

1. Milk~ The first ingredient I came across was your all natural milk. Milk apparently contains lactic acid which exfoliates dead skin cells. This is a gentle way to exfoliate your skin and its also cold and soothing. This is a marvelous way to increase the rate of how fast your sunburn will disappear. 

2. Oatmeal Bath~  Oatmeal is great soothing way to help relieve your sunburn. Oatmeal does relieve the itch and it also soothes the skin, and the more you put on the oatmeal the more relief you will feel. There are many ways for you to put the oatmeal on your skin. One path is putting it on like a paste, and the other is bathing in it. Here is a link for directions on how to make an oatmeal bath. 

http://www.helium.com/items/1509554-how-to-soothe-a-sunburn-with-oatmeal

3. Coconut Oil~ I believe coconut oil is terrific for everything. You can cook with it, you can make shampoo out of it, and it even helps you gets rid of sunburns. I used this remedy on my legs and the sunburns were gone the next day. It made my skin feel great the moment I slathered it on. Though be very cautious not to get it on anything, because coconut oil stains and it will not come out.

4. Vinegar~ Vinegar is probably the most iconic way to get rid of your sunburn(aside from aloe of course).  You can bathe in vinegar, or  you can apply in small amounts on the areas of your skin that is burnt. Personally, I always get burnt on the face so I recommend it applying it in small amounts and also a vinegar bath my get a little pricy, but it works. I have read on several pages that people applied right after getting out of the shower and their burn was gone the next morning.

5. Yogurt~ Nice cold yogurt helps your sunburn feel relief. Yogurt contains lots of probiotics, which help restore your skins natural barrier. Dr. Fusco, a skin doctor, suggest applying the thick greek yogurt on your sunburn for 5-10 minutes and applying that 3 times a day for the first day, and then the step doesn't need to be repeated.

Media~ http://scdlifestyle.com/2010/08/scd-legal-yogurt-is-the-difference-maker-dont-eat-it-at-your-own-risk/

Sources- http://www.cosmopolitan.com/hairstyles-beauty/skin-care-makeup/how-to-soothe-sunburn-yogurt#slide-3

http://www.motherearthnews.com/natural-health/natural-sunburn-remedy-zmaz09jjzraw.aspx#axzz2dnZPVDKW

http://www.blogher.com/coconut-oil-sunburns-just-time-summer

Bad Habits With Healthy Benefits

1. Drinking too much Coffee- Yes, drinking to much coffee (at least 3 cups a day) can be bad for you, it can stain your yellow and increase your heart rate, but there is some benefits to it. Drinking coffee has been shown to decrease strokes, and various types of cancer such as, prostate, skin, and Oral cancer. But don't fooled to much of anything is dangerous. Drinking to much coffee can increase your chances of cardiovascular disease (heart disease), especially if your body has a hard time digesting it.

2. Fidgeting- If you have trouble staying still and focused, you will be excited. It is a proven fact that you burn up 400 calories a day just by tapping your foot on to the ground. You are also probably going to have a healthier BMI (body mass weight). If your moving your doing something says Dr. James Levine. It is not healthy for people to sit in a chair or desk for 7-8 hours a day doing nothing,  people need to be interacting getting up and being active.

3. Swearing- Yes, swearing is bad and not a thing you should say in public, but it is a way to show emotion and let out stress. I was reading this article about how swearing is healthy, and they said that they did an experiment. They put the hands of two random people on a block of ice and one was encouraged to swear and the other wasn't allowed to. The one who cursed stayed on twice as longer than the one who didn't. Don't go saying that I told you its ok to swear though, but when the conversation calls for it curse, but don't curse like a sailor everyday and all day.

Media- http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_small_cup_of_coffee.JPG

Source- http://www.besthealthmag.ca/get-healthy/health/6-bad-habits-that-actually-have-health-benefits?slide=5