Day 46

So last night was my first night using the neti pot, and I have to say if you suffer from sinus problems and mouth breathing, you should try it! I'm going to make Andrew use it since he's a lifelong allergy sufferer, and see how it may help him. I used it at 2230h last night and had an absolutely clear nose until the middle of my workout this morning at about 1030h.

What the neti pot is, is a little tea kettle looking thing. You add a cup of warm filtered water (not tap) to the pot and mix in a premixed packet of salt and baking soda. Basically it's an isotonic buffered saline solution. So you tilt your head over the sink, then rotate your head so that one ear is facing the ceiling. You stuff the spout of the neti pot into your top nostril, making a seal, and start pouring the water in. You must keep your mouth open and continue to mouth breathe the entire time. In a few seconds, you feel the saline entering your sinuses as if you were accidentally snorting pool water when swimming, except there's no burn. Then the saline starts pouring out of your lower nostril into the sink. You do this for a few seconds to do have the pot, then do everything again but to the other nostril, with it facing up now, etc.

For about an hour, I felt sort of like I'd been swimming--you have a sort of inflamed feeling in the nose because something was in there, but it's not stuffed. That quickly goes away, along with a few suck backs of post nasal drip. It tastes like saline which is very mild salt water, so it's not bad. You may see a few flecks of nasal remnants in the sink, but unless you're grossed out by your own snot, and not even a lot, it's no big deal.

Even after my first try, I'm already convinced that I'll be using this as an ongoing nightly bedtime ritual. Because of the post nasal drip, you are supposed to do it giving yourself at least one hour before bed. The drip is not a big deal either. I think I had to suck back about 6 times in an hour and nothing else.

I tried this because I'm desperate to find an alternative to drug therapy to my sinus headaches that I get when the weather even thinks about changing. I may have a slight allergy to dust or dog dander since my nose always feels a bit stuffed, but who knows. What I do know is I haven't had a clearer nose to breathe out of for as long as I can remember which made sleeping so much easier!

As a side note, tonight Andrew bought me a small bottle of Chloe which is absolutely amazing! I'm not much of a perfume wearer because for one, most scents give me a headache--I'm pretty sensitive, and two, being a student nurse and working in the hospital you mustn't wear strong odors because that's not conducive to a comfortable atmosphere for healing. Have you ever been sick and smelt something and it just made you nauseated? That's the rational. So I pretty much got used to not wearing perfumes, but I absolutely love Chloe. Other than Fahrenheit that Andrew wears, it's one of the only ones that I can smell all day long and still go nuts over. It makes me feel pretty too. :) I think I can now say I have a favourite perfume. It kind of smells like roses in the bottle which is funny because I really don't care for rose smell perfumes that I've smelled in the past, but on me it smells like a clean white soft feminine soap. So nice!

Meals
1 Fibre One chocolate and oats bar
1 banana

3 cups of water

4 slices of pizza (l/o)
2 cups of water

1 1/2 pieces oregano bread dipped in balsamic vinegar and olive oil
2 cups Caesar salad
3 oz veal in cream cheese sauce
5 asparagus spears
4 roasted potatoes
1 cup zucchini, carrots, and broccoli
1 1/2 cups of water

1 cup movie popcorn
1 cup coke
3/4 box of Reece's pieces

Exercise
25 minutes of upper body free weights and machines
60 minutes of hatha yoga

Notes:
-Yikes! We went on a dinner & movie date and although I held off on eating all the popcorn and the entire drink, I still had some Reece's pieces. This whole no sugar thing isn't working. I enjoy food too much. I didn't want to do a complete no sugar thing because I'm trying to balance but I'm finding that I eat a lot of sugar. I think little things like not having the whole coke are helping and I think this is realistic.
-I loved the yoga this morning. I wasn't able to do the full tree pose because my ankle is still very unstable, but I could at least attempt to do a lot of the poses. Things like yoga and pilates don't look like a real workout, but they are and they're so beneficial!