I didn’t get to workout yesterday, even though I should have, because I needed to make a trip to the eye doctor… For the last year, on and off, I’ll have these flare ups in my left eye in which if a contact even THINKS of touching it, it will cease up and close up shop for a few days. Fun. Last Friday, during a meeting with the team, my eye was so pissed off by the sun that it just REFUSED to open, and I had an awesome little battle sesh with it that lasted far too long, and all too distracting; so, yesterday I was able to get in, and that is what I did. I thought I had it all figured out: a good 7 years back, I woke up on my 22nd birthday to a cat standing over me and then *swat*, a nail to the pupil. Not kidding, that was how I started my 22nd birthday. I will not bore you of the details of that day, but a little highlight will be that I spent my 22nd birthday with an eye patch and those big honking granny sunglasses that are often accompanied by track suits and ball caps. To top off this day, I found out that I had “cat scratch fever”…that actually exists? So I thought that it was a reoccurring flare up from that incident all this time. I was wrong. The Doctor went LOOKING for the scratch and did not find it, and all too comfortably handed me a prescription for Claritin D, and a couple other things I don’t know what they are. “Allergies, it’s definitely just allergies!” Allergies? I have not EVER had allergies in all my life, and NOW…NOWWW I get allergies? I would be lying if I didn’t say that since moving to California I have:

- Had a consistently drippy nose

-Lots and lots of headaches, and I prided myself on not getting headaches before this.

-An OBSESSION, seriously obsession, with the little bags that have puffed up underneath my eyes, which showed up almost INSTANTLY after we moved here.

-Multiple eye flare ups…

I had a lot of confused thoughts on my way to the car. I’m doing everything I can…why the allergies? Nick was very comforting in that he explained to me that I just moved across the entire continent, not just the country, the CONTINENT. The vegetation that I have grown up with my entire life is nothing like that of the vegetation here, and there are flowering plants year ROUND here. He also explained things in the terms of a race car (hehe, my baby and his analogies…)…if you took our Honda Element and put it in the racing world, would you agree that it wouldn’t function as well as the cars that are MADE to race? I would, yes. Would you agree, however, that you could do as much to that car as possible to ensure that it does the best in that environment? You could soup it up, make sure it gets regular tune ups and repairs, etc etc, but it still wouldn’t function as well as the RACE cars… (I hope I did that justice Nick :-p). The point is, we are not living in a congruent world. We can eat a diet that is as healthy as possible, we can exercise, we can think pure positive thoughts, and get adjusted on the regular, but sometimes, your car’s engine is still going to run in the red a little bit. :-p.

I am not well versed in analogies :-p

So, when you are eating a clean diet, exercising on the regular, getting adjusted, and thinking positive thoughts, what do you do when ALLERGIES still rear their ugly head?

According to Nick and fitsugar (and many other resources while we’re splitting hairs…), supposedly we should eat HONEY!… say WHAT?

Honey bees (the female worker bees) travel from flower to flower, drinking nectar, and storing it in sacs in their little bee bodies. Then they buzz back to their hive and use their “honey stomachs” to regurgitate and ingest the nectar a number of times until it is partially digested. They then store the nectar in the honeycombs, fanning it with their wings to evaporate the water, and turning it into the thick sweet honey we know and love.

The reason it may help with seasonal allergies, is because honey contains a bit of pollen from the plants. So if you eat the sweet treat that is made by bees in your area, the honey will often act as an immune booster, reducing your allergy symptoms to the local flowering plants. It’s a good idea to take 2-3 spoonfuls each day for several months prior to pollen season.

Fit’s Tips: Eating local honey works for some people, and may not for others. It’s a folk remedy, with no scientific research to back it up, but if you suffer from seasonal allergies, it’s worth a try. If it doesn’t help with your sniffles and sneezing, well at least you’re getting vitamins B6, thiamin, niacin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid and minerals like calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, potassium, and zinc. Honey also contains antioxidants and vitamin C. All that and it tastes good too!

Oh boo, poor me, needs to eat some tasty honey… :-p Looks like I’ll be giving this a shot!

What are some additional things you have done to ease up the seasonal allergies?