Tulis blog dalam Bahasa Malaysia

Sudah lama dah saya teringin nak blog dalam Bahasa Malaysia. Why not kan? After all saya kan orang Malaysia bukan orang luar. Disebabkan bertahun asyik blog in English, sampai orang ingat saya orang luar. Banyak kali dah orang salah sangka! Believe it or not! Haha! Sudah dikhabarkan yang saya ni orang Malaysia tapi masih ada yang fikir saya orang luar. I give up! LOL!

So! Harap-harap lepas ni kalau ada yang melawat blog saya ni, akan sedar yang saya ni orang Malaysia. Kedah born ok! A Malaysian dan sampai bila-bila pun Malaysian! Tak boleh bayangkan jadi rakyat negara lain sebab saya sayangkan Malaysia no matter what people say about negara tercinta ku ini! Ada jer kawan-kawan yang sanggup jer tukar kerakyatan demi gaji lebih dan kehidupan yang disangkanya jauh lebih mewah dan baik berbanding kalau dia tinggal di Malaysia. Oh well....apa nak buat kan? Tapi kalau ramai yang tukar kerakyatan, rugilah orang Malaysia. Ramai graduan berbakat pergi ke luar, tak dapat berbakti untuk rakyat sendiri. Rakyat negara lain yang untung.

Ramai juga yang tertanya-tanya, kenapa selama ni saya blog in English?? Ada yang ingat I do it because I can't write in Malay. Oh God! Please laaaa....takkan laaa tak reti...tolonglahhh! :P Of course ada sebabnya saya blog in English. One of the reasons is because saya nak improve English saya. Kalau selalu menulis dalam bahasa tu, maka semakin lama semakin mahir kita berbahasa Inggeris. Itulah yang saya harapkan. Semakin lancar, semakin banyak vocabulary, semakin confident menggunakannya setiap hari.

Sebenarnya, bahasa ni...kalau kita tak selalu menggunakannya, semakin kita lupakannya. Itu yang saya takutkan. Takut sangat kalau saya lupa. Dah la pandai dua bahasa jer....kalau lupa satu, tinggal satu saja lagi. Rugi!! Penat-penat belajar sejak tadika sampai form 5, pastu sambung pula sampai ke universiti pastu lupa habis....oh no no no....no way! Tak boleh ok! Kena selalu praktis...walaupun orang kutuk Bahasa Inggeris saya tak bagus, ada saya kisah? Saya teruskan saja. Cuba untuk improve setiap hari. 

Satu lagi sebab ialah kerana followers saya ramai dari negara luar jadi susah mereka nak faham apa yang saya tulis kalau saya tulis dalam bahasa Malaysia. Memang boleh jer translate tapi menyusahkan mereka la. Bayangkanlah, dekat Facebook pun mereka ni complain kalau status update saya ditulis dalam bahasa Malaysia, inikan pula kalau blog panjang-panjang, lagilah mereka ni complain. So, nak senang cerita dan untuk mengelakkan masalah, maka saya tulislah dalam bahasa Inggeris. Dan saya tak tak menyesal pun buat macam tu kerana ianya memudahkan followers saya membaca content saya di blog. If they are happy, I'm happy too! At  the end of the day, kita haruslah kenal readers kita ni macam mana....and give them what they want. Betul tak? :D

I love green tea!

I've started to drink green tea again lately because I wanted to decrease the amount of my daily coffee intake. So far I am loving the taste and how it makes me feel afterwards. There's something about the after effects of green tea that helps me control my urges of taking sweet drinks.

It's so different compared to drinking coffee. If I were to drink a cup of coffee, I would surely want to drink it again later in the day. But with green tea, once is enough to keep me feeling content and no longer crave for sweet drinks afterwards. So if I felt thirsty, I would just drink plain water. Strange.

Strange as it may be to me, I kinda like it. Because this means I get to control my sugar intake as well. 

It's been said that green tea aids in losing weight. Hope that's true because I really need to lose some weight that's been lingering too long at my waist. Some say it helps in digestion too. It relieves nausea, constipation and diarrhea. That's great news!

Update on my celery juice journey

Over the years I think I have gone in and out of a good healthy diet hundreds of times. Everyday telling myself that I should eat healthy but I end up eating something that might potentially kill me in the end  anyways. I just don't know what else to do that will motivate me everyday to eat well. I just don't have that self control. Not then....not now. Still working on that.

I think the longest I've been SO FREAKING  disciplined about something was when I was doing that celery juice detox. I was at it for about 8-9 months straight. I was so positively sure I was able to do it for 3 years...LOL! So much for the positive thought. I don't know what happened. I woke up one day and I find myself not being able to do it anymore. I just lost it. I didn't get the thrill looking at celery. WEIRD! I see people doing it everyday on Instagram and getting great results and yet I still couldn't bring myself to continue. I went to the market to buy celery but I end up cooking it instead. Gosh....what on earth happened to me. I wonder if other's are experiencing the same thing.

Part of it I think is also because of the effect of the detox from celery juice that demotivated me. The eczema flared up like crazy at times. I just felt awful. It was a strange experience because some part of me had  a positive effect and some other part just went to crazy and was in pain all the time. It was driving me crazy as well.

I know I should take care of my health, but the fact is that, it's just a lot of work. I just don't have the time, nor the energy for it. I guess that's one of the reasons why I stopped juicing the celery. It was so exhausting for me to manage it everyday. Making smoothies was a lot easier. So at least I was still making smoothies. 

Talk about smoothies. I kept it simple nowadays. Since cucumber is also an alternative they say to detox, similar to celery, so I made sure that cucumber is always available at home. Same goes with apples. I found out that I can't eat anymore fruits that are sour. Seems that it will make the eczema worse than before. So I had to stop taking a variety of fruits because of that. Making smoothies will be simpler and cheaper for sure, LOL! I used to make smoothies with blueberries and pitaya....now I don't consume them anymore. No matter how delicious they are, no more will they be available at home. The price is pretty high as well. It's crazy! How on earth are we supposed to be eating all the super detox food when the price is too high. Go figure.

Thinking back on what I've done over the past few months, I realised what I was doing wrong. I thought I could get away with it but that was the reason for the failure. Although I drank celery juice  everyday back then, I wasn't 100% following the rules. For instance in my case, there are a lot of food or drinks that I should avoid taking. But since I have no self control, I took them anyways thinking that it won't be so bad since I'm taking celery juice everyday. 

SO! What I'm trying to do now is to focus on avoiding the things that are making me sick first before focusing too much on taking  the celery juice. I don't want to stress myself out anymore. 

What's new with this year's Ramadhan?

Alhamdulillah, I feel so blessed to be granted the opportunity to fast again this year. I wanted to write about my experience fasting so that I can document what I did this year that makes fasting for me this time around different from the past. How was it different from last year's Ramadhan? Well, for starters, this time around, I'm included celery juice and fruit smoothie as part of my daily menu. I have been drinking celery juice since last December of 2018 till now. There are some days that I would go without it but only because I couldn't get new stock from the market. During that time I would replace celery juice with cucumber juice or cucumber smoothie because cucumber has similar effects on the body that we get from celery juice. It does have good source of minerals in it, very hydrating which is good for the body when fasting and it is cooling too.

What I noticed so far when fasting these past few days is that I don't feel sick like I used to years ago during the first week of fasting. I'm sure many of us face the same experience. The feeling is so remarkably wonderful now. I don't get headaches or feel very feverish either. I can actually "function", feel calm and have more patience. So this is really great for me. Even my Mom says she feels different this time around. She doesn't take the fruit smoothie though because she does not like the cold smoothie that I make...she does not like to take cold drinks. Plus, she is not that fond of taking fruits that are blended together. She prefers fruit juices or take them whole instead. 

I would have the fruit smoothie for iftar (breaking of fast) with some dates and plain water. It's enough to keep me full till after Isya'. After Isya' I would eat something more filling. Usually I would break the fast with a glass of plain warm water first, then have some dates and continue with the fruit smoothie. By then my fruit smoothie won't be too cold for me to drink. The reason why it is cold is because some of the fruits are frozen. Sometimes in order to keep the fruits from rotting fast, it's best to keep them in the freezer. So I clean them and then cut them up into small pieces and freeze them. That way, they last longer. I do get headaches if I drink cold drinks too fast or when my body is feeling hot. I do feel hot when fasting because I am not drinking any water during fasting. So to take a VERY cold drink upon breaking the fast is actually not a good idea. Warm drinks and food are best. It won't shock the body like cold drinks and food would. That's why I took plain warm water with the dates first before taking the cold fruit smoothie.

If you want to see more of the fruit smoothies that I take daily and how I make them, you can check it out at my IG link --> HERE. I really enjoy taking them for iftar because it is sunnah to break the fast with dates or fruits. And I don't like to mix fruits with other food at any one time. After taking the fruit smoothie, it is best to wait for 30 minutes before taking any other meal. I feel that Iftar is the best time to eat fruits. At other times, I just don't see myself taking fruits because we can only eat or drink twice a day in Ramadhan, and for sahur, I can only see myself taking heavy meals like rice, veggies or meat. I also take celery juice half and hour before I take my meal during sahur, because it is good to take celery juice on empty stomach in the morning and not at night. I had to wake up very early in the morning around 3.30 am just to juice the celery. It was not easy to be discipline but for health sake, I did it. It was possible. I made sure I washed the celery the day before, cut them up into small pieces, all ready to be juiced in the morning.  

Yes, it is so important to prepare and plan the meals in Ramadhan because I don't want to get sick. If I do get sick, I might miss my opportunity to fast and that would be so sad. I don't want to miss fasting unnecessarily.  I did have a bad experience last year and I don't want it to happen again this time around so I'm very careful now with what I eat in Ramadhan.

Now that Ramadhan is over, I'm so happy that I came out of it feeling good. I'm so glad I made the decision to change my diet last year. Although I did cheat eating food and sugary drinks that I'm not supposed to take sometimes, at least I never stopped taking the celery juice and the fruit smoothie. Those two things helped me reduce a lot of my cravings, and even if I did cheat, I didn't take a lot of it like before. So there is a huge difference.

I remembered over the years, I have been on and off with eating healthy. I could never stay on a healthy diet for a long period of time. Usually it would last for 2 or 3 months...then I would cheat for a few more months, and I would be back on that diet again for another few months. It's like a vicious cycle. It was really hard to maintain the diet. The difference this time is the celery juice. I definitely feel that the celery juice helped me maintain the healthy diet. Even when I was taking the jamu, I couldn't stay on the healthy diet for long.

I really hope to continue with the celery juice and fruit smoothie for as long as I possibly can. All I hope for is a healthy body and mind. When I have health, I have everything and I can do anything. In shaa Allah. I'm praying for the best! :)

SUU BALM Product Review

Product review! Yes! A product worth reviewing. I just couldn't wait to tell the world about this product I've just discovered. It's probably been around for quite some time already but I never knew about it till just recently. In the beginning I was a bit skeptical to try it out but since it was introduced by someone on Instagram  (Rocyie Wong) whom I kinda trust because she has a similar problem like I do, I thought why not, just give it a shot, who knows the products might suit me.

It just so happen that SUU BALM is giving free samples for the public to try out, so without giving it a lot of thought I immediately went to their website to fill up the forms. You can click on the link HERE to request for free samples. About two weeks after that I received the free samples. The first thing I tried was the body moisturizer, I was really really surprised with the body moisturizer because I didn't have to use a lot of it, just a little goes a long way. It's very cooling because it has menthol in it and it's not oily at all. Best of all it has ceramide!! Ceramide is well known to play an essential role in structuring and maintaining the water permeability barrier function of the skin.

After just a few minutes applying it on my eczema and on other areas of my skin where it's itchy and dry, there's this very cooling sensation and it feels so good! No more feeling itchy for a long period of time. Amazing!! I can now sleep soundly at night without having to scratch my feet like crazy. No more swollen feet too!

No other product gives the same effect on my skin. Believe me, I've been searching like crazy and spent so much money for that lotion or cream that would suit my skin problem for years but I could never find one that would actually do anything for my skin. In fact, some actually make my skin worse than it already is. Come to a point, I got so scared of applying anything on my skin.

The body wash is amazing too!! Love it just the same. The only thing that bothers me is the price. I wish it was more affordable. But I believe that it's worth every cent. You don't need to use a lot of it to see the effects. What's important is that it works! I hope more people are aware of it and give it a try. I did and I love it. Thank you SUU BALM!!! ♡♡

30 Days Celery Juice Challenge

A celery juice challenge! Wow, never in a million years would I ever even dream of drinking pure celery juice non stop for 30 days. I did this because I wanted to detox my liver. A lot of health issues are related to the liver. So if the liver is not in good shape, our health will be affected too. I first learned about celery juice from Tara Tom's Instagram post about a year ago. I was really impressed with how she managed to heal herself from eczema. Her eczema was worse than mine. But she successfully healed herself with celery juice and by following the protocols from the Medical Medium.

A few years back when I first got myself a cold press juicer/slow juicer, I did try juicing celery but at that time I've never heard of mono juicing or about the wonderful benefits of juicing celery solo. So back then, I would juice celery with green apples and other fruits to make it taste good. I was a juicing beginner at the time, so it was important for me to make juices that taste good.  Otherwise, I may not be able to do juicing everyday. Plus my Mom wanted every juice that I made to taste good otherwise she won't drink any at all. She couldn't except it if the juice was not sweet.

I remember how time consuming and also tiring it was to juice the celery with fruits. All the cleaning and washing the fruits and vegetables for two people was so exhausting. Not to mention cleaning the juicer after that! And that was one of the reasons why I quit juicing after a few months back then. The other reason was because it was expensive to juice fruits. By right it shouldn’t be a problem to juice because, I was supposed to be juicing more of the vegetables instead of the fruits. The purpose of adding the fruits was just to make the vegetable juice taste better. Unfortunately for me, since my Mom wanted to drink it too, she insists on juicing more of the fruits instead of the vegetables. So to cut the story short, I ended up making a lot of fruit juices instead of healthy vegetable juices that can help us heal from our ailments. Finally I got fed up and stopped. Because we were not getting healthier by juicing that way. So I just had to put an end to it. It's not easy to convince my Mom to eat healthy back then. It still is not till now. It's always a challenge  

Having said that, I'm so glad now my Mom is willing to make small steps in eating healthy. We are getting there. I was surprised when she was willing to drink the pure celery juice. I didn't see that coming. Thinking back on how she reacted years ago to the taste of celery, I never thought that she would be able to drink a whole mug of it. Especially in the morning because, in this challenge, we have to drink 500ml of celery juice early in the morning on empty stomach. The both of us are the type who always have hot cup of coffee early in the morning. Now all that has changed! It's all in the past now. It's amazing! I couldn't believe that we both could do it, but we did it!

I started this 30 days celery juice challenge first. My Mom started it after I was doing it for 10 days. I guess she was convinced about celery juice after she saw the amazing results I have been getting by drinking the celery juice. I also let her try it first, have a sample of it to see if she could tolerate the taste. After she said she could, she started taking it with me the next day. I'm so happy I have a celery juice partner now, hahaha! It's much more fun doing it with someone, rather than being on this health journey alone. Furthermore, I want her to get the same benefits that I've been getting too. 

I've finished the challenge on the 10th of January 2019 and I wanted to share with everyone what are the benefits I got after taking celery juice for 30 days. :

1. No more migraines or splitting headache.

That was the most obvious. This is because before I started taking celery juice, I have been getting a lot of headaches the past few months and the headaches got really bad in December 2018, so much so that I was taking Panadol almost every other day to stop the pain. Now that was unacceptable! I've never had to do such a thing all my life and when suddenly I was doing it often, I knew something was wrong somewhere. The headaches disappeared after 1 or 2 days of drinking celery juice! Amazing!

2. No more bloated tummy.

OK! I have to say that I have had this problem for as long as I can remember. I thought that if I stopped taking wheat based food, the bloating would go away but it didn't! It usually works but this time it didn't. Imagine, I stopped taking it for more than 2 months and I was still bloated! I knew there and then that my liver was in a bad shape because it was never that bad before. Usually if I went gluten free, the problem would solve by itself. But when it didn't, I was really worried. So exactly after 2 weeks of drinking celery juice, I saw some changes on my tummy. My waist has reduced a lot in size. I didn't look like I was 4 months pregnant anymore. I have to say I was really impressed! Although it's not totally flat yet, at least I'm getting there! LOL!

3. No more insomnia.

No more insomnia!!! Yay!!! This is just amazing. I've had problems sleeping for a year I think. Been a long time! And to be able to sleep without tossing and turning in my bed, is God sent. I'm so thankful to Anthony Williams of Medical Medium for this. Who knew that celery juice could help me solve the problem. 

3. No more digestive issues.
Did you know that celery juice restores hydrochloric acid levels in the stomach for better long-term digestion. So ever since I've been taking celery juice, I have no digestive issues anymore. No problem passing stools at all. No constipation. But that doesn't mean that I don't take a lot of fiber in my diet. I do every day. I love eating fresh fruits and raw vegetables! ;)

4. No more sweet cravings.
Seriously I am loving this one the most! I honestly do not have the never ending urge to eat ice cream or chocolates anymore. Nor do I eat any sweet pastries like before. I can also ignore sweet sugar laden drinks. Amazing isn't it??

5. More energy
I do notice the energy levels going up when I drink celery juice on empty stomach each morning. BUT, if I take it in the evening or before lunch time, the result is not the same. So I guess there is a reason for Anthony Williams to encourage us to take it in the morning. Taking it in the morning is definitely the best time for better results.

6. More alert/ Think clearer
This is so true. I am more alert now, although I still have some memory problem. Some say it has to do with a person's blood type :/.

7. No more huge acnes on my scalp
I remember how horrible I felt each day because of those huge acnes on my scalp. They were big and painful. I would pick on them every day because it was bothering me so much. Combing the hair with huge acnes on my head was hell. All that is in the past now after I started taking celery juice every day. All gone! Amazing!

Before I started taking celery juice, I had already stopped taking wheat based food since October 2018. I did that because my eczema was extremely bad. I couldn't tolerate it anymore. Both my feet were swollen and the eczema had spread to the bottom of my feet. I had problems walking. Walking in pain most of the time. Although I knew that wheat was bad for me, I still sometimes cheat and that would get me into trouble. I was also still taking chicken at the time I did this 30 days celery juice challenge but in March I completely stopped. I realised that I also have to follow the Eat Right for your Blood Type diet in order to completely heal myself from all my illnesses. I noticed that if I do follow the protocol, my eczema heals faster. So whether I liked it or not, I have to follow.

Since early March, I am not taking any wheat based foods for good, no more cheating. I also don't cook with oil anymore. Fruits and raw vegetables are mainly what I eat each day. 80 % raw, 20 % cooked meals. I'm like 90% vegetarian now. Not 100% because sometimes I would take fish.

So it's been about 3 months now taking celery juice. There were times in January when I had to stop taking the juice for about a week. At first I thought it was because of the celery that I had flare ups of  the eczema. It was getting worse and worse. So I stopped taking the juice for a week. But now I realised it was not the celery's fault. It was because I cheated with my diet and didn't follow the blood type protocol. Then came the issue of getting fresh celery everyday. I really had a hard time getting fresh celery everyday from the supermarket. They were from China and not that fresh. But now all that problem has been solved since I found a place where they sell fresh celery from Australia. They are a little bit expensive but worth every cent.

There are a lot of people who tried taking celery juice and stopped taking it after 30 days. Mostly because of eczema flare ups. It's a pity that it happened to them. It happened to me too but luckily for me I knew how to stop it. I knew that just taking the juice but not changing my diet will not help me heal. It's more than that. I have to do more. Another thing that one has to remember is that, healing naturally takes time. It's very slow. But the results are amazing and for that, I'm willing to do it.

At the moment I'm only taking 500ml of celery juice every day. Sometimes I take just a little more than that if there's extra celery available. If you want to know more about how to detox your liver with celery juice, you can go directly to the Medical Medium website to find out more.

Stormy

It's always a sad thing to see my blog neglected like this. Things happen and I can't help it that I don't have the time to blog as often as I want to. God knows how many times I want to write but things get in the way. I just had to blog about Stormy. Just 2 days left before 2018 draws it's curtain and I need to write this before it's too late. I might add some more facts later on when I have the time, but for now, I'll write about how Stormy came into my life.

For those who follow me on my Instagram, they would already know about Stormy. Every other day I would do an update about her. She came into my life last October. To be exact, I found her on the 18th of October 2018 in my own garden. She was screaming away like crazy. Sounding so desperate for help. I knew something was not right. I heard that scream the night before around 9.00pm. At that time I thought the sound came from the roof of our house. Never did I imagine that the little kitten was actually in my garden that night! There was a storm that night. Very heavy rain. The screaming became louder and louder. I couldn't help but wonder why the kitten was screaming so helplessly. If there was a mother....why didn't the mother comfort her. The sound was so disturbing. When it was time for me to sleep, I could still hear the screaming on and off. I suppose, she must have been tired of screaming and took a rest at times.

I couldn't sleep very well that night. I kept thinking of Manja. The stray cat that died in 2016 at our house. She died trying to give birth. It was a nightmare for me to see her die that way. I'm still traumatized about it till today. Whenever I see a cat, I'll be reminded of Manja. So when I heard that little kitten screaming, I kept thinking of Manja's babies that died with her. I cried myself to sleep that night.

The next day, the maid to our house. So we were busy that day. There was rain throughout the day. Off and on, I would hear the screaming. It was just so weird to hear a kitten STILL screaming since the night before. In my mind...I kept thinking, what on earth is the mother cat doing??? Where the hell are they anyway? Are they at my house of someone else's house?? WHERE!!! The screaming is killing me!

Finally....late in the afternoon, around 6.00pm....I went outside the house to see Bulat, my Kaloi. I wanted to feed her. At that time, I heard the screaming again....but it was not as loud as I heard before. Every time the kitten screamed, I tried to locate it. I followed my instincts....it lead me to the back of the house. I couldn't see anything. I almost gave up and was about to go back into the house when I heard the scream again and saw something small moving on the ground near the wall at the back of our house. Under the metal scraps and old wood, I saw this little new born kitten, with it's umbilical cord still on her. Luckily she moved. If she hadn't done that, I wouldn't have noticed her from far.

Immediately I ran inside the house to get some cloth to wrap the kitten with. The kitten was soaking wet!! My heart broke into pieces seeing her like that. I didn't stop to think if I did the right thing taking her in. If the her mother wanted to get her, she would have done so earlier. I mean, she had the whole entire day to do that, but she didn't get her little kitty. Until today I wondered why was Stormy left there all alone. How many siblings does she have? Who are her real mother and father?? 

To cut the story short, I had a hard time taking care of her. Because at that time, I was not well. At the time, I had a very serious eczema issue on my feet. It was just so bad, so much so that I had a hard time walking. I hadn't been taking good care of myself for almost a year. Not only did I not avoid foods that harm my body, I also ate a lot of it....A LOT!!! And because of that, my body just couldn't take it anymore. I had to detoxify my body immediately! It wasn't easy because once I start eating those foods that harm me, I just couldn't stop! October was just the hardest time I had in 2018. 

Ok, back to Stormy. Obviously I named her Stormy because I figured she was born during the storm. I assumed she was born on the 17th because I heard her scream the night before. Just so you know, I have no experience at all at taking care of new born kittens. I had to Google to educate myself about how to take care of her. I learned a lot from a YouTuber called the (KittenLady). Her videos are great! So easy to understand. Because of her videos, I was able to be a mother to Stormy. I may not be a great Mom, but I sure hell tried my best! LOL!

Stormy is almost 3 months old now. Although she is a handful, she is family now. :)

Soursop leaf

Soursop! I love Soursop! Who doesn't right?? The fruit is delicious! So they say. Honestly to date, I've only experienced eating the frozen flesh of the fruit which I bought a few years ago from a shop somewhere in Alor Setar, Soursop fruit in powdered form which was said to be good for curing cancer and also Soursop fruit in the form of juice which can be found in many supermarkets nowadays. All of them are Soursop fruit that have been through some form of process. So I've never had the chance to try the fresh ones before in my life! Haha! Kesian!

All these years, I've been dying to eat the fresh Soursop fruit from our very own tree, because I was informed of it's great health benefits. Besides, growing them would be much cheaper than buying the fruit itself. They are SO EXPENSIVE to buy! I only thought that the only great thing about the tree is the fruit. Because that's what everybody is talking about. The fruit! Little did I know that not only the fruit is great for our health but so are the leaves and bark of the tree! Wow! Who knew!! It was not easy to grow the tree itself as many of the trees that we planted have died. We have bought so many Soursop trees over the years and some were given by our own good neighbours. Now, we have some that are struggling to survive. It's a real challenge to grow them I tell ya! Haha! I heard that they don't like strong wind so much. :D

Today I would like to share here what I found out about the Soursop leaves so far. And also what I've personally experienced from using it the past one week.

I was surprised to know that a lot of studies have shown that the Soursop leaves are even better than the fruit itself. They say that it is the most beneficial part of the tree. The people in the Caribbean have been drinking the Soursop leaf tea for ages! It's like a traditional thing for them to consume it. Whenever they feel a little bit under the weather they would drink this tea to help them feel better. No wonder they are so strong! I read a lot of articles and saw a lot of videos of people from the Caribbean saying that the tea is so good for the nerves. So people who worked long hours or who does a lot of physical activity would take this tea after work so that they can sleep well at night and feel better the next morning.

So, since my Soursop trees are still pretty small and not bearing any fruit for us to eat, I could at least use the leaves for making tea. I've heard about how good it is for curing and preventing cancer but I never knew that is was also for other health issues such as Gout, Back pain, Eczema, Rheumatism, Diabetes, it can boost the Immune System, inhibit the growth of bacteria, virus, parasites and tumors, treats inflammation and swollen feet, reducing fever and high blood pressure, aids in digestion and improving appetite, improves stamina, good for treatment of boils and lice on your hair.   For me, I'm taking it for my skin and for something else that I rather not mention here, hahahaha :D.

I did a lot of research about the tea before consuming it. I wouldn't want to poison myself with it so it was really important to find out more about it. When I found out about how to make the tea and saw how so many people all over the world are taking it on a daily basis, I realize that it was actually very safe to consume after all. You can use the fresh leaves or air dry them first before making tea with it. It doesn't matter. What I also did find was that whatever tea we drink or whatever food we eat, do not OVERDOSE. That's why I only take one cup or one small mug of the tea everyday. It's better to do it that way rather than get too excited about the health benefits and overdose ourselves and thinking that the more we consume it, the better health we will have. It is so not the case.....so, less is more guys. Believe me, it's better to be safe than sorry.

How I make the tea is actually very similar to how I make the Lemongrass Pandan tea. All there is to do is boil water based on how many cups or mugs of tea that I plan to make/drink. Since I usually make one for me and my Mother, so it's always 2 mugs of water. I would bring it to a boil in a small sauce pan and then dump in the shredded leaves inside the boiling water. Lower the heat and leave it to boil for 5-10 minutes. Take out the leaves from the pan when it's done and pour the tea into the mugs. I usually would add some rock sugar to sweeten the tea a bit. And it's delicious!

I am pretty excited when it comes to talking about how wonderful the Soursop leaves are for the skin. I've experienced this first hand when I had a really big acne on my chin a few days ago. It was so painful!! I haven't had a big one like that in ages. So since they said that the leaves were good for the skin and acne, I decided to give it a try. What I did was, I used the dry mill to grind the leaves to tiny pieces. Then I would add in small amounts of rose water to it, to get the juice out of the leaves. Then, I would apply that on my face or any parts of my body that I felt needed the attention. 

What happened after that really shocked me. I applied the extract of the leaves on my skin and left it on overnight, and when I woke up the next day, the acne shrunk and is no longer painful! Amazing!! The day after that, it totally disappeared! WOW! The effect was pretty fast! 

I noticed that if you have itchy skin, that too can be healed with the juice of the leaves. No more scratching all day and all night. Especially if you have eczema, you should give it a try. It really works!

So that's all I have to say about the Soursop leaves for now. I'm just super happy that I get to use it for my health. All these years the trees were just there in our garden and we never knew the leaves could help us. I just wanted to spread the word and hopefully other people can benefit from it too. Take care everyone! 

  

Blooming Tecoma trees

Currently in Alor Setar, most of the Tecoma trees are blooming with flowers all over the city. It's that time of the year again when we can see this phenomena happening and it's so beautiful. I just love it when the flowers starts to bloom and brightens up the gloomy city.

I sometimes get distracted when driving the car in the city because of these flowers. My eyes sometimes keep wondering off the road and focusing on those pretty flowers especially when they are in full bloom. I didn't get the chance to take photos of the white Tecoma flower. I only got the chance to get good shots of the pink ones this week.

This is usually the time when photographers starts to roam in the city and start shooting photos of them. Brides and grooms will take advantage of the opportunity as well to get pretty wedding shots with the flowers. I for one have never taken photos of myself with the flowers. Maybe I should! LOL! A selfie perhaps! :D

Lemongrass and Pandan Tea

I'm not exactly sure how I came to know about Lemongrass and Pandan tea. I guess it was probably when I was browsing on YouTube early this month when I saw a tutorial on it made by someone from Thailand. The tea looked really tasty, I just had to give it a try. It's a very special drink it seems that can easily be found in most restaurants in Thailand. People even serve this drink in tropical beauty spas before and after treatment. It is well known for it's healing and therapeutic benefits. You can drink it hot or cold, but I prefer it served hot.

I've been browsing a lot before on YouTube for natural detox drink to try. And this is the first time I came across this recipe. I was very much into green smoothies and juices before but I had to stop doing that recently because it has become too expensive to do that on daily basis. Thinking of ways to save up money instead of spending these days because produce are getting more and more expensive to buy. The price of food are going up and it rarely goes down. So I guess planting my own herbs, vegetables and fruits are back in trend in our house. Well why not right? We have a big compound and it would be a waste not to plant more things we can consume. Yes, it does mean that I would need to spend more time in the garden to achieve all that but, I'm very selective of what to plant so that I won't have to spend too much time on it daily.

But of course, I'm not a great gardener....but I do try my best. My Mom is the expert. But she is in no condition to do a lot of gardening everyday now. She's not well enough to do it like she did before. So it's up to me now to plant what I want to eat. I prefer to plant trees that are easy to grow. 

Anyways, back to the Lemongrass and Pandan tea. How easy it is to grow Lemongrass and Pandan at home. Especially in Malaysia. Almost every home in Malaysia have these two plants in their garden. My Mom grows lots of them at home. So much so that she can actually sell them if she wanted to. Who knows maybe one day when things gets tough, it might be a good idea. LOL!! :D But for now, we just consume it for ourselves. 

To be honest, ever since I found out about this tea, I've been making it everyday. My Mom and I would drink it once a day after lunch because that's when we have our heaviest meal. It makes us feel so good after a heavy lunch. It helps relax the stomach and makes us feel so calm. The aroma  of the Lemongrass and Pandan is so wonderful. Smells so good and tastes so nice.

My Pandan leaves plant

My Lemongrass plant

It is not that difficult to prepare the tea. All there is to do is clean the lemongrass and pandan leaves. I usually use 4 stalks of lemongrass and about two pandan leaves. I would smash each stalk of lemongrass with a heavy pestle to bruise it so that it will release the aromatic oils from it. 

So after that, I would throw the pandan and lemongrass into a boiling water and let them boil for about 5 - 8 minutes. It's easy to know when it's done and ready pour into your cups or mugs, when the smell of the lemongrass and pandan leaves becomes so strong. It fills the air in your kitchen! It's so wonderful! And you could see that the pandan leaves starts to brown and you could see that the water has a tint of light green colour.

If you don't want to add any sugar to the lemongrass and pandan tea, that's perfectly fine......I usually would add some sweet lime or lemon to make it tastes good.  I've tried adding brown sugar before and it tastes SO GOOD!! Really really yummy! 

Honestly I can drink this tea everyday. Believe me, that's how great it tastes. Not to mention all the great benefits too. See the list below, to know a few of it's benefits:

• Good for digestion and stomach disorders.
• Full of antioxidants.
• Regulates blood pressure.
• Boosts metabolism and burns fat.
• Good for skin and hair.
• Heals cold and flu.
• Relieves menstrual pain.
• Lowers cholesterol.
• Detoxifies the body.
• Prevents cancer.
• Treats insomnia.
• Helps with respiratory disorders.
• Cures fever.
• Treats infections (works as antiseptic).
• Reduces aches.
• Tonic for the nervous system.
• Treats Type -2 diabetes.
• Prevents Rheumatism.
• Boosts immunity.
• Treats Edema (water retention).