Greek Honey from Hellenic Gaia!

Honey has been around for a really long time but no one has ever really told me the benefits of taking honey! Honey has been used all around the world by different cultures over the past 2,500 years. Do you know that there are many ways you can eat Honey? You can either eat it directly from the bottle, spread it on your bread or mix it with juices or any drinks! You can even mix it with warm water, lime juice, tea, cinnamon and other herbs to make it a medicine. Simply replace your sugar with honey for more health benefits.

Honey Health Benefits:

1) Sweetener: Sugar can be substituted with honey in many food and drinks. Honey contains about 69% glucose and fructose.

2) Weight Loss - My favourite part!: Though honey has more calories than sugar, when honey is consumed with warm water, it helps digesting the fat stored in your body.

3) Energy Source: The carbohydrates in honey can be easily converted into glucose by even the most sensitive stomachs, since it is very easy for the body to digest this pure, natural substance.

4) Source of Vitamins and Minerals: Commonly, honey contains Vitamin C, Calcium and Iron.

5) Improving Athletic Performance: Recent Research has shown that honey is an excellent ergogenic aid and helps in boosting the performance of athletes. Honey is a great way to maintain blood sugar levels, muscle recuperation and glycogen restoration after a workout, as well as regulating the amount of insulin in the body, as well as energy expenditure.

6) Antibacterial and Antifungal properties: It is often used as a natural antiseptic in traditional medicines.

7) Antioxidants: Honey contains nutraceuticals, which are very effective for the removal of free radicals from the body. As a result, our body immunity is improved against many conditions.

8) Skin Care with Milk and Honey (Another one of my favourite health benefit!): These ingredients help in creating smooth, beautiful skin.

I have received 7 different bottles of honey from Hellenic Gaia last week and tried each and every one of them, I will share with you which one are my favourites!

Hellenic Gaia's raw and unfiltered honey is collected from Mt Pageon and other adequate spots in Greece. When I say raw honey, it means the original honey was not involved in heating, pasteurization or any other processes. Raw honey contains natural vitamins, enzymes, powerful antioxidants and also many other nutrients. These are the nutrients that will be lost if honey goes through any heating or pasteurization processes.


Let me first introduce you to their Silver Label: Hellenic Gaia Greek Honey!

Amongst these 4 types of honey, my favourite will be the Thyme Flowers Honey!

I prefer it to be sweeter and the Thyme Flowers Honey is the sweetest among the rest.

If you like it less sweet with lower natural sugar levels, you can go for Pine Honey or Thyme Pine Honey.

For people who wish to have a combination of strong aromatic flavor with a slight bitter aftertaste, you can try the Chestnut Honey! Chestnut honey has a very unique taste of slight tannic and herbal aroma.


Next, they have the Gold Label: Hellenic Gaia Greek Honey with Mastic!

Similarly with my previous choice, I love the Thyme Pine Honey with Mastic for this range!


So what exactly is the difference between the silver and gold label?
The Gold Label range contains Mastic which is a natural, off-white colour, semi transparent resin that comes from mastic trees in Northern Greece.


Mastic has 5 health benefits:

1) Antimicrobial action - Can delay and eliminate microbes, bacteria and pathogenic micro organisms.

2) A protective agent against atherosclerosis - Prevents the risk of atherosclerosis and heart diseases.

3) Dentistry and Orthodontics ally - Reducing the frequency of orthodontic problems and in gum strengthening.

4) Treatment of peptic system diseases -Relieves gastrointestinal disorders, dyspepsia, stomach ache and peptic ulcers.

5) Oral hygiene and dental research - Gives a greater feel of mouth freshness and cleanness and also relieves people who are suffering from dry mouth.



HOWEVER!

For mummies out there, I have to remind you that only when your kids turn 1 year old, then you can slowly introduce Honey! And for me, I am the type of mother that hates to feed too much medicines to Kaylen when he is sick especially if it is just a mild cough or flu. So I mixed Hellenic Gaia's honey with warm water (just make sure it is not too concentrated and sweet) for Kaylen and it really really helps with his cough!

And if you wish to prepare food for your babies, you can choose to substitute sugar using honey!

I love to prepare Avocado for Kaylen since it plumps him up with the good fats and because of the nature of the taste, I add a little of honey to add on to the flavor and he LOVESSSS it.

Anyway it works equally well for me. I can be pretty stubborn and lazy when it comes to eating medicines and for now I'm trying to avoid as much medicines as I can so I am taking Thyme Flowers Honey with Mastic to treat my cough!



Of course it doesn't work immediately to eradicate the cough lah, but it really helps with the frequency of coughing!
So mothers, instead of always feeding your kids with medicines, you can think of using this alternative! Just remember to give your kids in moderate amounts  :)






Oh yes, I forgot to mention that Hellenic Gaia will be part of Singapore Food Expo 2016! You can get to have a taste of honey at their booth.
This event will be held from 27th to 31st of May 2016 at Singapore Expo Hall 4!



Feel free to check their Facebook page out:
https://www.facebook.com/HellenicGaiaSG/?fref=ts


If you would like to purchase Hellenic Gaia's Honey:It is available in major chain supermarket (Cold Storage & NTUC Fairprice) & Departmental Store (OG, Yue Hwa & Mustafa)


Enjoy your Raw Honey!

Part 2: After Birth!

I would firstly like to thank all my friends, relatives and even strangers for all your well wishes, and for those that kept baby Kaylen in your prayers, I am very very grateful to all of you. Baby is doing very well now as compared to the first week, and is putting on weight everyday :) Already looking forward to him coming home with me, and I suppose it will just be another two or three weeks!

This photo was taken about 3 hours after birth? Since I was in class B ward, I was not given the liberty to choose confinement meal. What I ate was porridge with some meat and vegetables that tasted super nice to me probably cause I was already starving!

My cousin Serena came to visit me for awhile since she is working in SGH, and was chatting with her and sister until my parents and brother came. My mom left at about 11am in the morning for work cause she didn't know I was going to give birth so soon! And she started talking about confinement to me already lolol! Cause apparently I wasn't supposed to take porridge and water? But what to do!! I am still in the hospital and there is nothing I can do. Confinement meals will only begin after I reach home from the hosp!

After resting for a few hours, I got out of bed, my sister wheeled me to the baby's ward and that was the first time I got to see baby - in person.

There were alot of mixed feelings when I first see baby in the incubator. One- relieved that he was born healthily, second- heartbroken to see him in tubes and seeing how small he is just makes me reproach myself, third- a moment of disbelief that I had already brought him to this world. In other words, I was still trying to comprehend the fact that I'm officially a mother.

What made me really happy and what melted me was how he opened his eyes to look at me when he heard my voice, like he could recognise that this is the voice of his mother. It was the sweetest feeling ever having him to grab my fingers just within a few hours of his arrival. How can a baby be so alert of his surroundings now??

Anyway! Hubby's friends Delon and Nicholas came to visit during the first night and Joey couldn't stop yakking about the entire labour process hahahaha. I only remember he kept saying there was alot of blood lol!! Thank you for coming to check on me! After all of them left including hubby, I was just on my bed staring into blank space, until one of the nurse came to ask me if I wanted to express milk for my baby, even though he hasn't start on feeding yet. I did tell her that I was leaking and there might be alot of milk for the start, but she didn't believe and gave me one small pathetic 5ml syringe.

Until she started massaging my boobs and more milk came out, so she had to take two of the 10ml syringe instead hahahaha. (Really considered quite alot for the first express.) So from then onwards, I am up every three hours, rented a pump from them so that I can continue expressing milk for Kaylen. WAH I TELL YOU I THOUGHT I HAD ALOT OF MILK BUT I WAS WRONG. The next few days was so horrible!! I could hardly fill the base of my bottle with milk T_T. The worst part is people around you that say "Huh!! SO little only ah? Enough for baby meh?" and those comments actually made me feel like giving breastfeeding up lol.

So please ah in future if your wives are gonna breastfeed, encourage her by telling her that the milk will come, and not comment on how little she is pumping and telling her it isn't enough for the baby. Our bodies are not machines! It takes time to 'cue' and 'demand' for more supply. After I tell hubby off once, and told him how stressful it is for me, he became for supportive and gave encouraging comments instead. Haha.

Kaylen's first photo with daddy. He was sooooo tiny back then!

BUT, the one and only person that I really really really need to thank is Hubby, for his unwavering support during those few days when I first got admitted to the hospital. Never would have gone through it without his care and concern and companion when I was alone in the hospital. Many times I cry and felt like giving up but he spurred me on by reminding how strong I need to be for him and for the baby.

I know it was hard on you those few nights, traveling to and fro from the hospital, coming early in the morning to have breakfast with me, and only leaving late at night when I am about to sleep. Especially during the time after labour when I was so grumpy and grouchy. When he tried to touch me and 'sayang' me I kept asking him not to touch me cause I'm super tired. HAHA I have no idea what was with the angst but I was a super grumpy woman, and kept asking to be left alone. I only went back to normal after a short nap after birth. HEHE.

It was especially sweet when he constantly tell me that I'm the hero in his heart now and how appreciative he is of me for going through all the pain just to give birth to Kaylen. (So now whenever he bullies me I will just remind him of what I went through HAHAHAH)

Only patients are allowed on bed but there was once he was so tired both of us just fell asleep on the bed, side by side. Until one of the nurses came in and say it is actually not okay, but she will just close an eye for the both of us hahahaha. Oh yes, my little penguin was there in the hosp with me since day 1 lol! I need something to hug to sleep so hubby brought me my penguin. hahaha.

He was on leave that week so he accompanied me as and when he could. Thanks hub !

So throughout my 3D2N stay in hosp (I can actually discharge after one night but hubby wants me to rest and stay for another night.), every three hours after I pump some milk I will bring it up to NICU and stay there to talk to baby for about 45 mins before I go back to bed and try to sleep. THE SLEEP WAS SO GOOD!! I never had a good night's sleep for damn long because of all the aching in the back during pregnancy, but now I SLEEP LIKE ONE PIG! Hahaha, I can fall asleep almost immediately all the time, and words can't explain how shiok it was lol!

But the next few weeks, the routine of travelling to and fro from hospital for twice a day was taking a toll on both our bodies. It is super tiring! Especially for hubby when he needs to visit baby after work cause we need to pass him breast milk. Thnnkfully, my father in law offered to send me to and fro from the hospital every afternoon, until lately cause I will pass hosp enough milk to last baby till night time, so I don't have to travel down every afternoon.

My routine now is to sleep at about 10 plus, wake up once at 2plus in the morning to express milk, another time at 5 plus in the morning, and then 8 plus again because the Malay lady who does my massage comes at 9am every morning. By the afternoon, I will sometimes feel tired again so I will take a nap. That was the reason why i couldn't find time to blog! Cause usually after massage I will go shower, and then prepare to eat lunch and prepare to go hospital. By the time I reach home, I need to pump again, and I will be dead tired. After the nap? Time to pump again before dinner, and after dinner I need to prepare to make another trip to the hospital. I really really didn't have any extra time to blog at all :/


---- ok time out, need to express milk lolol ------

FINALLY BACK!

First of all, sorry again for being away for so long! I have been receiving messages on my ask.fm over the past many months and I understand that you guys want me to update about my life as a mother! I'm really awfully sorry that I have been super caught up with school and work! Like I've mentioned in my previous posts, whenever I can find some free time, I always choose it to spend time with Kaylen or spend some lonesome time with the hubby to keep our marriage alive instead on spending on my laptop! BUT!!! Lol, since the little fella is asleep now in the room, and I have about an hour to do my stuffs, I decided to draft up this post and update bit by bit before I post it up.

The last time I've updated this platform was in April? And many many things have definitely changed over these few months, and I must say, better things are coming my way, and my life has been so much more stress free especially after I was done with my examinations last month! (Would be done with school if I can pass all my modules, so fingers-crossed!)

Okay, let's see what I can remember over the past few months okay? LOL!
And so....going through my photos, I remember I haven't posted about trip to Hong Kong!

Hong Kong Disneyland!

We went Hongkong for 5 days if I'm not wrong, and as usual, I decided we should head to Disneyland! And for the fact that I've travelled to Hongkong a couple of times, I planned out the itinery for the group, and we stayed at Metropark Mongkok again!

The rooms are not TOO bad, and we got a complimentary upgrade because we told the hotel that we were celebrating our wedding anniversary. (Always works, trust me lol!) And I love the location of the place! It was just about 5 minutes walk away from the Prince Edward MTR and from the hotel, we could walk to Mongkok MTR and there are so many shopping centres over there, including the Argyle Centre!

But as much as I enjoy the food in Hongkong, I believe I wouldn't be travelling there anytime soon already. Lolol I think I've visited Hongkong enough.

Oh yes, we went with his colleagues and one of his colleagues' girlfriend Venus tagged along too! Always nice to have female company in the group :)) She was the one who took awesome photos of me and Joey!

I believe this trip happened after Joey came back from his overseas deployment in Brunei and shortly after he went for his deployment in Taiwan. Being too used to his absence due to his work, it doesn't feel that bad when he is away for a month twice in a year. We still have to endure another two deployment next year, and after that he will be done with the force! Joey is most likely going to join his mum in AIA and I am still figuring out what I wanna do since I'm almost done with school. Most likely going to work for events for another year or two before I venture out into the work force and compete for jobs with other graduates.

Kaylen has been growing so fast and I really can't believe that he is already 14 months old now! If I truly reflect on myself for being his mother, I would honestly say that I'm not a perfect mother because I wasn't there for him 24/7, I wasn't there to sleep with him every night, but I really do try my best to spend as much time as I can with him and to watch him grow day by day.

Even though he is a little slow in his physical developments as compared to peers his age, he is a lot more vocal! He can identify many objects like ball, lights, fan, eyes etc. He will just point them out to you if he sees them and if you ask him 'where is mama's eyes?' He would point to my eyes. Very smart, but extremely active and notorious. He is a stubborn kid like his father, and would often scream and cry to get to what he wants. Attempting to be a strict mom, I would say no to him and sometimes gently beat his hands only to receive - you know what? A slap from him or a bite from him. :( Teaching a child is not as easy as we thought it is and now I totally understand why some parents have no control of their child at all.