Financial Health Impacting Physical Health

I've been getting stressed over my bills.

I don't have a lot of margin between income and outgo, and it seems that there are so many more things that require more outgo. In the past few months the bills for the electric service, the water bill, my cellphone bill and the inevitable car repairs have been hitting hard.

My blood pressure has gone up.

So, I'm now trying to handle this in an intelligent manner.

I'm trying to get more (and better) sleep.

I'm drinking chamomile tea before bedtime, and using more vitamins.

What I suspect will be the real handling is that I'm trying to create more income to answer the shrinking margin.

I spent a good deal of time yesterday taking pictures of my original hand knit designs and art work. Later today I'll be editing my website to add them to the store section. Then, the work will be directed towards promotion. 

Rule changes and/or rising fees for sales websites like Etsy, eBay and Amazon have given me reason to decide to avoid using these sites.

For instance, the nature of eBay is that used - pennies-on-the-dollar - items will sell far faster than new items.

Etsy recently changed their rules to allow art manufacturers from China access to the marketplace. This tends to snow under the individual artist, and lessens my willingness to offer my work there.

Amazon has a monthly plan that my sales would not yet cover, so that is not a good business decision.

Instead of sales websites, I'll be listing my items on my own website and doing consistent promotion over my social media sites.

The one exception to this will be listing my original knit design patterns on Ravelry. Since Rav is both a social media forum as well as a sales site, this makes sense.

Future plans include getting a good video camera so I can make knitting instruction videos for YouTube, doing more demonstrations of spinning technique at festivals, and getting more of my artwork into galleries.

Stunned; But In A Good Way

I've been continuing doing the exercising with the resistance bands, and I've also been using the wheelchair less as time goes on.

I didn't sleep well last night, so I wan't overly surprised that my blood pressure was too high and my oxygen level too low.

What did surprise me was that I've lost over 100 pounds in the past year.

I've said repeatedly that weight loss was not my first priority in my recovery of my physical ability and resiliency. That remains true; but the current result is still gratifying.

I have been noticing that my clothes have been getting roomier, and that some are getting far too large on me.

Time to put in some work on new wardrobe!

Two Steps Forward And One Step Backward Beats Two Steps Forward And Three Backward

I've noticed that I've been having some sneezing, itchy eyes, etc.. Not enough to feel that I need to take an allergy pill - even an over-the-counter one - but I've also noticed that I've been running out of breath faster on chores than I have been over the last couple weeks.

What I think is happening is that the mild pollen reaction is taking up some of my recovered capacity, and I am more reactive to other pollutants in the air.

This was especially noticeable this morning when I left the apartment to go do an errand, and there was a very detectable chemical odor in the air. I started getting short of breath just getting into my car. As soon as I got away from the chemical smell, my reaction settled back down. I think the lawn crew had sprayed something. Fortunately the odor had dissipated by the time I returned.

I've also been doing some re-arranging inside the apartment and stirring up a fair amount of dust.

The feline staff have been getting rather upset about the changes. Jackson was letting me know that he wanted the fabric put back in the shelves - NOW.

I did manage to get some chores done, and it is getting easier to get more basic actions done every week. Instead of two steps forward and three steps backward, it's been more like two steps forward and one step backwards. 

I won't lie, I do find my lack of capacity frustrating. Just a couple years ago I was able to walk for miles, ride horses, work all day, lift heavy boxes and far more. Now I can barely walk across the parking lot. 

Despite having some tough days, my plan is to continue on my program of a cleaner environment, healthier food, exercise as tolerated and far more production to improve finances. 

Busy, Busy, Busy...

I've been trying to vastly increase production in order to have an opportunity for a good result at the event at the end of April. (I'll be discussing the details on my Feather Creek Designs blog.)

I've been able to do this in part because of my continuing improvement on the health front. My sleep is improving, and my feet are not nearly as painful. I still have a fair amount of swelling, but not as severe.

I've been doing a bit longer walking, more of my own chores, and have been able to do more lifting. These are all positive indicators!

I've also been using the resistance bands I got from MP Pro Products on a regular basis.

Now I'm waiting on warmer weather to get going on some container gardening - I need ingredients for healthy meals!

Applying The New Mode Of Eating To My Gardening Plans

Garden planning time is upon us here in north Texas! 

One of the key things in taking control of my health is the need to eat healthy foods. For me; that translates to the need to grow more of my food so I can eat healthy food. I can then get non-GMO, fresh, local, in-season foods that I know won't have scary chemicals or irradiation. 

The seed companies that I order from do not carry any GMO seeds, and most are heirloom varieties.

I put in my seed orders this week, and I just got confirmation that one of them is already shipped. 

I don't have a lot of space, and many things will be in containers. These make planning somewhat more involved. 

I'll have about 100 square feet of ground space in front of and between some landscape shrubbery in front of my patio. The space is on the north side of the building, so it will get sun until about noon, and then again after 3 pm. This is actually a fairly good thing, as it won't get quite so hot as a full-day direct-sun spot. ( Considering that August in this area routinely has triple-digit temperatures )

I have some seed left over from last year, and got some interesting varieties and some repeats for this year. 

Here is what I either have or have on the way:

Herbs: 
2 varieties of Cilantro
Basil mix - different sizes, colors, and flavors
Roman Chamomile
Chives
Gleam Mix Nasturtium - I am putting this here as it is edible, and when the seeds are pickled, they are great used like capers.
Oat grass - for the felines

Vegetables:
Kentucky Wonder Pole Bean. This did really well for me last year.
Speckled Calico Pole Lima Bean
Bright Lights Chard
Gonzales Mini Cabbage
Lemon Cucumber
Turkish Orange Eggplant
Spinach mix - there are lots of different spinach varieties
Radish mix - ditto!!
Hot pepper mix - lots of spicy coming up!
Black Hungarian Pepper
Bhut Jolokia Pepper ( also known as Ghost Pepper )
Chinese 5 Color Pepper
Aunt Ruby's German Green Tomato
Rio Grande Tomato - a southwest variety of red plum tomato. I'm going to try these in a hanging planter
Kakai Hull-less Pumpkin - pumpkin that has seeds without hulls. Don't know where I'm going to put this one, but I really want to give it a try.
Acorn Squash, Butternut Squash. I'm going to try these in a couple of really large containers and trellis them up.
Eightball Zucchini
Yellow Summer Squash
Minnesota Midget Melon 
Green Nutmeg Melon

Flowers & Crafts:
Ornamental Peppers - saved seed from last year. This is the pepper you can see in the top picture. It doesn't have much flavor, so I'll treat them as simply ornamental.
Marigold - one of my favorite flowers
Zinnia - did well on the patio last year, this is saved seed from what I grew
Petunia - saved seed, they did even better than the zinnia
Luffa Squash - while these are edible while young, their main use is for their tough fibrous interior once fully mature and dried.
Bushel Gourd - crafts and storage containers. Needs a fair bit of space


There are a couple things that I am going to be paying attention to in making this work. This is not an ordinary vegetable garden plot. I need to keep in mind that the landscapers that take care of the flower beds in the apartment complex work pretty hard at keeping them attractive. 

Also, the bed has been treated with a pre-emergent herbicide, so all the plants will need to be started in seedling trays. 

What I plan to do to handle these points is to grow everything to transplant size and simply put the pot on the bed and surround it with mulch. Doing this will let me arrange color and size attractively and I won't have chemicals in my food plants. I will plant the ornamental and craft items in the ground once they are to transplant size.

Update And Good News

As I've said a couple times, I'm not worried about weight as such. I'm far more interested in how I feel, and regaining my basic health.

Those are rather subjective measures, of course. Given that, I am using the tale of the tape - my waist & hips measurements - as an objective tracking point.

So, I measured today and discovered that five inches are now "missing." 

This is especially good news since I really had eaten more fast food than I should have while helping a friend organize getting a car and his license. 

I had noticed that I was feeling more flexible, and clothes were looser. 

With this good news, I am energized for more success.

Some More Hopeful Indicators

This morning I woke up without any aches and pains.  Not a big deal in and of itself, but it meant I was not trying to sleep while in pain, so my quality of sleep was improved.

These small improvements are good signposts that I am finally on the right track. 

I am also noticing that I am able to walk at a better pace, I can stand longer, and even though I am still getting severely short of breath, I am recovering my breath faster than I was just a few weeks ago.

Last week was not so great on keeping to the SparkPeople meal plans - too many fast food meals - so I'm working harder at getting on track this week. 

I'm working at getting some more production on additional income lines, and the discipline I am applying to working on that rather than wasting time on Facebook is helping my discipline on the health line. It also is giving me opportunities to get more physical activity in my daily routine.

Sure, fine art and fiber art isn't heavy on the activity requirements, but I am having to do a fair bit of cleaning and organizing to get the time in on the art production. 

I am also trying to speed up on doing the housework in order to be more productive. 

And then there are opportunities for laughter.  I put down my knitting to get a cup of tea, and when I returned, a cat had decided my project was a good place to sit.