Wow - Starting a new venture

Well, I took a break from here while I branched out...

I stopped the political activities. It was personal. I got caught between three women who apparently have passive/aggressive anger toward each other. I was the vehicle used, and I didn't like it. I felt used in many ways. Glad I'm out of it. My mental health is better.

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I did a wonderful guided meditation with my friend, Juile Daley in San Francisco. It was online. I found a wonderful part of me that I'd forgotten was there. If you get a chance to work with her, do it! You won't regret it. 

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I had some medical tests that all proved nothing was going on - at least not in those areas. Still don't have any answers, but there are more tests coming.


I did about 3 weeks - maybe more - of physical therapy, but I've given it up. My balance hasn't been getting any better, so it's time to move to another form of exercise. For now.

I've found some fabulous percussion music on YouTube and since I can dance to just about any rhythmic music, I find it easy to dance to. That's exercise, too.

And of course, a 40 minute walk around walmart every so often also counts...

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I started a new venture. I decided to focus on prediabetes (which I no longer have) and tell folks how I beat it. It took me about 2 weeks to get it going and I have 18 pages now. I've planned about 88, plus the recipes - about 1100 of them.

I'm setting up a paid weekly newsletter service that will include menus for 7 days with full recipes on the website - driving traffic. The newsletter will include an exercise each week and a full shopping list for the recipes of the week.

I hope to sell some supplements and gourmet spices along with some gentle affiliate marketing relationships.

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My sister weathered the Santa Rosa Tubbs fire - at least so far. She's had a bad time of it lately, and I've been pretty concerned.

Supplement Removal Experiment...

While I said earlier that removing the supplements was interesting, it hadn't been enough time yet to really see the difference...

Well, the only thing that seems to have been making a difference is the Triple Flex for my joints. My joints are all swollen, sore, and feel stiff. My knee is terrible, so I know that Triple Flex works, no matter what the ads say. For me, it works. So try it yourself if you have joint pain.

Otherwise, I haven't seen any difference. It's been 2 weeks. My urine is a light yellow, barely any color at all, but I drink a lot of water. I still don't sleep at night, and the hot-flashes are no different than if I was taking soy.

I sleep about an hour at a time, most of the time. I guess that's my history of napping taking it's toll.

The B-vitamin group made no difference at all. The pre-natal vitamins made no difference at all. My gut is still doing what it does, and I have more pain in my spine than before, is all. But who knows if the pain in my spine is from the supplements or from the Triple Flex?

Oh well, I guess I'll go back on that and leave the rest up to God...

School commentary

Well, it's started for me - Fall semester!

My first class, that looked to be a real drag, might actually be fun. That's technical (business) writing...

Accounting is a real pain - I want the Tues/Thurs morning class but it's full. They don't have waiting lists anymore, so I'm stuck in the Tues evening class unless I can quickly react when somebody drops after the morning class tomorrow. We'll see...

The last class, Excel - it looks like I'm missing a book but I won't know for sure until class tomorrow - just after noon.

I'm enjoying it more than I expected so far. I just wish my body would cooperate. It hurts, I'm unsteady on my feet, and I have NO energy at all.

I'm stopping all the supplements for a check-in. I have my blood test for Lupus on Friday, and since I've been taking Pre-Natal vitamins for over 2 years, I decided to stop them and check in with my body. My nails are as thin and flimsy as ever, my complexion is a real acne mess, and I'm exhausted all the time.

I'm sleeping, but it's broken. If I take a sleeping draught - whether benedryl or melatonin, I wake groggy for at least 4 hours. The difference is that with benedryl I sleep 12 hours and with melatonin I sleep about 4-6 hours. How much time do I want to spend asleep?

So, I'm stopping all the vitamins - the pre-natals, B6, Biotin, Calcium, D3 and chromium piccolinate... I want to see how my body is truly assimilating food and nutrients. I wonder if maybe I've had too much supplementation and that my body is just flushing everything through.

Not taking the Triple-Flex is really affecting me already. My joints are so weak and wobbly without it. My knees hurt more today than ever and I've only been off it for a day.

Well, the blood test on Friday will show some interesting results, no matter what. The cholesterol, liver function and Lupus... I wonder what else it will show???


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The FDA - Food and Drug Administration...

The FDA does not have authority, and I do not wish it to have authority, over my health care decisions, supplement use, or health standards of care.

If the FDA wants to regulate the supplement and alternative medicine industries, I suggest they start with what they are worst at, and try to improve - quality control.

Assure the public that drugs coming from the pharmaceutical companies are safe! Ensure that regulations, trial periods, and testing is thorough.

For supplements, assure us that the products are pure, and that the label states the accurate strength of the supplement. Tell us about any other components in the packaging or product that may affect our health. Some people have allergies to the simplest things, and this kind of disclosure would be helpful.

This kind of regulation is all to the good. But being the gatekeeper for supplements, telling practitioners how to use them, and otherwise keeping them from the public, is not part of their job.

If over-zealous regulation ever becomes part of the FDAs job, big-pharma will usurp control, and do away with all vitamins and supplements unless the odd person can somehow grow the source and extract the elements in their garage. This leads to further contamination and the strength of the supplement cannot be assured.

And only big-pharma will produce vitamins for mass distribution - using unclean and mercury- or arsenic-conataminated sources. Big-pharma does not care about our health. Big-pharma cares about making a profit.

I am only discussing this small issue today. The FDA is broken and misguided. But this segment can be repaired easily.

Sick Again - Planting and Landscape, Home Improvements

Yep, again! I'm so tired of this. At least the fever broke overnight.

And the pain on my ovary is really bad right now. I can't wait to have surgery to remove it....

I wonder if the issues I've had are all related to my girl-parts?? The skin issues, the sicknesses and lack of immunity, the fatigue...

I've stopped taking all vitamins and supplements - except the lo-dose aspirin and my prescription meds. I want to see if the fatigue gets worse, in case my Epstein-Barr is flaring up. That, so far, does not seem to be the case. I'm sleeping fine, and everything seems to be OK - except I'm sick again.

I have no appetite at all. I get hungry, but it's more like a habit than a feeling of needing food. This was true even before I got sick again. At least the pre-natal vitamins made me hungry, but that isn't a good reason to eat. I was pissing away all the B vitamins down the toilet.

I haven't napped like I used to - mostly no time, but I have the desire.

Am I depressed? I think probably so - and have been for a while - since I moved just about. I'm overwhelmed with the house. Too much space and responsibility. Too much to do to make it my own.

I got some knobs for the doors and drawers on the cabinets. That will help a lot. I've had a lot of trouble opening the doors. There's no handle or cut-out to make it easy to open them. The arthritis in my hands is getting worse, so this will make it easier as I age.

I need to pull the carpets, too. Clean and hone the concrete, maybe stain it a pretty color. I'll have to use rugs. I can't afford flooring right now. Can't afford the landscape plants I bought, or the planting beds I need, either.

I started a whole tray of plants! Tomatoes, beans, herbs, and such. Anything that took over 75 days to maturity. Anyway, those have to go into the ground pretty soon, too.

Four of my trees arrived Wednesday - bare root. I had to get them into the ground right away. I hired my neighbor's kid to dig the holes (I was sick, remember?) and we (together, yes) got them into the ground. Probably not well, probably too deep, and the soil is all clay chunks (tried to break them up). I watered them in so we'll see what happens. I hope they don't die. I had to prune a couple of them. The other 2 were fine.

My asparagus crowns are due pretty soon - either today or Monday. Those need to go in the ground right away, too. I have pots I can use for them, at least. And my lemon tree and grape vines will also be here Monday.

Well, that's my rambling for today. Happy Birthday to me! Yep, 55 tonight around midnight!