Hey there @SmilingGecko 🌺☺️💜
thanks so much for your reply - it’s so lovely to read all the practical helpful stuff you share 👌🏻😀
I can relate to the haramaki being something to keep the body warm from the belly - the pants and vests here at home are extended to come up and down to give a double layer over the stomach area as I have chronic kidney disease (3B), so keeping warm organs really helps with kidney function I find 🙌🏻☺️
I was wondering if I should make a stretch fit haramaki that I can use underneath clothes while out and about 🤔☺️🌺
your idea to buy some long knitted gloves sounds really good - I find they’re so helpful in maintaining body temp. I have made some here like mittens without the top part covering your fingers and missing the thumb which makes it easy to slip them ‘up’ onto your wrist if needing to wash hands or do other tasks where gripping is required. I made them to extend up above elbows, and I wear them either underneath or over jumper sleeves.
Yes I think the heated throws and blankets are wonderful. I’ve had some from BigW for many years, and I use one on the lounge, and one on the bed just above the blanket, under the doona, to keep warm from above while sleeping (I have an electric blanket underneath, however I have autonomic nervous system injury which means I can’t control body temperature very well, and become extremely cold overnight while sleeping - this sandwich of warmth keeps things warm enough to sleep safely till morning…especially with drenching, cold night sweats related to a bone marrow disease - drenching sweat means it’s difficult to stay warm enough. The warmer I have the bed, the less I tend to sweat to a certain degree🙂).
That sounds very interesting about eating black coloured foods..from what I know (and I’m very rusty so I may indeed be wrong!) dark coloured foods are generally high in antioxidants and colder weather induces more activity in cells in the body to keep warm. More cellular activity means more waste products of metabolism, and so more antioxidant foods are helpful - at least, that’s the general premise 🙂🌺
The person who came to your home sounds very interesting! It’s always helpful to have practical ways to improve cost of heating - I think houses aren’t quite designed as well as they can be regarding thermodynamic efficiency, and there’s also the appliances that are on ‘stand by’ instead of off, and those that have clocks on display. I tend to switch off at the power point to save electricity.
It would be really lovely if you would like to share the method of calculating wattage use by appliances - I would find that really interesting to do here at home ☺️🌺
I have peak and off peak power..when it’s peak, I turn off the heater, and use the throw turned up, with it on a long extension cord so I don’t lose too much body heat while moving around the house, wrapping it around and securing with a belt 😊
Air temp and quality does play a big role in respiratory function, as does moisture levels I think. Here, I have hepa filters cleaning the air 24/7 which makes it much easier to breathe (immune dysfunction leads to an inability for the immune cells in the lungs to eliminate particulate that is inhaled, so hepa filters do the job instead), and keeping the air warmer than 15 celcius as much as I can helps with gas exchange in lungs. partitioning the rooms is really helping with this 🙂
The other thing I have done over the years is buy some window film that insulates the windows (since replacing the windows with more efficient ones or retrofitting insulated glazing is not in my budget) and placed it on the windows in the rooms I heat - it’s saving significant loss via the windows which I notice by how often the thermostat needs to kick the heater on - it’s operating significantly less than it used to.
I’ve also hung some soft rugs on the inside of walls that face the external of the building, which further insulates against heat loss through those walls. They look like decorative carpets 🙂
Thanks for sharing your tips and ideas! ☺️💜🌺
I hope your day goes really well and you have a good weekend 😎🌺
