Latest / Unbalanced with Cerys Davage / 85. Life hacks for disability and productivity
Transcript
- 0:10Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Unbalanced
- 0:13with Me, Kara Savage. How are we all?
- 0:16Before we do anything, I have some exciting news and it's the
- 0:21news that I've been dying to share for so long now.
- 0:24And that news is that I have started a charity.
- 0:28I honestly just can't believe it, to be honest.
- 0:31It started I guess six months ago, maybe, maybe more, when I
- 0:36was approached by Kelly of Cure LGMD 2 I who sponsored this
- 0:41podcast and I was asked to start AUK branch of their charity
- 0:47because their charity is mostly USA focused and they have
- 0:51recently branched out to start a Cure LGMD 2 I in Canada as well,
- 0:56started by Jen Zucchetto. So I am so excited to be sharing
- 1:01that my mum and I have been working very hard.
- 1:04My mum has to take most of the credit, but my mum and I have
- 1:07been working very hard behind the scenes for the past few
- 1:10months on this charity. So we're officially announcing
- 1:14Cure LGMD R9 UK or two RUKI guess R9 is the new term for Two
- 1:23I. These days I'm trying to get my
- 1:24head around it. I'm trying to remember that it's
- 1:27R9 now and not Two I, but at the moment we're calling it both
- 1:30just to reach absolutely everyone.
- 1:33And as you may be able to see, if you're watching I we got a
- 1:37little Cure LGMDUK sticker. So it's right here.
- 1:42I've propped it up to kind of, I don't know, bring a little
- 1:45representation to the podcast today, but we are so excited
- 1:50about this. We're excited to hopefully
- 1:52connect with the two IR 9 community in the UK and their
- 1:57families and just bring hope and fundraise towards a brighter
- 2:03future for us. So it's really exciting chapter.
- 2:06We started the social media pages of it.
- 2:09And so if you go to Instagram and Facebook and check out Kill
- 2:14LGMDR 9 UK, then it should come up.
- 2:18It's the latter R by the way, if you're not sure, kill LGMD
- 2:22letter R #9. We decided to launch the social
- 2:26media ahead of the Denmark conference.
- 2:28And if you're listening, as soon as this episode is out, I'll be
- 2:31in Denmark for the second ever European LGMD 2 IR 9 conference.
- 2:38The first one was in Amsterdam a couple of years ago, but yeah,
- 2:41this one is in Denmark, just outside Copenhagen.
- 2:45So I'm very excited for it. I'm excited to meet people, meet
- 2:49families, reunite with some people that I met in Amsterdam
- 2:52couple of years ago. And it's going to be a really,
- 2:55really good time just connecting with our community.
- 2:59So we wanted to announce the charity ahead of that so that
- 3:04people knew where to find us. Our website is still in the
- 3:08works. So if you would like to donate
- 3:11or if you would like to check out the website, you're going to
- 3:14have to just stay tuned because it's not quite ready yet.
- 3:16But best believe I will be sharing all the latest
- 3:20information on this podcast or on my socials just to keep you
- 3:24guys updated if you're interested.
- 3:26So it's just crazy. It's, it's quite surreal to be
- 3:29able to finally talk about this after months of building it
- 3:33behind the scenes and not really mentioning it to anyone.
- 3:37I'm just so, so passionate about this.
- 3:38You guys know that I want to dedicate like my life to helping
- 3:43this community as much as I can. There's just something so
- 3:47incredible about being able to bring people together and to
- 3:51bring some hope and to raise awareness.
- 3:54I've learnt since starting this podcast that this is what I'm
- 3:56really, really passionate about. So I'm hoping to be able to just
- 4:00do that so much more with this charity and hopefully in the
- 4:04future branch out to a lot more communities.
- 4:07But we'll see. Let's not get ahead of ourselves
- 4:09here. We're still launching at the
- 4:11moment. But yeah, I would appreciate any
- 4:14kind of support over on our socials just to follow along the
- 4:19journey. I've been putting off filming
- 4:21this episode for some reason. I think it's just because we're
- 4:25going through a lot of changes. Oh guys, I need to tell you
- 4:28about my flat. I don't know if you knew or if
- 4:30you've been watching my vlogs. We finally fixed or got over a
- 4:35situation in our apartment in our flat.
- 4:39There was a big leak that happened like 6 months ago and
- 4:42we finally got it fixed but we've just found another one in
- 4:46our main bedroom which is like the other side of our flat.
- 4:50So we're currently not living in our main bedroom at the moment.
- 4:53It's had to just be ditched because the damage is just crazy
- 4:59like the carpets are all soaking wet.
- 5:01We've just had to try and dry that room out and actually try
- 5:06and fix the the cause of this leak of this massive like
- 5:10damage. It's honestly just been a bit of
- 5:13a nightmare to be honest. Just really chaotic, not what we
- 5:16needed as soon as I started a job that meant working from
- 5:19home, thank goodness. We do have a second bedroom,
- 5:22which is where I'm also working at my desk.
- 5:24So it's like the desk and then right behind me is the bed.
- 5:28So I need to make sure I'm actually leaving my room.
- 5:31Leaving just, you know, actually living outside of one room day
- 5:36and night. So it's been a bit chaotic.
- 5:39So everything's kind of all over the place at the moment.
- 5:42Furniture's been rearranged. But also I think in the stress
- 5:46of this and launching the charity and I've got a lot of
- 5:49other bits coming up in the next couple months, it's just going
- 5:52to be a very busy couple months. I think I've had a bit of stress
- 5:57just trying to organise everything.
- 5:59My skin's not been very good and I put off doing this episode
- 6:04because I was like, oh, I need to like wait until I have a good
- 6:07like makeup day or a good skin day.
- 6:09And I was like, you know what, Like why am I waiting around for
- 6:13this? This is really stupid.
- 6:15I guess I've like built up the standard because I think in the
- 6:17last episode I had really nice hair and I really love my
- 6:20makeup, but I was like, I don't need to wear makeup to do a
- 6:23podcast episode. Like stop being so self absorbed
- 6:26and vain and just just let it go.
- 6:29So I'm just going to do this episode as it is as I am.
- 6:32Please accept me as I am. No makeup today.
- 6:36And you know what? I'm feeling kind of good about
- 6:37it. I think this podcast is all
- 6:39about authenticity. I'm trying to be as authentic as
- 6:43I can and as transparent as I can and I don't want to come
- 6:46across as like that. I can't film a podcast episode
- 6:49just because I'm not wearing makeup or I'm not happy with how
- 6:53my skin is at the moment. It's so silly.
- 6:56So please bear with me whilst I'm trying to navigate that.
- 6:59But I thought no, and that's not going to hold me back.
- 7:01I'm not going to miss an episode slot just because of that.
- 7:03Today I thought I would bring back a topic that was very
- 7:10popular last time I did an episode about this and it was
- 7:12life Hacks. Oh, I think I phrased that Hacks
- 7:14that will change your life. And I think I did the first one
- 7:18a while ago now. I can't even remember when it
- 7:20was maybe like a year and a half ago.
- 7:22But I really enjoyed it because I got to show some gadgets that
- 7:26I was loving the time or some things that like practical
- 7:31things that I did in my life that was really useful and
- 7:35really like helped my like productivity help like manage my
- 7:39energy levels. And I've culminated a list over
- 7:43the past few months of other things that I do to just kind of
- 7:47carry on from the first episode. If you haven't checked it out, I
- 7:49recommend. But this time a little bit
- 7:52differently. I've asked other people from our
- 7:55community, from the disabled community online to share some
- 7:59things that they have found useful as well.
- 8:01I don't know all the hacks, I don't know everything.
- 8:04And this podcast is all about learning and I want to learn
- 8:07from you guys as well. I want to learn from the
- 8:09community, so I'm excited to dive into that later.
- 8:13But at the moment, let's just go through the list of things that
- 8:16I have. So I've got practical things
- 8:19that I do, but also like products and like actual things
- 8:23that have helped me. I guess let's get into it.
- 8:25So the first one is something that has saved me a lot of
- 8:30times, especially in like quite chaotic like times when I'm
- 8:33rushing around my life is in my calendar, like online on my
- 8:38phone, on my laptop, like Google Calendar.
- 8:42If I receive like emails for like teams meetings or
- 8:45something, it gets put into my calendar so that I don't need to
- 8:49actually remember what I'm doing every day.
- 8:53Because I'm, you guys know, I'm a busy person.
- 8:55I love like being busy, but sometimes I just can't help it.
- 8:59I can't remember what I'm doing every day.
- 9:01I need to check my calendar, but sometimes if I've got like
- 9:04appointments or if I've got things that I need to travel
- 9:07for, I'd say my time management is not the best.
- 9:11It's definitely, it could be much worse.
- 9:14I'd say I always end up being like a few minutes late.
- 9:18Nothing crazy, not like half an hour or anything.
- 9:21But if it's like appointments, I don't want to be late.
- 9:25I don't want to waste the National Health Service's time.
- 9:29And also, especially for hospitals, if you're going for
- 9:32an appointment, it can be an absolute nightmare to find
- 9:35somewhere to park. And I drive everywhere, so I
- 9:38need to have a suitable place to park.
- 9:41So usually now when I get an appointment, like a letter come
- 9:46through the door, a text, whatever, I put it in my diary
- 9:50for half an hour at least before the actual appointment.
- 9:54Because one thing about me, I will never turn up somewhere
- 9:57early. As much as I really want to, as
- 10:00much as I wish that I could and that was a part of my
- 10:04personality, it's just not. I will stay at home and I will
- 10:07put something off until I know I have the exact time bracket to
- 10:11get ready and get out the door. But I won't be a second earlier.
- 10:16So I like to put things in my diary in my calendar a lot
- 10:21sooner than it actually is. So that when I turn up, either
- 10:25I'm bang on time if like there's traffic or if I've struggled to
- 10:29park, it's OK because I've had that extra time buffer.
- 10:33And sometimes I would forget that I've put it in early and I
- 10:35would panic and I'd like rush around and I'd get to the
- 10:38appointment like, I'm sorry, I'm late.
- 10:39And they'd be like, no, right, you're right on time.
- 10:42And this also works with flights as well.
- 10:45You know, if you think you're the type of person who cuts it a
- 10:48bit fine when it comes to taking flights or trains or any other
- 10:53modes of public transport or even just like meeting up with
- 10:57friends, just put it in a little bit earlier than usual just to
- 11:02give you that time buffer. And this has saved me so often.
- 11:06And it just gives you some Peace of Mind as well.
- 11:08Because if I do go to the hospital for an appointment and
- 11:11there's a massive queue of people waiting for a parking
- 11:14spot, I'm not feeling the age to like text my doctor like, I'm so
- 11:19sorry I'm stuck in a queue outside.
- 11:21Please wait. Another practical thing I love
- 11:23doing is I try to keep a stock of cards in my house, in my
- 11:29flat, and I have like a box of presents or cards or other
- 11:35little gifts for loved ones, birthdays that may be coming up.
- 11:40And it's just kind of a good way to keep everything together.
- 11:44But I try to keep a stack of cards, whether they're birthday
- 11:48cards, congratulations cards, thank you cards.
- 11:51They're all there so that if someone's birthday or an
- 11:55occasion creeps up on me and I haven't had time to go out and
- 11:59buy that person a card, I already have a card ready to go
- 12:03and I can just send it out quickly.
- 12:05Sometimes you think like, oh, my mum's birthday is not for
- 12:08another couple of months, but then you it suddenly it's like a
- 12:11week away and you've forgotten to buy a card.
- 12:13So it's a helpful tip to just have things on you.
- 12:18Also, I, I'm AI love writing cards.
- 12:21I'm a card sender, card writer through and through.
- 12:25Love it. And sometimes, you know, thank
- 12:27you cards, congratulations cards.
- 12:29They're there for things that you haven't like planned.
- 12:31Things like that could be spontaneous.
- 12:34You know, if your friend just got engaged, you can send out a
- 12:36congratulations card. If you want to thank someone for
- 12:39something they've done to help you, you've got that on hand.
- 12:41You don't need to like go out looking for it.
- 12:43You get the gist. It's very handy.
- 12:46Something I've been trying to do a lot more recently that I
- 12:49haven't quite mastered, but I'm trying to get there is a habit
- 12:52stacking. So this means like if you're bad
- 12:55with settling into a routine every day, like I don't know if
- 12:59you're bad with sticking to your habits, trying to do them at the
- 13:03same time as another habit, I guess like a habit that you're
- 13:07already doing. One book that really helped me
- 13:10with this is Atomic Habits and it's quite a classic like self
- 13:14help book. If you haven't read it, I really
- 13:16recommend. I had mine on my Kindle so I
- 13:18could just keep coming back to it wherever I am.
- 13:21But the book talks about habit stacking and that is something
- 13:26I'm trying to harness. For example, I I'm so bad at
- 13:30doing like stretches in the morning.
- 13:32One thing about me is I love my sleep and I will sleep in until
- 13:36the last minute that I need to get up to go to work or go to
- 13:39wherever I need to be. I won't wake up early to, you
- 13:43know, have a lovely chilled breakfast before work or do some
- 13:47stretching or go for a walk before work.
- 13:50No time for that. I will get up, get ready and get
- 13:53out the door as soon as possible.
- 13:54So that's probably quite a bad habit to have, but that's just
- 13:58who I am. But with stretching, because I
- 14:02can't get on the floor really anymore, I don't tend to do like
- 14:06mat exercises, mat workouts which I used to do.
- 14:09So now I know that my legs get really stiff first thing in the
- 14:13morning. So I try and stretch my legs and
- 14:15my hip muscles and just everything else as much as I can
- 14:19whilst I'm brushing my teeth. If I'm going to be stood up
- 14:22anyway for two minutes brushing my teeth, that's enough time for
- 14:26me to just stretch a bit instead of just being stood there and
- 14:29maybe like sitting down whilst I'm brushing my teeth to save
- 14:32the energy, I may as well do some stretching if I can.
- 14:36So that's one example because obviously I brush my teeth
- 14:38everyday, well twice a day. So that's, you know, 2 times
- 14:43that I'm stretching it out. And so it's basically stacking a
- 14:47habit on top of a habit that you're already doing.
- 14:51Something else I do that really helps me with like saving energy
- 14:55and maybe is more beneficial if you live in like a house with a
- 15:00set of stairs or just a bigger environment than a flat like I
- 15:05live. But to keep duplicates of
- 15:07everything around the house to save energy.
- 15:09So like phone chargers, there's a big thing I've got a phone
- 15:13charger in the living room and I've got a phone charger in my
- 15:15bedroom so that I'm not like back and forth all the time.
- 15:19Toothbrush is another thing if you've got more than one
- 15:22bathroom so that you don't need to.
- 15:24It just like saves like that extra little bit of energy.
- 15:27And even if you don't think it's worth it and you don't want a
- 15:31duplicate of everything, I suppose it's just like all those
- 15:34little things that add up to just really help you throughout
- 15:36your day, especially on really low energy days.
- 15:39If I'm sat on the sofa and I want to charge my phone, I will
- 15:43not be getting up to walk to the bedroom to pick the charger up
- 15:47from the floor. Like bend down, bend back up
- 15:50with the charger and walk back. I will just ask my partner to do
- 15:53it. And that's just not really fair
- 15:54if he's wanting to relax, it's not fair that he's like going to
- 15:58get everything for me. Although that is a great life
- 16:00hack as well, to have just a partner to do everything for
- 16:03you, like a personal assistant. But it is very handy to just
- 16:08have an extra of everything so that you're not constantly like
- 16:13draining yourself back and forth, I guess.
- 16:15So moving on to the next one. I am a theatre girly.
- 16:19I love shows, I love musicals, I love going to see them up and
- 16:25down the country. And I know here in Wales,
- 16:28especially in Cardiff, there are some theatres that have like
- 16:32specific accessible ways to get tickets.
- 16:37So you can like sign up with them, make an account that's
- 16:40like an accessible account and then every time you go online to
- 16:43book tickets, they will give you like a discounted rate or like a
- 16:48free companion or sometimes both.
- 16:50But it wasn't until I went to specific shows in theatres
- 16:55around England that I then had to sign up individually to each
- 17:00like theatre to get on to their like accessible scheme.
- 17:05So an access card is a really important thing to have if you
- 17:08don't already have one especially well in the UK
- 17:10anyway, an access card will allow you to save money on
- 17:15concerts, shows, musicals, anything going on in the theatre
- 17:19world. I use my access card for ABBA
- 17:23Voyage when I went at the beginning of the year and that's
- 17:26in London. I've used my access card to get
- 17:30like discounted all just like accessible seats in general and
- 17:35got to bring a free companion with me just to like help me in
- 17:39and out of the seats and things like that.
- 17:42So I really recommend getting an access card, but also checking
- 17:46the venue of whatever show you're going to and seeing if
- 17:49like seeing what their kind of accessibility perks are.
- 17:54I guess seeing if you can sign up with them specifically with
- 17:58that like company and seeing if you can get onto their like
- 18:03disability, like scheme, not scheme, but you know what I
- 18:06mean, like getting their books basically.
- 18:08And so that every time you do book a ticket for that venue in
- 18:12the future, they will already have your account at hand.
- 18:15Because one thing about booking accessible tickets compared to
- 18:20like non accessible tickets, just standard tickets, it takes
- 18:23like five times the time it takes like, does that make
- 18:28sense? Like 5 times longer.
- 18:31So yeah, it's just, it can be a bit draining, but I have the
- 18:36same with like concerts. I think I booked, I booked to
- 18:40see Ariana Grande at the O2 at the end of August, which I'm
- 18:44very excited for. Her new album is coming out
- 18:46soon. Very excited.
- 18:48But I managed to get tickets through the like accessible
- 18:52website with my access card and they secured me seats that were
- 18:57level to the floor so I could go up lifts to like the right
- 19:03floor. And when I walk into the actual
- 19:05hall where it is, the the seats are like right there.
- 19:09I don't need to walk up or down any steps within the actual
- 19:12venue because those steps are a killer, I tell you that.
- 19:15And so yeah, it's great. I won't have to do any stairs.
- 19:18And it's stuff like that that the access card is really good
- 19:21for. I'll obviously still struggle to
- 19:23get out of the seat, but I'm bringing someone with me to be
- 19:27able to help me with that. So it's all about the perks
- 19:31guys. We've got to make the most of
- 19:32it. But that is definitely something
- 19:34if you don't already have that, I really recommend.
- 19:36And it's the same with public transport, you know, getting a
- 19:39discount on like train line, for example, you can get disabled
- 19:43Railcard. I think I have a disabled
- 19:46National Express coach card as well, which is very handy for US
- 19:50coach users in the UK. Moving on to like actual
- 19:54products now and objects more than like hacks I guess.
- 19:59I saw something on TikTok the other day I think like a
- 20:02colleague of mine recommended this.
- 20:05It's a hair dryer holder now. I've not actually used this
- 20:08myself but I thought I would give this a shout out because it
- 20:12sounds genius. I really struggle to dry my hair
- 20:15because obviously it requires keeping your arms and your
- 20:18elbows up for a very long time. And usually I just let my hair
- 20:22naturally dry unless it's like in the evening and I want to go
- 20:25to sleep, then I will push myself to the extreme to just
- 20:30dry my hair. But this is there's a thing now
- 20:32where it like attaches to the wall.
- 20:34You just put your hair dryer on it and it just like it stays in
- 20:38one place and you can just move around.
- 20:40And the hair dryer can be quite heavy as well.
- 20:43And so I really love the idea of having a hair dryer holder.
- 20:47So if you guys end up getting one, they're only like £6 on
- 20:50TikTok shop. There's something going on
- 20:53there. But what a bargain.
- 20:54I mean, if you guys end up getting one, please let me know
- 20:56how it is. And I I need a full review
- 21:00because I might try this out. We'll see.
- 21:03This next one is for the hairy people amongst us.
- 21:07And I don't just mean hairy, hairy, but I just mean people
- 21:10with hair or with long hair. Obviously brushing my hair means
- 21:16that I'm losing. And I've got quite long hair as
- 21:18well. I'm losing quite a bit of hair,
- 21:22you know, from week to week. And there's going to be hair all
- 21:25over my carpet in the bedroom. And it's kind of gross when you
- 21:28sometimes see there's like little balls of hair and you're
- 21:31like, Oh my goodness. And you pick it up and it just
- 21:34keeps going. And there's just loads of like,
- 21:36just loads of strands of hair. I can't bend down to pick these
- 21:39up very easily. And I, I like to keep my home as
- 21:44clean as I can, but it's sometimes really difficult when
- 21:47you've got things like that, when you, you're constantly
- 21:50picking stuff down. And I do have a grabber, which I
- 21:53mentioned in my first episode of this Lifehack series.
- 21:58But a grabber is not going to be good for gathering all the hair
- 22:02from the carpet. So I've come across a hair
- 22:05scraper. What's it called?
- 22:07A carpet scraper, sorry, it kind of looks similar to a brush, but
- 22:13it's just like a long, thin spiky thing.
- 22:17It's so hard to describe. I'm sorry.
- 22:18I should have gone to get one for you, but it just means that
- 22:21you don't have to keep bending down.
- 22:23You can just scrape, you know, as you would sweep the hallway
- 22:27as you would sweep the floor. You can just use the scraper to
- 22:30scrape up all the the hair and like ball it together and then
- 22:34you can use your grabber to pick up the the remnants.
- 22:37And it's really quite shocking how much hair is actually there
- 22:41that's like hidden in the carpet once you actually scrape it all
- 22:44up. So yeah, I'd recommend that.
- 22:47Another thing I haven't quite gotten yet, but I've ordered and
- 22:50is literally on its way as we speak, is a pill organiser.
- 22:55And like I said earlier, I'm really bad at taking my
- 22:58vitamins, especially daily. And I think if I just keep them
- 23:04all in one place and I've got, you know, a little box, have you
- 23:08seen those like daily pill organisers?
- 23:10There's like 1 little section for each day of the week.
- 23:13They're all sealed. So you can just open that
- 23:16specific box whenever you're ready to take them.
- 23:20But that will hopefully force me to actually take them every day
- 23:23because you can't miss a day. You can't take Tuesday's one
- 23:27without taking Monday's one. So I am hoping that this will
- 23:31change my habits of taking my vitamins because I'm sorry to
- 23:37any doctors listening to this but I'm really bad.
- 23:39Like I have them in my cupboard I just don't think to take them.
- 23:42So this should hopefully help. I'll keep you updated.
- 23:46The next thing on my list is a hair wrap and it's essentially
- 23:50like a hair curler. Like a curling wand.
- 23:54Curling tongs, except when I use curling tongs, kind of similar
- 24:00to the hair dryer, I'm holding my elbows up for quite a long
- 24:03time because once you wrap your hair around the curlers, you
- 24:06have to hold it there for a while because you know you want
- 24:09the heat to get through to the hair and you want the curls to
- 24:12hold. So especially with me anyway,
- 24:15curling my hair can take forever and it's so draining and my arms
- 24:21are killing, my shoulders are killing.
- 24:22By the end, I have the shark hair wrap.
- 24:26So it's kind of like a suction kind of thing.
- 24:29It's like a big wand that blows out hot air, but also kind of
- 24:35like sucks in your hair. So all you need to do is to just
- 24:38like tease the bottom of your hair net right next to it.
- 24:41And then the hair app will just like wrap up your hair or like
- 24:45suck the hair into the thing. And it's really hard to
- 24:48describe. Please just Google it.
- 24:50I'm very different, very bad at describing these things, but I
- 24:55find it really useful because I don't need to be holding both my
- 24:57elbows up, I can just kind of hold it right down next to me.
- 25:01My elbows can be by my side whilst I'm doing this and it's a
- 25:06lot easier than using a curling tonnes and a lot less time
- 25:10consuming as well because you don't need to hold it there for
- 25:13as long. The only thing I do find is that
- 25:16the curls drop quite quickly unless you like put them all
- 25:19separately in rollers and then pin them in the rollers for a
- 25:22while. But I don't have rollers and I
- 25:24don't have the time so I'm all for a quick easy fix.
- 25:28I did use my hair up yesterday so it's been over 24 hours but
- 25:34my hair is pretty much straight now.
- 25:37But I'm just loving the fact that it was styled and it's not
- 25:40just like my natural really frizzy hair.
- 25:42I feel like I need to to style my hair after I wash it because
- 25:46otherwise it's just a bit of a mess.
- 25:48You guys know I love my heatless curls and I did talk about
- 25:52heatless curls in my last life hats episode, but this is
- 25:56another option if you fancy something different from
- 25:58heatless curls. I do find that the heatless
- 26:00curls hold a bit better, but maybe I'm just still figuring
- 26:05out my hair up and trying to use it properly.
- 26:08But I'm loving it. And it also dries your hair at
- 26:11the same time. Sorry, that's like quite a key
- 26:14bit of information that I forgot to mention.
- 26:16It dries your hair and styles it at the same time.
- 26:20So it saves you from having to dry your hair.
- 26:22Think you need to like Sammy, dry it like quite roughly to
- 26:26begin with. But yeah, you can.
- 26:28You can use this hair wrap on damp hair, wrap it around so it
- 26:32dries it and styles it so then when you let go, you've got
- 26:35perfect dry curls and it's great.
- 26:38OK, I've got one more of my own list and then we'll move on to
- 26:41the other recommendations. But the last one I've got is a
- 26:45little accessory for my wheelchair and it's a cup
- 26:48holder. I've actually got it with me
- 26:49right here. Sorry.
- 26:50It's not just a cup holder, it's also a phone holder.
- 26:53I don't know if you guys can see, but it's just something
- 26:57that you can very easily just adjust to and remove whenever
- 27:02you want to. You just kind of clasp it around
- 27:05the part of your wheelchair and tighten it and there you go.
- 27:08You've got a cup holder for your bottle or your coffee or
- 27:12literally anything and then a little phone holder as well.
- 27:16How cute. I definitely recommend one of
- 27:19these literally like not that much on Amazon, but very, very
- 27:24useful. So if you're finding that you
- 27:27don't want to keep things on your lap when you're in the
- 27:29wheelchair or you don't want to like carry loads of different
- 27:32things, you don't want to take a bag with you, but you just want
- 27:35your phone and like your water. This is where it's very useful.
- 27:40This comes in very handy. All right, shall we move on to
- 27:43the recommendations from you guys, from the members of the
- 27:48public? Someone said that they always
- 27:50keep a stool in the kitchen, which I should probably start
- 27:54doing because cooking in the kitchen can take a long time and
- 27:59I definitely get very tired very quickly from cooking in the
- 28:04kitchen and just from standing up for a long time, like
- 28:07preparing the food. So that is a great hack.
- 28:10Someone said that they carry a sturdy cushion with them so that
- 28:14getting up from low seats becomes easy.
- 28:17I like this and I also should start doing this because often I
- 28:20find myself in public spaces using chairs that are a bit too
- 28:24low and I really struggle getting up from them.
- 28:27And just that extra little bit of height with a cushion would
- 28:31actually make such a difference. So yes, great idea.
- 28:35The only thing is though, I would just have to carry a
- 28:38cushion around with me all the time.
- 28:39But maybe I'll just keep a cushion in my car so that if I
- 28:42do end up going somewhere and I've parked nearby and there's
- 28:45the seats aren't very good, I can just pop to my car to get a
- 28:48cushion. Maybe I'll do that.
- 28:50Someone said I put ear tags on all my accessibility devices.
- 28:54I like to be safe during travelling.
- 28:57Ear tags is something I need to look into getting as well.
- 29:01Just in general, I think it's just such a good idea.
- 29:04If you like lose something in transit, you can track it.
- 29:08And that I think is just a brilliant hack, especially for
- 29:11wheelchairs that really expensive or other mobility
- 29:14devices that you don't want to lose because one, they're really
- 29:18expensive and two, you probably can't function without them.
- 29:20So it would be very handy to be able to track them.
- 29:23Someone said an aeroplane foot hammock really helps me.
- 29:27Oh I wish I'd seen this like before getting the plane to
- 29:32Denmark. But I have got a long haul
- 29:34flight to Iowa in another few weeks so maybe I'll get one for
- 29:39that. Aeroplane foot hammock.
- 29:42That sounds amazing, especially if you want to sleep.
- 29:45OK one more. A recent game changer for me
- 29:48recently has been an alternating wheelchair pressure cushion.
- 29:52Great circulation and comfort. No need to readjust every 3 to 5
- 29:56minutes of sitting and I can adjust the softness and firmness
- 30:00and it adjusts automatically. No aches, soreness or pressure
- 30:05sores. For wheelchair users of those
- 30:07with low body weight, I recommend I found one of Amazon.
- 30:11Oh, that sounds really good because yeah, one thing about
- 30:13being sat in a wheelchair for a long time is that your butt can
- 30:17get quite numb and you can get really uncomfortable.
- 30:20So that is a very good tip. I also actually that's reminded
- 30:24me of someone else I know with LGMD said that they buy, they
- 30:29bought like an electric blanket for the wheelchair.
- 30:33It's like a wheelchair specific one and it just kind of radiates
- 30:37a bit of heat. So just to keep you warm in the
- 30:40winter time. I know we're not in the winter
- 30:42at the moment, but it's a good thing to have to be prepared for
- 30:46next winter. But yeah, that is a really good
- 30:48hack and I love this pressure cushion idea, so I need to look
- 30:52into this too. Great tips.
- 30:54Like, I didn't know of any of these before and I will
- 30:57absolutely be looking into these because they sound absolutely
- 31:01amazing. So yeah, that's it for today's
- 31:03episode. I hope you enjoyed it.
- 31:05I'm really glad you guys were able to bear with me through
- 31:08this episode and made it to the end.
- 31:10I really appreciate your support.
- 31:13I want to hear from you guys though, like what are some life
- 31:15hacks that you have that you want to share?
- 31:19Anything that you think other people might benefit from,
- 31:22please let me know. Leave it in the comments of this
- 31:25episode or message me personally at Unbalanced podcast.
- 31:30You can also follow me on Instagram and TikTok at Cerys
- 31:33Davage if you want to follow me personally.
- 31:35And I'm doing a lot more content now, which I'm really enjoying.
- 31:38Yeah, that's it from me. Hope you enjoyed it.
- 31:42Thank you to Cure LGMD 2 I and BridgeBio for sponsoring this
- 31:45podcast, and I'm excited to share more about our own
- 31:50charity's journey with you very soon.
- 31:52But for now, go and check it out.
- 31:53Go and support and I will see you guys in the next episode.
- 31:57Bye.