• Mental Fitness

    05/02/2016 - By 

    I recognize this tight, dry, squeezing feeling in my chest. I recognize this smell of sweat and tightened brow. I recognize this headache. It’s you, Stress. You are not welcome back. You come for the oddest reasons and you out-stay your welcome. There are many reasons for you, most of them my own fault. You see, I get stressed for no reason during February when it is gray and I get a touch of seasonal depression that no amount of busy work can squash. I also get stressed when I take on too much. Which I do- always. I even…

  • Struggles and Goals.

    05/02/2016 - By 

    This year, 2016, seems like it has had a strong start. There have been sudden deaths (both celebrities(David Bowie was hard to hear about), and the elderly in my friend’s families, which was heartbreaking), but there has also been a lot of rebirth and strength—and even a few exciting actual births (twins!). I feel as if I was in a cocoon in 2015 and this will be my butterfly year. Corny metaphor, I know. But I really do feel like I am starting to get to the point where I am not afraid to blossom. More and more every day,…

  • Why I Want to Cry When My Alarm Goes Off

    29/01/2016 - By 

    I am NOT a morning person. I never have been. I take about two hours to feel like my eyes are fully open and I often feel energized at night time. Night time is when I suddenly feel the urge to start giant craft projects or when I have my best writing ideas. My daughter calls me Snorlax, the famous sleepy Pokemon character who seldom wakes up and is motivated by food. She’s not far off. My kids laugh at me when I sleep in on weekends, asking me why I “love sleeping so much”. It’s not that I’m depressed…

  • My “New” Journey

    15/01/2016 - By 

    I am an arrogant idiot. There, I said it. Or I was. I was one of those “I looked up some fit quotes and ten articles about fitness, and now I know everything” assholes. Well then, if I know everything, why was I yo-yoing between 10 lbs from a healthy weight to 60 lbs away from it for years? Why did I look in the mirror and still see 200lb me from ten years ago??   I always thought, since I am not obese anymore, I didn’t need help. Judgmental, control freak me said that if I couldn’t do it…

  • Diva Cup Review

    29/11/2015 - By 

    Okay girls, let’s talk about our period. Specifically, how we stop the flow. Over the years I have tried a lot of the brands of pads and tampons, even OB which comes without an applicator. Which kind of grossed me out, so it makes no sense that I would try the Diva Cup. But yet….   Every month I curse nature that I get my period and that it costs me so much money. Before having kids I had such a heavy and thick period that I would have to change my tampon every 3 hours. Since having kids, my…

  • ‘Girl’ Does Not Have to Be A Four Letter Word

    26/09/2015 - By 

    Let’s talk about the word ‘girly’. People have attached a meaning to girly that I don’t see it as. It is synonymous, in our Western culture, with ‘airhead’, ‘weak’, ‘self-absorbed’ or ‘flaky’. This might sound a bit hardcore feminist but I feel that in our society- either subconsciously or consciously- men are seen as the strength and women are seen as vulnerable or weak. Being girly or feminine is seen as a weakness. Conversations happen all the time where a woman will say, “Well you know how I’m not girly at all, but I bought a dress! A dress! I…

  • The Power of Being Alone

    09/09/2015 - By 

    Wondering Wednesday: The Power of Being Alone. I recently had coffee with a friend who went on a month long trip and spent some of that time traveling alone. Normally an extremely social person who likes to have a friend along, she decided that this time she would do some of it on her own. She looked at landmarks, asked for help and had to trouble shoot some unforeseen problems with arrangements. She did it and feels proud (I am proud of her!) and is now more comfortable being by herself. She stretched her comfort zone to bring about personal…

  • How To Deal with Toxic People

    22/08/2015 - By 

    Friends, we have all dealt with toxic people before. In our workplace, random strangers, our family, our friend group, our schools…. and introverts or overly sensitive and kindhearted people are the easiest targets. It’s a jungle out there, and we all are slaves to our cave-person tendencies. Toxic people are predators that can sniff out a willing victim from miles away, sometimes subconsciously. They spot out those people who are givers and intuitively know that this person will drain their own resources to make them happy. Be careful since they will never announce themselves. Toxic people know they have to…

  • How Food Logging Made Me Fat and What I Did to Change it.

    11/07/2015 - By 

    Once upon a time I was a chubby teenager that turned in to a pretty large adult. It wasn’t about looks so much as energy level and health that snapped every thing in to perspective for me and made me want to change. That makes it sound like it was an a-ha moment for me. It wasn’t. I struggled for years and years. I was anorexic in Grade 9, and a binge eater all through high school.  While I was in University I got in to dancing at raves. That helped a lot to keep my weight manageable, but my…

  • Self Care and Reflection

    10/06/2015 - By 

    Have you ever had those days….weeks….months where you take on too much? You jot down too many tasks, say yes to too many commitments, and internalize too many problems? May was that month for me. Just too much. Very busy, and too many commitments. On top of it all, I fought a cold that entire month and wouldn’t admit the overload of tasks was creating the funk feeling (and the sickness) instead of helping alleviate it. In June, I secretly vowed, I will be all about self-care and slow down. But no, because between two kids finishing school, friend birthdays,…