Getting Fit, Organized and Healthy

Reducing Antidepressants, First reduction, days 7-9

2012-02-09T17:08:00.000-05:00

So, here's what I'm figuring out. It can be hard to tell if the withdrawal symptom you're experiencing is an actual symptom of the withdrawal from the medication or just a regular part of life. Mood swings are a normal thing for me at certain times of the month in particular. How am I supposed to know if I'm angry because I have PMS or because the dose of my medication has changed? I guess

Getting Healthy: Antidepressant Taper Days 1-5

2012-02-06T02:43:00.000-05:00

It's a kind of new day for me. After doing some serious research, I decided that I was ready to start tapering off of my antidepressant medication. I talked with my doctor and he agreed that I was in a good place to make the change. I began my taper on Wednesday. I'm glad that I did the research, because my doctor really didn't give me a lot of information. His plan is for me to taper by

Upping My Water Intake

2012-01-25T22:17:00.002-05:00

As part of my goal to keep getting healthier, I decided to make it a point to drink more water. Being dehydrated can cause a lot of physical problems, like headaches. I know this, but it's not always top of my mind. I had looked at Fly Lady's water bottle which looked really good because it had a straw. It's supposed to be something you're more likely to use. I would have bought Fly Lady's

I Either Have Too Much on My Plate or I've Bitten off More than I Can Chew

2012-01-23T18:39:00.001-05:00

I had the absolute best of intentions, but I've taken on way more than I can deliver on this month. I signed up for the Vegan Body Building Challenge on top of everything else I'm doing to get healthier. It wasn't meant to be. I started out getting some exercise in a few days on the first week and suddenly realized that it was too much. Starting from nothing and working out 5 days a week

Walgreens Prescription Savings Club

2012-01-19T05:00:00.001-05:00

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Getting Fitter: Vegan Body Builder Challenge

2012-01-04T22:54:00.000-05:00

I don't normally make new year's resolutions because they are usually made to be broken, but this year, I kind of did. I signed up for the Vegan BodyBuilder Challenge. Crazy, right? I'm not going to start trying to bodybuild or anything just yet. First, I've got to lose some weight. Anyway, the challenge is to update your training journal five times a week for the entire month. I

Babystepping Toward Health

2011-12-30T16:11:00.000-05:00

I'm excited to be able to say that I started writing seriously this week. I've had an idea that I've been thinking about writing for quite awhile, and this week I finally did something about it. I've spent about an hour each evening working on it. Not sure where it is going at the moment, but it feels good to be doing it. I was partly inspired by this quote that was tweeted this week:

My Village

2011-12-27T15:04:00.000-05:00

Little things have been happening that have shown me that I am not alone in my daily battle with depression. The phrase "It takes a village to raise a child" has been going through my head. It seems it also takes a village to beat depression. The picture is of the village my father grew up in, Matera, Italy. It is known for the "sassi" or caves. The houses were built right into the caves.

I'm Still Standing

2011-12-08T00:52:00.001-05:00

This song came to mind when I was thinking of what to write tonight, so I went with it. I've never seen the video before, and I've gotta say, it's a little weird. Rather than get into a critique of 80s style, I'll get back to my post. I've been quiet for a few weeks on this blog, but even quieter on my other blogs. I don't know quite how, but I wound up in a depressed slump. Sometimes

Vegan Mofo: My 5 Favourite Kitchen Tools

2011-10-28T22:45:00.000-04:00

Well, I had good intentions, but life got in the way, and I didn't share as much as I had planned to for Vegan Mofo. To be honest, I haven't made anything super exciting for the last while anyway. I thought I'd wrap up the month by talking about things that I found useful for me in the last year or so since I decided to follow a vegan diet. My 5 Favourite Tools: 1. Hot-Air Popcorn Maker: OK,

Create Positive Change with Aviva Community Fund

2011-10-27T23:01:00.001-04:00

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Straight Talk About Straight Talk

2011-10-21T13:02:00.001-04:00

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Vegan Mofo: Crockpot Soup

2011-10-12T21:31:00.001-04:00

If you've read my blog before, you know that I love my crockpot. It's so easy to throw things in, push a button and leave it. You come back a few hours later and dinner is ready. Easy-peasy! I used my crockpot before I was vegan, but I think I use it more now. Soup is one of my favourite things to make, especially on days like today--it was a rainy, dark day and soup would hit the spot. We

Vegan Mofo: Banana Loaf

2011-10-08T22:07:00.001-04:00

Monday is Thanksgiving here in Canada and my extended family had our Thanksgiving dinner tonight. Sometimes it's hard to be vegan at an Italian gathering. I love pasta, but it was canaloni, so it was stuffed with cheese. No pasta for me. But that's OK because I had lots of great veggies to eat. I even ate some rapini even though it's not my favourite vegetable. I find it very bitter, but it

Vegan Mofo: Buckwheat Pancakes

2011-10-07T18:13:00.001-04:00

It's been a crazy week and today was another crazy day. I had a lot of running around to do, so by the time I got home with two hungry kids in tow (and a hungry hubby), I needed a quick dinner. We've had pasta twice this week (I love leftover sauce!), so that was out. So, I went with quick and easy and made pancakes tonight. Apparently I make pancakes a lot, because on my Klout score,

Vegan Mofo: Carrot Fries

2011-10-06T18:19:00.002-04:00

I thought I'd try something new tonight. I had been looking for recipes last week to use some of the carrots that I had on hand, and this one caught my eye. I started with a recipe from www.vegweb.com. You can find it here: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=15346.0. I didn't have everything listed in the recipe, so I winged it. I peeled and cut the carrots using a Pampered Chef tool that I

Vegan Mofo is Back! Pasta & What's in the Fridge Sauce

2011-10-03T18:49:00.000-04:00

October is the Vegan Month of Food, also known as Vegan MoFo! Last year was my first year participating. You can find a blog roll of all of this year's participants at www.veganmofo.com. I've now been vegan for a little over a year and I'm very happy with the decision I made to move to a plant based diet. I'm still learning as I go. Tonight's dinner is going to be pasta and "What's in the

Vegan Recipes on VegWeb.com

2011-09-13T05:30:00.000-04:00

Last year, I found out about a lot of new things as a vegan. One thing I learned about was the Vegan Month of Food (also known as vegan MOFO). It was a neat way to join the community of vegan bloggers and find out more about different foods that vegans eat. One Web site I found during this time was VegWeb. I like this Web site because it has a lot of great recipes. There are other features

Slightly More Organized, A Lot Healthier

2011-09-10T01:01:00.000-04:00

I can't believe how fast the summer has passed me by. It was pretty good as far as getting more organized and more healthy. Getting fit? Not so much. I was able to declutter a lot this summer. I got pretty ruthless, but I'm hoping to be able to telecommute for my job soon, so I need office space. To get office space, I had to stop procrastinating and start doing. I've said it before, but

Straight Talk About Cell Phones

2011-08-30T15:00:00.002-04:00

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Getting Organized: Decluttering

2011-08-22T12:57:00.000-04:00

OK, so we know that I fell off the exercise train again, but I've been pretty good about staying with decluttering. I honestly don't know how we've ended up with so much "stuff" in our little house. Stuff seems to own us and it seems to multiply when we're not looking. I've taken 2 garbage bags full of clothes out of the closet my husband and I share. He has clothes that he has owned since

Things that I Think About

2011-08-21T01:08:00.000-04:00

I've been doing some thinking lately. People always worry when I start thinking. You may have noticed that my Getting Back to Fit posts fizzled out after the third post. There's a reason for that. I didn't get past three days of exercising. How pathetic is that? I know it takes time to build a routine, but why can't I stay motivated long enough to build a routine? "Going" vegan wasn't

Getting Fit: Back to Exercise with my Wii Fit Day 3

2011-08-04T00:35:00.000-04:00

Another evening, another 15 minutes of Wii Fit time under my belt. (Actually, I did 16 minutes today!). I also logged my fit credits for the walk I took with the girls today. I like seeing my minutes of movement adding up. I'm not feeling super amazing or anything, but it's early days. My Wii fit age went up today from 32 yesterday to 51 today. Wow! I guess I'm just not very co-ordinated

Getting Fit: Back to Exercise with my Wii Fit Day 2

2011-08-03T00:35:00.000-04:00

Got back on the Wii Fit tonight. It wasn't easy because I was really tired, but I did it. Somehow, my weight came down .4 kg since yesterday--a little fishy, yes? And my Wii Fit age dropped to 32! Considering yesterday I was 11 years older than my age, it's a 17 year difference. Very strange. Oh well. I got in 15 minutes of aerobic and training activities today. Started with the

Getting Fit: Back to Exercise with my Wii Fit

2011-08-02T00:59:00.000-04:00

We had to go out of town for the weekend and we ended up staying in a hotel. Why is it that hotel bathrooms feature huge mirrors? The bathroom is tiny, but you get out of the shower and you are face to face with the truth about how your body looks naked. What I saw was not pretty. I've been focusing my energy lately on being healthier through diet and chiropractic. Now it's time to get