Striving for Health & Simplicity

It's hard to believe that today is the last day of November! I can't believe how fast this month has flown by! My final challenge of the month was to shop the flyers more. My new career provides me with an amazing team to work with, fantastic flexibility, and amazing benefits, but the paycheque is lacking. I knew when I accepted this position I would have to make some sacrifices. One of the biggest sacrifices I have made in the last month is not being as "free" with my grocery money. My parents did an amazing job raising us three girls, and one of the biggest lessons I learned from my mother was how to budget our money appropriately. Especially when it came to grocery shopping. I love looking for a good deal, and couponing! At one point I had a whole binder dedicated to coupons, now that I'm eating real food and making a lot of my cleaning supplies this isn't really needed but I still have to save money somehow! A lot of my diet consists of beans, veggie...

It's hard to believe that we are only eight days away from November being over! This month has honestly flown by. There have been a lot of adjustments happening as an after effect of last months changes, but I still wanted to make sure I accomplished my goals! I have a beautiful kitchen. It was designed and built by my father to fit the space perfectly. Upon walking into the kitchen I feel a great sense of happiness and peace, this is probably one room of my apartment I'll miss most once I'm married. I love spending time in my kitchen, and honestly it's probably where I have the most "stuff". I cleaned out two boxes worth of stuff this weekend by following the below tips. 1) Separate- I separated everything into what I use on a daily, monthly, or occasional basis. I specifically focused on decluttering what I only use on an occasional basis. I asked myself how often I used an item, whether something else I had would fit that purpose, and if someone else(ie...

I am a recovering sugar addict. I love sugar, of any form! Some of my favourite forms of sugar would be candy, cakes, and milk chocolate bars. Over the last ten weeks I've been working incredibly hard on transforming my eating habits, creating a new lifestyle when it comes to eating, and really eliminating added sugars to my diet. My PCOS has seen incredible improvement since I changed my eating habits ten weeks ago, and that's my motivation to keep going on this journey. Unfortunately, this weekend brought me right back to the start in some ways. Over the weekend there were many birthday celebrations bringing with them many different types of foods, and a lot of cakes! I indulged in a lot of things that I worked so hard to cut out of my diet, simply because they were in front of me. It was the first time I had been in a setting multiple times in a row that had tempting food, and unfortunately I gave in. Giving in caused me to not only feel defeated, but by Sunday afternoon I...

November has dawned, we are almost half way through November. I always find November to be a very difficult month. It's an in between month as I like to call it. The leaves have fallen off the trees and need to be raked, but we haven't reached the point of significant snowfall yet either. November brings a time of cooler weather, darker evenings, and absolutely no desire to go outside. Last November I had a gym membership so I had no excuse to not exercise, this year I'm not so fortunate. A switch in jobs brought some sacrifices and my gym membership was the first thing to go. I've had to be more creative with how I'm going to get more physical activity into my day, and honestly I haven't been doing great at it. We are going to increase our physical activity slowly, but here's how we are going to start! We spend most of our time at Mr's house, which is within walking distance to a market, pharmacy, and Tim Hortons. Anytime we need something at one of...

Whether we want to admit it not November is officially here! In Eastern Canada this means it's time to make sure our cars are undercoated, put those winter tires on, and pull out all things winter! November started off fantastic for me! I've reached the twenty pounds lost mark. I am incredibly proud of myself for achieving this goal, and super excited to work towards the next goal! I am only twelve pounds away from my ideal weight. Years ago I was told that my ideal weight would help in decreasing the symptoms of my PCOS. I never thought that my ideal weight was achievable, but I'm close enough now to see that I might actually be able to achieve it! November generally brings the start of the Christmas season whether it's through the shopping, parties, or general preparations. This November I want to make sure that I achieve some other goals and not get caught up in the busy times. I've set three goals for the month. Goal One: Increase Physical Activity Goal Two...