My second week turned out a lot better than my first week with regards to my goals, for which I am quite proud of. My daily routine became much easier to stick to (thankfully) and I have begun to notice some differences with how I feel mentally (not so foggy brained) and my stomach feels lighter and not so heavy feeling. This has made attaining my goals that much easier to accomplish.
So here is how I did with last week’s goals:
1-2 pound weight loss. I maintained my weight but did not lose anything extra.
Continue to maintain my vegetarian diet with a meal plan This is becoming easier and easier!
Yoga fours times this week. Honestly, yoga has become my favourite new form of exercise. It leaves me feeling so refreshed from head to toe.
Daily evening meditation.
Daily squat, lunge, push up and crunch challenge with a fitness calendar. I posted my calendar on the fridge so now I have no excuses! I go through each day highlighting what I have completed.
Two litres of water a day
10,000 steps minimum a day. I did it!! I am so proud of myself – all week I reached a minimum of 10,000 steps.
Daily morning detox tea I am using Purgo teatox which I love.
This week’s goals:
1-2 pound weight loss.
Yoga four times this week.
Daily evening meditation.
Daily squat, lunge, push up, crunch and plank challenge.
Two litres of water a day.
11,000 steps a day (got to up my goal a bit!).
Two 3km walks.
Here is my big surprise: I am taking part in the Canaccord Genuity Great Camp Adventure Walk on September 26th! I am officially ‘in training’ mode as my team-mate would like to complete the 10km walk. You will find more out on my upcoming walk for this great cause this week.
Don’t forget to enter my giveaway to win a $50 Shoppers Drug Mart gift card!
My first week is officially done in my healthy lifestyle challenge and I had quite a few ups and downs. While I am not 100% happy with how well I committed to it, I can’t look back but only forward as tomorrow is always a new day. I need to focus on my overall health and well being and each positive and healthy step forward is a win for me.
So here is the breakdown:
Last week’s goals:
2 pound weight loss. Completed!! Woohoo!!
Follow my vegetarian diet with a meal plan. I stuck to this like glue and while I wish I had some additional emotional support for this change I am happy with how I feel and I am sure my loved ones will too over time.
Yoga four times a week. I managed to complete my yoga practice twice this week and it made me feel so good! I love how my body feels so relaxed afterwards and this will be something I will do more of.
Daily evening meditation. While I did complete this in the bath (the only time I am given absolute and complete silence) it still felt good to just quiet my mind and focus on nothing.
Daily squat, lunge, push up and crunch challenge. I actually kind of forgot about this one so this week I am going to make a fitness calendar to keep myself on track!
Run daily for five minutes (I am starting out here!!). Does chasing after kids at soccer count??
Stay hydrated with eight glasses of water a day. This is the part I loved the most and left me feeling less bloated.
10,000 step minimum a day. Oops, not even close! I was very bad last week while on vacation!
This week’s goal:
1-2 pound weight loss
Continue to maintain my vegetarian diet with a meal plan.
Yoga fours times this week.
Daily evening meditation.
Daily squat, lunge, push up and crunch challenge with a fitness calendar.
Two litres of water a day.
10,000 steps minimum a day.
Daily morning detox tea.
Make sure you check out my initial post on my healthy start and enter to win a giveaway to focus on your healthy start!
Since one of the areas I wanted to re-focus and examine is what I am eating and change-up my diet, I thought it would be a pretty great idea to kick this off with a detox. But where to start? I have seen many ‘detox’ diets online but these are not for me. I could not stick to a liquid diet nor would I be able to do so and have energy for work and the boys. What I was looking for was that something that could help heal my gut that would be easy to follow and not be too restrictive.
I was on Twitter when I came across Purgo Teatox on Twitter. After heading over to their website, I read the incredible story that founded the Purgo Tea and realized I had a lot in common with Ben. Over the last couple of years, I have been neglecting my health, making poor choices and constantly remained stressed. Some days my stomach hurt and other days I just had poor energy levels. I was not myself but did not know where to start. I started by removing gluten from my diet but even this alone was not enough. I needed something natural to help heal my gut from the inside out.
Purgo Tea is a two tea system that works by using all natural tea formulas to cleanse, detoxify and balance your body. It comes in either a fourteen day plan or a twenty-eight day plan.
The Morning Detox is had to drink every morning before you consume food or coffee. The Morning Detox contains: sencha, goji, dandelion, lemon grass, hibiscus, chamomile, acai and ginseng. It has a pleasant taste (better than some of the other herbal teas I have tried) with a slightly pink/red colour to it. I added the tiniest amount of honey to sweeten it up but the hardest part was remembering to have my cup before I had my coffee. For some reason I had such a hard time with this! Purgo Tea recommends using a calendar to help remember to drink this first which I found beneficial for me in remembering to brew my tea first.
The Evening Cleanse is made every other night and works to help relieve bloating naturally and effectively. The Evening Cleanse is made up of Locust plant, sencha, key lime, lotus leaf, cassla see, pu’reh, oolong and chamomile. I found this was extremely effective at cleansing my body but I usually saw the results the night after which was nice because other natural cleansers can be quite painful and immediate. I found the tea relaxing and semi sweet with no need to add anything extra in.
Purgo Tea encourages you to follow these four steps: drink your morning detox tea, eat nourishing food, exercise for at least thirty minutes and drink your evening cleanse. I love that Purgo Tea encourages you to live healthy and nourish your body instead of starving it or restricting it. While I did not lose extra weight on the detox, I felt better inside and out, less bloated and my stomach felt lighter (if you have ever suffered from food sensitivities I am sure you know what I mean!).
You can find more about Purgo Tea on their website, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Orders can be placed on their website and shipping is free in Canada.
Have you tried a tea detox before? What are your experiences and what do you look for?
Disclosure: I received a fourteen day trial of the above mentioned products free of charge in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
As many of you may know I am the Mother to two beautiful young boys. I have also suffered with PCOS, survived four miscarriages and seven years of failing to conceive. This has never been an easy topic for me to discuss because of all the pain and frustration that goes along with miscarriage and failing to conceive. But the truth is, we are not alone. 1 in 5 couples will have difficulties conceiving. Many of my female readers reading this post will have lived through a miscarriage or infertility. We can each take a positive step at this very moment with patience and forgiveness. The Stork wants to help take care of the science part (because let’s face it if you have been dealing with fertility issues you understand that becoming pregnant comes down to science) with their home conception aid.
My journey started over eight years ago after the birth of my first son. I have always loved children and wanted a large family but this was not meant for me as we soon found out after I miscarried three times in one year. The pain of these miscarriages was awful and haunted me for months afterwards. I kept thinking what would my child have been like? Following these miscarriages came the worst six years of my life. I could not conceive at all. I was barely having monthly menstrual cycles. I saw an endocrinologist, a gynecologist, a homeopath and finally a fertility clinic. I put myself through rounds of vitamins and medications that made me so sick I couldn’t leave the house at times. I also knew that I could not afford the fertility treatments that I wanted so badly. That hurt even more.
Here are some tools to help you on your journey to pregnancy and parenthood:
Be Patient.
Pregnancy does not just happen right away so be kind to yourself and be patient. These little miracles can take time to happen. Some couples can even take up to a year to conceive!
Be Forgiving.
Do not be hard on yourself. It is not your fault that becoming pregnant is not happening right away. Don’t blame yourself or your partner. Learn to be kind to yourself.
Try to focus on the positive.
While it can seem impossible to see the light at the end of the tunnel, it will come. In the meantime focus on the positives in your life. Focus on de-stressing, eating right and getting enough exercise. Take time out for you even if it means reading a book in the bath! These little things help.
Speak With Your Doctor
Take the first steps to talk with your doctor. They may want to order blood work to rule out any causes for infertility. They may order other tests but it is always a good idea to keep your family health care team informed of your concerns and what is going on with your health.
Try a Home Based Conception Aid
The Stork has invented a safe and private way to help couples conceive at home. Dealing with fertility treatments can be personal and most of the time we crave our privacy (I was one of those individuals – it hurt to sit in the waiting room at the fertility clinics and it hurt to see others in the middle of their pregnancies). I was hurting and wanted to be able to take control of the situation more.
The Stork home conception aid uses a cervical cap insemination method. The Stork uses a condom like sheath that collects the sperm and a tampon like applicator to deliver the sperm close to the cervical opening. This helps to increase the chance of pregnancy (the success rate of this method is 20% which is comparable to the 16-21% success rates of IUIs). The Stork home conception kit is drug free, safe and a cost efficient first step on your pregnancy journey. The Stork provides a first step in fertility treatment for couples that are experiencing low sperm count, sperm mobility issues, unfavourable vaginal environments and ovulation timing.
Here is how it works:
The best part:
The Stork and Working Mommy Journal want to give you the chance to win your own Stork home conception aid!
Canadian residents can enter via the rafflecopter form below – good luck!
If you are looking for more chances to win check out Influence Central’s The Stork Social Engagement Contest (with a grand prize of a $500 Visa gift card!!). You can enter here.
Disclosure: I am part of The Stork at-home conception aid campaign with Influence Central and I receive special parks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.
This one word has a way of drawing out raw emotions, heated arguments and debates. Today I want to speak with you about my own personal experiences with vaccinations and break down the current Ontario Immunization schedule.
As many of you know, I have been blessed to work as a Clinical Team Assistant in a family medicine unit. I have been able to bring a woman in for her first prenatal appointment and prepare the visit for her family doctor. We watch the baby grow and joke near the end of their pregnancy that it feels like they have been pregnant forever. When baby comes in for the first time you feel like they are a part of the family! Getting to hold their child warms my heart. It is incredible and humbling to be able to watch families grow over time. When a member of that family becomes ill it breaks your heart.
For many parents the problem with vaccines is the abundance of conflicting information online, the information given by a well-meaning individual and the fear of the unknown. Open and honest communication with your family health care provider is essential from the start of your pregnancy right through to your delivery and your child’s first newborn visit to ensure you feel comfortable in the decisions you make and with the relationship you have with your family health care team. Your family physician has your child’s best interests at heart. They would never prescribe your child anything that would harm them or that they would not need nor would they recommend a vaccine that could potentially harm your child. A patient becomes like a member of your family and their best interests are always the main concern for a family physician. Talk to your family health care team – if you don’t understand what you saw on the news or in a magazine bring it in to your appointment and address your concerns.
Here is some information to help you understand and appreciate the vaccination process.
What is a vaccine?
Vaccines are preparations made up of a specific selection of dead or weakened bacteria or viruses which are administered orally, by injection or through inhalation. When these dead or weakened bacteria or viruses enter a person’s system the body responds by producing antibodies that attack and kill the organisms without causing the serious symptoms that occur during a real infection.
Why do children need immunizations?
Our children are born with a degree of natural, inherited immunity which they acquire during pregnancy from their mother’s blood. That immunity is reinforced during breastfeeding as breast milk is rich in antibodies. Unfortunately, this passive inherited immunity is only temporary and wears off during the first year of life. This leaves your child open to a host of diseases.
Vaccination is the only tool that we have to prevent these diseases. Vaccines allow our body to build up antibodies to prevent diseases. We ensure our child has proper nutrition and exercise to grow strong and vaccines are the only way to ensure their immune system stays strong.
Vaccines do not make your child sick. Think of your last needle – did it hurt? It may have felt like a sting or a pinch but well worth the benefit of protecting against the disease. Both of my boys received all of their immunizations without Tylenol or Advil and developed no fever or irritability after their immunizations.
Children that cannot receive vaccines due to being immune-compromised or who are too young, count on their community for protection. Herd immunity only works when the community as a whole vaccinate.
When/Why do we receive vaccines on a certain timeline?
Your child’s vaccines are scheduled at certain developmental milestones and it is important to ensure you are staying on track with this schedule. This schedule was developed to ensure your child receives these vaccines when their body is ready for them as well as to provide protection against vaccine-preventable disease as early as possible. They are combined with important well baby visits at two, four, six, twelve, fifteen and eighteen months of age.
Let’s break down the current immunization schedule in Ontario for children up to the age of six:
Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio and Haemophilus influenza type b: The five in one protection vaccine. This vaccine given at 2, 4, 6 and 18 months protects your child from diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whopping cough), polio and Haemophilius Influenza type b also known as Hib which can cause meningitis.
Tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis and polio: The four in one protection vaccine. This vaccine, given at 4 to 6 years of age, protects against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whopping cough) and polio.
Pneumococcal: This vaccine is given at 2,4 and 12 months of age and protects your child from pneumococcal meningitis, pneumonia, ear and blood infections.
Rotavirus: This oral vaccine is given at 2 and 4 months of age to help prevent and lessen the severity of gastro (stomach) bugs.
Measles, Mumps, Rubella: This vaccine is given at 12 months. This vaccine protects children from measles, mumps and rubella.
Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Varicella: The four in one protection vaccine. This vaccine is given between 4 to 6 years of age and protects against measles, mumps, rubella and varicella.
Meningococcal: This vaccine given at 12 months of age protects against meningitis an infection that lines your child’s spinal cord and brain.
Varicella: This vaccine is given at 15 months of age and protects against chickenpox. In some children, chickenpox can cause severe skin infections, scars, pneumonia or brain damage.
Vaccine Safety
Vaccines are constantly tested to ensure safety for patients. Patient safety is the top priority for our health care system. Vaccines do not cause disease nor do they cause autism.
Why is this important?
For many of us we can’t imagine the suffering that comes from these diseases let alone the symptoms that accompany them. This is because of how effective vaccines have been in eliminating once common and prevalent diseases.
My children will never know the scars and itchiness from chickenpox that afflicted me twice as a child. Nor will they hopefully ever lose a loved one from meningitis as my husband did when he lost his older brother as a child.
This is why we vaccinate – to prevent the preventable. It is so very important for not only the health of our children to vaccinate but the health of our most vulnerable population in our community.
Getting immunized is an important part of creating a foundation for a healthy life. If you’re on the fence about immunizing, here is the information you need to make an informed decision for your family:
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
