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Lori Logorrhea

~ Just a girl with a lot to say!

Lori Logorrhea

Category Archives: About me

Going gluten-free changed my life

12 Saturday Jul 2014

Posted by lorifranze in About me, Advice & Recommendations, Health & Fitness

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Bard's gluten-free beer, dairy-free, gluten-free, Hashimotos, Tori's bakeshop

Over a month ago I posted that I was going to try going gluten-free to help with the symptoms of my auto-immune disease Hashimotos. I was sadly a different person – tired, grumpy, didn’t feel as excited to face each day as I used to. They are dozens of symptoms that go with this disease but everyone is affected differently.

Even this years birthday cake was gluten-free

Even this years birthday cake was gluten-free

So gluten-free was going to be something I tried. I started with a meal delivery service that was gluten-free, vegetarian and dairy-free but things really didn’t take off til I did my 10 day transformation cleanse. You can read more about it here.

I look back to the date of that post about my 10 day journey and realize that it was just two months ago but so much has changed, for the better!

  • the weight I lost has stayed off or at least the inches have
  • I have more energy and drive that has me back in the gym lifting weights and doing more to be active
  • I feel less agitated and more content with things in general

Now, I am not going to push gluten-free living and I know some medical professionals say it can be bad for you if you are not suffering from celiac, what I will say is that you have to listen to your body and find out what works best for it. Mine obviously prefers to be gluten-free, dairy-free and 99% caffeine free. I have also given up diet pop as part of this process.

There are surprisingly so many options these days for gluten-frees (that is what I will call us people who avoid the G stuff). Here is a list of some of my favourites:

Bard’s Gluten-Free Beer – I tried a couple and this one is the most tasty to my preferred flavour profile. It is a pale beer with no bitter, hoppy taste.

Tori’s Bake Shop – they made the yummy cake pictured above. I’ve had several items on their menu and their coffees – delish.

Green Zebra – this is where I order my meals from to help me through the week. It is really helpful when I get busy and don’t have time to cook lunches.

St. Anne’s Bakery – a bit of a distance but if you have a friend spending a day there call in your order the day before. I recommend the hamburger buns, raison bread and the lasagna (note it isn’t dairy free). Get several trays of the lasagna!

O’Doughs – they totally live up to their tag line. “Too good to be gluten-free”. Available at Loblaws, Whole Foods and Organic Garage, they are the best buns I have tasted. It is nice to be able to enjoy a BBQ in the summer.

Today I plan to check out a gluten-free bakery in Dundas while visiting there. If you have a gluten-free find, share it with me!

Going Gluten-Free

15 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by lorifranze in About me, Health & Fitness

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

gluten, gluten-free, Hashimotos, hypothyroidism

This is a short post… almost a cry for help. Well not a cry (that’s just me being a drama  queen) just a request. I am attempting to go gluten-free to help with my Hashimoto’s (read more about my broken thyroid) and am going to start researching how to start living sans gluten! If you have some advice, tips, recipes please share. I will try and chronicle my journey here. I don’t anticipate success right out of the gate!

Happy New Year

01 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by lorifranze in About me

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

ball drop, happy new years, Rockefeller tree, time square

I want to wish you all a happy new year and felt it timely to let you all know what the banner picture is at the top of my blog. It is never more relevant than today and yesterday.

2 years ago I was given a trip to NYC to see the big tree at Rockefeller by my dad.

Most beautiful tree

Most beautiful tree

To warm up while in Times Square (it was early December) we stepped in to a museum focused on Time Square and the New Years tradition. We got to write a wish for the new year on a tiny piece of tissue paper that actually gets loaded in to the ball. When midnight strikes they release all the bits of paper on to those celebrating down below. That picture is of a portion of the hopes and wishes that were going in to the ball that year.

I loved the colours and the idea of everyone’s wishes for the year being on those scrapes of paper. I hope all your dreams for 2014 come true. At a minimum I wish you health and happiness, when you have those everything else is just gravy.

23andme DNA Analysis Results

10 Sunday Nov 2013

Posted by lorifranze in About me

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

23andme, asparagus pee, BRCA test, DNA analysis

I had posted quite some time ago about submitting a tube of saliva for analysis and that I would share the results. As a female I can only get results for my maternal line but there was still loads of interesting information to read and I am still going through all of it. Here are some highlights:

  • I am 2.9% neanderthal which is a bit concerning since that is 0.2% more than the average European user of 23andme
  • I am 95.5% European – no surprise there and 0.1% of east asian and native american and also sub-saharan african
  • I am a H2a2a and H is the most common group for Europeans especially in Scandinavia. H2a is common in Eastern Europeans and H2a1 is highest in Slavic speaking people such as Russians and Ukrainians – this aligns accurately to my maternal grandparents

The most useful part of the test was the medical information (of course used as guidance not gospel). Here are some of the insights:

I have an elevated risk for:

  • Type 2 diabetes
  • Atrial Fibrillation
  • Age-related Macular Degeneration
  • Rheumatoid Arthritis

Oddly it says I have a lower risk for Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis which I actually have but it is understandable that they are basing it on people who share my ethnicity and genotype.

When looking at inherited conditions I seem to be free of anything that I could have inherited including the BRCA Cancer mutations that they can detect. Good news!

There is also a whole section on your response to drugs which can be helpful when getting prescribed something by the doctor.

They also have some traits that aren’t as meaningful as health risks like:

  • I don’t have alcohol flush which means booze would taste bad
  • Asparagus Metabolic detection – so being able to smell asparagus pee – if you have this you know what I mean!
  • My earwax is wet (ew!) and my eye colour is likely blue

I recommend taking the spit test – you might find something out about yourself that could be helpful in the future. Check it out

Who Am I?

22 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by lorifranze in About me

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

23 and me, 23andme.com, DNA, genotyping, health markers

So I am sending back my tube of saliva (yup you read that right) … I am doing a DNA test that will tell me all about myself:

dna collection

Spit tube!

  • 240 health conditions
  • 40+ inherited
  • my lineage, ethnicities

If you are interested in finding out the same – just send in some spit! 🙂

Check it out – 23 and me – can’t wait to share the results with you.

A rant against captivity

12 Sunday May 2013

Posted by lorifranze in About me

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Blackfish, Blackfish the movie, captivity, killer whales, Lolita, marineland, miami seaquarium, orca, Ric O'Barry, seaworld, tilikum

Growing up I loved dolphins and whales. Even killer whales who were portrayed as savages in the movie Orca. I thought that I would grow up to be a marine zoologist and work with these animals in some capacity. Well, my challenges with science sort of put an end to that dream but I did work summers at Marineland in a hut called the Hungry Squirrel. As a 13 year old it wasn’t a bad job – pouring pop and scooping popcorn for tourists AND I got to be close to the animals I loved.  In the winters I would play catch with the dolphins at the indoor aquarium – It was great!

Of course I didn’t think about the animals lives before they arrived at King Waldorf’s castle (if you have seen the show at Marineland you know what I am referring to!).   Now you won’t catch me anywhere near an establishment like Marineland let alone working at one.  I have learned over the years about the horrible hunts and slaughters and just how dolphins and orcas think and behave in the wild. (Don’t criticize me for my late coming to this party, Ric O’Barry the trainer of Flipper used to help capture dolphins down in Miami before becoming a voice against captivity)

Blackfish the movieLast week I saw the movie Blackfish at Hot Docs and years ago I cried sobbed through the Canadian debut of The Cove.  Both of these movies focus on captivity and the horrible acts that are done to support the billion dollar industry of marine mammal parks like Marineland and Seaworld. Both movies have left me thinking and trying to figure out what I can do to help.

Dolphins are still being slaughtered in Taiji, Japan for the sake of feeding the pipeline of dolphins needed for aquariums and swim with dolphin programs in tourist destinations.  Tilikum is still in his prison at Seaworld and he has 3 trainer deaths on his record. Another orca named Lolita also has a film focused on her and the plight for her retirement after 40+ years working at the Miami Seaquarium – you can watch it on Youtube. This movie was released 10 years ago and this poor killer whale still resides in a small pool that is actually illegal for her size.

Tilikum's dorsal fin doesn't stand erect like his free counterparts

Tilikum’s dorsal fin doesn’t stand erect like his free counterparts

Now whether or not you believe the whistleblowers at Marineland or feel that this is a free-market and these attractions create jobs and feed the economy, you have to have some empathy for these majestic animals when you see them in these small pools forced to jump and spin and splash in order to be fed.  It is belittling and unnecessary!

Some things to think about

  • Orca’s can live way past 50 years old in the wild – they believe that there are females in Lolita’s pod that are 90+ years old
  • Orca’s stay with their mothers for their entire lives and each pod has a unique sound that they make much like a dialect
  • Dolphins and orcas have to consciously take their breathes – the dolphin that played Flipper, after retirement, drowned herself by not taking her next breath.  She essentially committed suicide while in captivity
Lolita doing her thing

Lolita doing her thing

I challenge you to watch the three films (I do have to warn you that some of it is emotionally devastating to watch including the capture of orcas in 1970 in the Pacific Ocean where the mother whales waited on the other side of the nets crying as their calves tried to get to them and away from their captures – it still haunts me a week later).

I beg you to not patronize Marineland or Seaworld or even resorts that have swim with dolphin programs.  Money is a huge motivator and hopefully some day there is no market for places that keep their animals as prisoners and slaves.

Check out the campaign to save Lolita

Tonight my heart hurts

31 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by lorifranze in About me, Lola & Otis

≈ 3 Comments

If you have read my blog before you may have seen my post about the volunteering that I do with my dog Otis.  He and I go weekly to visit a senior’s residence in the city.  While we visit about a half dozen seniors there is one special lady who makes the experience pure joy.  Despite being 101 years old she didn’t show any signs of dementia – we would talk about everything – what trouble my dogs got in to this week, the problems I had with the racoons in the yard (I was going to tell her about the two giant ‘coons that were just wandering in the yard this morning in broad daylight), she even remembered I had started something new at work and asked me how it was going.

Today I raced to the home – I try to get there just as she is finishing dinner so that I can take her to her room for our visit. Otis travels in her lap as I push the wheelchair – as I was about to check the dining room to see if she was still there one of the residents called me over to tell me she passed away this morning.  She had been battling a flu for weeks but last week she seemed to be getting better and I wasn’t as worried about her as I was two weeks earlier.

Sadly, I was supposed to visit yesterday but got delayed getting home and figured I would go see her today.  I never got to say good-bye to my dear friend.  My friend who remembered my birthday when I forgot hers (she was June 19 and I am the 20th) despite being 100+.  My friend who always lit up when she saw me and my dog and was happiest with Otis in her lap on her way to her room to play.  My visits won’t ever be the same. IMG_2027

Is work-life balance a myth?

28 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by lorifranze in About me

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

balancing work and life, work life balance

I have to admit that I have never been good at ‘taking a break’ or ‘down time’ but I am going to try it this upcoming weekend when I head to Tremblant skiing. I have been challenged to not answer emails and voicemails … (I have to admit that I am feeling anxious as I type this) I can hear the people that know me placing bets against me as the odds are not in my favour!

Examples as to why the odds are stacked against me:

  • In Mexico last February I approved my team’s timecards and answered email on the WIFI in the hotel lobby with a cocktail at my side (remember how relaxing vacations were before WIFI?
  • In October I worked on a social media proposal in between a visit to the Ben & Jerry’s factory and driving through the Vermont countryside looking at fall foliage

Now that I am self-employed I find it even harder to turn ‘it’ off when I am scheduled to be away on vacation.  Don’t get me wrong – I love what I do and wouldn’t change a thing but maybe you have some tips for me on how to balance work and life?

Hopefully, I make it through the weekend… It is a long drive to Tremblant… A drive on which I could maybe answer an email or two, update a spreadsheet, draft a brief…

 

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