Category Archives: About me

My thyroid is broken…

26 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by in About me, Health & Fitness

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Many of you who know me well know that after my last fitness model competition (I may have to cover off those days with another post!) I got really sick with a horrid flu that had me on the couch for days barely able to move and once I got off the couch I didn’t feel much like my old self. I had been in the gym 3 hours a day leading up to the competition and now I could barely get enough energy to teach a spin class. So off to the doctor I went… blood work showed nothing… but I didn’t get better… so back to the doctor I went insisting something was not right. She then testing me for Hashimotos which is an auto-immune disorder and discovered that I did have it and my own body was attacking my thyroid. I was prescribed Synthroid to deliver the stuff my body wasn’t creating on its own.

Now I have a lot to stay about this topic and I have to state the obvious … I am not a medical professional and what I say only comes from experience and nowhere else.  Oprah single-handedly derailed a whole bunch of hypo-thyroid fans byt claiming she didn’t need her medication … how did that work for her? (EXACTLY!)

Some things I learned that might be useful to you or someone you know:

  • Challenge your doctors – my doctor admitted to not knowing the diagnosis levels had changed for hypo-thyroidism had changed to a lower value between 1 and 2 from below 10. Thank goodness I have a friend who is a nurse and was working with an endo at the time!
  • Synthroid is not the only game in town – I have tried it and actually use dessicated thyroid. It is dried up pig thyroid. Sounds gross but remember the days before synthetic insulin?
  • Do your research – there are a lot of experts and opinions so look around but also do what works best for you. You know your body better than anyone.

Some online resources:

Message me if you too are hypo… we can swap tips and stories OR if you think you are and have any questions. I think I have mine pretty much under control but who knows…

Help, I need an intervention for my addiction to…

13 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by in About me, Contests & Deals

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CONTESTS…. yes… you read that right…

It all started back in October when I was working on a contest with one of my clients and their partner. Every week we selected a winner of a $500 Visa gift card – seemed easy… sign up and win. So one night as I was watching TV I started looking for contests to enter. (My favourite aggregator is Win Free Stuff Canada) I entered maybe a dozen that were ‘expiring soon’ and only things I wanted to win.

To my surprise I got an email titled “You won our trip to Greece”. I instantly wrote back “Really” and the girl on the other end offered to call me. I knew that contact is sometimes made over email so it was legit. September I will be spending 2 weeks in Greece, flying down in Comfort Class on Turkish Air…

My 1st win!

I had continued entering contest even before knowing I was a winner and happy with my win I didn’t ever expect to get another notification like that one.

It was the Wednesday between Christmas and New Years and i was just lounging at home. I stepped away from the phone and when I returned there was a message. I have voice to text so I was able to catch some of the message without dialing in. The caller mentioned that he would send an email so I went to the laptop to find a message stating that they had good news for me in reference to a Kia Rio contest. Of course I thought, not again and not so soon… and maybe I won a gift card for gas or a carwash but when I spoke with the caller I found out I won a Kia Rio 5.

My 2nd win!

So you can see why now I have developed this addiction! Someone has to win and I love that it has been me… twice! So now I make sure every couple days I take a look at the sites for the new contests and anything I might have missed.

Only downside is the apologies I owe to my Twitter followers and Facebook friends for all the retweets, posts, likes and stuff.

Time will tell if things happen in threes! I have a Lotto Max ticket for Friday – will let you know if I win big! And please let me know if there are sites out there that you like for contesting and if you have been a winner in the past too!

Let me introduce you to Lola & Otis

11 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by in About me, Lola & Otis

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Frolicking in the cottageAs I had mentioned in my intro post & my About section, I am a proud parent to 2 Chinese-Crested Poodles. “What?” You ask… They are poodles crossed with those really ugly hairless dogs (there is really no other way to describe them) and they are totally wonderful.

First I got Lola. Having a dog growing up, once I settled in to my own home I had to get a furry companion and knew shortly after that I needed another dog. Lola sat in the window waiting for me to come home every night. She fell asleep on the window ledge and that is where I would find her when I got home. She was just too sweet to spend her days on her own so we go Otis from her parents second litter.

Otis is the typical little brother giving her a hard time, stealing her cookies and also protecting her in the dog park. He is a lover though.

Otis & Helen

He and I volunteer once a week at a home for seniors where they absolutely adore him and I think he might be the favourite part of their week.

Now those of you who are not pet owners or animal lovers may think I am crazy as I go on about them like they are children but I have to tell you they are certainly part of my family.

It is great to have them now that I work often from home and there is nothing like coming home to someone who is happy to see you no matter how late you are or if you forgot to pick up kibble on the way home.

There will be lots more posts about Lola & Otis – that I can almost guarantee.

Hello… Anyone out there?

11 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by in About me, Uncategorized

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I have always wanted to blog and was inspired by my friend Lisa who finally started her blog – Eat It, Like It, Love It (and you may ask why I was inspired for such a simple task like starting a blog? Well Lisa barely tweets so her commitment to blog was very inspiring)- if you like to eat (and who doesn’t) you should sign up for her updates at http://www.eatitlikeitlove.com!

Enough about Lisa and on to me! i am a 30 something, (finally) self-employed marketer and cycling instructor. I have so many interests that I can not start to identify a single theme or idea that will be posted. Some of the likely topics you will see over the next couple weeks:

  • travel
  • contests
  • downhill skiing
  • fitness
  • cooking
  • dogs (my dogs Lola & Otis)
  • great customer service
  • poor, miserable customer service
  • direct marketing
  • Leslieville
  • Toronto

and probably some random, useless things!

I hope you will follow me… offer your comments!

PS  – In case you don’t know what logorrhea means I’ve pasted the definition. Of course I am going with the second meaning as I am not PATHOLOGICALLY INCOHERENT (although some of my colleagues would disagree).

log·or·rhe·a

 [law-guh-ree-uh, log-uh-]  Show IPA

noun

1.

pathologically incoherent, repetitious speech.
2.

incessant or compulsive talkativeness; wearisomevolubility.