The Health Benefits of an Anti-Inflammatory Diet

fresh berries

Cancer won’t be cured today, and the spread of COVID promises to continue, but in a world where illness can make us seem powerless, there is a medical issue you can cure today, with a few easy, natural steps. Inflammation is our body’s way of healing and defending itself, and we have all experienced it at one time or another. "People think inflammation needs to be stomped out at all times,” says Dr. Robert H. Shmerling, a medical editor from Harvard Health Publishing and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School “But it plays an essential role in healing and injury repair to keep your body safe and healthy. Some inflammation is good. Too much is often bad. The goal is to recognize when inflammation is simply doing its job, and when it can potentially cause problems." … [Read more...]

One Fast Healthy Anti-Inflammatory Breakfast

This breakfast recipe I'm about to show you is one of my favorite healthy breakfast options. It is one of the first steps I take daily to ensure that I am building a healthy body both inside and outside. I want to keep my body as strong and clean as possible to ward off flare-ups from my chronic Lyme disease. Clean eating and anti-inflammatory diet help a lot. Long Ago in a Galaxy Far Away... Actually, it was December 2017 and my Lyme doctor told me to eliminate all sugar (unless it was natural), dairy, alcohol, and gluten. Dreadful news to hear during a holiday season. I needed to clean up my food to reduce the level of inflammation in my body and help eliminate the massive amount of full-body pain and fatigue I was dealing with daily. Lyme disease is a great imitator and it loves … [Read more...]

Finding Yourself & Fighting Through Chronic Illness

In the winter of 2018, my illness was raging and using my body as a battlefield. Chronic illness warriors, you know what I'm talking about. At my weekly therapy session, I described to my therapist about how my inability to work, be busy and "normal" had shown me a new side of myself, except it wasn't quite so new. In fact, I was getting reacquainted with the old me. The base me. The me I knew as a child and as a teen. I Lost Myself to the Busy.  I think that's fairly normal.  Once I realized this I also quickly noticed how much I missed that quiet person.  I'm an introvert.  An introvert with strong opinions, who loves light but finds beauty in darkness.  Having the real me back was eye-opening.  Finding the essence of who I am at my core again was exhilarating and also something I … [Read more...]

Hello, It’s Been A While

Remember me?  I think it's time to introduce myself again. I'm Vicky. Mother to three girls, writer, dog mom to one Doberman, two-time Post-Partum Depression survivor, chronically ill with Lyme Disease and co-infections (#lymewarrior), domestic violence survivor, and fitness coach.  Whew! What sets me apart from all the other blogs out there?  Nothing, but my own unique story, my take on life and the fact that I live by a ton of quotes (mostly film and TV-related) but this one in particular, "It ain't about how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward." * In my former life, before Lyme tried to take me down, I reviewed cars, wrote about fashion trends and picks. I talked about my early days of parenting back when Mommy blogs were all the rage.  I … [Read more...]

How I Made My Health the #1 Priority and Everything Else Fell Into Place

Girl, you better work. That phrase played in my head on a constant loop this last year. I wasn't talking about sitting at a desk or improving my career either.  It was all about working on my health and healing and treating it like a job. "In health there is freedom. Health is the first of all liberties." Between starting with yoga, then walking, adding in light weights,  progressing to running and then moving onto HIIT workouts once I was strong enough, exercise was one of the things I have done consistently this last year to help me battle my chronic Lyme disease. Sweat. It does a body good. You know what?  I'm in the best shape of my life.  I even decided to help others to get there too. How Did I Get Here? Part of that motivation came from thinking of each day of the week as a … [Read more...]

Lyme Awareness & Getting Out

May, my birth month, is also Lyme Disease Awareness month. Funny, that's exactly the month that I have been bitten and contracted Lyme twice now. I always do like being timely. These days I find I'm able to make it outside more.  I'm attempting to run instead of walking and yoga.  I've been able to add strength training back into my days.  I'm seeing friends and doing things with my family that months ago I would have had to forgo.  A month ago going out for coffee would have been my only activity for the day.  Just this weekend we hit up the Cirque De Soliel show, Luzia and took in a baseball game.  A NIGHT game.  I wasn't asleep or crumpled in pain and needing a detox bath.  This is HUGE.  It is life-giving. Just look! And I got dressed in something besides leggings and … [Read more...]

Living with Lyme Disease

As we move into the new year, let's get one thing straight. I'm living with Lyme Disease. There I said it. I'm opening up about it more as we move into 2018. Living with Lyme disease means something different for everyone but for me, it means making this year the year of healing. It means a lot of guest posting on here too.  Lol.  Because truthfully since I was diagnosed for the second time in May, my life began to unravel.  I didn't take the time to heal like I did last summer (where I really believe I conquered it) when I got bit the first time.  I didn't rest like before. I kept pushing my mind and my body.  All summer I went full force.  Fall rolled around I continued to do the same creating a schedule that would double my work hours.   And I crashed.  Hard. I thought I was … [Read more...]

Running the Distance while battling Lyme Disease

This fitness feature guest post is by Amy Pope Fitzgerald of the blog, Twinglesmom. Read her triumphant and truly inspiring story about living with Lyme disease while being a Mom and runner.   I am ultra marathoner living with chronic Lyme disease. When Lyme first invaded my body, I was in my mid 20’s with my entire life ahead of me. I do not recall being bit by a tick or finding a bulls eye rash on my body. I woke up one day and felt paralyzed, scared and wasn’t sure if I would see my 30’s. … [Read more...]