simple, joyful life change

How to Launch Your Own Mutiny & Toss That Unhealthy Self Overboard

Written by Katie Tallo

My ship has been floating along for over four decades now. The seas have been pretty calm, the sails are a touch weathered, but the hull is still in pretty good shape. The only problem is the captain – she’s nuts!

Lately, she’s been filling the ship with useless cargo – ice cream, candy, caramel corn and cake. Yep, boat loads of sugar!

If she doesn’t start dumping some of it soon, she’s going to get heavy and take on water. Then it’s only a matter of time before she sinks.

On top of that, she’s been navigating the same waters for way too long. She’s drifting aimlessly back and forth from one port to another and she’s getting absolutely nowhere. This crazy captain who wreaks havoc on my health and screws with my direction in life – this dame of disaster is in for a big surprise. Her time has finally come and she’s about to get tossed overboard.

If your ship is also adrift in stagnant waters, if you’re feeling dragged down by unhealthy cargo, if your internal compass is spinning and giving you no clear direction, then it’s time to launch your very own mutiny. It’s time to grab your scatter-brained skipper by the shoulders, heave them overboard, take hold of the wheel and start navigating towards fresh water – that clear current that carries you towards health and fulfillment and keeps you afloat for life.

Here are five easy ways to launch your own mutiny and toss that unhealthy self overboard:

1. BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES

It’s not easy to cast off old ways and begin anew. Protect yourself. Don’t listen to anyone but that lovely, rebellious voice inside your head saying, “it’s time for a change”, “I’m tired of feeling this way all the time”, “I’m ready to head towards my destiny”. That voice is your inner mutineer rejoicing in the change to come, rejoicing in your inner spirit. This is your mutiny. Hold it close.

2. PLOT A COURSE

Get very specific about your goals and your plan. Maybe you’ve decided it’s time to get healthy, begin a cleanse, eat differently, start exercising, slow down, change careers – whatever it may be, take the time to figure out exactly what you want and how you’re going to get it. Fads, highly restrictive regimes, titanic changes in direction likely won’t carry you through stormy weather. Plot a course that factors in your routines, your relationships, your strengths, your likes and your dislikes. Keep it true to you, and simple and doable under almost any circumstances.

3. BE BRUTAL

Don’t be tempted to toss a life jacket over to the flailing arms of your banished self. Be brutal. Let everyone know that you’re now the one steering the ship. Follow the course you’ve set for yourself and don’t let anyone, any temptation or any sudden shift in the winds steer you off course. Waves of good and bad days will come, but don’t give up. Visualize the golden horizon up ahead and strive to stay on course.

4. SWAB THE DECKS

Keep your focus neat and tidy by preparing for the changes or challenges to come. I’m going vegan next week and prepping my kitchen and menus will clear the way for success without too much struggling and searching for what I need. Keeping things shipshape can make the difference between swimming and sinking.

5. TAKE CHARGE

Listening to yourself, having a plan, vowing to stick to it and preparing for change might launch your mutiny, but action is what truly gets that old self out of the ship and out of your way so that you can take charge of your life. The waves of momentum will come if you just start.

So, is it time for your mutiny? Join me – a good mutiny loves company.

5 Sassy Ways to Embrace Your Inner Vegan

Written by Katie Tallo

I’ve been trying to embrace veganism for over a year. I keep putting it off until next week, but after 52 weeks of putting it off, it’s time to get serious, get sassy and get on with ditching dairy. Why?

My reasons are all wrapped up in my love of life, of living things and in my growing awareness of what best energizes and fuels my body – fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, seeds and nuts seem to do the trick.

It’s not going to be an easy shift. I love cheese and eating out. I also don’t want to be difficult, high maintenance, weird or different (which is how you’re perceived when you don’t eat like everyone else). But, I do want to honour my body and my beliefs so it’s time to get sassy with it.

Maybe this post will encourage some of you to embrace another way of eating – a way that can make you feel better than you’ve ever felt in your life.

Here are 5 sassy ways to embrace your inner vegan:

Be Daring

A dare is a way to see what you’re made of. Everyone likes a challenge so commit to 30 days, 5 days, even one day without meat or dairy. Think of it as an exercise in awareness and a test of your stick-to-it-iveness.

TIP: Try almond milk, cashew cheese or vegan butter.

Get Weird

If it looks and sounds weird, try it. Have you ever sautéed kale, boiled quinoa, sweetened with agave nectar, taken a swig of live green algae, sprinkled kelp on salad or poured vanilla almond milk on your cereal? Weird is about opening your mind and exploring whole new kinds of yum!

TIP: Call ahead to see if your favourite restaurant will create something vegan for you. They almost always will and it’s usually the best dish at the table.

Screw Protein

Okay, I’m not a doctor, but seriously, are there people lined up in our emergency wards with protein issues. No, they are lined up with diabetes, heart disease and cancer which have all been linked to pork not beans.

“As a holistic sports nutritionist and vegan athlete, I rely on dark leafy greens, seaweeds, nuts, seeds, grains, legumes, bee pollen, spirulina and other raw, plant-based sources for adequate protein; greens in particular are rich sources. Plant-based sources of protein are easy to digest leaving me lots of energy for optimal performance.” Donna Davis, Elation Centre

Check Your Blah-Meter

How does the food you eat make you feel? Sounds like a simple question, but most of us walk around feeling blah, and don’t think it has anything to do with what we’re eating. It takes a lot of energy to digest meat and dairy. Some digestive systems struggle with it. Do you feel bloated, sluggish, heartburny, gaseous, lethargic, tired and full after eating, or do you feel light, energized and vital. Check your blah-meter.

Tip: Maybe food that is alive has life in it. Maybe food that’s dead doesn’t.

Ask a Pig

If animals could talk, would they tell us how much they enjoy the smell of fresh cut summer grass, the warmth of the sun on their backs, the crisp air of an autumn morning? Would they talk about how much they love their babies, breathing, freedom, growing old and life? Would they tell us they feel pain and sorrow, fear and loneliness? And if they could talk, would we eat them?

Tip: Humans eat about 230 million tons of animals a year, twice as much as we did 30 years ago. John Vidal, from the July 2010 article “10 Ways Vegetarianism Can Save The Planet” in The Observer guardian.co.uk

Going vegan is not for everyone, but it is time for me to get my vegan sass in gear. I’m going to dare myself to live outside my comfort zone and embrace a big change. I’m going to try some of the innumerable weird and wonderful foods my world has to offer, and let go the myths forced into my brain since childhood about drinking my milk and getting enough protein. And, above all else, I’m going to respect all life and love myself enough to want to feel great.

Join me if you’re feeling sassy. I’m preparing my kitchen and family this week, and going vegan on September 6th.

Photo by Darwin Bell

A Simple Guide to Love

Written by Katie Tallo.

It’s in a laugh, a thought, a gesture, a word. It’s captured in this photograph of my daughter and mother. It lives between the folds of a birthday card or a touching comment left on a blog. It swims around my brain when I eat chocolate or watch a breeze shake the giant maple in my back yard. Love is all around us, inside us, everywhere.

Last night I went for a run with my husband. Bug clouds wafted in the cool air. The summer river was calm. The sky a dusky pink. As I ran, I called out to him. “What a beautiful night.” His answer, “Just like you, Kate.”

That’s love. That’s my Andy. He’s so free with love – with loving words and thoughts. He feels it and says it. He’s fearless. It doesn’t come as easily to me to simply and effortlessly express love. But I’m learning.

This is my simple guide to love.

love loud

… say what you feel, hug when you feel like hugging, write poetry if you hear it in your heart … be unafraid, unembarrassed, unabashed …

love easy

… ask for nothing, let go drama, jealousy, envy … release, respect, be calm, solid, relaxed, uncomplicated …

love deep

… hold your love good and tight, make it a priority, choose it over others, believe in it, whether a person or passion, spend time with it, care for it, tend to its needs, and love it deeply and endlessly …

My love for my daughter, husband, mother, sister, friends, work, blog, home – for possibility, difference, risk and change – all of this love I’m learning to be loud, easy and deep with. It’s all that really matters.

My husband and I continued our run through the woods along the river. I felt like I was floating through the dimming light and past the clouds of bugs. Even when I got a bug in my eye and we had to stop, love surrounded me. Andy stopped, waited, tried to help, and when I got the bug out, asked if I was all better. I wiped my watery eye and we continued our run side by side – our love unhurried, kind and constant. Yes, I’m learning to just run with it.

How to Embrace First Day Jitters While Fending Off Your Inner Worry Wart

This is a guest post written by my inspiring daughter — runner, nanny, volleyball player, worry wart and soon-to-be first year university student.

Written by Alex Sinclair

The first-day-of-school-jitters are ones that I know all too well. The queasy, restless, exhilarating feeling that seeps into my blood and organs, coursing through my body, is so real to me that I can taste it.

This coming September I will start school again and for me, it will be every first day of school all over again, multiplied by five hundred … thousand. I will make my university debut with some new clothes, new books … and hopefully, some new friends.

Every one of my close friends is travelling far and wide across the country to continue their schooling – schooling we once did together. My first real job interview, my first apartment, my first (and hopefully only) wedding, my first child – these major steps that most of us experience throughout our short, yet math-class-long lives, are all to come.

So how does a natural worry wart face all this unstoppable change?

Here are 4 tips that I hope will help you, as well as me, get over the jitters that come with all of the stuff that life throws our way:

1. Know that you are not alone.

Remember that almost everyone else, besides those freakish people who never get nervous for anything, is in the same boat as you are. Chances are the fear and excitement you’re feeling is also settling into the exact same part of everyone else’s stomach. Even if you’re going into something alone, pretend you have a friend along for the ride, because chances are, somewhere in the world, you do.

2. Come up with a mantra.

Repeating something over and over again in your head can help distract you from what’s worrying you, and can start to ring true after a while. You can do it, no worries, everything will be great, relax and take it easy – you get the idea. Simple, sweet and short enough to be said during a lonely bus ride to school.

3. Write down your feelings.

Write a list of why you think an ulcer-like knot is forming in your belly. A friend once asked me why I was so scared about doing my oral presentation for English class. I thought for a moment, and came up with zilch. There may be real reasons for worrying, but most of the time, it’s all on your head. If you do come up with a list, add some easy ways to solve them to your list. Sometimes just writing them down gets rid of them or makes you see how insignificant they really are.

4. Talk it out.

When I was younger, I sometimes kept my fears and worries inside instead of sharing them with my parents. If you know my mom, which most of you probably do from reading her blog, she is one of the most helpful, caring and reassuring people I have ever met. Now, I may be biased since I am her daughter, but she has given me many solutions and advice over the years and talking it out with her has helped me feel somewhat less nervous about university.

5. Breath deeply and exercise.

These two methods will shoot the nerves right out of your body, I promise! The second has proven to be beneficial for me, but if you don’t have time, deep breathing will definitely help, especially if you’re on your way to school (or an interview, open house, oral presentation, etc).

I am being completely serious when I say I am feeling just the slightest bit better about starting school in two weeks. It’s partly because I wrote this post. At least I know step 3 works! I know that I will use these tips, and perhaps a rubber stress-ball, to help me when I feel those first day jitters and am in need of some reassurance that everything will be okay. Have a great, jitter-free day and at the very least now you can say you know one other person who’s a worry-wart too. Happy life-navigating.

How do you embrace the jitters? Are you a worry wart too? Fess up.

Photo by Nathan Jones

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