There’s more to living a healthy lifestyle then just fitness and nutrition. Yes, those two key elements in well being is critical for physical health and although they do play a role in mental health – it’s not always enough. Depression  is a common occurrence whether is post-partum, mild, progressive or chronic. In fact 1 in 10 US adults suffer from depression. With that high statistic, there is a lot of stigma and uncomfortable feelings associated with it and not enough talk about depression therapies.

Lifescript is an incredible resource for those suffering from (or know someone who is) depression and other related conditions. Depression isn’t just sitting in a room crying, unable to go on – it comes in many forms. When I had my son, he was in the NICU for 30 days. In that time I was living at the Central Alberta Ronald McDonald House®, there was a lot of stress involved and that is when my anxiety began. When we were finally released from the hospital and settled in at home, I thought there was something really wrong with me. I was having a hard time breathing, it seemed like there was always something stuck in my throat and my heart would race. I was really concerned. When I spoke with my doctor about it he said my body was depressed. He explained that although I knew my son was safe in my head, but body wasn’t caught up yet since it was such a shock. I have to admit, I was pretty insulted when he explained that I had a form of post-partum depression. I wasn’t depressed, I wasn’t even sad. I was completely happy and excited to get a routine established with my new life. I associated depression (especially post partum) with the mothers that wanted to hurt their babies and the ones that have some issues.

It would have been nice to have known about Lifescript at that time. I needed answers to my questions, not opinions. Since browsing the Lifescript website I have learned so much about depression, there really is a lot of information (medical and statistical) but what I appreciate the most is the depression treatment options. When I think of depression treatments I think of prescription meds, and for some people that is the only option, Lifescript explains why that particular therapy works and why. When was the last time your doctor went into detail about your pills? I was also able to find information on alternative therapies (magnetic stimulation, therapy, etc), and my favorite – lifestyle changes. As I said before, lifestyle changes are important but not always enough. Lifescript does encourage healthy living, and I love that. There is even help on how to achieve a lifestyle change successfully, you are walked through the steps.

Want to find more posts relating to depression? Then be sure you do not miss these articles which are written my medical professionals (as are all the articles found on Lifescript)  :

• Overcoming depression with a lifestyle change
• Living With Depression
• Natural Mood Boosters

Lifescript’s Depression Health Center features tips, quizzes, recipes and articles – all by professional health writers, experts and physicians – covering postpartum depression, seasonal affective disorder, bipolar disorder, how to boost your mood with exercise and more. Please visit the Lifescript Health Center on depression for more information.

And to check out this free website, click here!

This is a sponsored post by me on behalf of Lifescript.com.

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For the majority of my early twenties I have been on the hunt, the hunt for the perfect buttercream frosting recipe. I have tried so many, but none of them turned out the way I had hoped. They would melt quickly or just didn’t have enough “body”. Last summer I finally came across a recipe that was almost perfect. It tasted pretty good but I couldn’t decorate with it, my piping wouldn’t stay put. After some tinkering and tweaking I finally reached the perfect consistency for a heavenly White Chocolate Buttercream frosting.

White Chocolate Buttercream

Adapted from Country Cleaver.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, unsalted and softened (if you’re a beginner – margarine is not the same. It WILL NOT hold, in fact it will just be gross).
• 3 cups powdered sugar (depending on the humidity/heat that day sometimes I have to add about 1/2 cup more, play around with it until you reach the consistency you desire)
• 1/4 cup whipping cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 6 oz white chocolate chips or Bakers Chocolate

Method

1. Melt the chocolate first. I prefer to pour the white chocolate chips in a glass bowl and place it over a pot of boiling water (double boiling), stirring constantly. If you are using Baker’s Chocolate, chop it up first. The microwave is another option, but keep your eye on it and do 30 seconds at a time. Let cool to room temperature.
2. Place softened butter in a bowl and sift the powdered sugar over top. Starting slow, mix until incorporated and then beat until fluffy (about a minute or two).
3. After you have scraped the bowl, add the cream and vanilla. At this point you can now stir in the melted, cooled chocolate.
4. Turn your mixer to medium-high and beat for 3-4 minutes.

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I cut out the shapes and the hockey stuck using a pizza cutter, it wasn’t that easy getting perfect straight lines and then freehanded rounded corners. Oh well, lesson learned. Oh, and if you were wondering this cake was a Vanilla Almond Lemon Cake with a White Chocolate Buttercream. I was going to make my own fondant, but decided to buy the Wilton variety instead. I’m very happy I did that, since I barely had time that day anyway.

Link up

Have you ever worked with fondant before?

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Thank goodness for Pinterest. Am I right?  Before Pinterest, I would have never of thought to use Cauliflower for a pizza crust. Actually, if I’m going to be honest here I would not have tried many of the recipes that have become our family favourites, or even created my own out of inspiration from what I have seen. Cauliflower Pizza Crust is a tricky thing, at least if you’re expecting pizza crust like ability. I have probably tried 3-4 different recipes, but they all resulted in a crumbly mess that would just stick to the pan. Then I found a simple Cauliflower Pizza Crust recipe from Greatist.com, added a few flavourings and came up with the following:

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

Ingredients

• 1/2 head of one large cauliflower
• 1/2 cup of plain greek yogurt
• 1 egg
• 2-3 tsps garlic powder
• 1 tbsp parsely/basil/italian seasoning (whatever you have on hand)
• sea salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Break off your cauliflower in pieces and place in a blender/food processor. (I have Ninja blender and it works awesome for this.) Pulse until you have what appears as cauliflower “rice”, if it turnscreamy – you have gone too far.
3. Transfer cauliflower to a bowl and stir in yogurt, egg and the rest of the ingredients. Mix throughly. *I use sea salt because it is the least processed salt, but regular table salt will work fine as well.
4. Spread the cauliflower mixture on a greased baking sheet, about 1/2 – 3/4 inch thick. Place in oven and bake for 30-35 minutes, until it’s nice and firm. *I used a pizza stone, and because pizza stones absorb as much moisture as possible it really helps the crust from falling apart. That being said, I have made this recipe on a cookie sheet and it was fine.
5. Top with pizza sauce and desired toppings and bake another five minutes, or until cheese has melted.

This time I topped it with pizza sauce, spinach, chicken and small amount of cheese. The nice thing about this recipe is that you can go in whichever direction you would like. I have made it with BBQ sauce, chicken, mozza and onions before – it was delicious.

Another idea would be to add red pepper flakes to the crust and do a thai chicken style pizza. The possibilities are endless.

How do you like your pizza?

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My husband and I have completely different styles of parenting. I’m high strung and stress out over every bump, bruise and scratch but I’m also not afraid of tough love. He’s more laid back and relaxed when it comes to how he parents but hates saying no. With us being opposite it gives Carter the perfect parenting duo. He’s involved, hands on and never hesitates to give me a break when he can tell I need it most. Father’s Day is this Sunday and when I first started this post I was going in a different direction, discussing how he’s a great dad and how Carter [already] has so much admiration for him. (He seriously worships the ground he walks on.) That being said, after searching for photos I couldn’t help but look back on the memories we have already made in the 15 months with Carter. I want to share what I think what makes a good dad great with a few of my favorite Carter and Daddy moments.

1. The first time he was able to hold Carter. After Carter was born, he was whisked off to the NICU (dad following behind). That night only one of us was allowed to hold him, which I took in an instant. My husband wasn’t actually able to hold him until the next day. I was so excited for this to happen.
2. Coming back to our NICU “station” to find the two of them sleeping while doing Kangaroo Care. This is one of my favorite photos. For those of you who don’t know, Kangaroo Care is skin to skin. It provides amazing benefits to all babies but especially those are have a little big of a fight ahead of them.
3. Another NICU memory: After two weeks off  to visit Carter everyday (and stay with me at the Ronald McDonald House), he had to get back to work. After two days away, he couldn’t go any longer without seeing him so he drove to come see us and Carter couldn’t stop staring. It was obvious they missed each other and I caught the moment. After that, Eric came almost every day during the week (always stayed on the weekends) for an hour or two and then turned back around to head back home. Dedication.
4. The MANY times they have fallen asleep together. I have so many photos of this frequent occurrence, but here is a favorite.
5. Reading Carter “The Night Before Christmas” for the first time on Christmas Eve.

It’s the little things that make a good dad great. Great dads are there for their children: to read to them, help wipe tears, to teach them and give them their own special way of parenting that moms cannot do. A great dad is also their for their partner. They take over after a tough day when mom needs fifteen minutes (or an hour or two) to herself.  So why not check out Sears Days this week (June 13 – 23) to save big (and get $10 back in Sears Bucks to spend between June 24-27) on the gifts that most dads want, and what great dads deserve.

Check out the awesome deals that Sears is offering.

What’s your favorite Father and Son/Daughter moment?

Disclosure: I am part of the Sears The Baby’s Room Ambassador program with Mom Central Canada and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

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Nine more days until summer everyone! (Just in case you weren’t counting down with me.) I’m going to be honest, the summer girl inside me is a shallow/obsessive one. When I think of myself in the summer I picture a fit woman with long beautiful hair, wearing fashionable summer clothes (with matching wedges), rocking a tan and sporting a brilliant smile. In reality: I usually gain weight because I cannot control myself with all the BBQ’s/summer cocktails, my hair is always a frizzy mess with the humidity, my summer wardrobe consists of AE shorts and a pair of Nike sandals, tan? I burn and I usually have coffee stains on my teeth. This summer is the summer for change! I’m heading into the summer at a 10 pound weight loss from last year, I have a hefty stock of self tanner and I have been using the SmileBrilliant Home Teeth Whitening System.

With all of the home teeth whitening systems I have tried over the years, I consider myself to be an expert. Some work, most don’t. The whole process can be a frustrating ordeal. Two months before trying SmileBrilliant I ordered a replica (also known as a fake) system from Groupon. Apparently it was worth over $200 and I got it for $25 – what a waste of time and money. It didn’t work one bit. So I was pretty skeptical going into SmileBrilliant.

SmileBrilliant is different from the rest because they are a national dental lab, because of that you receive professional dental results but without ever visiting a dentist. With SmileBrilliant you will receive dental trays (that you can mold to a perfect fit) with a professional grade bleaching gel. In fact, professionals were using this product – until SmileBrilliant cut out the middle man.

After you order your system and receive your trays you mold them to your teeth (you use an impression paste) you simply send it back to SmileBrilliant and they will make your custom trays for you and ship it back. I never received the paste for a review. Instead, I received plastic trays. They were easy enough to work with. Here are the steps I took:

1. Paint the professional strength bleach on my teeth
2. Place the trays over my teeth
3. Insert the LED light
4. Wait 45 minutes (you can leave the bleach on up to 2 hours but it’s not recommended to leave the light on for more then 45 minutes).

I’m pretty impressed with my results. This was after only one use. I think it would be a good idea to use this system three times a week and once you receive the shade you like, once a week for maintenance. Overall, my experience was a positive one. I didn’t experience any discomfort with the bleach along my gum line, this is a common occurrence with whitening system, and oddly enough I didn’t find the LED light as uncomfortable as I thought I would. My only annoyance was that the light would randomly turn out during the day, I finally had to take the battery out.

I would recommend it for anyone who is looking to brighten up their smile.

Have you ever used a teeth whitening system? What was your experience like?

One of my readers will win their own whitening kit! Enter on the Rafflecopter form below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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We’re meat-o-saurs’s here in our household, there is usually only one night a week where we eat a meatless meal. Usually we stick to chicken and turkey but 1-2x a week we have beef. The weekend is usually when we partake in one of our favorite foods, but steak dinner gets old every week. I found a recipe on Pinterest for Korean BBQ Beef from Six Sister’s Stuff and thought it would be a delicious addition to our meal plan. A few weeks went by and I finally decided to get the ingredients that would work for us, made some adjustments and made these Asian Beef Kebabs.

They turned out amazing, and I will be making them again. Since I’m on a very low carb, high protein diet I didn’t make them how I usually would (with red peppers and red onion) but I added them in the ingredient list below. Next time around, I will be making them with those particular veggies. Like all recipes, this one is fairly flexible with herbs and spices. Fresh basil would be another delicious addition. As you can tell, I used the baby version of pear juice – in all fairness, it really doesn’t matter what you use. Six Sister’s Stuff used rice wine vinegar, but I didn’t have any. Regular vinegar would work just as well (may have a little bit of a different flavor but it would tenderize the meat a great deal).

This recipe is amazing and I know that you will enjoy it. If you’re super lazy (like I am most of the time) this would be a great marinate for a different take on steak dinner or you could use my red wine steak marinade (I highly recommend this one).

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I have never been a sugar cereal person, even as a child I always preferred granola clusters and honey kissed flakes. A couple of years ago when Fibre 1 came out (or when I actually happened to notice the brand) I fell in love. I usually feel naughty when I enjoy a bowl because it tastes delicious but Fibre 1 usually has many healthy benefits. I’m incredibly excited to let you all know that there is a new variety joining this cereal family: Fibre 1 Almond & Cluster Delight. Keep reading to find out how you can get a free box to try yourself.

Most of the time when people think of foods that are high in fibre, cardboard comes to mind. There are many healthy options out there to help boost your morning fibre intake but they tend to be dry, tasteless and boring. Not anymore! Fibre 1 Almond & Cluster Delight cereal provides you and your family with 40% of your daily fibre intake. All of this before you’re even out the door, what a great way to start your day!

Fibre is a necessity for leading a healthy lifestyle. Fibre is what you can count on to keep you full throughout the day, and is best when it’s from whole grains. Fibre 1′s first ingredient just happens to be that: Whole Grain Wheat. Fibre also supports a healthy digestive system.

My husband isn’t one to enjoy these types of cereals (the healthier options) but when I asked him to try it – he was satisfied. My husband is the ultimate taste test, it speaks volumes. I’m currently following an eating program that is super strict and unfortunately I cannot have cereal (not yet anyway), but I cannot wait. I did sneak a few dry flakes and I noticed how sweet they were. I immediately figured that it must be high in sugar, but when I read the nutritional values I came to realize that one serving of Fibre 1 Almond & Cluster Delight has 7g less sugar then my greek yogurt. Wow. The almonds add a bit of protein, only 5g but it’s much better then the 1-2% found in other breakfast cereals.

Delicious and nutritious. I’m thrilled that there is a great tasting, healthy alternative to breakfast cereals. Now you can try Fibre 1′s new cereal for free! Simply head on over to the Life Made Delicious Facebook page and from June 3rd to the 25th you will have a chance to get one of two coupons that are redeemable on either July 16 or July 23!

July 16th coupon will be redeemable for either a box Fibre 1 Almond & Cluster Delight Cereal OR a box of Honey Nut Cheerios Hearty Oat Crunch.
July 23rd coupon will be redeemable for Nature Valley, Fibre 1 bars, Golden Grahams OR Cinnamon Toast Crunch treats.

Disclosure – I am participating in the Fibre 1 Almond & Cluster Delight Cereal blogger campaign by Mom Central Canada on behalf of General Mills. I received compensation as a thank you for participating and for sharing my honest opinion. The opinions on this blog are my own.

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Link Up

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Floors including carpets and area rugs take a beating during winter months with snow, salt and dirt from outside.

For small rubberized door mats now is a good time to take them outside, shake them off and hose them down. But for large and more expensive area rugs, care should be taken that they are thoroughly cleaned and that their beauty and texture is preserved. Day-to-day vacuuming is essential to maintain area rugs. This prevents a buildup of mud and dirt from shoes and other objects.

However, a general cleaning is the best way to preserve the beauty of your area rugs. Some people choose to rent rug cleaning equipment and try the do-it-yourself route. However, this can be time consuming and not as effective as professional rug cleaning. Besides, you are left with the task of transporting heavy equipment back and forth to the dealer. If you live in Brooklyn or surrounding areas, ABC Rug and Carpet Care offers a pick-up and delivery service for cleaning your area rugs.

They use professional equipment to remove ground in dirt, stains, bacteria, and odors from your area rugs. This not only saves time, but prolongs the value of your investment in an area rug. Probably the best spring cleaning tip of all is to choose a reputable professional rug cleaning service to clean your area rugs this Spring.

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