Talara Nolan
Bio
I am a single parent to a 4 year old girl and live with her in Canada. I love working out and have lost over 45 lbs over time. I would love to share what I have learned and all the things that have worked for me over time.
Stories (103/0)
Essential Christmas gift ideas
Let's just say it, 2020 has been a very long and difficult year for most of us. It has made us all reevaluate what is really important in our lives. When we were on lock down for the first time I really looked at my house and at the items that had. It forced me to reconsider what I thought was important. Did I really need so many movies that I don't watch? So going into Christmas I really didn't want to spend money on items that were not necessary or didn't stand up to my own values in life. This year instead of getting a bunch of stuff that people are not going to use, let's get items that mean something and support the things we value.
By Talara Nolan3 years ago in Lifehack
Ways to keep Christmas alive in a pandemic
This year and this Christmas will be unlike any other. Many people are away from a lot of their family, unable to spend the holidays with any one outside their immediate family. And for a lot of people there just isn't as much money as there was in past holidays. However we should take this time to evaluate what is important in our lives. Holidays really shouldn't be able gifts, the stuff that you get or cost a lot of money. The holiday season can still be a magically experience without costing a lot of money. And it should be able giving. And giving also doesn't have to cost a lot of money either. So here are some ways to keep the holiday spirit going, that don't cost a lot of money.
By Talara Nolan3 years ago in Families
Finding joy again
I'm not sure how or when it happened. But slowly over a period of time I guess I got stuck in my life. And that put me deeper and deeper into a depression. For me when I don't have a lot of change in my life, when I am not growing and changing, then I get depressed. It happened slowly over a period of time. I had started to realise that I was stuck in a routine of my life and knew that I had to make a change. However, being a working single parent that is a hard thing to do. A lot of times you need a routine of life, a schedule from work you need to do, a schedule for your kids in order for them to be okay. I think some times it is hard to shake things up really, change is also hard.
By Talara Nolan4 years ago in Psyche
The journey of single parent getting healthy
I have always been a bigger girl my whole life. I was always trying to lose weight, trying the newest fad diet. I always lost weight but then would gain it back again. When I had a baby at 31 I gained weight of course and ended up at my heaviest at 220 lbs. Then I broke my arm needing surgery making me unable to work out for a long time. I had heard people say that you need to get to a point where you are fed up, fed up of being sick and tired. I use to think that of course I want to lose weight and be healthy that is crazy. But they really are right. At some point I got fed up with always lacking energy, not being able to do things and just generally not being happy in my own skin. I had lost a lot of strength after I broke my arm and at first I just wanted to gain some of it back. So I started off on a journey to be healthy. My focus was not to lose weight specifically, it was to be healthy. Which is my first bit of advice, focus on health. I focused on my want to be able to keep up with my daughter. I would see that I wasn't checked into life and wasn't present with her unable to keep up with all her energy all the time. With health as your focus it's easier I found to see the successes. Not all successes are about losing weight. Maybe it's losing inches instead, or just having more energy. There are many other things that come with being healthy. Losing weight is sometimes just a benefit. Most people feel like the start to workout and then don't lose weight right away so they give up. Focus on the other things and believe that losing weight will come.
By Talara Nolan4 years ago in Longevity
Finding Joy in Fresh Food
Growing up I remember my mom always cooking. I remember people always saying how good my mom's food was and it is very good. But looking back in many degrees a lot of it was processed in some ways. Cakes made from a box rather than from scratch. That can be a great, taste and cost effective opinion for many people. Of course as I started to grow up I never realized that there was a different opinion with food. Even going into my early twenties I still was eating like that in many ways. Then I watched a few movies over a period of time and started to change my course of life. One being 'The Bucket list'. About a man dying who makes a list of things to do before you die. It started to thinking about the same thing as well. The other two being, 'Julie and Julia' and 'Eat pray love'. It was about that time that I started to see that food could be something different, something that brings great joy and happiness to people. And I wondered if I could do the same thing.
By Talara Nolan4 years ago in Feast
Affects of Abuse
She looked at herself in the mirror blood on her face and what would most likely be a black eye. She couldn't help but to wonder how she got there. She remembered the first time that she sow her mothers face the same way. It must have been happening for a long time before she sow it, she realized. She toke a deep breath and did the only thing that she knew to do, she cleaned up. She cleaned her face up, and got herself together. She went out into the living room and realized how much her life had become just like her childhood. The life that she swore that she never would have, the life that she promised herself she would never let happen. But somehow it had become the one thing that she never wanted, the one thing that she knew maybe. And just like when she was her a child she cleaned up so that she could go to sleep and wake up like it never happened. She went to sleep telling herself that she just needed to not make him so mad, she just needed to change and be better.
By Talara Nolan4 years ago in Psyche
You can't make someone get help
My whole family is filled with people who are addicts. Addicted to drugs, to pain, to being unhealthy, to a lot of things. For as long as I can remember there has always been someone in my life that I was trying to save, trying to make better, sometimes the same people. I think I have tried to help my sister so many times, hoping that she gets better, hoping that she realizes just how great a life that she could have. It has taken me a long time to realize that you can't make someone be better, you can't make them want to have a better life.
By Talara Nolan4 years ago in Psyche