Mary Novaria

Featured online in Woman's Day and Cosmopolitan .  Four years ago, I was suffering from constant pain and paralyzing fatigue, as well as from depression, stress, and weight gain. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in my early forties. Until then, my doctor and I had both chalked up my exhaustion, aches, and pains to parenting active children while working part-time. But eventually, my aching muscles began to keep me up at night. I'd often go back to bed when I got the kids off to school and took naps nearly every afternoon. Click here to read the story... 

Photo courtesy of Erris Langer Klapper Wanted to share a post that was featured this week in Delish , Redbook , Dr. Oz The Good Life and Country Living .  I Gave Up Dairy And It Completely Changed My Life ​But it was  not  an easy road.      By  Mary Novaria      Feb 9, 2016 Cheese was my quintessential comfort food. I was the person who made a beeline to the baked Brie at cocktail parties. Baked potatoes, chili and tacos were merely cheese delivery vehicles, a simple base upon which to heap mounds of shredded cheddar and Monterrey Jack. And don't even get me started on the wedge salad. Sure, it's got bacon, but it was the creamy, crumbly, blue cheese goodness that had me at "hello." My lifelong romance with cheese came to an abrupt halt three years ago when a new doctor – a naturopath – suggested I give up dairy. I'd sought her help for some ongoing health issues, i...

NYT best-selling author Laura Munson (This is Not the Story You Think it Is...) opens up her blog to alums of her Haven Writing Retreat in Whitefish, Montana. She asked us to submit pieces about what it took to get ourselves to the retreat, what our blocks were, and how the retreat has informed future decision making when it comes to creating possibilities for ourselves in the field of our dreams.  The theme is:  I Gave Myself the Gift of a Haven Retreat. So Now What? You can find other entries and learn more about Haven  here . Walking Lightly Ranch, home of Haven Writing Retreat I left my shoes on the porch and stepped into the lodge feeling like a fraud. When I arrived at Haven I’d lost confidence in my words and in myself. The past five years had been a morass of caregiving for an aging mother and teenage daughter, both incapacitated by maladies that my words, written or spoken, just couldn’t fix. Although there’d been scant time and even less ener...