The Lizzie Experience

09/03/2026

Another thing I’m celebrating today…

Seven years ago today, I went into Mount Sinai Hospital for cytoreductive surgery with HIPEC to treat stage four appendix cancer.

I was frightened and knew I had no control over what was about to happen. A friend gave me an image I’ve never forgotten: “Think of it like boarding a 747. Take your seat, trust the pilot, and let him fly the plane.”

So that’s what I did. I placed my trust in my remarkable surgeon and his team.

And today, seven years later, I am cancer-free.
I feel great, I’m back in my groove, and I have so very much to celebrate. ❤️

09/03/2026

THE BOOK IS WRITTEN. PUBLISHING IT IS ANOTHER STORY.
A while ago, I told you that my book, Notes from a Woman Figuring It Out, was done.
And it is.
Sort of.

The book itself is written. The stories are there. The chapters are there. The words are there.

What I hadn’t quite appreciated was that writing a book and publishing a book are two entirely different things.

There is formatting and page sizes and margins and covers and files and digital versions and print versions and platforms and uploads and things that apparently need to be converted into other things before those things can become actual things.

Who knew?
Probably everyone who has published a book before me.

And perhaps there is something wonderfully appropriate about a book called Notes from a Woman Figuring It Out being temporarily held up because the woman who wrote it is, quite literally, still figuring it out.

The good news is that I will.
I’m determined to get this book out of my computer and into your hands, and I’m working on doing exactly that.

But in the meantime, I realized something.
There is another project I’ve created that is finished, available and ready to download right now and I haven’t talked about it nearly enough.

BOUNCE BACK LIKE A BADASS: THE RESILIENCE GUIDE FOR REAL LIFE

This is a practical guide for anyone who has been knocked sideways by life or is simply trying to navigate one of those seasons when things aren’t turning out quite the way they expected.
It’s about learning how to keep going, how to find your footing again, how to recognize the strength you already have, and how to build more of it.

It’s not about pretending difficult things aren’t difficult.
It’s about discovering what you can do when they are.

So while I’m figuring out how to get Notes from a Woman Figuring It Out from my computer and into your hands, there’s something else I can put into your hands right now.

Bounce Back Like a Badass: The Resilience Guide for Real Life.

GET THE RESILIENCE GUIDE HERE:
Linktr.ee/thelizzieexperience

Link in bio

09/01/2026

SEPTEMBER IS MY OTHER JANUARY

I've always thought there was something about September that feels a little like January.

Maybe it's all those years of going back to school. New notebooks. New schedules. Earlier mornings. A little more structure after the looseness of summer.

September feels like a beginning.

And here we are, with four months left in the year.

Four months.

That's actually a lot of time.

Enough time to get stronger.
To eat differently.
To move our bodies more.
To fix our sleep.
To create better routines.
To start something we've been putting off.
To get serious about something that matters to us.

Not because we failed to do it in January.

Not because we're behind.

Simply because September 1 is as good a day as any to say: Okay. What do I want the rest of this year to look like?

I'm asking myself that question too.

For me, part of it is weight health. I want to eat better, exercise in ways that work for my body, get stronger and feel more comfortable in my skin.

Part of it is work and creativity. I want to keep building The Lizzie Experience, keep writing, keep exploring ideas and keep making more room in my life for the work that lights me up.

Nothing dramatic.

No giant September 1 proclamation.

Just four months and the decision to use them well.

Because imagine arriving at January 1 and being able to look back at September, October, November and December and think:

Look what I did with those four months.

I like that idea.

So maybe September doesn't need resolutions.

Maybe it just needs a question:

What could you do with the next four months?

Resilience in Action:
Choose one thing you want to change, strengthen, or accomplish over the next four months. Then choose one small action you can take today to begin.
You don't need to have the next four months figured out. You just need somewhere to start.

08/27/2026

I WANT SO MUCH
At 5:44 this afternoon, I wrote something in my journal that wasn't particularly inspirational:

First, I started drawing.
A ridiculous little stick woman who is apparently me, arms stretched out, heart in the middle. Around her I wrote:
Healthy. Happy. Financially secure. Abundance. Love. Vitality.
Then came the woman I want to be or perhaps the woman I already am in pieces, but want to experience more fully.

Fit. Flexible. Happy. Funny. Loving. Excited. World traveller. Spontaneous. Gorgeous. Sexy. Smart. Entrepreneur. Creative. Artist. Writer. Author.

And looking at the page, I thought:
Maybe I just want a bigger life than the one I'm able to see from where I'm standing today.

There are things on this page I don't know how I'm going to achieve.
Financial security. Travel. Building the business I can see in my imagination. Becoming the woman I keep catching glimpses of.

And as I reread it, I realized I'd left out something important:
Loved. Partnered. In love.
I want that too.

Not because I need someone else to complete my life, but because loving someone, being loved, and sharing this life I'm building with a partner matters to me.

I want me and my girls, the three of us, to be close and connected.

And there's more I'm sure...

It's part of what I mean when I say:
I want so much.

Maybe that's what hope looks like:
it's sitting on your balcony, overwhelmed, drawing a slightly wonky stick woman with her arms wide open toward the life she still very much wants to live.

I want so much.
That's not such a terrible thing.
I want so much because I'm still interested in my life.

RESILIENCE IN ACTION
This is why this kind of journal writing matters.
It doesn't have to be beautiful or profound. It doesn't even have to make sense. Write the messy sentence. Draw the ridiculous stick person. Make the list. Write what scares you, what you don't understand and what you still want.
Sometimes resilience is giving yourself enough space to hear what you're actually trying to tell yourself.
Today I told myself:
I'm overwhelmed.
I'm still very much interested in creating the life I want!

08/27/2026

08/25/2026

I wrote this not long after moving into my new place (may 2026), during a time when I was still finding my footing and learning to feel safe in my world again.

I never shared it then.

But today feels like the right day, because the friend I wrote about is celebrating her birthday.

I've known her since high school, and through some of the biggest and most difficult chapters of my life, she has been one of those rare people who simply shows up.

So today, I want to share this for her and acknowledge the beautiful, generous, steady woman she is.

Happy birthday to my dear friend Anita Anita Sarah Beaty 💕 You deserve every good thing that comes your way. Love you so much...

✨️Tonight reminded me what real support actually looks like.

Not advice.
Not fixing.
Not long conversations trying to figure everything out.

Just…someone showing up.

I had one of those days where something felt off.
Since the stroke, those days come and go, and when they come, they can bring a quiet kind of anxiety that’s hard to explain.

She checked in.
She said, “I’ll be there in half an hour.”
And when I hung up the phone, I cried.

Because she meant it.
Because she was coming.
Because after all these years - since we were 13 or 14 - she is still one of the steadiest people in my life.

She drove in from Toronto.
Not around the corner. Not convenient.
But she came.

We cooked dinner together.
Opened a bottle of wine.
Went for a walk.

And that walk…mattered more than anything.

I’ve been a little afraid to go out on my own lately.
A little hesitant. A little unsure.

But tonight, with her beside me, I felt safe again.
I explored my new neighborhood.
We checked out little cafés and corner stores.
And for a few hours, my nervous system just… exhaled.

No pressure.
No explanations.
No needing to have it all figured out.

Just being together.

This is what support looks like.

Not loud.
Not complicated.
Just consistent, steady, and real.

And tonight, it was everything I needed. 💕

Resilience in Action
Allowing support: Letting someone show up for you without minimizing your need
Rebuilding safety: Taking small, supported steps back into the world after fear.

08/20/2026

WHY DID YOU CROSS MY PATH?

Have you ever looked back at someone who crossed your path and wondered:

Why you? Why then? Why at all?

Some people enter our lives so briefly that, measured in time, they barely seem to have been there. A conversation. A chance meeting. A few weeks or months.

And yet, sometimes, those are the people who leave us thinking long after they're gone.

Then there are the people who stay for years, even decades. They become woven into our lives and we assume that because they've always been there, they always will be.

Until, sometimes, they aren't.

We often hear that people come into our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. But maybe the more interesting question isn't how long someone stays.

Maybe it's:

What did their presence reveal?

Did they teach us something about love, friendship or boundaries? Did they remind us of a part of ourselves we'd forgotten? Did they show us what we want more of or what we will never accept again?

Maybe they simply made us feel something we hadn't felt in a very long time.

And perhaps that's enough.

I don't believe we need to turn every encounter into fate. Sometimes, people simply meet. Circumstances change. Relationships end. Lives move in different directions.

But there is a difference between searching for meaning and inventing it.

Searching asks: What did this experience show me about myself?

Inventing asks: How can I make this mean what I desperately want it to mean?

Sometimes, we become so consumed with understanding why someone left that we miss what their presence already gave us.

Maybe the better question isn't:

Why didn't you stay?

Maybe it's:

Who am I because you were here?

The length of an encounter doesn't determine its significance. And an ending doesn't erase what came before it.

We don't always get to know why someone crossed our path. We do get to decide what we carry forward.

And perhaps that is where the meaning lives.

Resilience in Action: We may never understand why someone crossed our path, but we can honour what the connection taught us and choose what we carry forward.

08/19/2026

A Ritual of Light ✨

Most mornings, before the day really begins, I have a little ritual.

I turn on the Turkish moon lamp I made myself. I light a candle and my candlesticks. I switch on the tiny sparkling lights tucked inside a blue glass bottle. And there, among all that warm light, sits a little heart that says Amour.

Then I make my coffee.

Nothing extraordinary and maybe that's exactly the point.

I sit for a while. I think about the day ahead. I might scroll a little, exchange a message with a friend, or simply enjoy the quiet.

Over time, I've realized how much these small rituals matter.

They give us a moment between waking up and stepping into everything the day may ask of us. A chance to choose calm. To choose intention. To notice beauty. To begin gently.

Especially on a rainy morning like this one.

We don't always get to choose what the day brings.

But sometimes, we can choose how we enter it.

And this is how I enter mine.

Coffee, candlelight, a little Amour...
and a ritual of light. ✨☕️

Resilience in Action:
Resilience can look like candlelight, coffee and a peaceful beginning 💕

08/18/2026

TAKE THE SHOT

There comes a point when we have to stop standing quietly on the sidelines of our own lives.

• If you see someone you find attractive, say hello.
• If you love someone’s dress, tell them.
• If someone intrigues you, start the conversation.
• If there’s something you want, ask.
• If an opportunity excites you, go after it.

Somewhere along the way, many of us became so afraid of rejection that we started protecting ourselves from possibility too.

And I’m not sure that’s protection at all.

Maybe you say hello and they’re not interested. Maybe you ask and the answer is no. Maybe you put yourself out there and discover it isn’t reciprocated.

Okay. You survive that.

But what about the other possibility?

• What if they smile back?
• What if the answer is yes?
• What if that five-second decision to be brave changes the direction of your day or your life?

We spend so much time worrying about how we’ll look if we’re rejected. Maybe we should spend a little more time wondering what we might miss if we never try.

You don’t need to be thinner, younger, richer, more successful, more confident, or living some perfectly put-together life before you’re allowed to participate in it.

This is your life now.

Flirt. Compliment. Ask. Introduce yourself. Speak up. Be interested. Be interesting.

Take the shot.

Not because you’re guaranteed a yes.

Because you’re strong enough to handle a no and you deserve the chance to find out what happens when the answer is yes.

Resilience in Action: Having the courage to risk a little rejection rather than living with a lot of 'what if?'

08/17/2026

Well, would you look at that 😊

Apparently, I’ve been showing up here for 36 weeks in a row.

Thirty-six weeks of sharing the good stuff, the hard stuff, the ridiculous stuff, the things I’ve learned, the things I’m still figuring out, and all the little bits of life in between.

And I have to admit…I’m kind of proud of that.

Because showing up consistently doesn’t mean you always feel inspired.

Sometimes you’re motivated.
Sometimes you have something brilliant to say.
Sometimes you’re staring at the screen thinking, I have absolutely nothing today 😑

But you show up anyway.

And maybe that’s what consistency really is.

Not perfection.
Not having it all figured out.
Just deciding that something matters to you — and continuing to come back to it.

So I’m celebrating my little 36-week badge today. 🎉

And if there’s something you’ve been trying to stick with — writing, walking, healing, creating, exercising, starting over, building something new — keep going.

Those ordinary days when you simply show up?

They add up.

Apparently, sometimes Instagram even throws confetti at you for it. 😂🩷

Resilience in Action:
Keep showing up. You may be further along than you realize.