Freebies

Stay tuned!

Helpful Links

This page is a collection of tools, links, and resources that I’ve found helpful, interesting, or inspiring. The list will continue to grow and change over time, so check back periodically to see what’s new.

Mental Health and Well-Being

• 12 hours of brown noise for sleeping, studying, or generally blocking out the world.

General Medical Information

• If you want to check your symptoms, try the Mayo Clinic Symptom Checker, HealthWise Symptom Checker, or the Ada app.
• For quick, user-friendly medical information try The Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, and NHS (UK).
• The Canadian Medical Association has a great page on finding health information from trusted websites. In addition to provincial and territorial health websites, they link out to comprehensive lists of Canadian and American health care organizations.
• The National Institute on Aging (USA) has a page on finding and vetting health information that links out to governmental health resources, including MedLinePlus.

Cancer Information

• For a range of cancer-related information, try the Canadian Cancer Society or Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
• My Cancer IQ cancer risk calculators: different calculators for various more common cancers.
• Breast cancer risk calculators: some preamble on how to think about/use these calculators and a list of calculators toward the end of the page.

Perimenopause and Menopause

• The Vagenda by Dr. Jen Gunter is a great resource for reproductive health information, from menstruation to menopause.

Fitness and Exercise

• Yoga With Adriene and Yoga with Kassandra offer huge catalogues of free yoga classes.
• I use two of MadFit’s videos when I want to move my body but am tired/sore/unmotivated: Stretches for the Inflexible and 20-Minute Lazy Girl Full Body Workout.
• If you want to polish up your swimming strokes, there are lots of great tutorials online. I particularly like the offerings from the Global Triathlon Network which has beginner-friendly videos, like Why Am I Exhausted After Swimming 50m? and Learn to Swim Freestyle.

Community and Connection

• Stay tuned!

Travel and Adventure

• Stay tuned!

Finances

• Do some retirement planning with the Wealthsimple retirement calculator. Or, if you’re in Canada and have time for a more comprehensive tool, the Canadian Retirement Income Calculator is for you.
• Canadian Portfolio Manager: Tips, tools, and tutorials for DIY ETF investors.
• Canadian Couch Potato: a blog for Canadians who want to learn more about investing using index mutual funds and exchange-traded funds.
• Boomer & Echo: a blog with tips on how to save money, invest well, and retire comfortably.

Safety and Emergency Planning

• Stay tuned!

Death and Dying

• Bereaved Families of Ontario: affiliate offices from across the province provide a free, safe, non-judgmental environment for grief support. They also maintain a library of virtual resources.
• Kids Grief: support for parents and adults who want to better understand how to support children as they face the life-limiting illness, dying, and death of someone important to them.
• Caregivers CAN: learning modules containing useful information, strategies, and suggestions for preparing for and providing care as a loved one’s illness advances.
• My Grief: free learning modules designed by grief specialists and people with lived experience of grief to help you understand and move through grief.
• Youth Grief: developed by grieving youth for grieving youth. Wisdom, experiences, and advice from more than 30 young people who know what it’s like to grieve the loss of a loved one.