Today is the Day!

Hi Everyone,

Today is the day, it is finally time for Tough Mudder. I remember just 90 days ago thinking, “that’s  a great idea, let’s go run 18km while doing a dozen army style obstacles.” I am glad I got excited about it early because right now, I could easily talk myself out of it! BUT, we are here now so there is no turning back.

With my stomach being so nervous the last couple of days, I did a little research. Folks, let’s put those rumours to rest… nervous pooping is really a thing! Well the more scientific term is Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), but nervous pooping sounds so much better. It happens all the time, when your nerves and stress levels are ramped up in preparation for a big race, an exam, an important meeting at work, and everything in between.

Can you guess, I am definitely experiencing all of the symptoms of ‘nervous pooping.’ Next time you are experiencing symptoms, here are some tips on how to calm your bowels:

·         Take some slow deep breaths

·         Listen to soothing music and stretch

·         Avoid foods that contain high amounts of natural sugars that usually promote bowel movement

·         And most importantly, stay distracted.

Writing my blog was my way to stay distracted, turns out all I had on my mind was nervous pooping!! Wish us luck, I will be back with some photos tomorrow.

These hot days of summer...

Hi Everyone!

I first want to send out my apologies for my little blog hiatus I have been on the last few weeks. This is turning out to be one crazy busy year, complete with a new job and event after event to plan for our wedding in November.

121 days to go...

I hope everyone is keeping cool in these last few heat wave days, but I wanted to share some tips with you to keep cool while staying green this summer:

1. Whether you have an air conditioner or not, try and keep your blinds and curtains closed during those peak sun hours of the day. As the sun shines in through the windows it is making your air conditioners and fans work double time to keep your house cool. This will help with energy consumption in these vital times when the power grid is working extra hard risking wide spread outages. 

2. Try and stay indoors wherever possible, but if you have to go outside keep hydrated. Water is your best friend on heat waves like this. A new study has found that if you keep your palms cool it will help your body from over heating meanwhile delaying fatigue and improving performance during strenuous activities. What I always try and do is have a nice cold ice filled water bottle with me, that way I am carrying in my palms to keep my body cool and I have cold water at my fingertips to stay hydrated. 

3. For those of you that don't like to drink a lot of water, how about a refreshing alternative to keep you cool. With my training well under way for Tough Mudder in a couple weeks, I am trying to keep those unnecessary sugars out of my diet without losing flavour. This is so easily done by just flavouring water and no I don't mean using a powdered drink mix. Try reading the ingredients list on one of those and see if you recognize anything. 

I was thinking the more natural way. So here is the recipe for our latest creation:

Ingredients:

1-2 tablespoons of fresh basil chopped

1/4 cup of lemon juice or juice of one lemon

6-10 slices of cucumber

1/4 cup of blueberries or raspberries

Directions: 

Combine all ingredients in a one litre container with cold water. If you need some sugar to sweeten it, add agave nectar. 

Stay cool this summer! 

Today's Green Tip

Smoking - It's bad for your health. You see images like this one all the time, but have you ever stopped to think about some of the environmental effects of smoking?

Over 600 million trees are used each year as fuel to dry tobacco. Also, tobacco plants use more nutrients than many other crops so they degrade the soil for future crop use.

Happy Pride 2013

It's funny how we can take things for granted. In Canada, we are afforded the luxuries of free health care, safe drinking water, the right to vote, among many other luxuries. In other countries around the world, the same cannot be said.

One of the easiest ways to look at it is,

In Canada, we have had the right to vote since 1920 and the 2011 voter turnout rate was just 61.1%, although up from 2008, this is a mere showing from the 75% we saw decades earlier. In other countries, they are not even given the chance to vote. Do you think if they were given that chance they would show up with just 60% of the eligible voters. We take our right for granted...

Yesterday, some family members and I went to Toronto to celebrate the 2013 Gay Pride Parade; we were there supporting a family member who was attending his first gay pride parade as an openly gay man. I realized while I was there, that I take for granted that I can marry the person I love, hold their hand in the street, and do all of this without ridicule or judgement. That is what is amazing about Pride week, it increases the awareness of the LGBT community.

The Pride parade was a one of a kind experience. It was such a happy environment, you could just feel the love and support everyone was there to give. So from me to you, Happy Pride Everyone! I hope you can join me next year as Toronto gets the honour of hosting World Pride 2014.

A New Trend for the Rich and Famous

Hi Everyone,

Today we went on a sight seeing cruise along the Florida keys, between Siesta Key and Longboat Key. We saw some of the most beautiful beach front properties, different species of birds and a family of dolphins.

According to our tour guide, only 3% of the people living in these beautiful homes, all of which are 10 times bigger than mine, are living there full time. The other 97% are just vacation homes for the winter months. Another fun fact I was amazed to hear was that there is a trend in new homes being built on the coast. The rich and famous are finally thinking about their environment when building these homes and adding solar panels to the roof. These are the two of the hundreds of homes we saw:

In the heat of the summer, there is almost 15 hours of sun in a day. They can generate enough electricity to power their home appliances each day. I am hoping that next time I come up here there will be even more homes adopting this eco power. 

Are there any neighborhoods you travel to annually and are starting to see more environmentally friendly changes taking place?

Beach Fashion Change Up

Hello from Florida!

We have had nothing but beautiful sunny days here, sorry to rub it in! On the downside, I am starting to resemble a lobster. You really underestimate the strength of the sun... Trust me I have been slathering on the sunscreen.

Today is the start to a new feature of the blog. It was inspired by those days when you look into your full closet and say "I don't have anything to wear." I read a lot of magazines and browse pinterest quite often, only to feel like my closet is inadequate. Keeping up on all of these fashion trends is not budget friendly. So I have set out to try and make my closet the closet of my dreams with minimal purchases. It’s all about looking at what is in your closet in a different way and buying the right multi-use items.

I started with a $15 Walmart dress, shown below (similar here):

Make sure the dress is an elastic top so you can make it a skirt, as show below. This way, when you don't have a lot of time to change, or want to pack a little lighter on vacation, you just need a couple of accessories to change it up and you have this:

I added a white tank top and a belt around the top of the skirt. This way I got two outfits out of three items (dress, belt, tank top), and it looks like a whole new outfit. 

In the coming months, I will also add some photos of cheaper designer outfits from items that are probably in your closet. 

Do you have any items that are dual purpose? Send me a picture and we can share the inspiration. 

Fun in the Sun!

Hi Everyone! I am writing from Long Boat Key, Florida today. I am on vacation for the next 10 days with some ladies for some much needed rest and relaxation.. I know it’s back to reality all too soon so I will be enjoying everything Florida has to offer while I am here.

So far the travel has been good. We had a 40 minute layover in New York City so Becky and I went on a little walk through the JetBlue terminal. What did we find? A 7-foot NBA player.. at least we know he was famous because there was people taking pictures of him. If you were in the airport around 7AM this morning and you saw a 7-foot guy in red basketball shorts, a white t-shirt and basketball shoes.. maybe you can let us know who it was!

Oh, and I also managed to find an office supply store. I know.. sometimes I think Staples is my candy store. It was a cute little store called ‘Muji to Go.’ They had a lot of travel accessories but the other side of the store was full of pens, brief cases, report covers, note pads and so much more. Yes, that was the highlight of our short visit to the JFK airport.

That all being said, I figured while I am in Florida, it would be a good time to start another ‘shade of green’ on the blog which I am hoping will be a monthly feature. Sorry gentleman.. it is all about fashion!

I read a lot of magazines and browse pinterest quite often, only to feel like my closet is inadequate. Keeping up on all of these fashion trends is not budget friendly. So I have set out to try and make my closet the closet of my dreams with minimal purchases. It’s all about looking at what is in your closet in a different way and buying the right multi-use items.

I am a little tired from our 5am airport adventures this morning so look for tomorrow’s finance friendly fashion ideas.