Around This House

For the first time in about six months life is beginning to slow down. I know that sounds dramatic but since May we have had something going on every single weekend. We either have some kind of event, or we're spending time with our friends, or I'm working my other job, or a combination of all three. It's all been great things but I am dang tired.

Looking back on all of that though, I'm seeing that it's been a seriously amazing year. We crossed so many things off our bucket lists when we went to Vancouver and Alaska and bungee jumped while we were there. We went to a magical little treehouse for Jordan's birthday. We completely neglected sleep to make the world's quickest trip to Missouri to visit some beloved friends. I went away for a girl's weekend and was in a wedding. We went on our first trip with Jordan's family to Florida. We got some amazing new tenants and said goodbye to a couple of seriously missed ones. We also repainted the entire rental unit and did lots of updates upstairs and downstairs which meant I finally got the kitchen I'd been dreaming of. All of that makes me find it so hard to believe we've fit that all into one year.

Now that it's all starting to slow down I'm grateful for all that we've done and I'm also grateful for the quiet moments we've stepped into as well.

It's getting mighty cozy over at our house and we're taking advantage of our free time to snuggle on the couch basically 24/7.

Here's what things have been looking like around this house:

<< I've never been more in love with a slab of concrete as I am with my front step >>

<< It may be super dark in the mornings now but it sure it pretty>>

<< Oh my beloved kitchen! My butchers block counter tops and subway tile make me smile. Also we FINALLY got a dishwasher this year and man oh man my life is changed. I am a free woman and Jordan and I are like "well what do we argue about now?!" *Just kidding- kind of* >>

<< I got a new rug this weekend and I'm still not over it. 

My living room is finally becoming a place I actually want to spend time. We used to have a GIANT faux leather sectional that bad boy Peter had basically ripped to shreds. Now we have a perfectly sized couch and I have come to claim this as my new reading space>>

<< I wasn't kidding. This is my new favourite place to end my night.

Side note: murder books and podcasts are my not-so-guilty pleasure >>

<< Oh and the Christmas decorating has begun. Next up: the tree! >>

<< Everything is infinitely more cozy with a cat.

LOOK AT HIS ANGEL BABY FACE! >>

I love this blue house of ours.

Bonus: here is the best picture of Peter that has ever been taken. Almost makes me forget what a little devil baby he is. 

Until next time!

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown

Cozy Curator 

My Earnest Attempt at Clean Living

Recently I've been working on integrating more eco-friendly and sustainable practices into my life. I'm working on cutting down the plastic I use and am making a concerted effort to be more conscious of the waste I create on a daily basis.

My family and I recently went on a quick trip to Missouri. When I was a kid my family lived in Missouri for four years for my Dads job and during that time we became close with a family that we still visit today. While we lived in Missouri they took us in, gave us a community and they've come to feel like our own family now. They have a farm where they've raised chickens, grow grapes, raise cattle and everything in between over the years. They currently have two cattle, a vineyard of grapes and a big pear tree. We fed the cows, picked grapes off the vine and pears off their tree. Throughout they kept re-iterating their hate of chemicals either when it came to pesticides, or in raising their cattle. This is something I already knew I really appreciated and loved.

One day we came onto the topic of makeup and talked about all the chemicals in something as simple as the baby wipes I said I use to take my makeup off. My first reaction was "you should see the makeup I put on my face, the baby wipes are the least of my worries." Later, I reflected on the discussion and thought "why don't I care about that?" I know I don't want chemicals in my food but why am I okay with slathering chemicals into my pores?

The first reason I know I've been reluctant to delve into the world of chemical free makeup is the price. Most clean makeups are double the price. I've also found them to often be less effective and harder to find.

I stumbled upon an app called ThinkDirty. You can search for any makeup or household product and see where it rates on a scale of 0-10, 10 being the worst for you.

I typed a few of my commonly used products in and wasn't necessarily surprised that they were made of chemicals but the word carcinogen was not very welcome to my eyes.

I decided I would try replacing items as I go and see how that works for me. Instead of spending tons of money at once I could work to find clean products and switch them out with my old ones as I needed them.

As it happened I was in need of some new lotion and some new deodorant. I went to the drug store and spent some time searching some brands in my ThinkDirty App. I liked Honest Brand and Burts Bees the best and will be trying more of their products in the future but for the day I picked up the Honest Brand lotion.

The next thing I needed was deodorant and I had no idea where to start with that. All I could see were the common chemical-filled brands I'd become accustomed to. I went to the grocery store next and ventured into their health beauty section and found the Green Beaver Company deodorant.

So far I'm enjoying the Honest body lotion. It's definitely not oily and seems to offer good coverage for a small amount of lotion. I also like how it's for my face and body so I'm not buying multiple different lotions. The Green Beaver deodorant was a good first purchase but I'll probably consider trying some other brands in the future. I love the scent and maybe I'm just used to the protection of the chemical-laden deodorants from the drug store but it's definitely not great for all day protection. I may just need to change my routine and bring the deodorant with me in my purse instead of expecting it to work all day like my old deodorant. I'm liking it so far though and enjoy knowing I'm not leaching aluminum into my body through my arm pits.

My next buys that I'm interested in are going to be the Physicians Formula makeup. I'm excited to try their mascara and they have great scores on the ThinkDirty app. One thing to remember though is that just because one product has good scores on ThinkDirty does not mean that all products from that brand will. Look up each product to get the most accurate information.

I also wanted to give you a quick update on my attempts at living plastic-free. My favourite purchase by far has been my re-usable produce bags!

I bring them to the market and to the grocery store. It's nice not having to search for the produce bag dispensers and I don't have a huge pile of plastic bags to get rid of once I unload my groceries.

Second runner up: my reusable produce tote

I just love the look of it and love bringing it to the market or loading my groceries in it.

I haven't used my bamboo silverware or stainless steel straws much but I also don't do a ton of eating out where I don't have access to a set of silverware. I know I want to bring them on my trip to Hawaii next year when we'll be driving the road to Hana and eating from stands on the way. One thing I REALLY want to get into the habit of is bringing my re-usable coffee cup with me and actually using it.

Other things on my sustainable Wishlist:

<< Reusable Ziploc Bags >>

We have Tupperware but I'm a big sucker for Ziploc bags. They're just so much more compact.

<< Beeswax Wrap >>

Beeswax wrap is an alternative to plastic wrap. The wrap applies itself to whatever you need to wrap with just the heat of your hands. It's washable and re-usable. I'd love to give it a try.

So far I'm enjoying my attempt at living a cleaner, less wasteful existence. I'm still learning and going through a lot of trial and error but it's been fun so far!

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown

Sustainable Student

Florida and Irma and Driving OH MY!

Earlier this month Jordan's family and I headed down South to the lovely city of Sarasota, Florida to take a vacation together and soak up some of the Florida heat after a wildly disappointing Canadian summer. 

We hopped on our plane from Toronto with the forecast calling for rain all week but that couldn't get us down! When we walked out of the airport in Sarasota the heat hit us like a wall and we all got excited to get out in the sun whenever the weather would let us. It actually ended up being a beautiful week. We had rain two times for about a half hour each. We spent the week baking by the pool, shopping, and eating. All the best vacation activities.

Because it was so hot I quickly worked to master my dutch braiding skills. Look how straight that part is, you guys. I mean, that's pure art. This hairstyle was a necessity for making it through any day of 35 degree humidity.

Another way we kept cool was by shopping for hours on end. Every time I'm in Florida I go to Target a minimum of 5 times to look at their dollar section, wander through their clothing department, and pickup another pack of Justin's Peanut Butter Cups that I convince myself I'm going to bring home but eat instead and have to go back the next day to restock. 

And we got lots of great new duds:

<<  New clothes, who dis?

Things to note about this picture:

I look a million miles long and that's my main motivation for posting it

Jordan looks like a tiny and very uncomfortable hobbit, which I love

Jordan's mom photobombing the picture, which I also love >>

We started our trip with a nightmarish visit to Steak n' Shake which broke my soul in half because we love Steak n' Shake and we were introducing it to Jordan's family. Our visit included a waitress who we suspected was quite high, staff fighting over who would have to take our table, a complete lack of chili in the entire restaurant (we come to Steak n' Shake for the chili fries y'all), and a very good story. It still tasted deliciously bad for you.

Most of the week was spent hanging out by the pool, reading my books, and hopping in and out of the water trying to get a tan, while also trying not to sweat to death. We also took lots of long walks and spent basically every day trying to see a gator in the pond.

We also went to a hibachi restaurant which was the highlight of my eating experiences. 

My favourite part of the hibachi night were the collectable cups that Jordan and I paid extra for so we could take them home. I've never loved a cup more than my buddha:

See those faces? Those are the faces of a group of people who don't know that their flight is getting cancelled tomorrow morning.

So, we were very unaware of the fact that we were flying into hurricane season when we booked our flights to Florida. This is mostly because we live in Southern Ontario where nothing ever happens and everyone is happy that the idea that a tornado, or a monsoon, or an earthquake belong in other parts of the world,  unless you fly to said part of the world.

All week the weather reports stated that Hurricane Irma would be coming up the East coast of Florida starting on Saturday evening and hitting around the middle of Florida's East coast on Sunday morning. We were happy because Sarasota is in the middle of Florida's West coast and we had a flight scheduled for Saturday morning. 

We called Air Canada to see if we could move our flight to Thursday or Friday just to be safe but Air Canada only flies to Sarasota once and week and that was our flight. We called them every day and checked the website every day to see if our flight was still on and by Thursday it still was. We still made sure we kept a full tank of gas in our rental car and bought lots of non-perishable snack, filled up old water bottles with tap water (since there was NO water in any of the stores), and storm proofed the condo, just in case we got stuck. 

Friday morning Jordan and I were just about to head out for massages and I check the website and...the flight is cancelled. We had to still go to our massages or we'd be charged half the price of the massage as a cancellation fee. We threw my cell phone and computer at Jordan's family and ran out the door. I spent most of the massage relaxed and wondering if this meant I'd get some extra days off work while also battling the images of Hurricane Harvey in my head.

Jordan and I got back to the condo and his brother had been on the phone with Air Canada the whole time and hadn't found any viable options for us. We all sat down in the living room and talked through our options. We could stay in Sarasota, where the news was telling us the hurricane was going to hit us straight on now as the hurricane had changed course and was heading up the East coast, or we could take the rental car and get the hell out of dodge with everyone else. We were all worried about how bad the hurricane could be and even if it wasn't the domino effect of a hurricane could mean we could be stuck in Sarasota another week or more. We also all worried about leaving at a time when everyone else probably had the same idea. What if we got stuck on the highway when the hurricane hit? Or what if we ran out of gas because all the gas pumps were empty?

We all took a vote and agreed that this was the time to leave if we were going to. The gps said with traffic we should be out of Florida in about 4 hours and to Detroit in about 17 hours. We ran around madly finishing storm prepping the condo and cleaning as best we could and were in the car by noon on Friday. 

It was over 8 hours later when we crossed the border from Florida into Georgia. A drive that should usually take about 3 and a half hours took us 8 and a half. The traffic was awful and the countless fender benders along the highway weren't helping. I drove the first 8 hours and then Jordan took over. Another problem we had was that Jordan and I were the only ones who were signed as drivers on the rental car. We could add more people but we'd have to go to the rental car office and do that. No time for that so off we went, Jordan and I ready for hours of driving ahead of us.

Jordan took the next 5 hours of driving and handed the car over to me close to Atlanta. We drove through Atlanta at around 2 in the morning and it was pretty amazing. The highway was close to empty and wove through the city all lit up. It was beautiful.

Near Atlanta we tried to find a hotel to stay at since Jordan and I had yet to sleep at all. We called every hotel and motel along our way and every single one was full. We called a 3 star motel by the Atlanta airport and they offered us a room for one night for $700.00. Can you believe the gouging that was going on there? They actually ended up being full too but we wouldn't have considered paying that much for one night. Driving past the rest stops you could see it was FULL of cars that people were sleeping in. It was pretty bleak. We ultimately decided to drive on and Jordan and I would try our best to get as much shut eye between shifts as we could.

After an hour and a half nap I was back for another shift. At this point Jordan and I were doing two hour driving shifts. Sitting in the drivers seat for any longer was unbearable. My lower back was hurting and the time was crawling. From 5:30-7:30am I drove us through Kentucky and I was so lucky to get this shift because it was amazingly breathtaking. The highway wound through the Smoky Mountains and as the sun was coming up we reached the top of one of the mountains and looked down around us at what looked like lakes with little islands within them. It was actually a thick layer of fog with mountain peaks poking out. Kentucky is one place I definitely want to visit again.

By 3 in the afternoon we were pulling into Detroit where my Mom and Stepdad were waiting for all of us with their SUVs to take us all home. Seeing my Mom after all this was such a welcome sight and we were all glad to have a couple of well rested people take over the driving for the remaining four hours. 

Our trip was nothing if not an adventure. We got so lucky that we left when we did and watching CNN on Sunday from the comfort of our home made us all feel that we made the right choice.

Also, if I ever get fired from my job I could always go into a career in storm chasing.

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown

Hurricane Survivor

I'm Going Plastic Free

One of the reasons I've found as to why I enjoyed trying to live minimally (see my post here about the life changing magic of tidying up) is that I feel that I'm producing less unnecessary waste. Since I have purged my closet of things that don't bring me joy I haven't bought a single new item of clothing. I've been shopping but I'm finding I'm more likely to hold out for something that I love because I am now honest with myself and know that if I don't absolutely love everything about a piece of clothing that I'm about to buy then I definitely won't wear it.

I've also been interested in trying to bring minimalism into other parts of my life as well. My desk at work was actually the first place I used to explore minimalism. After I took the majority of things off of my desk I immediately found I was more productive and since my desk was less cluttered, so was my mind. I no longer was losing track of tasks because they were buried under all the other things I needed to do.

I'm slowly but surely trying to bring this into our home as well. I'm working on getting rid of some things and am starting to see the beauty in opened and uncluttered spaces.

All of the things I've gotten rid of have been donated and are finding new lives somewhere else but one place I produce a lot of "unsaveable" waste is in our kitchen. We've been working really hard to bring our grocery bill down by ordering food online so we can track exactly what we're spending before we get to the checkout, but we still do manage to create food waste by taking meat out of the freezer to thaw and waiting too long to cook it, or letting fruits and vegetable go bad. We try to juice fruits and veggies past their prime or composte anything we can but this is definitely one area we could improve.

The kitchen waste that bothers me the most though, is our garbage. I didn't grow up in a house that recycled. It just wasn't something my family did. Now that I live on my own we recycle everything we can and return all our empties to the beer store every few months. Now it just feels wrong of me to throw something in the garbage that can be recycled. We definitely still have a lot of improving to do though. Sometimes I get to lazy or forget to bring our reusable grocery bags and we have to use plastic. I donate these plastic bags to the homeless shelter where I work (they're great for giving things out in and are helpful when someone cannot carry all their food or clothing donations) but I still could do better with my waste.

One of the big things for me are produce bags. I HATE using produce bags at the store. I immediately throw them out when I get home but I heard a horror story from a friend about a cashier complaining about their produce not being bagged. I'm also a once-a-day Tim Horton's drinker who never brings a re-usable cup, and tend to eat takeout from time to time which comes complete with a styrofoam container, plastic utensils and a plastic baggy.

All this is to say: I could do better. I was really sparked by this blog post: click here.  I loved some of the ideas and started researching what the cost of some re-usable goods would be.

I searched amazon and it's suprisingly cheap to get some re-usable goods. I spent about $50 and here's what I got:

 << Reusable Produce Tote >>

 << Stainless Steel Straws >>

 << Reusable Produce Bags >>

<< Bamboo Silverware >>

My plan is to use these items as much as I can going forward and work on truly cutting down the waste I produce. I'm also gonna start carrying my water bottle and reusable coffee mug around with my more as well.  It will be good for the environment and good for Jordan, who I always ask to take out the recycling :) 

If you have any plastic free tips or want to join me for solidarity let me know!

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown

Evolving Minimalist 

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

You guys, I drank the koolaid that is the KonMari method and I have to admit, I am a true convert.

For those of you who don't know what the heck I'm talking about: I'm referring to the KonMari Method from The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. Basically, the book shares the Japanese art of decluttering.

For a quick recap the method most simply stated is this: keep only things in your life that spark joy.

The long version of that means you'll be standing in your bedroom surrounded by every single piece of clothing that you own, running your fingers over the fabric, ruminating over the memories you've had in the shirt, and trying to decide exactly how this piece of clothing makes you feel.

It's all very new age-y and you feel incredibly silly during the entire process, especially when you're made to thank the clothing you're giving away, but honestly, I got super into it.

The KonMari method is supposed to declutter every aspect of your home, but Marie Kondo suggests you start with clothing first. Shauna is a now self-proclaimed minimalist and offered to help me through this gargantuan process, so I quickly took her up on her offer. Shauna stayed the night after a party and in the morning, hung over and fuelled with a breakfast generously cooked for us by Jordan, we began.

The first step was to get every piece of clothing I own into one place. This is apparently a very serious rule that you're not allowed to break. If you forget something you have to agree to immediately throw it out once you find it again because if you've forgotten to add it to your pile then it must not mean that much to your life.

After pulling everything from my two closets, countless plastic drawers, and Rubbermaid's from the garage I was pretty sure I was ready to go. I immediately realized that Shauna was going to be a great companion for this job because she was super supportive and encouraging, while also a bit of a hard ass. I made a mental note not to mention that I thought I forgot a sweater I actually wanted at work.

Once the clothes were all sprawled out across the floor, we began. The process is simple, but also not at all. I picked up my first shirt and tried to get really introspective with it. I thought a lot about the shirt and tried to feel the fabric, remember what it looked like on me, think if it brought me *joy* before I realized yes, I did like this shirt. The next shirts became easier as I realized this wasn't about thinking, it was a gut instinct thing. Shauna pointed out to me that when I knew I wanted something and I knew it *sparked joy* that I immediately threw it into the "Yes" pile. When I spent time holding the shirt and thinking about it, this was me trying to convince myself that I needed and wanted it.

Once we got through every.single.shirt I own Shauna looked at me and said "again." WHUT?! I had to go through the pile again!? I did the process again and when I got to a shirt I had been lying to myself about I held it once more, stared and stared into it's every fibre, and then threw it into the "No" pile, with a "thank you" of course.

The main thing I realized was that I truly did have clothing that didn't bring me joy. I had a lot of clothing I liked but that when I thought about them, I got a little bit of anxiety. I felt anxious that they were taking up space in my already stuffed closet and hanging around to remind me of how I felt in them. One of the number one things I found was that I was hanging on to things because they held a happy memory for me but in actuality, I didn't really like them and truthfully, the memory was more soiled by keeping it around. For example I had a blouse with a Peter Pan collar and tiny little bow ties on it that I kept because it always made Jordan laugh. He told me he really liked it one day and laughed because it was cute and silly, like me (this is a direct quote but also a humble brag about me. Deal with it). So I kept the shirt, but when I would try the shirt on I wouldn't smile about it because it didn't fit right. It was tight in the bust and a little short and generally just made me feel uncomfortable. Really, I like the memory of Jordan smiling at my shirt, not the shirt. I had to get rid of what didn't bring me joy and hold on to what did.

Another thing a lot of people hold on to are gifts. We feel bad throwing things out because someone else spent money on them and we think it would upset them if we got rid of them. Shauna was great in this department because she would always remind me that once a gift is given, it has served it's purpose of sparking joy. When someone gives you a gift they feel joy in giving you something they think you would like and you feel joy receiving the gift. If the joy goes no further than that then that is okay. I was holding on to a lot of clothing that had been given to me out of guilt. It no longer brought me joy, or maybe never did, but I kept it because it felt rude not to. Letting go of a lot of those things was like letting go of a big breath of air I'd been holding on to.

Shauna was also a great pusher that day. I was pretty much wiped out by the time we finished shirts but she kept my momentum going. We went through workout clothes, pants, socks, jackets and shoes. Shoes were something I knew I had too many of but I just couldn't part with a bunch because I was always thinking about "just in case." Which is why I had about 7 pairs of high heels when I have worn heels approximately 5 times in my life. The numbers do not add up and that is my point.

<<Lost a bunch of shoes. Found this cat>>

KonMari is a big proponent of folding, so Shauna taught me her folding method and it is truly a game changer. I didn't realize that I was losing a lot of joy just by feeling completely overwhelmed with my things. I've always been a quantity over quality type of person. I hate a uniform and like to have lots of choices depending on how I'm feeling that day. This led me to own 15 pairs of pants, countless workout shirts, and probably 50 pairs of socks. What I didn't realize was that I was actually feeling stressed out by these things because I had accumulated so many that every time I had to retrieve a pair of pants I had to pull them from the leaning tower in the top of my closet and make a huge mess. The same went for socks, which I used to treat like basketballs trying to get into the basket in the top of my closet, and workout shirts which I shoved in a basket below my hanging clothes which often caused them to fall out of the basket and behind a set of plastic drawers. Now I've wildly downsized my collections of all of these things and they fit beautifully in their designated areas.

At the end of the day I ended up with a gargantuan pile of things to get rid of and it felt so.good. I donated a large portion to the homeless shelter I work at, threw out a bunch, and am selling the rest. I took some to a consignment shop last week and they didn't take a lot of things because they were out of season *womp womp* but I still got $50.00 for 9 things. Only about 30 more things to go.

My favourite part of this entire thing has been how free I feel. I don't feel weighed down or overwhelmed by my things anymore. I don't notice that I've given away half of my things because I only kept the things I want to wear anyways. I do get a bit nervous still seeing my teeny tiny workout shirt collection and wonder if I've shot myself in the foot but I continue to repeat the mantra that if I ever need for anything I can buy it again, but this time I'm buy something that I truly love.

Now for my favourite part: the before and afters. Guys this stuff is like porn to me. I seriously went on the Marie Kondo Instagram and just drooled over the before and after photos leading up to my purge. Please enjoy my masterpieces.

Bedroom Closet:

<< No more basket on top of my plastic drawers and no more leaning tower of pants(a)>>

Office Closet (My 2nd Closet):

<< These dresses all used to be stuffed into the drawer below them. 

Getting rid of half my clothes made room for them to hang happily! >>

Coat Closet:

<<So many shoes and scarves gone!>>

Honestly, if you're thinking about trying to simplify your life I think you should consider at least peaking into Marie Kondo's book. I've been really trying to focus on stepping away from my obsession with "things" that actually just end up stressing me out and clogging up my life and stepping towards having the freedom to breath and experience life. I'm not saying this is some sort of cult (although I did reference drinking the koolaid) that is going to change your life, but maybe it will. If nothing else it will free up SO MUCH MORE ROOM FOR ACTIVITIES!

Thanks for reading this uber long post but I hope it may help someone because I did a lot of reading articles like this before I took the plunge and it really helped me.

Happy decluttering!

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown

KonMari Convert

Baby We Were Born to Run

Earlier this year in a fit of what some may call insanity I took the plunge to sign up for a running clinic. Jordan agreed that he would do one with me. I’ve been a completely unmotivated runner over the past couple of years and I really needed to find a way to get my groove back.

In highschool I took my first running clinic through the Running Room. It was the Learn to Run clinic and it slowly taught me how to run 5k by including walking breaks in your run training. The first week we ran one minute and walked one minute. Each week we added another minute to our run until we were running 12 minutes and walking one minute until, we had run 5k. These were pretty humble beginnings and they were just the baby steps I needed to get into running.

After realizing that I actually could physically run 5k I didn’t stop. Over the next 10 years I continued to run, sometimes often, sometimes not. I would cycle between 3 and 5k runs and would occasionally sign up for a 5K race to keep myself motivated.

Over the past two years of having a house, running really fell by the wayside. I had a lot less free time and it felt like every run I went on was a struggle. I took up rock climbing and cycling instead because I was bored and frustrated with running.

All of that led to this year when my friend Laura and I started doing some 5K training together. I knew I could run 5K just by sheer will of determination but I also knew I was way out of whack when it came to my distance running. We signed up for a 5K together and then I signed up for one with Jordan, and then Laura and I signed up for an 8K at the end of the summer. The ball was officially rolling.

In that whirlwind of motivation I started talking to Jordan about doing a running room clinic to keep me accountable. I wanted a group to run with that would ask where I was if I didn’t show up and I wanted to put some money on the table to up the ante. I was originally going to take the 5K clinic and Jordan was interested in the 10K. The 10K was a mountain I did not see myself even daring to imagine scaling. I’d never purposely run anything more than 5K and my slow and steady pace made me scared to try to run any further with a group.

I don’t know what came over me one day though because I clicked on the signup for the 10K clinic for myself and Jordan, entered my credit card info and all of a sudden we were both signed up.

I figure that if I’m scared to do it, then I need to do it or I’ll always be running the same 5Ks forever. There was once a time when I didn’t know I could run a 5K and the Running Room changed that, I was ready for that thinking to be changed again.

We’re currently in the middle of the 10K training and I’ll tell you: it’s been damn hard. We meet three times a week: Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sunday mornings. The first run we ran 5K and I was quickly found myself at the back of the pack and I’ve stayed there ever since but it doesn’t bother me one bit. I show up every week, and straggle at the back running the exact same distance as everyone else, just at my own pace. Jordan told me I may be slow, but I’m a machine that doesn’t stop and I’m proud of that.

I’ve already surpassed what I thought I could do. I’ve done hill training, I’ve showed up when no one else has and ended up running a long run on a hot Sunday morning with just the instructor, and I’ve run over 11K now and felt amazing when it was over.

<< My very 1st 10K- which I can thank to hill training. 

A true killer that also racks up the kms apparently>>

<<My longest run to date!>>

I still get a little bit of dread on run days but I go anyways and that’s all that matters to me. I also get a whole lot of dread thinking about the fact that we’re supposed to run 13K in one go by the end of this but I’ll save that dread for another day.

For anyone interested in a running group like this one looking up the Running Room clinics in your area. They’re game changers!

<<Honestly, this photo just needed to see the light of day because it's amazing>>

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown

The Turtle to your Hare