I'm Doing the Whole30...Again!

If you follow along you may remember that I did a Whole30 earlier this year. If you don't well you can go back in the blog and see my day-by-day recount of my experience. Here's my post about what the Whole30 actually is, go ahead and read it..I'll wait.

Basically, it's a month of clean eating. No added sugars, no wheat, no dairy, no grains or legumes, no added preservatives, no fun *kidding!*.

It was a great, and very hard, experience when I did it in February and I've been thinking about doing another for a while now. It took a bit for me to even consider it again, but I would occasionally mention it to Tessa, who did it with me the first time. Last week she was the one who pulled the trigger and said "lets just do this thing again!" I said "Dammit...okay!"

Today is day one and it's going okay thus far. I cooked myself a delicious breakfast of homemade breakfast sausage and scrambled eggs, packed up about 50 tupperwares full of food for the day/night, and drank my black coffee on the way to work today.

This time we're doing things a tad different. This is a very strict plan and while that's part of it's beauty, we also can't put our lives on hold again for an entire month. We've decided that we will follow the plan to the very very best of our abilities but we will also not stress if we have to go out to eat and we can't read the label of the salad dressing or be 100% sure if there was butter on the grill before they put a chicken breast on there. Trust me, it's not fun to be that person asking the chef to make sure there's not added sugars in things. We will still order food that follows the Whole30 but not stress about the minuet details. We are also *considering* drinking on Halloween. This is a big no-no for Whole30 but its Halloween and guess what, we will if we want to. Biggest thing for us is to enjoy ourselves as well, while also make sure not to go of the plan food-wise. Other than that we're sticking with whole, prepared foods, and following the rules as best as we can, just not as obsessively as last time.

I'm super excited to do the Whole30 again because I honestly felt like a damn rockstar by the end of the last one. No joke, you finish off and you are feeeeeling yourself. You are just so healthy, so accomplished, and ready to take on the world. I've also got quiet a few bad habits I need to break pronto. The Whole30 makes you think about everything you eat and how it tastes, what's in it, and what it will do for your body without the worry of calories or fat content. There's no need to worry about the scale or counting calories because you're just eating real, whole food.

I'll be updating the blog with my progress throughout but no day-by-day this time, I'm sure we're both letting out a sigh of relief on that one.

So wish me luck friends and Happy Whole30 Day One :)

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
Masochist/Soon to be Rockstar

Keeping it Basic This Fall

Every fall there's always two things on my to-do list: apple picking and pumpkin picking. I'm not original in this thought but it truly rings in fall for me and without it, I feel like the season has passed me by.

So on a rainy Sunday Jordan and I hoped in the car and headed out for some fall fun.

Our first stop was apple picking at Orchard Home Farm . It poured on our way there and then right when we got out of the car the rain stopped and we had the orchard to ourselves and a few brave souls who had ignored the rain. It was perfect.

 << Pink apples! My heart flutters :) >>

After picking our apples and picking up ciders, honey, and gourds on the way out we headed to Stroms to buy ourselves a pumpkin. Stroms is the most beautiful property and has really expanded. They now have a barn with snacks and treats and the usual kids area and corn maze. Our eyes were on the pumpkin prize though and we walked out with a giant orange beauty.

I have yet to carve my pumpkin but I am beyond excited to roast those delicious seeds up!

Happy Fall :)

From the Desk of:
Taylor Brown
Basic

Birthday Bliss

<<How amazing is this sign Erika made me!? Sweetest friend evah!>>

August 27th marked my 25th birthday and let me tell you, it was one of my best birthdays yet.

I spent my birthday surrounded by so many very special people in my life, it was a perfect mash of friends, family, craziness, and pure happiness.

My official birthday was on Saturday so my friends planned a night out for me on the Friday night, that way we'd be out partying when the clock struck 12. Erika showed up with the best birthday cake of all time (she used two bottles of sprinkles on it!) and giant 2 5 balloons. The basic bitch in me screamed with excitement. Of course we took a ridiculous amount of pictures.

After getting ourselves sufficiently sloshed we headed out to the bar where Katie and I massacred a karaoke rendition of "If You Wanna Be My Lover" by The Spice Girls (hashtag no regrets).

We all passed out back at home at god knows what hour.

The next day my alarm woke us up and we shuffled our way out of the house like zombies. Erika and I were spending the day with my sister and Mom seeing Matilda the Musical in Toronto.Our hangovers really hindered our get up and go but eventually we snapped back into and were able to enjoy the play and meet up with Shauna for a delicious dinner.

When we  got home that night Jordan took me out to a movie. It was the perfect end to a whirlwind birthday.

Thank you to my wonderful friends and family for the most perfect day (or days) in birthday history!

From the desk of:
Taylor Brown
2-5 and Still Alive

Around This House

I've been wanting to start a post series to chronicle everyday life in our tiny home. I know that everything seems to familiar right now and completely "unspecial" but when I look back on these days I'll miss them. Having some small snaps of the tiny little corners of magic in our home will help me see them now, and give me something to treasure later. I hope that if I look back at them they'll give me a rush of the same feelings I'm feeling now. There's something so cool about seeing a picture, or smelling a smell, and instantly being transported back in time. So that's what I'm doing here, creating my own little time machine.

So without further adieu, here is what life is currently looking like around this house:

 << The perfect welcome home >>

 << The cosiest bed >>

 << Current reads inspired by watching Montage of Heck.  One is a fictional book about a girl who O.Ds and comes back to life with Kurt Cobain as her boyfriend- full disclosure: the idea is interesting but I'm still not sold on the execution so far. The other is a collection of Kurt Cobain's journals >>

 << Helping hands >>

 << Home Sweet Home >>

 << Demin jackets and summer evenings>>

 << Indoor not-so-wildlife>>

<< My favourite corner>>

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown

Time Traveler

Happy Birthday Shauna!

My wonderful best friend Shauna turned 25 this month and we thought she deserved an adventure. 25 is a big deal. A quarter century, ten years into our friendship, a time to celebrate!

First up for the day was a trip to Centre Island. While Toronto is an amazing, bustling metropolis, if you hop on a ten minute ferry you can get to a beautiful island with endless activities. We grabbed some drinks and lunch on the island before setting out to go canoeing and kayaking.

When we found out that our rentals would take a bit, we went exploring. We precariously climbed over rocks, trying to get as close to the lakes waves as we could. Surprisingly none of us fell in.

When it came time to get in our rentals we have one canoe, three single kayaks and one tandem kayak. We raced each other, we splashed around in some questionable water, and when we all got tired we linked ourselves up and floated next to each other in the shade.

What I didn't know was that there is a pirate ship that people can go on that lets you blast people with water. Unlucky for me, I was sharing a canoe with two other people. One of them was dead set on getting us wet, so under the wrath of water fire we went. I did not handle it gracefully but looking back it was hilarious, especially when we were getting so soaked that we couldn't see anything and we rammed our canoe into the boat and almost tipped. So many close calls with that mystery water that day.

After that we got ready for dinner and went out to Tequila Bookworm. We picked it because it had a patio that was the perfect little nook in the city for our dinner.

Of course we couldn't stop at dinner. Our original plan was to go go-kart racing but our timing was very off because by the time we got to Playdium, the go-karts were closing in 15 minutes. Instead we spent the night acting like children in the arcade, playing virtual reality games, and collecting tickets, which we eventually used to buy candy, like the true adults we are.

It was a completely wonderful day and I couldn't have thought of a better group of humans to spend it with.

I had to include the below picture because it's my favourite thing that I've ever laid eyes upon. Welcome to your 25th year Shauna!

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
Birthday Hype Man

Climbing Rocks

About a year and a half ago Jordan and I decided to join a rock climbing gym. We found Grand River Rocks in Kitchener and it has been one of the best places in the world to us. We've brought tons of friends to join us, I've started taking yoga, and we've really seen our skills develop in the time we've been climbing.

This past weekend we got the chance to move on to the next big, bad challenge: outdoor rock climbing.

Jordan had met a friend at tradeschool who had a lot of experience in outdoor rock climbing so we had a great guide for our first time climbing outside. We met in Milton and climbed Rattlesnake Point.

Let me tell you, this was WAY harder than I had imagined. This was definitely a step up from indoor rock climbing! When you're indoors you're following a set path that someone engineered for you. Outside, you pick the path, and that can make it a lot easier on you, or a lot harder.

I was climbing up a wall and following the crack of the wall when my instincts took me to the right. I found myself very far right from where the rope was, which meant if I fell, the rope would swing me back underneath it. The below picture shows in green where I should have been and in yellow where I actually was:

I was holding on to the wall trying to find my next hold and my legs started shaking. I didn't feel confident enough in my next move to just go for it so I decided I'd rather let go and be prepared for the swing. I sat back, let go of the rock and the rope pulled me quickly back towards the crack. It was a quick swing and I hit the rope on the way, almost pulling my belayer over. The hit didn't hurt and I mostly had control of my swing, not to mention my belayer quickly and confidentially handled the whole situation. It was a bit scary, but also exhilarating. That's just an example of how much harder outdoor rock climbing can be.

 All together it was an incredibly great day. It was definitely one of the toughest things I've ever tried, but I want more than ever to go back out there.

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
The Girl Who Fought a Rope and Lived to Tell the Tale

PETER!

Last weekend Jordan and I welcomed a new edition into our fam. His name is Peter and he is the cutest/also rudest member of our household and I love him.

Jordan and I had been discussing getting a cat for a few weeks and we decided that last weekend would be the weekend we'd bring a baby kitty home. I was sitting on the couch Saturday morning scrolling through the selection of cats at the KW Humane Society when I saw they were having an adopt-athon THAT DAY. All adoptions were $50 (versus the usual $150 adoption fee). Um. Yes.

We ran our butts to the Humane Society to see if there was a cat there for us. I saw a little black kitten and said to Jordan "We have to get that one, then I can pretend I'm a witch." He agreed to look at him and we went into his room, which he shared with a little grey kitten. Well the black kitten was zonked out and did not pay attention to us at all but the grey kitten was happy to have us there. He let us pick him up, he was friendly and while Jordan was holding him I said "I think I like this guy better" and he said "Me too!" So we got Peter, the cat who never caught our eye. Sorry dude.

We are so happy we got him, though. He's definitely a bit of a jerk sometimes (which I think is just a personality trait shared among cats), but he's adorable, he loves to fall asleep in your lap, and we're completely smitten with the crazy, hyper, cuddly kitten.

I can now officially be the crazy cat lady I always wanted to be.

<< Matching Mean Muggs>>

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
Cat Mom (Non-Witch)