A scary thing happened to me last week. An afterwork event forced me to leave my laptop at the office and I swear I had the shakes all night from internet withdrawl!! So sad....so sad. Ok...it's not thaaaaaaaaaaaaat bad but there are definitely some online shopping sites and certain blogs that I love to follow! Here are some of my favorite health related blogs (because I'm sure you already know that I loooooooooooove perezhilton.com.....I. Can't. Help. It.)
1. Holistic Vanity (www.holisticvanity.ca) - I am crazy about natural skincare and Kristen Ma is definitely one of my fave natural skincare health gurus! She owns Pure and Simple Spa in Toronto (which was just voted the best spa from NOW Toronto...YAY!!) and I couldn't live without my deep cleansing facial from Slavica at their Yorkville location. She is always trying out new products, gadgets and gluten free recipes and gives an enlightening view on how ayruvedic medicine can give you clues about the health of your skin.
2. Gwendolyn Honey (http://www.gwendolynhoney.com/) - This is a new blog by writer Stacey Lindsay. She is a wealth of knowlege when it comes to natural products, studies, tips and recipes and her sincere journey to live a healthy and happy life is conveyed through her writing.
3. Gluten Free Goddess (http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/) - This is a blog that I recommend countless times every single day I practice. It has great tips on how to start eating gluten free as well as delicious gluten free recipes for every meal....including brunch! Check out all the gluten free breads (her gluten free sandwich bread recipe is amaaaaaazing), cakes and even cupcake recipes she has!
Annnnnnnnnnnnnd....if you are a coffee lover and want to find out where all the good quality coffee is in the city, check out www.coffeestork.com. You're already going to have that cup of java so make it a good quality, delicious one!
For all of you die hard coffee drinkers out there, I know that coffee was meant to be had in it's true form...black.
But for the rest of us...that live for the creaminess of a cup of coffee with milk, it's devastating to find out that we are lactose intolerant, allergic to dairy or have an intolerance/sensitiviy to dairy.
For this group, I have an amazing solution for you.....COCONUT MILK!! It mixes in beautifully without separating and has the same texture as pure dairy cream. Here is a pic for proof:
Today is the last day of May...and it's been a faaaaaaantastic month!
We've realized the biggest lesson we have learned is how excessive our spending can become...and how easily we can normalize this. I'm notorious for always having to buy something from the impulse section of any retail store and Makoto can't go into any hardware store without picking up a new gadget for the house....we've cold-turkeyed this behavior. It's refreshing to not have little piles of gum, magazines and random treats and knick knacks that we've bought during the week. Our recycling bin is no longer overflowing with the take-out coffee cups from our fave coffee shops.
I can't believe it's already the middle of May! So far, Makoto and I have been pretty darn good with cooking at home. The cooler weather has helped since we've been making some seriously awesome soups using organic chickens and veggies. We made everything from good old chicken (rice) noodle to our very own Pho Ga!!
Coffee - eek. This one was harder than we thought. The first week we made it through with a few deelish $2 (including tax!) soy lattes at Jet Fuel Cafe on Parliament Street. God Bless Johnny at Jet Fuel!! This was followed by a busy week at the clinic and we didn't have time to leave for coffee so we reaquainted ourselves with our French Press. Now we're actually loving our cup of black Swiss water decaf coffee. We have it with a piece of dark chocolate.
I've learned that a little planning goes a long way - it's amazing what spending 15min roughly planning our meals will do for our savings! We usually just wander the isles of the grocery store and grab whatever strikes our fancy but now we stick to our list and don't have wasted food at the end of the week. This also helps us from filling up our shelves with random items that we never eat.....seriously, why do we have Disney Princess Alphagettis in the pantry?
Makoto says:
Yes, I’ll admit it: I am a naturopath, and I am a coffee drinker. Never did touch the stuff until university, with the strategically placed Tim Horton’s located dangerously adjacent to the library that I spent many late nights in during my undergrad. My drink was the classic large double-double, and I would pound several of these back to keep me fuelled and alert while cramming for my biochemistry exams. That comfortingly hot sugar and cream soup was addictive and kept me going.
Both my tastebuds and health awareness have progressed since those formative years. Little did I know that those days would catch up to me and my body would start to become dependent on coffee, depleting me of my energy reserves, and be a culprit in my digestive challenges. I eventually weaned off the cream to milk and then to black, and then cut out the sugar and paired down to a more reasonable medium coffee and limited myself to one per day. Roll up the rim really made it hard to let go of Timmy’s.
