New Habits + January Desktop Calendar

I can't believe it's 2014 already. It feels like just yesterday I was cranky because I had to dig out my winter coat. And now it's a brand new year! Damn...

For the past few days I have been thinking about the whole New Year's resolution thing and I have decided to do things differently this year. Instead of making a couple of big resolutions that become difficult to maintain for the entire year, I've decided to break up my resolutions by month. On the first day of each month I will have a new resolution or goal that I want to focus on. That way as the seasons change and as life happens, I can refocus myself in the direction of what is important to me.

Think it's a good idea? I just hope it works!

Taken at the Bluff Wilderness Trail

 For January I have a couple of resolutions for myself. First off, I need to get back into a regular workout routine. I have been avoiding yoga for the last month as I've been experiencing pain in my wrist. Honestly, I've been using that and the busyness of Christmas as an excuse not to be physically active. So, for this month I am aiming to work out at least 3 times a week. Either doing yoga, working out at home or at the gym in my office. Doesn't matter which, as long as I do it 3 times a week.

Secondly, I want to eat out only once a week. Matt and I want to be more smart with our money and one of our biggest downfalls is eating out. Therefore, I will be making meal plans, going for groceries and budgeting myself to one meal out a week (under $20).

Last but not least, I am vamping up this blog. I have created a schedule for myself to stick to for this month so that I post at least 3 times per week. I obviously can post more than that but I want to hold myself to something consistent. The blogs I enjoy reading the most are the ones that reliably post frequently. Therefore, I will be holding myself to those standards as well.

What are your resolutions for 2014/January?

Adventures With Eco-Friendly Deodorants

Years and years ago I found out that there was an ingredient in antiperspirants that had been directly linked to Alzheimer's. From then on out I stopped using them, because I mean really, Alzheimer's is *freakin'* scary shit. It wasn't until a few years ago that I jumped on the eco-friendly beauty product band wagon and started to try out new deodorants that were made out of healthy ingredients.

If you have tried this before you know where this was going. Let's just say for a few months I was a smelly, unhappy mess. I first started with some stick that didn't work. Then I tried the salt rock that you wet and put on and that lasted all of, I don't know, 2 hours. I was seriously unhappy until I found SoapWalla's deodorant cream. I have been a very loyal customer to her for about 3 years. Until recently.

I understand that everyone needs to make money and as something gets more and more popular, the price will normally go up. Well when I first started buying her cream it was about $7.50. Now the price is up to $15.00. I'm sorry but that is a huge increase. Adding on shipping and the inconvenience of having to order it weeks in advance (god forbid you forget and run out of your current stash) and I was fed up.

Now I am experimenting with other brands. Ones that are more accessible  so that I'm not always having to think about ordering new stuff when mine is getting low. Here is a list of products I have tried for about a week each and what I thought. Keep in mind that everyone is different and I'm sure there are people out there that love all of these products. Also, I paid for all of these myself and have not been contacted by any of these companies so this is not a sponsored post.

Soapwalla Deodorant Cream - This stuff is obviously what I have preferred for a long while. It took me some time to get used to putting it on my hands and then rubbing it on as it is not a stick but it really wasn't that big of a deal. It has a strong scent in the bottle but once applied it isn't that strong anymore. I found that it would last all day, through an evening yoga practice and I wouldn't smell until the next morning when I was showering anyways. Once it absorbed into my skin there wasn't any funkyness in my pit (ie, it wasn't sticky or wet). As I mentioned above, I love this stuff but it's getting to be pretty expensive including shipping and the inconvenience to use.

Tom's of Maine Naturally Dry -  When I first started experimenting with other brands I picked this one up. I love love loved it! That was until I remembered to read the ingredient list a few weeks later and found out this has aluminum in it. I didn't mention this above but aluminum is the ingredient in antiperspirant that has been linked to Alzheimer's. I will say that if you just cannot make the switch to deodorant, this is a good option.

Desert Essense - I bought this stuff right before Matt and I went camping in PEI for labour day weekend. I am so glad that Matt and I are comfortable around each other because for the rest of the weekend I pretty much smelled bad when you got too close. I found this stuff stopped working after about an hour or so. But it stayed on your skin creating this yucky sticky environment in your arm pits. Granted it was a humid weekend but I still don't think it should have had that type of reaction.

Tom's of Maine Long Lasting - On the way home from the above mentioned camping trip I was so fed up with smelling bad that I made an emergency stop into Lawtons and found this stuff. It was pretty much the only non-salt crystal deodorant in the whole store. It has a pleasant smell, only a teeny tiny bit of stickyness at the end of the day and after using it for a week I can say I actually liked it.

Nature's Gate Winter Clean - Why I tried a new one I honestly can't tell you. I guess I either like to torture myself or try every possibility. This stuff is unscented and honestly, it doesn't stand out to me. It was a while ago now that I tried it, and I switched back to Tom's of Maine Long Lasting after a week or two. Not much of a review but oh well!

This is where my stinky journey comes to an end. Although I loved the first two products, I stopped using them for their own reasons. I am still using the long lasting Tom's of Maine one. I'm sure when that one runs out I will try another new one and the adventure will continue. One can fantasize about an amazing, eco-friendly deodorant after-all :)

30 Days of Yoga and Tiny Tea Teatox

At this point most of you have probably clued into the fact that I like 30 day challenges. If you didn't know this about me, now you know! Ha ha ha. Anyways, I really like them because I find that 30 days is a good amount of time to test something out without feeling like you just completely wasted your time. It is also a great start at building a habit.

Therefore, I have done a few 30 day challenges here on the blog like the 30 day abs and squat challenge and the 24 day fall cleanse.

For the month of November I have decided to take on a double challenge. The yoga studio I am a member of is doing a 30 day yoga challenge. I think they do it pretty much every November. If you're interested in the studio it's called Shanti Hot Yoga. They truly are fantastic. Go check them out hint hint wink wink ;) This will be my second time participating in their 30 day challenge so I decided to pair something else with it that I've been wanting to try for a few months now.

I stumbled upon Yourtea on instagram originally. After seeing countless before and after photos and customer testimonials I decided to look into it a bit further. Yourtea makes a few different tea "series" if you will. The one that most interests me at this point is the tiny tea teatox. All of their tea is based off of chinese herbal medicine and each series has a particular "benefit" if you will. The tinyteatox is a 14 or 28 day digestive cleanse. It has been known to help reduce sugar cravings, reduce bloating, clear acne, provide more energy during the day and the list of benefits go on.

Have you done a cleanse before? Or have you done a 30 day challenge before? Tell me about it in the comments section!

Two Months Without Shampoo or Conditioner

I have made the jump to "no 'poo" and I can officially say that I will never go back.

I had heard bits and pieces about stopping using shampoo and conditioner a few years ago but never really looked into it. Then last summer I stumbled upon Amanda's amazing blog, Living In Another Language, where she talked about stopping using shampoo and conditioner in this post, this post, this post, and this post. Once I was done a little bit of blog stalking reading I decided I finally had to give this a try. Amanda answered any questions I could think of in one of her above posts so why not? If I don't get the results I want then I stop. Easy peasy.

This is what people look like when I tell them I don't use shampoo. This is a day I would have washed my hair. It's a bit messy because I was out in the wind all day.

I won't get into the exact details of how it works since Amanda covers all of it over on her blog (you should go check out her blog if you haven't gotten the hint yet ;)) but I'll tell you the basics. Pretty much, I "wash" my hair every 5 or so days. When I wash it I use a solution of baking soda and water on my roots and vinegar and water on the ends of my hair. The baking soda solution absorbs excess oil in your roots and helps to get rid of any product in your hair. The vinegar solution moisturizers your ends and adds lots of awesome shine.

That's it. It really is easy. I did experience a bit of a transition phase when I first started where my hair was still trying to figure out how much oil it should be producing now that I wasn't stripping it of it's natural oils anymore. But I took some of Amanda's tips and just changed the ratios I was using in my solution to accommodate for the oilyness that I was experiencing.

This is my go to look on days where my hair has gotten a little too oily to wear down. Just throw some dry shampoo in it and up it goes.

It has officially been just over two months since I stopped using shampoo and conditioner and I can say that I will never go back to using it again. One of the biggest reasons for me is that I gain so much time in the mornings not having to wash, blow dry, straighten/style my hair. I do that one to two times a week now and on the mornings that I don't do it I can be ready to go in about 15 minutes. I mean, who doesn't want to be ready that quickly?!

I digress.

Some people I have talked to about this seem interested, some people immediately shut it down. If you're interested I highly recommend going to read more about it at Living In Another Language and then giving it a shot. If you have any questions about it feel free to reach out and I'll do my best to answer them.

Could you stop using shampoo and conditioner?

>>>This post was written and a Halifax Blogger meet up. If you are in the HRM or close by feel free to check us out on Facebook here<<<

October 2013 Desktop Calendar

Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air.