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Style Adventure: Elora

This has got to be the cutest town that me and the man have ever traveled to. We have been here before, but we have never explored the town itself just the conservatories within. But at the centre of the town is a historic district off the water and I must have said “omg this place is so cute” more than 10 times.

I researched a few places that I wanted to check out that were photograph worthy and we headed out a couple hours before dusk. I used to prefer shooting as the first thing to do during the day…but the sunlight is just not ideal at that time. I’m slowly learning…

Outfit Number 1 – Golden Romper Delight

This romper is thrifted. Block heels are call it spring.

I actually planned this location because of the stoned stairwell behind me in this photograph but they had it locked off. Oh well…they had pretty gardens surrounding and the beautiful Elora Gorge

My man picked out this backdrop for a portrait shot. It really turned out well. Perfect to show off the details of this outfit and my makeup!

Outfit 2 – Courthouse Belle

I have had this dress for so long. I continue to breathe new life into the dress with different styling and accessories. This ribbon belt and polka dot heels really make this dress pop!

By our second location, the Golden hour was starting and it was absolutely beautiful.

The third location was within the downtown core of Elora. The man Street was blocked off to vehicles and people on patios took over the streets. Everyone was unbelievably friendly and more than a few people stopped to say hello to our pup.

However we didn’t stop for anything to eat, we just took in the splendor of this quaint town. There was a location called seven doors that brought me there.

Outfit 3 – Bubblegum Cuteness

This is actually a dress layered under a polka dot baby doll skirt. My hips are much to thick now for the dress, so instead I wear it as a shirt! The skirt is thrifted and the heels were actually my grandmothers. She didn’t want them anymore…one of the benefits of having the same size feet!

Seven doors isn’t actually tagged or listed on Google so I wasnt sure how I was going to find it…but we were walking along taking everything in and I pointed out this cute building with flowers…that just so happened to be right beside the seven doors. Haha

The whole main area on Metcalf Street was adorable and cuteness overload.

What is your favourite outfit of the three?!

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Style Adventure: Princess Dress Up

I was reading a Narcity Canada article that recommended Ontario Locations if your a Disney Princess at heart, and I came across this Rapunzel looking tower and I knew I had to make a style adventure weekend out to kitchener.

I was imagining a flowing dress (I realized I have like NONE) but I had a dress that was a first purchase reject brides maid dress that was golden like Rapunzels hair and I knew it was PERFECT!

Ahhhh it came out exactly how I was picturing it. That hardly ever happens for me when planning style adventures. You never know what the locations are going to throw at you, or if your outfit/hair will come out exactly how you want, OR if me and the man will be vibing that day and can get on the same page to make ‘the shot!’

The dress has a super high slit which is very the brand I.e. my first Fashion Nova purchase. Since I have been rocking alot more curves lately…. I might start making more purchases there for sure!

I was planning to have my hair in a braid to the side…. with possibly some embedded flowers throughout, like the movie Tangled. I decided against it and instead only give a nod to Rapunzel and rock my own brown locks the way I would as a native princess.

Fun Fact: while shooting this look some guys stood outside their truck and just watched us do our photo shoot. This is probably the look I am giving in this photo. BUT I kinda liked it, “excuse me, this is my land, off with his head!”.

I was definitely feeling this look. For the heels I choose the colour that Rapunzel actually wears… purple. The heels actually have golden studs as well on them, but none of the photos can really see that (oh well! Haha).

I hope you enjoyed coming along while I played Disney princess dress up. I had a lot of fun creating this blog post!

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Style Adventure: old Town country road

I have always wanted to style a Canadian tuxedo. When we came across this old mill off an abandon railroad I knew now was the perfect time.

I couldn’t decide between two ways of styling. The first was a full buttoned, true to Canadian tuxedo, styled with heels and gold accents.

My hair is crimped from French braids worn over night and styled with a black ribbon. It gave it a very cutesy 60s vibe.

My hair was going crazy in the below shot was a loved how fun it made the photo.

My second styling was more relaxed with deep reddish boots and an unbuttoned jean shirt. I switched up the purse as well to a more everyday relaxed style with fringe.

We followed the abandoned railroad to the end of the line just for fun and I’m glad we did because it inspired the last styling.

This is the feel of the town that I grew up in.

I hope you enjoyed my little nostalgic style adventure.

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Style Adventure: Snow Queen

Do you have that one dress that brings you joy when you see, as it’s such a beautiful dress… but you never wear it?

I wanted to do a style adventure shoot for that dress. That dress that makes you feel bomb when you wear it. The dress that only probably gets worn once during your life or twice if your lucky. To remind you to take that dress out for a wear yourself.

I bought this dress from hudson bay for a friends wedding. It was actually a pretty heavy dress for a summer wedding, but it was too gorgeous to pass up plus it was on sale.

This time I would style it for winter, and I had this idea of a snow queen. A royal look that also was very practical for nature.

For the location I wanted to be surrounded by snow and nature. Rockwood conversatory has many beautiful snow filled paths that I thought would be perfect to shoot in. But then I seen this cobble stone building, which seemed like a type of home that a snow queen would live in out in the middle of nowhere within the forest.

“Real power is control. Knowing that you can do anything…and not doing it only because you can“

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2020 Fitness Journal: Month 1

Last blog post we talked about the breaking point to starting back on a healthy lifestyle to lose weight. I stated that I would keep you updated so you can watch my progress, instead of just seeing my results at the end. So today’s post is journal-ling the ups and downs of the first month of 2020 and how it’s going!!

I have been keeping myself accountable with a two different methods:

  1. Tracking my workouts and my food within Samsung Health

This has helped tremendously to ensure I am getting enough nutrition at a caloric deficit. I do not adhere to any specific weight loss diets… I eat carbs, I eat fat, and I eat meat although I have definitely cut down on my consumption of specific types of meat.

It has also helped me to ensure I am burning enough calories throughout the day. I have a goal of an additional 750 calories a day to be burned by physical activity. I track my heart rate to ensure I am within my optimal calorie burning range for my age.

2. Tracking my daily and monthly goals within an agenda

Each morning and before bed I track what I need to get done tomorrow: which workouts, which errands etc. Then at the end of the day, I review again to see what I have accomplished. It helps to feel proud to cross off those daily small goals each day. To see your week fill up with goals made – it is definitely a continuous motivator for me.

I also set monthly goals for myself. In January my goals were: workout 6 days a week, cut back on alcohol consumption [non-nutritional calories that you just don’t need], blog/insta my fitness journey. Having monthly goals helps keep my eye set for the future, so if i have a bad day and I dont make my daily goals….it’s ok because I am still working towards a monthly goal. One day cannot break me.

So that begs the question: HOW IS IT GOING?!

I have hit 2 of the three goals. I have definitely cut back on my alcohol consumption. Switching a night cap to a wind down routine to help me get to sleep. I worked out 14/31 days – with an allotted 4 days of rest that means I made about 52% of my goal. Not exactly the greatest…. but what is funny is my mind set was SO MUCH better. I felt good, I felt I was making progress; hitting goals! That has ultimately stopped my inevitable falling off and giving up!

I will say that I got the flu in January and as I have asthma, I tend to go done down for a minimum of two weeks. There was a week where I couldn’t even get out of bed… the weakness and the fever had me faint as soon as I stood up. And because I didn’t have the energy to cook – I was also ordering in Junk Food [haha oops]. That being sad, when I started to feel better I craved healthy meals and gym time. GREAT news – my body was starting to ask for my healthy changes rather than craving for chips and an exhausted lay down on the couch.

Lastly, i have definitely been keeping accountable through my insta/blogging. Everyday I make sure to story my daily fitness journey on instagram, and it’s helped keep my daily routine fun!

My new goal for February is CONSISTENCY.

  • Workout more days than January [ I didn’t want to put a number on it… because I knew myself and I would over stress about not hitting it. SO what’s the next best thing, compete with yourself. Just do better than January]
  • Less alcohol consumption than January [Keeping with the same motif and competing with my previous self. I previously had goals to cut out alcohol consumption entirely, and as soon as a weekend came around or I had a hard day at work and fell off. I immediately failed. This time, I’m setting small goals that lead to a larger goal]
  • More Blog Posts I have more fitness presence on instagram as it’s a quick and easy method. But I want to be consistent here on the blog as well!

Overall thoughts? I haven’t fallen off my 2020 new years resolutions, to the contrary I feel MORE motivated then I did when I started. Working out is like a drug…honestly… it has such an addictive positive effect on your life. Next Month is going to be even better – LET’S GET IT!!!!

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Breaking Point: Weight loss

Not my first rodeo

They say you have to hit rock bottom before you change a behaviour or start a change in lifestyle. This isn’t the first time that I started a weight loss journey. The first time, I believe I was 21, and decided enough was enough.

My rock bottom at that point in my life was that I couldn’t wear the clothes I wanted to wear anymore. In addition, I stumbled upon some articles discussing BMI and its broad indication of whether you are at an unhealthy weight or not. Now i know that BMI is actually not very accurate, as it does not take into account the amount of muscle on the body but at that time when I received a BMI that was overweight – I knew I had to do something about it.

Breaking Point in my 30s

It’s very interesting in hind sight what was my breaking point in my thirties compared to my breaking point in my twenties. It really shows a different mind-set. I kept putting on the pounds specifically in my 30th year, and I was very self aware of this fact, but was “helpless” to do anything about it. I would just constantly complain to my man “I really need to lose weight,” “I need to start working out,” “we have to stop ordering junk food, if I ask for it – tell me no!”

I tried the previous breaking point mind sets to get myself motivated, you can’t fit any of your wardrobe! But I got super comfortable in just stretchy jeans and an over-sized sweater and was loving the fact that I didn’t have to care about my outfit. What about checking my BMI? Nope…that didn’t work either. I knew that my BMI said that I was overweight, but I could also see the outlines of the muscles that I have built over the years still peaking through the buildup of fat. This gave me false confidence that it wasn’t as bad as the numbers say… PLUS I had gotten alot more confident in my own skin since I hit my 30s. Evidenced by the fact that I was more willing to show off my body at it’s heaviest even compared to when I was at my smallest. There is a sense of self assurance that comes with maturity.

I needed a new motivation to get started! I tried, you need to get healthy as it’s only going to get harder as you age. Nothing. I tried, setting specific goals for myself. But then I just got all caught up in the numbers and felt myself going through an emotional rollercoaster because the weight wasn’t coming off like it did in my 20s. Nope- Scratch that idea. So then what’s going to make it happen?! It was actually the realization that I was uncomfortable in my own body which seems contradictive to the point that I just made above that I had more confidence. But, it wasn’t uncomfortable in my own skin on an emotional level. But I wasn’t comfortable in my own skin physically. BOOM. That hit it home for me. Why am I carrying around this extra weight when I can’t move the way I want. Even when I sit down, my rolls in my stomach will dictate my comfort level.

My breaking point was almost like that feeling you have when you get a cold, and you can’t remember what it felt like when you weren’t sick and had constant sinus pressure and a cough that hasn’t taken over your life. I had that same feeling…I couldn’t remember what it felt like to be fit. When I could run/jump/hike at a high pace with ease without feeling out of breath. When the endorphins of a workout would wash over your body. The ease of which you would fall asleep and wake up feeling refreshed! The confidence in your body not at an aesthetic level but a confidence in its movement, that it had your back with whatever you needed to do. When sitting on the couch had nothing to do with how your stomach felt….

How I got started

So now that i had the motivation, the driving force of the reason I’m doing this. I created a goal for myself, small ones so I didn’t feel overwhelmed. And this time, I didn’t want them to be about my weight in terms of numbers. Instead I wanted to focus on the numbers that matter, what is my daily intake for healthy food choices. Am i getting enough nutrition? Am I keeping my calories in check? Am I burning enough calories throughout the day to burn fat? These were the numbers I would focus on this time, whether they came off fast or slow. Progress is Progress.

Follow Along

That being sad, I thought it would be cool to story/blog my way through this weightloss journey. As most fitness people only detail their journey AFTER success. Instead I wanted to showcase a transparent look from start to continued process [there is no end to a healthy lifestyle]. You can follow my blog here for upcoming detailed posts, or you can follow my day to day on my instagram.

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Adventure Style: Rockwood Conversation

Well it is officially the last month of Summer… before the fall weather moves in (boo) and the fall style is unleashed (YASSS!).

This is when Andrew and I get our asses in gear and try to squeeze every-bit of summer we can in. We went to Rockwood Conservatory Park this weekend and I styled an outfit that is both summer and fall for this post!

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Face Products now that I’m Turning 30

I asked and you voted to see the products I am currently using on my face now that I am turning 30. This post is not sponsored, these two products I simply saw results after use.

Legitimate results that my man actually started using them as well.

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