Wearing Food and Other Tales from the Table of Life

A few months back I ran out of my usual drugstore moisturizer and apparently was too lazy to replace the bottle. Also, I think I was having an increasingly difficult time justifying  spending $14 for a little bottle of a product that's main ingredient is water. But, yeah, mostly I was just lazy/forgetful.  I've been going sans moisturizer for awhile now and have seen no ill effects. Shockingly, my face hasn't shriveled up into a prune. Still, there are benefits to hydration of the skin, so a little voice in the back of my head's been telling me I've got to get back on the moisturizing bandwagon.   I knew I didn't want to go back to the bottle o' moisturizer, but didn't know what I 'should' be using. 

Enter Meghan Telpner, Toronto-based nutritionist and authorof  UnDiet, a book that is unlike any other diet/health books I've come across, in terms of both content and accessibility. In a nutshell, she makes healthy eating and living sound so freakin' fun! Thanks to Raeanne for telling me about Meghan.

There are many things I love about Meghan's book, but until this past week I'd mainly focused my attention on the food related chapters and skimmed over the 'natural beauty' chapter. Admittedly, I wasn't too sure about the chocolate avocado mask that she had a recipe for...I 'may' have been concerned I'd just be licking my face off. In any case, while cleaning out the kitchen cupboards this past weekend I came across an unopened jar of coconut oil and it occurred to me that there might be some alternative uses for this oil, besides cooking.  Lo and behold, it turns out that coconut oil is well known (in some circles anyways) as an excellent body/beauty product that can replace everything from hair products to shaving cream to...you guessed it...a moisturizer!

So I've been smearing coconut oil on my face for the past few days and that's been kind of fun.  Yes, that's the end of my coconut oil story....for now. Stay tuned for the sequel when I shave my legs.


In other news, the crazy-busyness of February has passed, but it's been replaced with an equally cray-busy March. I think I'm just going to have to face the fact that my life is probably going to be fairly busy from hereon out. I have a knack for taking on too many things at once, but I guess I must like it or I would stop doing that right?

In any case, amongst the several things that will keep me busy this month is my co-coordinating (volunteer) gig with A Heritage MEAL.  Yes, we're at it again, planning another celebration of local food and food producers in the hopes that we can raise awareness/educate the public while having a fun, delicious time!

This time there are new faces on the team and some from the past MEALs are missing (and missed), but the enthusiasm and awesomeness of the group remains invigorating.  Currently we are working to get food donations and, as with the last two MEALs, I've been blown away by the generosity of the food producers we've approached - everyone wants to donate!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I'm also getting excited by the line-up of speakers we're going to have at the MEAL. We've got four speakers confirmed already, including an organic farmer (Matt Dykerman), a junior high school student (Cameron Ralph), a professor and expert in seaplants (Dr. Irene Novaczek), and a high-energy Chef (Sarah Bennetto O'Brien) with a vision to bring fresh, local takeout to Borden (you should totally check out her Kickstarter campaign).

Hells yeah, it's going to be a time!!

Warning: the rest of this post is even more rambly than the portion above. Just sayin'

This past weekend, after working crazy 10 to 12 hour days for most of the two weeks that preceded, I promised myself I'd take a day off and do nothing. Well, nothing except go to the gym and market.  My plan to do nothing else lasted for approximately 1 hour, after which I called up a friend and asked if she wanted to meet at Timothy's to do work. Then the next day I spent 10 hours cleaning my apartment from top to bottom. It was exhausting, but I really needed to make this space feel like mine and a good clean was in order.  Wow, yeah, I can't seem to stop doing things. Even now, instead of just vegging, I'm writing a blog post.  This is what happens when you do a marathon of House of Cards, then your ex-boyfriend takes the Playstation when he moves out and you can't watch Netflix on the TV anymore.

Also, it appears I'm down several lbs and it's true what they say, you will lose it in places you wish you didn't have to lose it. Sigh, goodbye chest, it's been a slice.