Being vegetarian has always been pretty easy for me, especially since it’s what I grew up with, but over the past year I’ve gone from being a healthy vegetarian who watches her protein and vitamins to a carb-etarian who lives on potatoes and pasta. I’ve tried to be healthier, I participated in a six week health blogging challenge and focused on making progress with my habits. But all winter I knew that how I was eating wasn’t healthy, and I had to get back to viewing my healthy vegetarian eating as something fun and manageable instead of as a hassle.

What better way to force some perspective than taking on the ultimate hassle? So in February I put the butter under lock and key, and I tried out being vegan for 30 days.

Expectations vs. Reality

When I started out my main expectation was that it was going to be kind of terrible, that I would crave dairy, and that I wouldn’t be able to eat out. I started aggressively meal planning and trying come to up with new ’stand by’ meals so I would have something (anything!!) to fall back on. For the first few days, food was a battle. I’d eat what looked like a great salad and some fruit at noon and be ravenous by two. I would eat dinner and be hungry again in an hour, and heading back to the kitchen for toast, baking or pretzels so I could feel full.

I hit the grocery store again, this time with protein in mind and bought some tofu and those “shake and bake” pouches to make tofu strips for salads and sandwiches. I started adding caramelized onions and avocados to wraps when I wanted a creamy taste, and found that I was more full and didn’t miss cheese that way. I stopped eating spinach only in salads and started wilting it to add some heavier food to my meals. I made corn fritters, spicy chickpea and tomato soup, garlic & sun dried tomato (whole wheat) pasta and even started having fruit and tofu shakes every morning.

While eating out was harder than it had been before, it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. I focused on going out for sushi (Mmm… avocado rolls) and mexican food (hold the sour cream, double the guacamole) as each was easy to make vegan friendly.

I was expecting it to be awful and hard, and to feel deprived but it turned out to be alarmingly, frighteningly easy, especially with some vegan brownies tossed in the mix. I would have never guessed that I was anywhere close to being vegan, but finding out that we didn’t even own snacks with milk solids in them made me think twice about what I seem to think veganism is about.

The results

When March 1st hit and my challenge had ended, I ate a silly amount of perogies with sour cream and slept like a small child. But knowing that carb & dairy laden food is off my “forbidden” list, I don’t think I can feel good about returning to my old ways. Against all odds, being vegan just made me feel way too good! I’ve heard hype about the weight loss (um, hi) that comes from being vegan and while I didn’t see a lot of that, I just felt better in my body than I had in a long time. Even scarier, a month off of butter and cheese has made everything dairy taste strange to me. Sour cream isn’t palatable anymore, and butter is nice in small doses but generally heavy and overwhelming. This from the girl who is a cheese aficionado!

Last month re-set my perceptions around the foods I like, and it also changed my expectations for how my body should feel. It was a lot like a detox, a little challenge at first, and then suddenly I had new habits left, right, and centre. For now I’m going to stay 80% vegan and see what happens over the next year, but either way I’m glad that I gave in to my curiosity and gave this a try.

Have you had any food epiphanies this year, or have you tried an experiment like this?

ps – recommended food blogs, cook books and recipes for tasty vegan and vegetarian food will be up on Friday. Stay tuned!

The past week my prairie city has been warm. Beautifully and wonderfully warm, so you don’t have to brace when you go outside.  I love this time of year because it reminds me of how relative everything is in life. In the fall -7°C  (19°F) was a looming and frightening temperature that had me bundling up and worrying over the winter to come, but now it’s a beautiful lapse that means I can pop outside with the puppies to walk up the block without a jacket. Suddenly -7°C is an invitation to go out and play in the world.

I love the feeling of the tides changing in the seasons here, and that a sunny day might actually mean warmth instead of the icy pressure of cold front. I’m all bound up in anticipation these days, waiting to hear the ice on the river start to groan, give and shatter so I know the thaw is underway. I’m waiting to watch the ice carry docks away and splinter ice fishing huts left out too late in the year. I’m waiting to hear reports on when the winter roads will melt, after having been polished clean over lakes so our fly in communities can get the supplies they need for the coming months.

I know why people choose to leave here, because you don’t get a big city life. You don’t have hundreds of clubs to choose from, the big artists don’t come through, and the big stores tend to pass us by. You don’t have the mountains of Vancouver or the city chic of Toronto. And it can be claustrophobic. Live here for a while, and when you talk to almost anyone long enough you will find a connection to them through ex-employers, friends, hockey teams, or distant aunts and uncles. Sometimes that can be hard, and people want to define themselves without having to run into their entire graduating class when they’re grocery shopping.

But the wonderful thing is that if you choose to stay, you can be known. You can run into friends everywhere and meet people easily. You can take the time that you are sealed in under sheets of ice to get your passions off the ground and into flight. You can go to underground shows, and know who’s who. You can line dry your clothes and have raspberry bushes in the middle of the city.

Mister and I have been doing so much talking and planning lately. I’ve been demanding we sit down and pitch different versions of what our lives could be.

“Sell the house and upgrade to a bigger place?”

“Downtown condo, go back to one car?”

“Have kids in a few years?”

“Don’t have kids at all?”

“Keep the house and travel more?”

And then we work on teasing out all the options to their logical upsides and downsides so we can try to decide which life fits best. That way we know what we want to work towards, and how we can get there. I can’t help myself, I’m overflowing with energy and am itching for change. I’m itching to know what direction I’m running in so I can put my full weight behind this.

While so much is either up in the air or just whispers for now, there’s one thing I’m sure of: this landscape is in our blood. The self deprecating sense of humour, wave after wave of new refugees from all corners of the world, the pow wows and perogies? They’re baked in.

While we might not know what our life will look like in years to come, this winter we folded up our thoughts of a life away from the prairies and sent them away for good. It’s all relative. What felt claustrophobic to me when I was coming out of university now feels like a stable platform to jump from. What felt like boredom now feels like precious time to work and refine while saving up for amazing travel and adventures.

After so much instability I finally know who I am, what I want, and where I want to be. And the moment I came into focus the whole world changed. I know that when the snow melts away the spring will hold a whole new life for me. A life I can put my weight behind instead of drifting through. A life that holds an open invitation to go out and play in the world.

{more winter photos of my city}

Things that are making me happy…

1. Baking - I made these sea salted chocolate chop cookies after seeing Andrea at Kempt Life tweet about them and they are shockingly good. I just bought a little $10 kitchen scale so it was a fun way to try out baking according to weight.

2. Thrifted housewares – This week I got the most beautiful little dish for all my loose buttons ($2.00!), and I’ve been loading a set of oversized mason jars ($1.00 ea!) with flowers every chance I get. Shopping is just more exciting when you introduce a hunt into the equation.

3. Podcasts – We don’t have a dishwasher (see: 101 year old home) so we all our dishes by hand every day, and it’s gone from a bit of a chore to something I love. This summer we bought an ipod dock so doing dishes = dawdling and listen to podcasts. My favourites are This American Life, Radiolab, Stuff You Missed In History Class, & The Moth.

4. My “Not a paper cup” – Mister got me one for Christmas (in the picture above) and using it is just too much fun. It’s my constant at home companion, good design just makes things better.

5. Cheesy Sci-Fi – Escape from New York & Escape from LA have been on TV lately and I cannot tear myself away. I love Snake Plissken! Combine Kurt Russell with an eye patch and an uncertain futuristic dystopia and you can’t go wrong in my books. We could all learn from Snake’s quiet dignity and determination, even when he’s having trouble finding the doomsday device because he’s been kidnapped by plastic surgery addicts. *tears up*

ps – Sponsorship spots for April & May are open! There are only four available so if you have a blog or an etsy store & a couple of dollars, lets talk!

Edit: You guys are amazing! The spots are all sold out, thank you!

I really enjoyed this sweet fashion faux pas post about not taking yourself seriously, and embracing that in your dress. Since I have a difficult time taking almost anything seriously, I thought it was perfect for me. Here’s mine…

This year I’ve been very stubborn and have mostly refused to participate in winter. I’ve especially refused to give up skirts, so when it’s really awful I’ve been adding leg warmers on top of my tights, tucking them into boots & pulling them up over my thighs so I can feel a little defiant but skip the frost bite.

“I have to warn you, I’m dressed like a crazy person!” has become the new way I greet my friends as they climb over snow banks and into my car, so we can barrel down icy, wind tunnel versions of streets towards warm restaurants and pinot noir. But you know what I’ve found over the past few years? I always have more fun when I look a little nuts.

Especially when you work in a bit of a boring & macabre industry, a sense of humour really helps. Case & point:

If the little humour I can throw back at day to day life doesn’t make up for everything, in my books it makes up for a lot.

Do you commit any willful faux pas?

ps – Two years in and this is one of the first times I’ve worn my glasses in a picture around here. Surprise! It’s astigmatism!

Current Inspiration

Canadian Pride - The Olympics have been amazing, and I’ve been kind of brimming with pride these past weeks. I love that everyone has been able to peek inside our borders to see how amazing embracing multiculturalism has made us. There isn’t anywhere in the world I would rather live than in the middle of this crazy experiment, and I love that the Olympics has rallied us around a shared experience. From the initial insecurity about winning medals to the bandwagon jumping in the last few days, the fans have made this such an amazing thing to be a part of. It’s just too cool.

Spring - All I can think about these days is being able to wear dresses outside, plant my garden, and relax on my deck. I’ve started to miss things like the smell of rain, and I would love to watch a goliath prairie thunderstorm roll in while siting in the swinging chair on my front porch. The city just looks grimey and worn right now, I would love to see the sand on the streets washed away. What do you say, March? Do you want to play dress up? You could totally pull off April’s weather.

Americana – Of course, in proportion with my swelling Canadian pride, my fascination with the US is completely out of hand too. Give me tepee motels, Mount Rushmore, vintage MTV and cowboy kitsch. I can’t tear myself away.

This March I will…

Celebrate being finished school until September!! I started seriously burning out last month, so I sat down and worked like a mad person, going offline and writing seven assignments (80+ pages) in a week and a half. I’m still recovering and am really behind in everything else as a result, but knowing that my time is fully mine now is amazing and I’ll be caught up this week.

Take an Indie Business course with three of my online idols, two of whom are from the same little city as me! I’m so excited to learn from some amazing ladies and to start pouring over all of my ideas, because this summer I’m going to be launching something amazing and I want to get it off the ground right. Woo!

Go for my tattoo consultation. March 13th is the big design discussion day, and then I’ll be booking for shortly after my 25th birthday at the end of May. I’m so excited it’s silly.

Plan a spring get away. I’ve been planning to go to Bloggers In Sin City again this year, but the reality is that spending my 25th birthday away from Mister on an expensive solo trip doesn’t seem right, no matter how much I want to meet the people who are going. Instead Mister and I planning the most amazing road trip to the west coast America that is perfectly unique, crazy, and us. My heart feels lighter now that I’ve made the decision and I can’t wait to spill all the beans about this trip, you’re going to love it!

Remember to slow down. This has been my only resolution all year, and I need to stick with it. Finishing my course work in such a crush pushed me into an intensely focused state of mind and I’m having trouble coming back to the normal pace of life. Slowly it’s working though, I’ve been catching up on sleep and decompressing. Who thought it would take so much work to unwind!

What are your plans this month?

{Images: + collage by me}

Can we talk for a minute about how finished I am with the cold? This has been a mild winter, and for the first time in a while I’m not suffering through it on transit, but I’m still finished. Sparrows, I’m cold all the time. My toes are wrapped up in moccasins and mukluks and I’ve been knitting hand warmers for myself. I’m up to my eyes in scarves, and I’m getting to the point where I would love to compare notes on makes and models of space heaters.

But in the Canadian Prairies spring is decidedly not just around the corner, so I need a little comfort between now and April. I bet it wouldn’t hurt you either…

Winter Comforts

1. Seeking out other winter survivors. When the weather is frightening, its easier to see the people in my life as a series of incredible oases, and this winter I’ve  doubled my efforts to stay in touch with the people I care about. So many of my friends live in different cities now but hearing their voices and stories every week has done amazing things for my heart. Without the community of my friends, online and offline, I don’t think I could live here.

2. Projects & Challenges. Beyond being a fun experiment being vegan for a month has been all about beating cabin fever. In previous winters I’ve decided on cooking challenges, scrabble face offs, craft tutorial marathons and classic movie binges to keep me going, but anything to keep me distracted from the cold and engaged in life is amazing.

3. Simple Moisturizers. It’s so dry here that my skin is like paper, but the best things I’ve found so far are just easy: baby oil sprinkled in bath water (careful, it makes the tub slippy!) & vaseline on my hands before I go to sleep. Usually my knuckles split in the cold and so far they’re still in tact!

4. Keeping a pot on. This winter I bought a thermos the size of my torso, and if I could I would take it everywhere with me I would. I’m a tea granny and knowing that there’s always freshly brewed tea in my kitchen makes walking the puppies in the -30° C (-22° F) makes it a little easier to venture into the cold. Not a lot, but a little.

5. Shamelessly loving blogs. This month my reader is overflowing with new, inspiring reads for me to get lost in and I’m in love with following through to all the people who are commenting on these posts. How I ever fell out of this habit I have no idea. You all are incredibly talented, thank you so much for bringing so much happiness into my (frigid) little world.

Is it spring where you are? Do you live on the tundra & have tips for staying sane?

(I just love it when you tell me stories)

{images: VladKost}

Over the past year I’ve received a lot of inquiries from bloggers asking for help- from how to embed vlogs on their blog, to how to network with other bloggers or host mix tapes. Ever since these questions started streaming in I’ve wanted to start a series on it- so welcome to Blog Basics!

A couple times a month I’m going to be sharing tips, interviews, and walkthroughs on issues a lot of us have to tackle. Hope you enjoy, and if there’s anything you’d like covered or if you have something you’d like to guest post about, comment below or drop me a line at kylaroma@gmail.com

As bloggers we spend a lot of time on getting our message out there. We’re always thinking about our story, what we’re sharing and how. Where we tend to get tripped up is the technical. Writing is delightfully non-technical (especially when you use as many commas as I do) but blogging? Blogging is a little technical at times.

Every now and then on twitter you see it happen, someone loses their content. All of it. Maybe they delete their files in their hosting by accident, maybe their hosting company’s servers are attacked by pterodactyls, but it happens and when it does it’s devastating. In the ‘early days’ before wordpress could automatically update its self, every few months I was met with the daunting task of updating my stupid wordpress installation. I know it’s not hard, but I didn’t have the experience I do now and I hated it. I was convinced that at some point for reasons beyond my control, it would blow up my blog and delete everything.

I know, I’m nothing if not delightfully quirky.

I became intent on being properly backed up, so that if something happened I had a current archive of my blog on hand. Backing up your blog is a safety net. If you get hacked, you still have everything right down to the comments. If you want to closed down your blog without losing everything you’ve written, you can. If you have an old blog that you want to merge with your new blog, you can back up your old blog and then import it to your new one in one move.

The best part is that it’s pretty much a one click process:

Wordpress

On wordpress.com or wordpress.org, on any page when you’re logged in just click Tools, then Export:

There will be an option to “restrict author” which you can ignore. Just click the “Download” button and your backup file will start downloading automatically.

Blogger

With blogger, under your settings tab just click “Export Blog” and the giant “Download” button on the next screen:

and the backup file will start downloading right away.

Other Platforms

Are you on another platform? You can easily back up squarespace, typepad, and movable type too.

This is completely bare bones as far as the technical skills required, but I think it bears mentioning. It’s easy, fast, and can save you a world of pain if something happens. There’s nothing like knowing the little corner of the internet that you’ve been pouring your heart into is safe and sound.

Do you have any technical horror stories to share? When was the last time you backed up?