Last Minute Stocking Stuffer Ideas

Long time, no post! I want to start blogging again.Things have changed since my last post so I need to do a little "re-branding". In the last 4 months, I had a vacation, a move, a new job, a death in the family and a new dog. I have been slacking off when it comes to the gym, so compassionate lifter doesn't really describe me right now. I did join a bowling league and I am doing roller derby next year though. I have a lot I want to blog about and I want to be more real about things. It will take some time for me to get back in the groove though.

I thought I would get my feet wet by posting my pick of cruelty-free stocking stuffers that you can get last minute in Halifax. A lot of people claim that it's hard to find vegan items and that they're expensive. That's not true! You can find vegan items in most mainstream stores.A lot of vegan items are comparable in price to non-vegan items. Some vegan items are a little more expensive but they tend to be higher quality, made from better ingredients and come from companies that actually care.

Why is it important for people to choose cruelty-free products? To put it simply, if you're reading this, you can survive and thrive without killing, exploiting animals or testing on animals. If you don't think that animals should be hurt, vote with your dollars and buy from companies that are making animal-free and cruelty-free products.

Without further ado, here are some of my picks:

Personal care products by Kiss My Face
Where to find them: Superstore and Sobey's in the Natural section, Pete's Frootique

If you're the type of person that likes to put personal care products in stockings, Kiss My Face is for you! You can find a range of products from KMF in the grocery store. They usually always carry moisturizer, moisture, body wash, tooth paste and deodorant. The Moisture Shave is my product of choice for in the shower. It comes in many awesome scents and a bottle lasts me a long time.

Tom's of Maine, Green Beaver, Alba, Jason's and Desert Essence are also readily available in the Natural section of the grocery store so keep an eye out for them.

Novelty shower and bath products from Lush
Where to find them: Lush store at the Mic Mac Mall

If you're trying to impress someone who is fun and funky, I highly recommend checking out Lush. Lush is full of personal care products that come in bright, bold colours and unique scents. They have fun bath bombs and bubble bars for people who love to lounge in the tub and awesome shower gels, shampoos and soaps for people like me who'd rather shower. I currently have a bottle of Snow Fairy shower gel from last Christmas in my shower. It's pink, it smells like candy and most importantly,it is full of glitter that makes me happy. They also have pre-wrapped gift boxes in all sizes that you can grab and give.

Note: Not all of their products are vegan, but most are. Vegan items are clearly labeled on the packaging.

Thug Kitchen Cookbook
Where to find it: Chapters/Coles/Indigo, online

If you have a foodie to shop for and an extra-wide stocking, why not give them an awesome cook book? When Thug Kitchen came out, both vegans and meat-eaters were picking this up and boasting about it on my social media newsfeed. What makes this book so approachable? The swearing in it. It reads like it was written by a couple of... well... thugs. The recipes are god-damn amazing so it's well worth the fucking money (as Thug Kitchen may put it).

A gift card from Fruition
Where to get it: Fruition at the Halifax Seaport Market or the Fruition Cafe at 6389 Coburg Rd.

If you're trying to stuff a tiny stocking or you're looking to please someone who loves healthy treats, why not pick up a gift card from Fruition? Fruition has 2 locations in Halifax to meet your needs. The Seaport market location has tons of raw vegan desserts, fresh juice, smoothies and a salad bar. The Fruition Cafe has some hot treats like soup, sandwiches, cookies and specialty coffees. Both locations are gluten-free and worth the visit!

If you're trying to impress a foodie, EnVie has gift cards too!

Endangered Species Creme Filled Chocolate Bars
Where to find it: Organic Earth Market

A lot of dark chocolate is naturally vegan, so if you want to give someone a sweet treat, just check the label for milk ingredients. One of my favorite vegan bars are the cream filled line of Endangered Species. The ingredients are non-GMO and fair-trade. Part of the profits go towards charity. My favorite is the Sea Salt and Lime! If you're looking to purchase other Endangered Species bars, just check the label. Not all of them are vegan.

Larabars
Where to find them: Sobeys and Superstore in the Naturals section, Costco, Pete's Frootique

Larabar just recently switched their ingredients so that all of the original fruit and nut bars are vegan. Larabars are date-based energy bars that come in many fun varieties like Apple Pie and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. My favorite are the kinds that contain chocolate or peanut butter. You cannot find all of the varieties here, but you can find a lot of them.

E.L.F. Cosmetics
Where to find it: Some Superstores (Joseph Howe carries them), Old Navy, Winners, Marshalls

If you're looking for cruelty-free affordable make-up, check out E.L.F. I use their eye shadows, eye pencils and powder. Old Navy has little gift packages of E.L.F products that I highly recommend you check out!

Adopt an Animal from North Mountain Animal Sanctuary

North Mountain Animal Sanctuary is Nova Scotia's only farm animal sanctuary. They are currently home to 2 pigs, chickens, rabbits, goats and a sheep. You can sponsor an animal from them for only $30. If you're not from Nova Scotia, do a search for farm animal sanctuaries in your area and consider sponsoring an animal for someone you love.


Other stocking-stuffer ideas:

Small board games and card games
Gloves, hats, mittens and socks (make sure they're free from angora, wool, fur and leather)
Locally made jewelry (also make sure it's free from animal products)
Craft kits
Books
Ornaments
Tea (make sure it's free from dairy and honey)
Stainless Steel travel mug or water bottle
Vegan homemade baked goods
A donation to an animal charity

Do you have anything to add? Post them in the comments.

Third time's a charm...

So I haven't updated my blog in a while. I had started a post about vegan proteins... and thought about doing a post on body shaming after having a fallout with a friend... but life got the best of me.

I wound up doing the IDFA show in Moncton over the weekend. A local vegan that I had talked to online was competing in the show. I thought that since I was going to see the show... why don't I spend a little extra money to be in the show? Then I realized that this will be my third show in one year. Oy. Coincidentally, it fell on the same weekend as my first show with the WBFF.

Devin was in agreement. I was having a rough time. I was getting depressed over my student loan payments. I was regretting my decision to earn a degree because there are no jobs in my field. I had applied to several jobs that would have made me so happy and I heard nolthing back. I was wait-listed for nursing school and never heard back about a Masters I applied for. I had gained a little weight and was feeling self-conscious. He thought that preparing for a show would take my mind off of things. I did this competition to keep sane.

Once coach Lori gave me the okay, I spent the next 7 weeks working my butt off. I only took 2 rest days leading up to Peak Week. No treat meals. I think I was inadvertently under-eating for a lot of my prep. I lost about 10 pounds and ~7% body fat. I was about 10 pounds heavier than I was for my last show, but I was prepared for that and I was okay with it. It was different doing such a quick prep a new coach, but she believed in me and was there whenever I needed her. She came recommended and for good reason :)

Mid-way during prep, I found a group of amazing women that were doing the show too. They were doing it for health and to escape the drama llamas that dominate the local bodybuilding scene. All of us were freaking out at one point or another and that actually put me at ease. There were points when at least one of us were unsure if we would be stage-ready... but we put that behind us.

These ladies are an inspiration. I hope to see them next year!

I got to meet my vegan friend! She blew the figure and transformation categories away. She got some hardware this show and she is an inspiration.

The show was so much fun. Because there was one show and only a handful of athletes, nobody was waiting around for hours and we got plenty of stage time. The show was relaxed and the organizers and volunteers made me feel comfortable. I enjoyed the show so much that I likely won't do the ECC in the fall. I need a break to build some muscle and I am getting really sick and tired of the drama. Hopefully I can hold out until next spring :)

As for my physique, I walked away a little disappointed... it wasn't because of my weight, either. I feel like my make-up didn't put me in the best light and I have a really hard time looking at my photos without picking them apart. I also signed up for Fitness Model at the last minute. I had only practiced the posing a little bit and pretty much winged it on stage. Since there were only 5 of us, I walked away with a medal, but I wasn't happy with my posing. The category is so different from bikini and I love doing the hard poses. I want to put more time into this category and rock it next spring.

I was in love with my suit. My friend Krista let me rent it from her. Blue is definitely my colour!

Other than that, my trip to Moncton was so much fun! Devin and I like to explore abandoned houses as a hobby, so we took some detours on the way to and from Moncton. We followed the Gloosecap trail through Economy, Advocate and Joggins on the way up. It was raining, so we didn't get out of the car much but the scenery was beautiful and we got to explore an amazing old house that had items in the attic dating back to the early 1900s. While in Moncton, we went to Magnetic Hill (best $5 ever spent) and I got to enjoy some awesome vegan noms. We stopped at Calactus Cafe after the show and Devin got me take-out from Zen Garden to enjoy the next day. On the way back, we traveled the Sunrise Trail down to Oxford and Pugwash. We had a field day when it came to abandoned places to explore.


Vegan lasagna from Calactus Cafe and various noms from Zen Garden

I've been feeling a little down lately... the #fitfam drama is starting to get to me and there has been a lot of food shaming in the local vegetarian/vegan Facebook group. It's tiring. I will save that for another post though and try not to contribute to the negativity.

Sugar-free? Me? Easy peasy!

2015 is here! Big things are going to happen this year. I can feel it!

So, on January 2nd, I started doing a no-sugar challenge. I have quite the obsession with chocolate and baked goods to the point where I couldn't leave the house in the morning without grabbing a handful of chocolate chips. I was convinced I had a sugar addiction and I was determined to beat the habit!

The term "sugar" is very broad. It includes refined sugars (cane sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, etc), liquid sweeteners (agave, corn syrup, maple syrup, etc.), natural sugars (found in fruits and vegetables). Sometimes people include natural and artificial sweeteners in their definition of "sugar".

You can go out there and find a challenge or a program to follow. I decided to make up a few simple rules that fit with my lifestyle.

Rules

1) Avoid foods that contain refined sugars and liquid sweeteners, except when eating out at restaurants (I really didn't want to grill people over what is in their food, nor did I want to spend my hard earned cash on a dressing-less salad).

2) Fruits are allowed.

3) Sweeteners are allowed.

4) Protein powders and Simply bars are allowed (if I had to start drinking unflavoured protein powder, I would gag)

My last treat: Car Ice Cream!
(Alright... Devin threw some Luna and Larry's Lunaberry Swirl Coconut Bliss into
my cat mug so I could eat it in the car during the leisurely drive we took...
to Starbucks.)

My challenge ended on the 25th because my boyfriend wanted to use up some teriyaki tofu (which contains sugar) and I wasn't in the mood to make something else, haha.

How did I do?

I planned to make a million blog entries so you could read about my struggles with the sugar demon. The challenge ended up being pretty uneventful :/

When my challenge started, I was forced to spend the first weekend at home with nothing to do. Devin and I each have a junk food shelf that is out in the open that I was forced to stare at. I didn't give in though. Devin made seitan bacon for the first time so that had my attention and I gnawed on some clementines and bananas. Not once did I visit the junk food shelf, which was filled to the brim with Christmas goodies by the way. Not once!

Slicin' bacon!

Of the two of us, Devin is the better cook. When a recipe called for sugar, he kindly blended up some dates instead for sweetener. That's when I realized how impractical it can be to avoid all sugars. The recipes that called for sugar used pretty small amounts. I feel it's easier to just throw a spoonful of sugar in something instead of going through the process of blending up dates. Also, when you're using so little sugar in something, the nutritional benefits of the fruit you replace it with is so insignificant, so why bother?

When I started the challenge, I had this huge plan to make applesauce-sweetened desserts and throw stevia in everything. I never ended up making anything like that. I was quite content eating whole foods and trying the pancakes, seitan and stir fry sauces that Devin was whipping up. I received a spiralizer for Christmas too so that took my focus off of sweets and on to zucchini noodles.

Who needs sugar when you can have zoodles with a walnut kale pesto,
sweet potato and fruit?

After about a week, I realized that I probably don't have a sugar addiction. I just need to set some goals. If I tell myself that I need to do something and I hold myself accountable, I'll get it done. Then I started wondering why I was doing this and thought about quitting, but I had a goal, so I stuck with it.

The challenge did encourage me to make healthier choices. Whenever I felt a craving coming on, I would grab a handful of nuts, make a smoothie using fruit and protein powders as sweeteners or grab some Mary's crackers and almond butter for something crunchy and delicious. When I went out for coffee, I tried not to order the sugar-laden lattes and opted for plain cappuccinos instead. At restaurants, I skipped the desserts in the beginning. Then I had a coupon for a free chocolate tofu pie I needed to use up. I also had a mental break-down over what I am going to do with my life which got me some coconut milk froyo, which I had not had in months. Mmm... froyo...

Am I back to binging on chocolate chips? I have eaten some dark chocolate and quinoa cookies but I don't really have the desire to make myself sick on chocolate chips and candy.

Have you ever done a no-sugar challenge? Let me know in the comments how it went!

January is almost over. I'm approaching the ripe old age of 26 (*gasp*) and I'm excited to enjoy some cake this weekend. I just received a meal plan from Coach Lori today which I will be starting this weekend. I see some gains on the horizon!