Being Vegan!

I went Vegan for 24 hours (but most of my meals are currently vegan anyway!)

I've been volunteering in a vegan and vegetarian cafe for around a month. I'd mainly been vegetarian but I decided to challenge myself to be Vegan for 24hours. It may not seem like much, but a month ago, most of my meals contained meat and dairy.

Since volunteering at the cafe, I have noticed so many positive changes! The only negative is that I seem to have an outbreak of acne... but this could be from hot yoga. 

Here is what I have noticed, just in a month,

Healthy lunch: tofu, salad leaves, cucumber, olive tapenade, red onion, rice, olive oil and balsamic dressing & a bullet proof coffee.

1. Tummy pain has gone!

Prior to this experience, I regularly had tummy pain from endometriosis and IBS; basically my tummy loved to cramp and bloat like there was no tomorrow! Now, I don't have a daily reminder about my tummy troubles and my jeans are fitting better than ever.

2. It's easier than I thought, but the 24hours was tough!

It was an odd change of mind set "actively" being vegan as opposed to passively being vegan. Where I am currently staying, I have a daily allowance for food in the cafe and all food in healthy and at least vegetarian. Being vegetarian and vegan seemed to be about 50/50; but actively being vegan seemed more mindful and I was a lot more concerned about what I was eating, where it came from and how it got on my plate!

3. I thought about where my food came from.

It doesn't sound pleasant and I did struggle to eat a steak after this experience. It was on my mind far too much "how were the animals treated?", "where is this meat sourced from?" and "the poor baby animal!". I have made a mental note to research into this more and to actively understand where my food comes from. 

4. The tiredness passes.

The first few weeks was tough, I ended up bulking up my meals with protein shakes (vegan) and tofu and felt much better within a few days. I now make sure I bulk up my food with tofu as often as I can. I can now comfortable do exercise and work without feeling excessively tired. I'm a sleepy person, so I think there will always be an element of tiredness within me :)

5. The dream kitchen.

I've found myself day dreaming about my dream kitchen more and more, with a pantry filled with whole and healthy foods. It seems much more desirable and easy to do. Working in the cafe, I hope I can do this one day; plenty of veg, nuts, coconut oil, cocoa, rice and coconut cream. Oh, and learn to make good dressings! Honestly, some of the dressings I have eaten over the past few weeks are amazing and incredibly taste. My favourite, peanut and lime! That's one to take back to the UK.

The verdict

I'm overall, just very pleased that I think about what I am eating now. I need to research a little more into being vegetarian or vegan, vitamin and nutritional components and whether I really want to do this. 

Dave and I have spoken about being flexi-tarian meaning we are mainly vegetarian but will eat meat around friends houses etc... it sounds like a nice balance... and possibly a good start! The biggest change for me is the lack of tummy discomfort, I thought it would have to be someone I'd have to deal with on a regular basis, forever. Overall, if I don't need another operation and the pain doesn't increase, it seems worth it....

All the good stuff; Nachos. grilled cheese and chocolate treat. All Vegan.

Hiking: Webster Falls and Tew Falls

I've really started to enjoy using our Lumix Panasonic DMC-TZ70 the past few weeks. This weekend was our first opportunity to get out and about in the Brantford and Hamilton areas.

We went on our first hike from Christie Lake Conservation, where we found a short 5km loop to some falls... which turned out to be some beautiful falls! We spent a while at the lake, which was completely frozen over. It was such a bizarre sight as a Brit, I've never seen a lake that big, completely frozen! Just look how big the lake is... it looks so strange as one big ice cube!

After walking for about 45 minutes in icy and snowy trails we came across the first waterfall; Webster Falls. The view wasn't fantastic from the view point unfortunately, however we managed to capture a really great photo; although a little bit of a fluke shot, I'm pleased with it. It would have been fantastic to find a trail which went to the bottom of the falls.

After the Webster Falls we walked back to Christie Lake before heading to Tew Falls (unfortunately the trail between Webster and Tew Falls was shut as it is still to dangerous to use). From Christie lake we drove about 10 minutes to Tew Falls... it was a beautiful fall. Almost twice the height of Webster falls and not far off Niagara Falls, I didn't expect such a elegant waterfall in such beautiful surroundings. I was also able to play with the shutter feature on the camera and after a little editing, I managed to create this photo, and I am chuffed! Look at the wispy flow of water!

I am not a hiker, so the thought of planning a walk (and driving a car in Canada!) was pretty terrifying. The weather in Brantford was still hovering around zero or below, so the trail would definitely be icy but I didn't expect as much snow. The trip was successful and I'm now even more keen to do more hiking,

I used the following websites to help plan the trip:

The Spencer adventure: http://conservationhamilton.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2016/03/Spencer-Adventure-Brochure-2017.pdf

Christie Lake Conservation: http://conservationhamilton.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2016/03/CLCA-Brochure-2016.pdf

When in Brantford do yoga, hot yoga

Yes, it's true as a VERY inflexible person this could be an interesting few weeks.

We are currently in a small town in Canada called Brantford. We have 6(ish) weeks here, where we are volunteering at the Healthy Rabbit. a cute little vegan and vegetarian cafe; where we work in the cafe and around the site in exchange for food and board - not a bad deal, hey?

When we arrived, it was really evident that the town is quiet and without a car, it would be tough to get around. It turned out that one of the things to do here is Hot Yoga, specifically Moksha. There is a studio about a 10 minute walk away and with a deal price of $40 for a month of unlimited yoga, it certainly feels like a bargain and the perfect way to settle into the area.

I've been going to Yoga for about a week, with David, who is unfairly flexible. Half way through the week, I started to notice that during classes I was genuinely getting closer to floor/limb/ the desired pose... I then thought, if this is really happening, I want to have a record of this! Anyway, this is me on Sunday 12th Feb 2017 "touching my toes"...

.... as you can see... not very close... at all...

At the end of the month trial, I'll take photos again to see if there are any improvement at all.

Anyway, a few notes on Hot Yoga!

• It's hot, very hot and extremely sweaty.
• Focus a lot on your breathing; it helps to relax and get into poses.
• In a week I have noticed:
• In childs pose, my bum can touch my heels (previously about an inch off!)

http://yogacity.ca/index.php/2016/07/21/pose-of-the-month-childs-pose/

• In hero pose, I can now get my elbows to the floor with a brick underneath me - I just could not do this before!

http://www.stylecraze.com/articles/effective-yoga-asanas-to-treat-endometriosis/#gref

• I have noticed a lot less stiffness in my knees and hips, but still along way to go with "opening up" my hips.
• The heat really allows you to stretch into positions, more so than in regular yoga.
• It really chills you out.

Learning to use a Panasonic Lumix Camera

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ70

I am 100% the amateur photographer, just checkout my instagram's (@elthomas7, @thetravellingpickups) and you will realise this very quickly! However, you can see that I love taking photos, its my way of remembering and reminiscing about various times in my life - I love just looking through my camera roll on a regular basis!

The other day I read this tips page by Panasonic about taking some awesome waterfall photos - note the tip is for a different make of panasonic. By chance the next day, whilst on a walk, I found a dam! I was pretty excited about the prospect of learning to take a cool water photo, however I did struggle to find the correct settings, so thought I'd write down the steps I took for future reference. 

1. Find a waterfall or dam.
2. Turn camera on and turn the settings to "S" - this means Shutter Priority and essentially means you can set how quickly or slowly the shutter will close when taking a photo.
3. For flowing water, you need a setting of about 1/4, which can be changed by carefully using your thumb anti-clockwise on the large circular button on the back right of the camera and keep turning until you reach 1/4.
4. ISO settings - although stated in the instructions your unable to modify this setting on this particular camera.

Here is the image I took of the dam yesterday, for comparison I took a "normal" photo (second and fourth photo) as well:

As you can see, the water appears to be flowing from the dam, rather than the camera taking a photo of droplets. I wanted to stay a play with longer shutter times and adapt the exposure, however it was freezing cold and my fingers were going numb!

If anyone has any tips or tricks for stunning photography, let me know - I'm keen to learn throughout this trip.

It's been a while, almost a year to be exact

@thetravellingpickups

I haven't posted a blog in a really long time. Honestly, last year was crazy - here's a summary:

• Jan 2016 moved out of our beloved Chiswick and into Dave's parents in Weybridge. 
• I finally got the courage to leave a job where I was just miserable, and started a new job which gave me a better work-life balance.
• I became an Auntie to my lovely niece Izzy. 
• We both got IEC working holiday visas to Canada.
• We brought a house!
• We went on holiday to Vietnam.
• We planned a wedding.
• We kind of kept up being healthy.
• My Endometriosis is basically OK, minus 2 flare-ups.
• We quit our jobs.
• We rented out our flat.
• We moved to Canada.

A little more about Canada. We both have working holiday IEC visas, which means we can work and travel in Canada for up to two years. We arrived in Canada on the 24th January 2017, spent a week in Toronto and we are now trying out our first workaway experience in a vegan and vegetarian cafe called the Healthy Rabbit. 

More on all of the above later, we've got time :)

A bit of a crazy year, but the next two years will be amazing! We started blogging about travelling in Instagram. I'm someone who loves photos and remembering memories by photos, essentially Instagram is our diary.