fat to fit

Day 12

Day 12! Today was a reminder that we need to be kind and gentle to ourselves when we are feeling tired and/or overwhelmed. This thoughfulness with myself is helping with my grief. Sometimes we forget to treat ourselves with kindness as well. I’m so glad I started yoga again.

For those who know me, you are well aware of my obsession with the 1920s/30s so it will be no surprise how much I LOVE Art Deco! I have several books on the subject and a few jewelry and glass pieces. I would LOVE to own Art Deco furnishings and who knows, when the furniture we currently have is beyond its well-loved state we can replace them with items from my beloved eras.

What is your favourite decade?

Day 11

Day 11! I can hold poses for the entire time now! I’m not getting off balance. Yeah! That means I’m getting stronger. I’m also really loving the mini-meditations that happen at the end. I have a really hard time quieting my mind, but doing it for short periods of time is doable!


Frankenstein. Have you ever related to a fictional character? What character was it? For me, it was Frankenstein and not for the reasons you might think. (or maybe it is)


Frankenstein is mostly known for having an iconic monster. I love watching the movie and have many times over. That isn’t how I relate to the character and other ghouls, misfits and outcasts that I know, who also love Frankenstein, may possibly agree with this.
The way Frankenstein’s monster feels is similar to how we feel or at least how I feel. If you grew up in a small town and had to go to a small town High School, oh boy… will you get this. I always felt like I was the monster trying to get away from the angry villagers. I didn’t belong there and because I was born there, I wasn’t given the choice. (until I was older and left). Frankenstein’s monster didn’t want to be alive again, he wasn’t given the choice and then when it all went to shit, he was the one who paid the price. At least in real life, we have the option to walk away from the angry villagers.


Every time I watch Frankenstein or King Kong or any creature feature where the monster is taken away from their home and forced into a world they don’t understand, my heart breaks. It always has and it always will.


What character do you relate to? Are you or did you do the 30 Day Yoga Challenge and if like me, you are still doing it, what day are you on?

Day 10

Day 10 complete! Today’s practice was much shorter. 18/19 minutes. Though shorter than the other videos, I was ok with it. Today when I woke up I was almost trying to talk myself out of it. ‘Oh it’s Sunday, sleep in, do Day 10 tomorrow.’ Instead I got up and did it. If I start talking myself out of something… it means I won’t do it. So, I reminded myself, this is for my health. I’ve made progress in my getting rid of the weight journey. I’m noticing changes… KEEP GOING! Also, this is good for my mental well-being. I’m still grieving. Yoga seems to help calm my mind. I’ve been working my arse off and I need to keep going. It’s paying off!


Keeping in the theme of the Victorian Era, I LOVE Victorian gothic novels and Penny Dreadfuls. We were at the Bloodsuckers exhibit at The ROM yesterday (highly recommend this exhibit) and there was a section showing gothic novels and I felt myself starting to nerd out. Actually, I nerded out over the entire exhibit.


A little Penny Dreadful factoid. When newspapers and publishers started to print serials (aka Penny Dreadfuls, Penny Bloods, Penny Horrible, Penny Awful etc.) the literacy rate in the UK and North America went up!


If you aren’t familiar with Victorian Gothic novels (though you may be and unaware of it), some titles are Varney the Vampire, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Frankenstein, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Mysteries of Udolpho, and Carmilla.


Here is an interesting article if you want to learn a bit more about Victorian Gothic Novels. https://crimereads.com/a-victorian-gothic-reading-list/

Day 9

Day 9! Are you sick of me yet? Guess what… 21 more days of this! Yah! A huge reason I’m doing this is for my health. I need to lose weight and get my cholesterol down. When I added yoga into my workouts before, it made a huge difference and to be honest, doing yoga now, I feel much better already!


Something I’ve been interested in for a really long time is Memento Mori, aka Death Photography. This was a very popular practice in the Victorian era, along with Spiritualism. Both of these are fascinating to me.
The BBC has a good article (if you want the Coles note version). Give it a read. There are also a lot of fakes or photos that are confused for Memento Mori. Portrait photography was very, very popular, but methods of taking photos were slow and tedious and many times subjects had to stay still for long periods of time in order to get a crisp photo. To help, stands were used to help clients keep their heads still. There are a bunch of those photos circulating and being labeled or mislabeled as Memento Mori photos. Don’t be fooled!


https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-36389581


The photo of the young lady laid out in the coffin is Memento Mori. The second photo is showing traditional Victorian portrait photography.

Day 8

Day 8! I’m really loving Yoga With Adriene. I’ve never had an instructor quite like her. She is amazing. Today’s practice was about healing. Something I’m trying to do right now.


Last night I had a dream about a crow. It was mad at me and was flying around and following me, telling me that. I couldn’t figure out why or what I’d done to make it mad. When a crow appears in your dreams and it’s flying and following you it means that you need to let go and move forward. This dream and Adriene’s lesson today go hand in hand.


I lost two friends this year. One was a toxic friendship that I finally walked away from for the final time. The second was a beloved friend who we all lost to cancer. In one situation I am grieving deeply. My friend was young and restarting her life and cancer is a horrible, horrible disease. In the other situation, in the beginning, I was mad at myself for letting it go on for so long. The friendship was unhealthy for both parties. It was a good thing to walk away, but I still beat myself up over it when I shouldn’t have. Today I realized I need to heal from not only my friend who died but from the toxic friendship I ended. It’s also ok to talk about it, because… this girl… doesn’t like to do that.


Today’s photo is of a ghost. I believe in ghosts. I write ghost stories. We all have emotional ghosts. It’s ok to tell them to go to the other side.

Day 7

Day 7! Yah!!! Today was stretching and I discovered I’m waaaaaaay tighter on my left side than I am on my right side. It used to be the other way around. I also carry all of my stress and tension in my upper back.

I did my weekly measure in and after a week of yoga I lost some on my arms and legs. Not really surprised about that at all. What this shows me is I don’t use my core muscles as much as I should be. That will be changing.

Here are the inches I’ve gotten rid of:
Neck = 1
Arms = 1
Bust = 1
Waist = 3
Stomach = 8.5
Hips = 5 .5
Thighs = 4
Calf = 1

Let’s talk about Flappers! Since I was a little girl I was obsessed with them. I wanted to be one. I made my mother dress me like one. Why was I obsessed? I have no idea. I was a very young girl and I highly doubt that I’d ever seen a silent movie at that point. So, why the obsession? Was I Flapper in another life?

As I continued to be in love with the idea of being a Flapper I learned a lot about them. They were going against the system and how women were perceived. They dressed the way they wanted. Listened to music that was taboo. They did things that were considered ‘unladylike’. They stood up for themselves. Sound like someone you know. My love of Flappers definitely shaped who I am today.

What were you obsessed with as a kid that you still have a great love for to this day? Who did the yoga challenge today?

Day 6

Day 6 was harder and WTH happened to my core strength! Belly fat is not my friend. Begone belly fat!

I’ve been thinking a lot about being grateful. Grateful that I get to fulfill a creative life. Grateful for my family, the family I created and friends. Grateful to live in Canada. Grateful to find the love of my life. I know I go on a lot about it and many of you are making the barfy sound right now, but I am grateful that Zed Dulac came into my life. He encourages and inspires me. He gets me and most of all he willingly goes along with my mad plans.

Who joined in today? What are you grateful for right now?

Day 5

Day 5 in the bag! Do you like shiny things? I like shiny things. Do you know what else likes shiny things? Crows and Ravens!

I love Crows and Ravens! I swear that Ravens are my spirit animal. When I go to see my parents I am always out looking for them. There is usually a murder of them in the yard beside their house, some occasionally landing on the railing of their deck.

When we were in Japan, they were everywhere and massive in size. A Crow there was the size of a Raven here and they had this gorgeous purple sheen on their feathers. First thing I would hear when I woke up was the beautiful sounds of the crows cawing. I want to hear that every day.

One thing, not related to beginning yoga, but, something I am becoming, even more in tune with since starting, is mindfulness. I think I’ve always been fairly mindful of those around me, but being there with my friend Carlin‘s for her journey with cancer and her death due to the disease, I’ve really woken up about how I and others treat those around me/us/them. Even though we think we are being mindful, we can still do better. I think this is another reason I’m drawn to Crows and Ravens. They are mindful of each other, they have each other’s backs and take care of each other. Let’s be more like the Crows and Ravens.

Day 4

Day 4! Batastic! Truly! Four days in and already feeling stronger. I’m really enjoying doing yoga as soon as I wake up. I know I will do it and not have to feel guilty for the rest of the day for not getting it done. I’m not sure how, but coffee tastes even better right after.

Now back to bats. My fascination with these beautiful creatures began when I was a kid. One hot summer night we were outside playing tag. It was after dark and our yard was full of maple trees. At one point, one of the kids began freaking out because they saw a bat and was panicking because she was told they would fly into her hair and build a nest. While all the other kids were terrified of this, I was thinking, ‘Cool. Bats in my hair!’ Of course the ‘ooooooh scary bats’… put an end to our game of tag. I, on the other hand, remained outside, staring up at the sky wanting to make friends with those beautiful creatures.

Fast forward to late 2018. Our friends Thea Faulds and Adam Invader gave us a bat detector as a wedding gift. Because it was winter, I couldn’t use it yet, but as soon as late spring hit, we were out ALL the time. I even blogged about it and will do so again this year.

Since my discovery of bats as a child I have read anything and everything I could about them. Rather than be afraid of them I educated myself.

Day 3

Day 3! This morning was about doing things that are hard. Yuppers. There are still a few moves that I realize I’m not quite strong enough to do fully yet, but I will get there. But, that’s been my life. Do things that are hard until they aren’t.

Who joined in this morning or is doing the yoga challenge later today?

Today’s photo is sewing. I make many of my own clothing. Sew, knit, crochet. I also prefer to thrift instead of buying fast fashion. AND most importantly, make due and mend. I grew up with a mother and grandmother’s who promoted this. My mother taught me how to sew on a treadle sewing machine. The machine was built in 1898 and has been passed down from great-grandmother, grandmother to mother to me. My Grandma Betty taught me to knit and I taught myself to crochet.