Welcome to my fridge. Or rather, my benchtop where I have placed items from my fridge. 😄 Today's entertaining post comes from inside my home where I am currently living out isolation from the rest of the world due to my partner catching COVID-19. This sounds awful but really, it's totally fine. We are very fortunate in that we have a big home, a big yard, a pool, an almost endless supply of drinking water, electricity and internet. And we have each other.
Plus books... we have a lot of books 😅😃🤭
But in all seriousness, he's actually doing pretty well. 🙏 He's through the aches, the pain and much of the fatigue, and I haven't caught it (I don't think anyway; tomorrow's PCR test will tell us for sure), so we're essentially having a 'stay-cation' (a vacation or holiday where you stay at home).
But what does this have to do with items in my fridge? 🧐 Well, actually, it has a lot to do with these first items (pictured at the very top of this post). 👆
When I realised a few months ago just how vitally important stellar gut health is to our immune health (and thus protection from catching this latest virus or becoming really sick from it) I made it my mission to learn everything about this topic that I could get my hands on. 📚
I started daily green smoothies for lunch. I make them packed full of as many leafy greens (kale, spinach and other similarly nutrient-dense items) as I can stand. Hence, the photo at the top; the packet on the right is an example of something I'm using pretty much every single day (and don't plan to stop anytime soon!). I try to buy things not wrapped in plastic but it depends on what I can get my hands on (and if it has to be delivered to us as we stay inside this house! But I digress...) The smoothie on the right is the one I made for my mister (I had drunk my mine already!)
So that's item number one from my fridge: leafy green veg. Wouldn't be without it.
And, number two is arguably not as healthy but is currently just as essential to my life: coffee.
There is scientific research that argues in both directions. Some say coffee is good for us. Others say it's bad. Who to believe? 🤷♀️ I don't know. What I do know is that I am happier when I get a caffeine hit in each morning. So I'm rolling with it until or unless I have a good enough reason to kick this (strongly engrained) habit to the curb. 😉
What does make me feel better about my coffee is that I don't add sugar to it (like most people do) or chocolate powder to it (like I used to) or milk to it (like the majority do). Instead, I have this cold brew, straight out of our fridge adding only cold, organic almond milk to it. 🙌
Now... that's enough justification for my coffee habit 🤣 Let's go to the third and final item that I consume from my fridge pretty much every single day:
Chocolate.
Now, here I think you're either going to be with me saying you love chocolate too or you're going to be berating me and telling me it's not healthy and "Caroline, you should deal with that food addictions already!" Well, here I'm going to argue--just as I did above with coffee--that the science is unclear.
Some research says: "Yes, eat small amounts of (good quality dark) chocolate in moderation."
Other research suggests: "No go! Stick to your whole foods that are plant based and not at all processed."
Who to listen to? 🧐 Well, you know what I'm doing right? I'm listening to the advice that says I can eat the chocolate in my fridge! 😂 But again, I've shifted the specifics of what I'm eating to make it as healthy as possible. It's organic and dark and has very little sugar and no milk.
This is in stark contrast to what used to eat, every day, years ago that had little cocoa and heaps of sugar and milk! And was usually made by a massive multi-national company that was profiting of slowly degrading my health! 😣
As you can see, my food choices have changed a lot over my adult life. I look forward to shifting them more and more as I learn how to further increase my wholefood, plant based way of living and actively eliminate (probably) all meat and (possibly) all animal products altogether.
So! That was my fridge. Or rather, this is my fridge 😄 See, proof! 👇 I have a fridge. And it's full of food. Lucky me 🙏 (The longer I spend on Hive and become exposed to people from all around the world the greater my appreciation of just how lucky I really am. So when I say "lucky me", I mean it ❤️).
Now! Onto the wardrobe 😍
This is our walk-in wardrobe. I've never had a walk-in before but when I moved in with my love, into his big house, he had this huge wardrobe connected to the bedroom. So now I gratefully get to share it with him.
The minimalist that moved in seems to have slowly accumulated more and more clothes!
This isn't the whole walk-in, just the section that has my tops. I really like having things in colour order for some reason, so I always put stuff of the same colour together and try to create a gradation of colour (i.e. white next to light pink, which is next to orange then red, then purple, then blue - you get me?)
Anyway, "must have" clothing items, that's what I meant to share with you!
Firstly, this changes a lot depending on the time of year. Our house is not well insulated (like most homes in Australia; it's like our country missed out on the "insulate your homes" memo 😆). So since it's summer here, let me show you the kind of things I wear a lot right now, starting with this guy ⬇️
I'm going through a "short top" phase. I never used to wear these; these tops that show off your belly. But maybe I never really appreciated how awesome my stomach is before now. 🤩Or maybe they just didn't have cool styles that suited me. Either way, these kinds of tops that cover my shoulders but expose my belly I really like. Even better when they have cool, inspiring, empowering words on the front. 💌
Of course, I need something on the bottom half (apparently it's not acceptable to walk around in underwear 🤷♂️) so in summer, my second must have clothing item is a pair of short shorts. I have them in several colours but these are one of my favourites. ⤵️ In fact, I have literally loved them to death; they are going to (have to) be cut up for rags at the end of this summer as they are have been slowly ripping apart. 😢
Thankfully, I'm not too attached to any of these items. Mostly because they don't have a lot of sentimental value (I haven't got memories tied to them and they don't remind me of anyone in particular that I love). And I buy, probably 90% or more of my clothes from "op shops" (second hand clothing stores that raise money for charities), so I always know that each item has a limited life expectancy anyway. And if I kill it in short order then it didn't cost me much for that experiment 😋
And now, the third and final must have item in my wardrobe over summer: a long(er) sleeved light top.
I have a range of colours of these as well as I get bored easily and thankfully for about $50 when shopping in an op shop I can usually buy half a dozen of these cotton (ish) tops. (For those in other countries, here in Australia I could buy a new decent top like this one I'm wearing for anywhere between about $20 and $100 or more, each).
Because our temperatures fluctuate here in Brisbane with day time highs well over 30'C some days and then down to closer to 20'C after a weather system passes us, it means I need to add more layers during the cooler times (because after several days of 30'C, 20'C feels cold! 😰)
Since I used to live in much colder parts of Australia (where the in home insulation also sucked 😝) I learned to fall in love with the concept of layering. Now I use it constantly. If I'm cold I add socks, or a light, long sleeved top, or a snug singlet top underneath, or anything that would help me feel just a touch warmer without going overboard.
After all, I do live in South East Queensland and anyone who knows the area knows it ain't likely to snow anytime soon 🙃
This was my entry into a contest inside Ladies Of Hive. The questions this week were:
1️⃣ Show us your closet with your clothes and 3 of the "must have" pieces in it! But a picture of you and the closet has to be in the blog as proof!
OR
2️⃣ Show us your refrigerator and the 3 products you always use, eat, or drink. Again, a picture of you in front or next to the fridge has to be in the blog as proof!
I did both 😉
Thank you to @brittandjosie for this week's contest topic. If you identify as a lady (or woman!) and you like this topic you're welcome to join in the fun. Find the contest post here and if the contest topic doesn't interest you then you can still join the LOH Community here.
Finally, I am curious what Margarida aka @blackdaisyft has in her wardrobe (and/or fridge)! 😎
{All photos were taken by me on my Google Pixel 2XL, except photo number 2 where I have credited the source.😊}