Friend Friday: Fitness and Fashion

My most FAVORITE TOPIC!! I am excited about the answers this week!! woo hoo. Thanks to Katie for Fashion Beauty Friend Friday.. if you want to join us check out how by clicking here


Fitness and Fashion

1. Do you keep some kind of fitness routine? Why? 
Oh yeah baby!!  I am a triathlete. What this means is I compete in races where you swim, bike and run- back to back. 
I am on a training team and have a coach.  My typical fitness routine looks like this: from November to August I swim 4 days per week (mornings), bike 3 days per week and long ride on Saturdays (evenings/day), run 3 days per week (evenings) and a long run on Sundays, do core work and weights 1-2 times per week, the occasional yoga class.  The race season takes place between May- August.   In the off-season time (September-October) I do easy runs and bikes and Bikrams Yoga 4-5 times per week.  Oh yeah, I also teach a spin class on Thursday mornings and LOVE IT!!

2. Has working out, maybe training for a marathon or something of that nature, helped with your own perception of body image? 
YES, absolutely. I am more present to, and grateful for how strong and fit I am.  I love my muscles and rather than wanting to be 'SKINNY" instead I love being lean and fit!  Last year for my training season I created  that I would be the leanest and fittest I have ever been, and voila.. I had my fastest race season ever!!

3. When you are hitting the gym or just going out for a long walk what do you wear? Is it about functionality or fashion? 
Function!! and Fashion of course.  We are sponsored by Sugoi so we (my fiance and I) get amazing fitness clothing for casual wear and for working out it. It is excellent quality, stylish and fits very well!!  You can workout and be all sweaty and have great clothes too!!

4. Do you feel there is a cultural perception of what you ‘should’ be doing for your own physical fitness? 
I'm not sure how to answer this question. I am surrounded by professional athletes. Most of my friends are high level athletes so its kindof like a fish in water... we all workout hardcore.  AND I live on the west coast of BC, where the culture, I would say is very health conscious anyway.

5.  Dream big… what would be your ultimate fitness goal.
Qualifying for Ironman Hawaii, the World Championship in Kona.  My fiance has competed in this race several times so I have been there to watch.  The people who do this race are all the top triathletes in the world.  I have come close to qualifying so will continue to chase the dream!!

Happy Weekend blogger friends.. I am off to do an adventure race this weekend.. will share details on Monday!! xoxo J

Animal Skirt

I love red and I love animal print as you well know. And I love black and white. Oh, and Wayne Dyer too- I mean, I love him too. Yes Mr. Dyer I am still your other wife :)

This is where the Kabuki Cab drivers all park their kabuki cabs so they were all watching me today so I just pretended like I was a fashion model or like I was taking photos for my own fashion magazine.. as if I am official.  If I act like that, I told myself, then they will also think I am someone important.. LOL.

This is my new score for a skirt and I love it. Just got it on sale and today is the first debut!  AND check out my funky bracelet. I got this from awesome Marilou for my Birthday in December along with some matching earrings (havent showcased them on here yet!!)

IGETMYHAIRCUTTODAY..  Thank goodness. Am looking Shaggy if you ask me. Like Shaggy off Scoobee Doo or something.  Will try to get before and after pics!!  Til tomorrow, love ya bloggers and bloggess's. MWAH xoxo J

Oh yeah and check out my happenin calf muscles!! woot woot!!  love it

Bad Girl gone Gamin

Humpday. This morning when I  got out of the pool my coach said " Are you going into a good day or a bad day at work today?"  My first thought was, "well, its all depends on my perspective". And then I said to him " its up to me", and he just laughed and said, " I knew you would say that Jodi".
As I walked to work I was thinking about how many people actually think its their circumstances that control how their day goes. That all the situations that life throws at you determine how your life will be. Not so in my opinion. No matter what happens we are the ones in the drivers seat of our lives. We are the ones that get to say how we are going to be in each moment.

So. That said, today I am a bad girl gone gamin. LOL, well not really but I have always liked the 50's fashion. So much so that in highschool I wore all funky retro clothes that I made myself.  I had tight pedal pushers and fitted blouses and even some cool old shoes from my mom.  I think I liked those styles since they were fitted and suited my body type. I would study old Vogue magazines and even had a huge collection of old Vogue patterns my grammy gave me. I made so many funky pants and outfits I almost went into fashion as a career. Because I lived in a small town everyone just laughed at me and expected that I would just marry a logger and live in a double-wide trailer on a nice little piece of property.  OHHHHHH not so! If they only KNEW!


Anyway, enough about me. You have yourselves a lovely day and I will be by for a visit later today!!
xoo J

Flounce Skirt

Happy Monday-or-is-it-Tuesday! Gotta love a short week.  Let me tell you. I had No chocolate for Easter. Remember I went on a processed sugar ban? I am still following it and have been feeling really really good. And, its actually pretty easy to not eat this kind of sugar anyway (I am a salty fan rather than sugar anyway :).  Fiance on the otherhand has a stockpile of dark chocolate in the back cupboard. Brace yourselves.. I counted 74 chocolate bars in there!!!

On to my outfit!  YEAH skirt and no tights weather! Fingers crossed for more of this coming our way!  BUT I had challenges with my photos today. Can someone help. LIKE PETE. The sun at midday is not so good for photos.  I had to lighten these ones up quite abit since there were alot of shadows.  I played with standing with my back to the sun with fill flash, sun to the side, fun coming at my front. I stood in the shade.  Nothing seemed to work very well today.

Question of the day: whats the photography trick for taking outdoor portrait photos in midday light?

Back to work for me.. and then I have my run workout tonight. Toodle doo ladies and gents. Love ya and leaving ya for now. xoxo J

Boudoir Peek

Okay. I am scared and excited to tell you that I finally had the courage to go and get some Boudoir photos done!! I think I mentioned a few months ago that some girlfriends got one of their photographer friends to do a shoot for them. A  bunch of us were excited and curious so they arranged for a day of photoshooting. We each had approximately 45 minutes.  I have NEVER done something like this before so just went with the bascis. Man.  Some girls had HUGE suitcases full of all kinds of stuff!!  Anyway, I am both happy and somewhat shy about my photos. While I am fit and strong, to be honest, when I saw my photos the first thing I thought was " OH gawd.. is that what I look like? I look fat".  I am being really honest with you here.  I have struggled with my body image my whole life.  I was always the tallest and always the biggest.  It seems that all my friends were are always these petite little blonde creatures.

I eat really really healthy. I work out 2 times per day for my training. I know I am muscular and I like that. And I would love to be more lean. To take my body to the next level so that I am a better athlete.  I wish I could show you all these photos but I will spare you the gory details :), as well, it may not be the best idea to "plaster myself all over the internet" (as my mom would say), I have cropped a few of my favorites for you.    While I am always wanting to be more fit, lean and healthy, these photos really helped me to see myself objectively and be appreciative of the level of health I do have and the girly curves!! And to be honest, this was really fun and if you have never done it, finding someone you really trust and feel comfortable with can make it a really awesome experience!!

Colors of Spring

Okay. Where the H*ll is Spring anyway?  I froze my beejesus off this morning out there taking photos.. all in the name of fashion? Well, now I am inside in a different outfit all bundled up like I just came back from ski-touring or something. HOLY COLD BATMAN.  And as you can see, I have more fun taking pics of my jewelry than my outfits..  just couldn't get a good location today.  At anyrate... I did pull out my spring tops and now just waiting. patiently. for. good. weather.  HUMPFF.

Two of my favorite stones are turquoise and lapis.  I have had this lapis ring for about 15 years.  Recently I got the earrings to match (a gift from fiance). Love it.

Today is swim and run day. Swim in the morning, run after work.  I have a tight schedule with work this next 2 weeks.. finalizing reports and budgets etc.. late nights and busy busy. BUT the long weekend is coming. 2 more sleeps and it is Easter Weekend. Well. I heard on the news that we aren't supposed to call it Easter anymore, or talk about eggs. Instead we are supposed to say "Chocolate Spheres Day".  Strange.

Hope you all have a WARM day today and that you are making your day the best possible. Hey, you have to make everyday worth living right? So what are you doing today to make it special???

xoxo Jodi

Cherry Blossom

Yep. Getting time for a haircut alright!  Fiance was driving home the other day and then came home and said " I have the perfect place for a photoshoot". That is strange to me since he is normally very uninterested when I ask if he can take my photo... but anyway.. this park is so beautiful and the trees look so pretty right now. The trick is getting a shot when there are no people around, or rain or wind.  So he got me to pose, and pose again, and pose again... I am telling you we were there for like 40 minutes and meanwhile you can see my red nose (COLD).  When I take my photos I am IN and OUT within 10 minutes!! So maybe my secret wish to be a model isn't actually all the glamour I thought it would be...LOL, guess I will stick with being an over-trained, under-slept triathlete who loves to eat!!

Not much else to say at the moment.. but I will bless your blogs with strange comments as I think of them :P.

Have yourself one wild day!! xoxo Jodi

Green Houndstooth

Happy Monday! Well, I rode 400 km on my bike this weekend and then swam about 4km first thing this morning. Needless to say I have major bags from the goggles this morning!! AND I finally pulled out a few of my spring clothes.  Time to do some real cleaning in terms of spring cleaning. Pull out clothes, pack up the winter stuff and pray that the weather finally gets warm enough to begin wearing spring stuff. SHEESH the birds here are even still wearing their little wool coats for petes sake!! NOT Pete, like Emma's Pete, but pete, you know the saying.. petes sake. Whoever THAT pete is!!  I have tons of planning to do for work this week.. April is halfway done already that is unbelievable if you ask me!!

Anyway its also time to figure out what spring colors are good for me so when I go shopping here and there I pick the best colors.  Can't be leaving the house looking anything but fine-o-fine right?  And if you do, make it fast. REAL fast, like a speeding bullet so you don't run into anyone you know. BUT you can COUNT on running into someone you know if you do go out like that. I promise. So. Always. Plan. To. Look. Good. OKAY??

Ciao for now babes.. xoo Jodi

Fashion Beauty Friend Friday: Gratitude

Happy Friday!!  This is the official one-year anniversary of  Fashion Beauty Friend Friday! This post is dedicated to Katy and everyone who participates on Fridays. Its been a great way to get to know each other!!!  Anyone who would like to join us, please head over and sign up at ModlyChic, come on, its FUN!!

Gratitude 
1.  When it comes to me personally – I owe a lot of who I am to: 
My mom for one. My mom has always been unconditional. She has always been my best friend. She has always been fun and creative.  She taught me the art of being compassionate.  My GRAMMY. Oh how I miss grammy. She was 93 when she passed away 2 years ago and she was always my biggest cheerleader.  She was so outgoing and creative and loving. Grammy was always there for us no matter what- and we laughed alot together!!  AND all my friends. Especially those ones who have always been straight with me. Those who havent been afraid to say what's really going on for them and who have always stood for me to be the biggest most amazing person I could be (even when I havent wanted to :).  Fiance. He is amazing. I am so blessed to have such a open, loving, generous, caring, talented, hot guy in my life. He is not only fun and creative, he is smart, fast (triathlete) and adventurous!! 

2. When it comes to me professionally – I owe a lot of who I am to: 
My friends Colleen and Robin. They were always like another set of parents (younger parents) for me. They were always so encouraging and kept stressing how smart I was  and that I would GO places. They helped me to see my true skills and passions that really led me to going to university for what I studied.  Also, my Supervisor for my masters thesis, who also became my boss and great personal friend.  We have so many heart to heart conversations she made a HUGE difference for me in terms of freeing me up to see that I could pursue what I loved as a job rather than just have a job for the sake of paying the bills.  The job I have now doesn't occur as work for me. Instead it is an absolute expression of who I am!!!

3. When it comes to the art of blogging, I’m grateful to these people for helping me through some rough spots: 
Colette (Statements in Fashion) She took me in under her wing when I was a bran new blogger and I always felt so 'special' having such an amazing blogger as a friend!!! Thanks BABE I totally LOVE you!!!


Marilou (Twenty York Street)- She was an instant friend and Canadian too!! We shared many emails back and forth and had the great opportunity to meet in March and it was awesome!!!


Emma (Daily Clothes Fix)- Always there to share great ideas, creativity and a supportive word.  I plan on going to the UK sometime soon to meet up!!


Pete (Emma's partner in blogger crime)- quite some time ago I emailed Pete and picked his brain about photography ideas and he sent me back the BEST email with lots of ideas and feedback on my photos. I thought that was the  coolest thing.  So of course I want to meet him when I go to the UK and have a photoshoot of me with Emma!!   


Rita (The Adventures of Cinderita)- We were developing our blogs at around the same time and spent many a night on the phone while working out kinks in design and format on blogger.  We did photoshoots together and also constantly send each other emails with ideas about what each other could do on our blogs.  She, of course, has more ideas for mine than I do but I am too chicken sh*t to do some of them!! LOL she is adventurous alright!!

4. One blogging challenge I’m grateful happened because it made me stronger was… 
There was a blogger I was emailing back and forth with all the time and it seemed like she just suddenly stopped emailing me. I was so worried that maybe did I say something wrong? Did I offend her? She wasn't posting comments on my blog anymore. She wasnt returning emails. She was posting everywhere else though.  I started doubting myself and thinking I must have said something that hurt her feelings... anyway, this went on for several weeks until I accidentally found out that her emails had somehow gone to my SPAM box!!  Since I hadn't responded back to her in awhile (so it seemed to her), she began thinking the same things about me.. maybe she said something wrong etc...  Anyway, All that worry and stress for nothing. We are back to being blogger BFF's and just keep laughing about this!!

5. To my readers, I’d like to say…
I LOVE you. I love chatting with you, sharing outfit ideas with you, supporting and receiving support from you, seeing your great photography skills, laughing with you, and being able to be real with you.  I really do feel that I have made great friends on here and some of you I likely will never even meet in person, but you are still a friend.  I now have friends that span all across the globe just based on a daily fashion blog and THATS totally cool!!  So, I send a hug to every single one of you today to show my love and appreciation and I look forward to more great connections along this journey!!! 

The Accountant

Heres my day. I have to meet with our accountant and a big executive meeting going on in our building so we basically all get the MEMO. Dress appropriately. Okay. According to who's definition?  So I dig through my spring clothes and pull out my pink shirt.  I pack my clothes, head out to teach my spin class first thing this morning.  Go to get dressed and realize a) I grabbed the wrong colored bra, b) my shirt smells musty.  Sigh. So all I can do is  get dressed and go to work straight from the gym. I smelt like a musty old granny today (in my opinion!!) and with a dark bra under a light shirt. LOL.  BUT my meeting with the accountant was really really good and I had an awesome day. Get home, have about 15 minutes to change and head out for my run workout.  Just for the record, I burned over 2,000 calories with both of my workouts today and my legs are SPENT. Nuthin left I tell ya!

This weekend we are doing our big annual ride. We ride 180km, spend the night in a nice little town and then turn around and ride home the next day. So, needless to say, I wont be posting anything this weekend!! Friend Friday tomorrow so this is it for my visit with you for the rest of this  week... will catch you all on Monday!!

Have a super weekend awesome friends, readers, fellow bloggeress's (and guys :)  Be good!! xoxo J

Blue and Brown

YELLO!! Hump day today.  I had an exceptional swim workout this morning.. and boy I can hardly move my arms now.. we had to do alot of pull with the paddles and work the arms... OUCHY.

I must admit I am feeling WAY bored with my wardrobe right now.. is halfway between end of winter and early spring in terms of winter so my colors are all still dark and what I have feels like the same old boring stuff. And I am even feeling bored with my style. I am not too creative at the moment in thinking up new outfits/styles to wear. I guess I have a certain style: boots, belts, defined waist, fitted, skirts.

Anyone have any style ideas for me? Help me to an INTERVENTION on myself?  If anyone feels like sending me off to a What not to Wear retreat please email me, well, you must also book and pay for the retreat for me too. AND send me a nice gift certificate for new clothes somewhere awesome.  So in case anyone just won the lottery and is feeling generous, please apply here!!

Okay, enough cheek from me today. My stomach is growling, its time for lunch.  Over n out Babes!! xoxo jodi

The Butler did it

Disclaimer: this is a public building (in case someone thinks I am doing a break and enter and showing it on this blog!!!) LOL
This is a heritage house open to tourists and is such a beauty. It was closed today though which was good for me, it meant I could take my photos here without any lurkers or gawkers.

I was totally lost for what to wear today and as a result I look like a butler. YES good ol black and white is always the default. I do apologize, this was the best I could do today, well, thats a lie actually, I was just too lazy to be creative. But I feel comfortable in this outfit if that counts for anything!!  My monkey suit as the fiance would call it.  He also tells me I look like Inspector Gadget whenever I wear my black trench coat.  Oh well, at least he has fun with me and all my outfits!!  I did come up with a new black and  red outfit last night that I can't wait to wear so stay tuned on that one!!

Thats about all for today.  I swam this morning and have a ride tonight.  Training is ramping up.  Our first race is at the end of this month.. then they come faster and faster just like pac man.. waccka wacka waccka...catcha later gaters.. xoxo J