It pays to be careful if you’re going to try a juice cleanse—you want to make sure you’re getting enough nutrients and energy to last through the day. As well, it can involve hours of labouring away in the kitchen juicing your body-weight in leafy greens. Total Cleanse (totalcleanse.ca) takes care of the planning for you—they’ll deliver a full complement of fresh, tasty and surprisingly filling juices, with instructions on when to drink them.
FASHION Diaries
Life and Health
Juiced up
Beauty » Life and Health
Hair nectar of the gods
The FASHION copy department is home to a lot of thick, curly, somewhat unruly hair. Siofan Davies (assistant editor/research) possesses a mane of blonde shoulder-length curls, while I (copy and health editor) have tons of long chestnut waves prone to frizz. So we are a fertile testing ground for moisturizing/anti-frizz hair products—beauty editor Lesa Hannah will often lob something new over the partition for us to try. The two of us don’t always have the same hair reactions (she usually blow-dries, I arrive at work damp), but we are in complete agreement about one thing: Moroccanoil ($39, moroccanoil.com) is hair nectar from the gods.
Life and Health
Jordan’s fitness diary: Week four
Our assistant fashion editor, Jordan Porter, embarked a one-month fitness frenzy at Get Spun. This is her final week!
Monday: I can’t believe I have made it (alive) to my final week! I swear I have seen my new gym friends more often than my boyfriend this past month, but with my waist whittling away and my bum and hips in haute condition I can’t say he is complaining. Today is an extreme functional training class, and my trainer Chris has me using the Bosu Balance ball, Gravity machine, TRX, and running footwork patterns fit for a tight end. A high-energy, super fun class that’s over before you know it…just my style. Read the rest of this entry »
Life and Health
The class: Rock-n-Roar Fitness
Love a high-energy fitness class but tired of the gym’s Eurotrash techno remixes? It’s time to rock out. Toronto fashion designer Rory Lindo (of Doll Factory by Damzels) runs a mean Rock-n-Roar cardio and resistance class featuring such signature moves as “the Townshend” (arms swinging wildly in circles) and “Rush the stage” (jogging forward with arms up and rock hands). There’s really nothing like doing a gruelling set of knee-ups and jumping jacks to “Back in Black,” and while the class completely kicks your ass, you’ll find yourself laughing against your will throughout. Lindo has recently expanded from her east end Toronto spot by adding a class in the west end. Check out rocknroarfitness.com for the skinny.
Life and Health
Jordan’s fitness challenge: Week three
Our assistant fashion editor, Jordan Porter, is on a one-month fitness frenzy at Get Spun. Check back every Friday for updates!
Monday: My butt is totally getting perkier and I am one happy camper. I’m feeling toned and confident and I’m now seeing the tough classes as a challenge, rather than torturous. It’s amazing what exercise can do for your state of mind. So today’s class was Extreme Functional Training, an hour workout that combines Gravity, TRX Suspension Training and Bosu Balance training. I’m like the nerdy fitness kid, totally giddy about all the new toys. The class, taught By Chris Cecile, who is so incredibly nice that you feel guilty not giving 110 per cent, is a super combo of balance, weight, and cardio training, and is one of the best all around workouts I have ever had. Read the rest of this entry »
Life and Health
Jordan’s fitness challenge: Week two
Our assistant fashion editor, Jordan Porter, is on a one-month fitness frenzy at Get Spun. Check back every Friday for updates!
Monday: Gravity round two today and I have a new instructor who toughens up the workout by adjusting my incline even higher, forcing me to lift a greater percentage of my body weight. This function adds another checkmark to my “Why I love Gravity” column. The machine lets me continually challenge myself, and it’s good motivation for dialing down the body weight, although mathematically I’m not sure this makes any difference, but I’m not a math whiz by any means and hey, whatever works! Read the rest of this entry »
Life and Health
More ice-cream cake, less guilt!
Photography by Katie Ennis
There’s nothing more nostalgic than an ice-cream cake. Especially one as adorable as this, with its creamy candy-pink surface, swirls of frozen whipped cream and, swoon, glacé cherries (which I, for one, love to look at but would never eat). So when this cake arrived at our office on a recent Friday afternoon, it was promptly devoured, despite our lack of proper utensils like plates, or spoons. Ahem.
The extra-special thing about this cake is that it’s made with Baskin-Robbins’ new Bright Choices line, which includes ice creams, sorbets and frozen yogurts with such winning descriptors as half-fat, no-sugar, dairy-free and low calories. Read the rest of this entry »
Life and Health
Jordan’s fitness challenge: Week one
Our assistant fashion editor, Jordan Porter, is on a one-month fitness frenzy. Check back every Friday for updates!
Monday: Starting off the week with a spin class makes me happy–I’m actually an avid spinner and this means I won’t be out of the challenge on day one. Before the class, I almost feel a little guilty, like I’m somehow cheating. My guilt melts away, along with some serious calories, one song into the cycle. The 10-day cottage escape I just returned from, complete with bowls of mint chocolate chip ice cream and chili fries, has clearly had an effect and I am huffing and puffing and squeezing the sweat out of my workout gear. I’m beginning to get a little frightened for day two. Read the rest of this entry »
Life and Health
Travel: Green getaway in the Berkshires
The Moroccan Room at the Topia Inn
On a recent long-weekend roadtrip to the Berkshires in Massachusetts (a quick hop south of the border from Montreal, a slightly longer leap from Toronto), I happened across Topia Inn, an entirely green and very modern B&B in the town of Adams. With eco-credentials including solar roof panels, radiant baseboard heating, high-efficiency toilets and non-toxic clay wall finishes, the cozy house feels (and smells) entirely pure and clean. Read the rest of this entry »
Life and Health
Fitness bonanza: Our assistant fashion ed hits the exercise buffet
I read somewhere that a woman’s mental age is often much younger than her chronological age, and that no matter how many years go by it’s very possible for women to think and feel like they are still teenagers. This
mindset is all well and good when I’m acting out the “Like a Prayer” video at a pyjama party with my girlfriends, but when the mounds of popcorn, peanut M&Ms and chewy candy get passed around, and I have more than my fair share (because what kid doesn’t?), my body is screaming for me to grow the hell up!
Well guess what? Those screams are getting louder and louder these days and it’s getting hard to ignore them. The time has come to take action, so when my local gym studio, Get Spun (getspun.ca) challenged me to a one month fitness frenzy, taking everything that they offer from spin classes, to pilates, to TRX suspension training
and beyond, I eagerly signed on the dotted line.
The time has now come and I’m shaking in my brand new Burberry boots, but I’ll be damned if I can’t rock this season’s super slim legging pants so stay tuned as I keep you up to date on my progress, week by painstaking week.
Check back every Friday for a new entry in assistant fashion editor Jordan Porter’s fitness diary.
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