f i s h y

Sally Solomon sits up in bed beside her boyfriend Don as he sleeps, watching late-night TV. Carefully, she peels back the metal lid on a tin of sardines, recoiling slightly as their pungent aroma wafts up to her nose; ooo, stinky, she says as she digs in.

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Philip Fry sacrificed a fortune in order to procure the last can of anchovies on Earth.

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My friend once told me how her mother pronounces their name 'anne-chois'; an elegant name for an elegant creature.

I first ate anchovies on a pizza (with bacon and extra cheese) which I shared with a boy who, at the time, I'd been quite enamored with (ultimately, he hadn't been on the same page as me). The fish were beautiful and salty and complex and almost fancy. Whenever I eat them now, I feel like I'm part of a secret members-only club (the 'people who like things which everyone else despises' club). The only drawback of indulging in anchovies(besides the sodium!) is the presence of their translucent bones, which tickle your mouth and throat like feathers as you swallow them. 

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The tin of sardines pictured above was an impulse purchase; colourful little packages of fish were something I'd have previously filed away under "things never to buy" (much like pickled eggs or sauerkraut). I learned two things that day: one, that sardines and anchovies are not interchangeable; and two, that I should always read the ingredient labels of items before taking them home so as to not ingest MSG unnecessarily (sorry fish).

p u g . p i c n i c

I

When Josh and I first met, we quickly discovered that we had a freakish number of things in common: we share a hometown, have friends in common and both have family pugs. That's my family's guy up there, Charlie. Josh's family has two: Hank, whose tongue perpetually hangs out of his mouth in the most adorable way possible, and Charlotte, a brindled botson terrier-pug mix. There's something enderaring about pugs (mainly their plump little bodies, scrunched up noses and lust for snacks).

Charlie is infamous in my family for his cunning when it comes to food. For example, once he pushed a chair up to the kitchen table, jumped up and ate an entire pizza that had been left unatteded there (although legend has it that he left one perfect slice, sans cheese, untouched). I can personally vouch for his voracious appetite: another time, Charlie dove face first into my bowl of noodles and scarfed down the majority of them with a passionate fury until I yanked him out. Everyone in my family knows to a) never leave food unattended within dog reach and b) never wrap food-based gifts and leave them under the Christmas tree. Although he's getting on in years now, he's practically a puppy, slender and spry and still in love with his munchies. Indeed, Charlie is invincible; he even once ate a box of Jack Daniels chocolates (I know, I know).

Josh's pugs love their treats just as much; they nosh on cheese and steak (lucky pooches). So naturally, when we stumbled upon a little place in Stratford called The Barkery (yes!), Josh and I had to step inside. There were a bunch of excellent cookies for dogs, but we settled on little pseudo hotdogs to take home to the puppies (or jujes, as Josh calls them).

Hank and Char seemed a little underwhelmed by their cookies; Hank carried his over to the couch where he sat beside it scowling, tongue out. Char nibbled away for a while, bringing her hotdog to different locations, chewing and dropping and picking it back up. This all made me laugh; I told Josh that I thought his pugs were broken (pugs not wolfing down food? what?). As predicted, Charlie inhaled his biscuit within seconds and seemed to enjoy it. (I have to admit, I took a taste as well before giving the cookies to the dogs and they were pretty good!).

f e e d . m e

Okay so, I'm a bit of a serious procrastinator. For the most part, the goals that I set myself for the summer have been on the back burner (it seems like there's never enough time!), but I can happily say that I've been able to get one going.

(Food is a subject fraught with different opinions. All I can say is that the following is based on my own experience, and regardless of anything, I feel better now that I've felt in the past two years.)

For the past few months, I've been taking my health seriously.

About a year ago, I went on a serious health kick; I was eating clean and exercising, and for a while I was feeling excellent. However, after a few weeks I was feeling awful: I had a host of stomach and digestive problems, I was exhausted, couldn't sleep...It was extremely confusing (not to mention frustrating!) to think that I was doing everything that I thought I should in order to be healthy and yet feel worse than ever. And so, I temporarily shelved my clean eating and weight loss plans (and subsequently gained about 15 lbs).

Fast forward to this spring: my mum recommended that I read The Plan by nutritionist Lyn-Genet Recitas, and it kind of changed my life. I had already begun to be more conscious about what I was putting into my body (reading ingredients more than ever and being quasi-militant about not eating chemicals), but this book opened my eyes even more. In the past, I'd considered that I might be lactose or gluten intolerant; I'd cut them out of my diet, hadn't noticed much of a change, and resumed consumption. After reading The Plan, I embarked on a twenty day elimination diet, and lo and behold, found that I felt AWFUL after eating gluten (and, surprisingly, corn!).

I've been gluten and corn free (with a few slip ups) since about May, and I can't believe the difference in how I feel; most notably, my mental state has done a complete 180. It's embarrassing to say, but I used to cry almost every day, and usually over the most insignificant non-issues; since I've cut out corn and gluten, I'm happy to say that this girl has ceased to be a weepy mess! I've also been sleeping at night (I used to have the worst insomnia), I'm free of brain fog, and I've been steadily losing weight. I also find that I don't crave junky foods like I used to, and I've stopped nervous, comfort-eating (YES!).

I've been making the majority of my meals from scratch at home, eating a ton of veggies and drinking about thirteen cups of water a day (one of my favourite meals up there is poached eggs on gluten free toast with spinach!).

People seem to always feel sorry for me when I tell them that I've stopped eating the aforementioned foods, but really, it's not so hard to stay away from foods that you don't want to eat. Yeah, it's a bummer sometimes when I think of how I can't just order a pizza or eat churros, but the positive effects really outweigh it. There are so many tasty foods out there to try that have great health benefits and I'm excited to keep exploring them!

c a k e . d a y !

Today is my birthday! I've always been the kind of person who loves their b-day (as you might have guessed from all of the exclamation marks thus far!). I love the sensation of knowing that on this day, how ever many years ago (it's 24 today) I came into existence; my mum usually calls me at 6:12 am to remind me. I love the feeling of specialness that pervades today; June 28 belongs to me. It's hard to explain, but my birthday feels like a hug, all warm and wonderful.

This birthday feels especially excellent because I know that I'm going to be surrounded by people who love me; I jam packed my weekend to make it so. In the past, I might have felt crushed when people didn't pay attention to me today, or when people that I thought were my friends showed their true colours; as wonderful as birthdays should be, they can sometimes be awfully lonely. This year however, I vow to only surround myself with positivity. I won't place my happiness in the hands of anyone else.

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In preschool, when my mum rented a giant bouncy castle for my friends and I to jump away the afternoon; when I turned 13 and had an co-ed party with spin the bottle (and felt pretty cool for once); in England on my 16th, when my Uncle bought me a selection of mini-cakes; my 19th, when my best friend told me the beach was too lame for a party; my early 20s, spent in Argentina, visiting the zoo and going to midnight movies; last year, when I spent my actual birthday alone, with pizza, Netflix and my cat, Rory (a sad one).

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I am enamored of "baby" pictures lately; see me, below, rockin' a seersucker dress (made by my gramma, who also used to make me amazing birthday cakes) as I swing the summer away on my Cookie Monster swing-set. Be free, little Sam.