HOKA RUNNING SHOES

The kind of shoes you wear have a huge impact on how your body feels and works.  Wearing the wrong shoes affects your back, shins, hips, knees, leg muscles and feet.  To complicate it, there are many different makes of running shoes and models to choose from.  I have worn a number of different makes of running shoes over the years.  I wear running shoes when participating in a variety of sports/exercises and also to wear as casual shoes for out and about.  When I first started to run I wore shoes that were not right for my feet and I ended up with foot problems.  I had to replace running with swimming laps until the inflammation subsided.  The problem got corrected by using an orthotic insert in my running shoes and wearing motion control shoes.  My running days have since transformed into walking days.  Regardless of whether you are walking or running, you need to wear well constructed shoes because your feet are pounding the ground.

Stinson lite and Bondi models.

A friend of ours told the DH about Hoka running shoes that he had purchased in the U.S.  I hadn't heard of these shoes before this friend talked about them.  After hearing about these shoes, both the DH and I decided to visit our local walking/running store and give them a try.  These shoes are softly cushioned, create a rocking motion when you walk in them, are light, and are very comfortable.  I found that I can actually walk faster wearing these shoes.

These two models that I wear - the Stinson lite and the Bondi, are for different uses.  I didn't plan on getting two pairs of shoes.  I found the Hoka shoes so comfortable for walking the dog that I decided to get a pair for casual wear.  Because of the accumulative mileage I put on walking the dog, the way I heel strike and the dirt that collects on the soils of the shoes, I wear my walking shoes just for walking.  I wear the Bondi model for walking and the Stinson lite for casual use.

These shoes are a different look than the sleek look of the Nike air shoes that Mick Jagger wears but your feet and gait feels great when you are wearing them and do have some style to them.

SHOES AND MERINO WOOL

While shopping for a new pairs of Salomon trail running shoes, I came across this brand of clothing made by a company called Icebreaker. 

First, let me fill you in on the running shoes.   These running shoes are made for running on trails that have tough footing.  I don't run on rough trials and bought this specific model of shoe for when it will get icy outside on the walking paths, sidewalks or the streets and I need to have some grips on my shoes when walking the dog.  These shoes have cleats and I wore a pair last winter and really found them great for walking.  I wore the cleats down on one side of each shoe as I overpronate.   I don't wear them if there is lots of snow but do wear them when it is icy outside.

While in the store, I wandered over to the women's running and walking clothing area.  The sales person whom I have known for many years, steered me to a new brand of clothing that the store is carrying.  The clothes included base layers, hoodies, and tee shirts, The clothes are great for layering and are made using merino wool from New Zealand.  What peaked my interest was that each piece of clothing has an unique code and you can connect the clothing you bought with an individual farm or a group of farms that sheared this wool.  I bought a top and bottom base layer and a hoodie and I traced my wool used in the clothing to the farms that sheared the sheep.  I think this is pretty neat.  I read about the farms, the farmers, their families, saw photos of their dogs and their land.  What a great way to sell clothes!

I have copied some of the background information on merino wool that the company uses.

The merino is one of the world’s most ancient breeds of sheep. And one of the toughest.

Very different to a regular sheep who chews grass in the lowlands, our merino live in the extremes of New Zealand’s Southern Alps. Regular sheep would freeze to death up there.

But the merino’s fleece is built for extremes – breathable in summer, insulating in winter, yet exceptionally soft and lightweight.

We’ve pioneered the use of merino wool in the wilderness since 1994, and now we’ve fused nature and technology to create merino layers for the outdoors, for performance sports, and for the city.

HOW IT WORKS

STYLE AND IMAGE

A few weeks ago I attended a lecture on style and success presented by Joanne Blake.  She has a company Style for Success and she consults, gives presentations and provides coaching related to image, building confidence, dressing for success and how to sell yourself.   It was a very interesting presentation as she and the audience discussed the power of image, first impressions, how people perceive your image and situational dressing.

Joanne provides eight key decisions people will make of you within seconds of meeting:

1. Economic level
2. Intellectual ability
3. Reliability
4. Social position
5. Level of refinement
6. Moral standards
7. Level of success
8. Potential for success

SIX ITEMS OF CLOTHING - 30 DAYS

I have heard about an experiment going on where you wear just six items of clothing for 30 days.  There are clothes that don't count as part of the six items - shoes, accessories, underwear, coats, swimwear, exercise gear or specialized clothing required for work such as in the medical field. The experiment began among a group of friends and caught the eye of others who wanted to be part of the experience.

A paragraph from a NY Times article explains this event: "This self-imposed exercise in frugality was prompted by a Web challenge called Six Items or Less (sixitemsorless.com). The premise was to go an entire month wearing only six items already found in your closet (not counting shoes, underwear or accessories). Nearly 100 people around the country, and in faraway places like Dubai and Bangalore, India, were also taking part in the regimen, with motives including a way to trim back on spending, an outright rejection of fashion, and a concern that the mass production and global transportation of increasingly cheap clothing was damaging the environment.  Meanwhile, an even stricter program, the Great American Apparel Diet, which began on Sept. 1, has attracted pledges by more than 150 women and two men to abstain from buying for an entire year. " (NY Times article).

Recently in the Globe and Mail, an article written by Angela Self, who writes a weekly column, described her commencement of wearing just six items of clothing for the next 30 days.  She reports that one noted stylist feels your style and bank account will come out winners if you are strategic about what you buy.  Her article states that studies have shown that we wear only about 20 to 30 percent of our wardrobes and that we have go-to outfits.  I can believe that!  I do not wear all of the clothes hanging in my closet or packed in my drawers.  Furthermore, I do gravitate towards certain clothes and wear them more than others.  Angela Self writes about testing this theory using a hanger test.  Flip all of your hangers backwards, then whenever you wear something, place the hanger in the right direction.   By doing this for two or three months you will quickly see what you wear and what you may need to think about donating, altering or selling.  Of course you have to be conscious of the seasons particularly if you live with four seasons of weather.

In reviewing several internet sites including that of "Six Items of Less" the comments left by readers support or criticize this experiment.  Much can be said about the home environment you grew up in, your weight and whether you have different clothes for your plus or minus 10 to 15 pounds weight range, your self worth, and your personal style.  One comment made by a reader was that they could cope much easier with 10 items and would prefer that option.  For those that took on the challenge, did their shopping habits change afterwards?  What did they do after the 30 days?

After reading this article, I asked the DH if he could wear only six items of clothing for a month. He replied that he does it already.  In essence he gravitates towards certain clothes and mostly wears the same clothes all of the time.  I have been thinking about whether I could do this exercise or a modified exercise of buying less and owning less clothes.  Would I get bored bored bored from a limited selection?  I do have clothes hanging in my closet that I don't wear very often and can count on one hand how many times I have worn that particular outfit.  I have clothes that I keep for nostalgic purposes; think that I will wear the item sometime soon; it was pricey, bought it on a whim and I need to keep it and wear it to get 'value' out if it; bought the item because I was engaging in retail therapy; bought the item because it was on sale and was such a deal; and finally, I like shopping.  What I do realize and would rather do is buy less but buy an item that is better quality and well made, wear it more often and enjoy it.  Maybe instead of wearing six items, 12 or 20 items is more realistic.  You could also set yourself a budget for the year and use that budget to assist you in your choices if you find yourself indulging in too much retail therapy.  You have to also acknowledge the environment you live in - do you live where the outside temperature can go from minus 30 degrees Celsius to plus 30 degrees Celsius depending on the season?  You do wear different clothes depending if it is summer or winter.

Vivienne Westwood, the fashion designer, has said that one should buy less, choose well and mix it all.

FIVE-FINGERED SHOES

I am never one to pass up on different kinds of shoes.  The shoes that I am wearing are what some people call five-fingered shoes.  It is made by a company called 'Vibram' and it is based on barefoot technology.

These shoes allow you to feel as if you are going barefoot with the protection of a slim sole.  The shoe fits like a second skin.  Five-fingered shoes were first developed as a barefoot alternative for climbing, light trekking and sailing.  These shoes are now used for running, swimming, canoeing, kayaking, surfing, yoga and pilates.  I bought these shoes to use for pilates as pilates is done barefoot or wearing toe socks.  I like wearing these shoes and could wear them around the house, by the beach, or doing other water sports.  I don't know if I like wearing them all the time for pilates.  I am planning to get a pair of toe socks for pilates and will compare the differences between the two products.  

There are two different schools of thought of whether these shoes should be used for running.  On one side of the fence are those that recommend structured shoes and there is the other side that promotes the benefits of running barefoot.  Running barefoot leads to better running form and improved injury resistance.  These five-fingered shoes would protect your feet from sharp edges, glass, rough surfaces and other outside elements.   I have never run barefoot so I don't know know how I would do with these shoes.  

HOW TO MAKE A GIRL HAPPY? LAUNDRY!

We recently made a purchase that is an important appliance in most homes.  Of course the picture tells all and making you guess is not necessary.  The machines are not the colour of white and in fact are slate gray.  This model came in either slate gray or red.  Red is one of my favourite colours but I thought best to go with gray as it would match the colour of the flooring and walls.  I never thought I would need to think about matching the colour of a washing machine to other colours in the room.

This is not the first set of front end loaders to grace the laundry room.  Prior to this new gleaming sophisticated looking machinery, we had a Maytag washer and dryer.  They were more of the first generation of front end loading machines and did not have the bells and whistles of this new pair.  When I bought the Maytag set, the front doors of the machines at that time were solid and they did not make them with a window so that you could watch your laundry being cleaned or dried.  These machines are not made by Maytag but are made by Samsung.  The decision made to buy this make was based on data gleamed from various websites and the retail bible - Consumer Report.

The window feature on the front door is quite enthralling.  When I washed the first load, I took a big flashlight and shined it into the window so that I could peer into the machine and watch what was happening.  How much water is really used; did I use enough soap;  does the drum roll all the time or stop periodically; and, how hard does the machine spin the  clothes?  Besides myself watching the washing activity, I had the DH and the dog by my side, just as curious as me peering into the machine.   The dog wants to  be involved with all of the activity.  With subsequent loads being done, I still grabbed the flashlight so that I can watch the action going on in the washing machine.

So does a new washing machine make a girl happy?  You bet it does!  Washing clothes has never been this much fun.

THE LIGHT SIDE OF BARGAINS

The DH and I have been away on a little holiday visiting family.  People take holidays for different reasons and some holidays are for relaxing, sports, sightseeing, shopping, culture, cooking, visiting, and/or gambling.  My holidays will cover a variety of activities but you can be assured that shopping is always included.  I have never been on a holiday where no purchases were made.  We all love finding a good bargain whether it is a food item, clothes or beauty product.  I actually will look for bargains that cover a wide gamat.  I will take the time browsing for things while on holidays that I would never do while at home and running the usual weekend errands.  You need to have patience to browse and be in the mood to try clothes on if you are in a clothing store.  I have found much patience during this holiday and have done a lot of browsing.  I did find a number of bargains and was pleased with all of my 'finds'.  Of course you cross compare the prices to what you would have paid at home and whether this item is something that you can't find at home or is such a deal that it is worth stuffing into your heavy suitcase.  I have fulfilled my tee-shirt fetish on this trip.

Starbucks, Trader Joe's and Target is a 14 minute walk from where I am staying and after walking for an hour or so in the morning, the route home usually involved going to Starbucks and then maybe dropping into Trader Joe's or Target.  For those of you that haven't been to a Trader Joe's, it is a great grocery store.  Both of these stores open at 8 am each day so it is quite convenient to involve them in the Starbuck's route.  One morning I went into Target with my skinny vanilla latte in hand.  How good does this get - Life is Good.  A big store with many bargains.  I decided that I needed to find some shower gel and spent time studying the various shower gels on the shelves.  I settled on rainbath shower gel from Neutrogena.  It was a great price and I like the Neutrogena product line.  The bottle I bought is enough for at least a month or two's worth of daily showers.  What do I do with the shower gel after a week's worth of washing as we would be going home??  I hadn't made much of a dent in the amount of shower gel used.  No one else would use it if I left it so I decided to take it home.  As it has a pump handle, packing it in the same bottle with the pump made me nervous as my luck and murphy's law would dictate that somehow in travel transit, the pump would get depressed or turned and I would end up with soap all over the suitcase.  So I had to find a travel container to transfer the shower gel into. Of course this required browsing through stores and looking for travel containers for my $5.99 shower gel.  Some effort went into finding a container including lots of gas.  I looked at Glad containers, travel bottles and other modes of storage.  During my investigation, I never thought of the size of travel bottle I really needed to find, this was a minor detail.  I was consumed with the type of closure the bottle needed to have.  I ended up buying a solid water bottle for $1 at the 99 cent store which by the way is a great store.  My rainbath shower gel bottle is 250 ml and the bottle I bought is a litre.  Such minor details.   The liquid left in the Neutrogena bottle is some water I put in to wash the remnants of soap left before putting the bottle in the recycle bin.  God love me. 

ON MY TRAVELS

While on my little holiday travels I have come across some interesting things.  Last night while strolling along a street market, we came upon a store called 'Life Is Good".  Can you imagine that?  Of course I had to go in and inspect the premise.  They sold clothes including tee shirts with the logo 'life is good'.  After serious contemplation I decided to NOT buy a long or short sleeve tee shirt.  The prices were $25/$30/$35 depending on the tee shirt.  I thought about how many tee shirts do you need?  Even though it had the logo on it, I resisted buying a tee shirt.

While out today, I was in two stores inspecting the active ware tee shirts.  The stores are similar to Winner's.  Can you imagine at both stores I found 'life is good' tee shirts for $14.99.  I ended up buying two of these. I just couldn't resist.  A bargain is hard to resist.

After feeding the ducklings this past summer, I have thought about if they made it to a warmer climate this winter and survived.  While out walking on my daily sojourns on my holiday, I have come across some mallard ducks. There is a whole group on a golf course that I walk by everyday and maybe the ducklings are here too.  The picture of these two ducks were taken at another location.  All of these ducks that I have seen are well fed as people are feeding them.

How Many Tee-Shirts should one own?

For those that shop for clothes, one tends to gravitate to certain items. I tend to look for shoes, purses, coats/jackets, zippered sweatshirts or hoodies and tee-shirts (long and short sleeve). In fact I have a number of drawers (more than one bureau) devoted to tee-shirts (aka tees). There are sleeve-less, short and long sleeved tees for the casual days, dress-up tees for work, tees for exercising, tees for walking the dog, tees that are old but can't be parted with yet and tees for doing major jobs around the house and yard. This last category is most interesting considering I haven't done renovations or house painting in years. So the question to ponder is how many tees should one own?

One of my favorite stores was having its annual summer sale yesterday and it was a must attend event. I got there just after the start of the sale along with 60 other people. The temptation to buy was too much. Who needed to try on things when you know your size so well. It did not help me that the sample sizes they bring in fit me perfectly. After cruising the racks and seeing that the window of selection was closing with all of the women snapping up the tee-shirts, jackets and hoodies, I started to pick out what I wanted but didn't really need. After justifying to myself why I needed these clothes I got into line. The speed of the line was slow - one cash operating but it gave me time to look at the racks while passing them in line and do some swapping with what was still on the racks and what I had in my arms. My arms were starting to get tired from holding the clothes but a good deal and a bargain can never be underestimated. After a 35 minute wait in line and knowing I saved $$, I walked out of the store proud of my great buys.

The next challenge I faced is a rule that I have instituted - what is new that goes into a drawer must equal an old/tired piece of clothing that goes out. Now came the hard choices. I carefully looked at all my tees and made some hard decisions. The most interesting ones were those tees that I have been saving for the "major renos and painting jobs". Some of these tees were purchased on trips, some hadn't been worn for five plus years, some were from my old running days, and some were there because it was easier to stash them there instead of throwing them out. I had a chuckle looking at the tees from some of the trips I had taken. I thought to myself, "what was I thinking when I bought this; did I purchase this as a memento of the trip - likely so"... It felt liberating to put two arm loads of tees into a large garbage bag. These tees were not going to the community boxes. If they are not good enough for me to wear, why would someone else wear them.

I have realized that my obsession with tees is bad when I can colour code my tees and stack them in piles in the drawers bases on whites, blacks, greens and other colours. I also have to ponder when does a tee bought to wear for work be used for casual? Why do we save our good clothes for work and not wear them on other outings? I haven't yet come to terms with how many tees I should own but realize we all have our weaknesses. Until next time......