Hey all! It's that time again--a new round of the @yourtop3 contest is in full swing. Not only is it a new month, but it is also the start of our second year of the competition! How fun is that? I am still amazed at just how quickly time flies. Except when you're quarantined...
Which brings me to our topic of the month:
This months topic is LOCKDOWN ESSENTIALS
Pretty much everyone around the world is under one form of stay-at-home order or another, so this is a topic we can all relate to currently. You can go quite practical in your choices, share some of your quirky personal must-haves, or pick a mixture of both! As always, we like to see all of the creative takes on the topics Q picks out for the month. As usual, the panel members (including myself) aren't eligible for prizes, but we always have fun joining in with our own picks to help fatten up the prize pool.
My Nominations are:
Nomination Number One
Zoom
My Reasons for the Nomination
When everything first started to hit here in the US, I was quite nervous that I would take a huge hit in my income. For those of you who don't know, I am a personal trainer and pretty much all of my income comes from in person classes and training sessions. Though I know plenty of other trainers and wellness professionals have figured out the online thing well before now, I only just did my first digital session a few weeks ago! However, I am so incredibly grateful that the studio that I work for had the forethought to set us up with Zoom accounts and get all of our corporate wellness clients on board. So far I have only missed a few sessions that I would have normally had as I have been able to move just about all of my business online. Our corporate clients have been especially pleased, and my fitness classes online have been getting more people on average than I would ever be able to fit in the classroom at the corporate gym!
So far the verdict is I'm even tougher virtually, and I can attest to that myself. Teaching classes and being "on" for the full time is way more exhausting than training in person, haha! There have been multiple times I am dripping with sweat even after just a 30 minute circuit class. The good thing about that is I am not slacking on my own fitness upkeep during these crazy times.
As a bonus I've also used Zoom to chat with my girlfriends over a glass of wine to celebrate a few of our birthdays, and I was able to get my virtual visit with my niece on Friday afternoon. Definitely not quite the same, but it has become a necessity in my current daily life.
Nomination Number Two
Plant Babies
My Reasons for the Nomination
I just posted my Garden Journal update about a week ago, but having the springtime in full swing and a garden to check on every day is doing wonders to keep me sane. Though I don't need much of an excuse to get outside every day, I love checking in on our seedlings and other plants to see how they are doing. We don't have any children or pets, so I suppose these take the place of having someone or something to look after. Though most of our plants are still far off from producing just yet, it is always fun to see which plants sprout up strong and quick or which others take their time in popping out of the soil.
I get a particular kick out of checking the strawberries every day. A little skink seems to have moved in close by, so I suppose we do have a bit of a "pet" if you count him and the other lizards popping up as the weather warms up. I was just texting with some of my girlfriends who live in apartments right now, and they are quite envious of the space we have and the ability to get outside quite easily. I am making sure I don't take that blessing for granted!
Nomination Number Three
My Farmers
My Reasons for the Nomination
Food is of course a necessity for life, and since our garden is quite a ways from producing enough to sustain us I am even more grateful for my continued access to locally grown food. My farmers have adjusted with tons of hard work and energy to get their online shops set up for us local customers. I can go online through the week and order from each farm for pickup on Saturday morning close to where the market is usually held. The full market is on hold to uphold social distancing standards, so the farmers stay up late Friday evening individually bagging up our orders so all we have to do is grab and go, making our trip away from home short and efficient.
Then of course I get to have my usual fun in the kitchen putting everything together for our nourishing lockdown meals. I'm still trying to share my creations on social media as a small thank you to my awesome farmer friends for their hard work. I consider it essential to support local businesses of all forms now and always, so I'm just hoping they can keep up the current system of ordering for as long as needed!
I am sure I'll hit post on this and think of a few other items that would be equally essential, but I feel pretty solid in these being some of my top priorities right now. There are still quite a few days left to get your entries in, so show us what you've got in your own homes to keep you sane, nourished or happy right now! The more the merrier. Plus I know you don't have anything better to do right now... 😉
Delegate to @yourtop3:
| 5SP | 10SP | 25SP |
| 50SP | 100SP | 150SP |
| 200SP | 250SP | 300SP |
| 400SP | 500SP | 1000SP |
Haha awesome stuff KJ and great to see you've managed to keep the clientele with the fitness business, even if it is giving you more of a work out (never a bad thing)!
Glad to see you're still able to make use of the farmers markets and the plant babies haha! Certainly have a variety of nominations in this month, looking forward to seeing others chime in with their suggestions too!
I think you need to tune in to her classes and have her shout at you in your high-quality bose headphones
Sennheiser headphones mate, don't sink yourself so low
Lol what kind of Instagram poser DJ are you?
Paris Hilton has nothing on me pal 😉
LOL oh no, are you the actual nicky hilton? I always wondered what happened to her
When all this time, you could've just asked 🤣
😂😂😂
You know I was pretty darn worried about losing business at the start of all this, but I'm really thankful for how it worked out. Just shows you worrying doesn't solve anything, right? ;)
Gotta love those little baby fruits and veggies. They require just enough attention to make them fun, but not as much as ACTUAL babies, haha. Plus I gotta keep well-fueled for all these workouts.
Worry does no one any favours!
Haha, if they did require as much attention as actual babies, I think that would be a big "nope" in my book 😆
I'm so impressed with your transition to online and not letting it affect your business, that's awesome. I swear the US needs more of this, I was actually reading how the outbreak is really hitting the obese peeps on that side of the pond.
Some dope produce you got there, how are you storing all of it to keep it lasting longer? Any special tricks? We can only pickle so many veggies lol
It hasn't been without some growing pains, but definitely a much easier transition than I expected. Yes, unfortunately obesity carries with it a number of other co-morbidities, making those people at a higher risk for Covid complications. I'm hopeful that with people having more time they are spending some of it exercising. I definitely see a lot more people out walking and biking right now, so perhaps we'll flatten the obesity curve while we're working on flattening the rate of infections. ;)
So my trick is to eat it all in one week, haha. Seriously, we eat a lot of produce. Last night for dinner (with enough leftovers to last us 3 more meals each) I used the fennel, Brussels sprouts, beets, some greens and strawberries, and the rutabaga. I'll make a soup today with the celeriac root, leeks, and Jerusalam artichokes. I also have fajitas on the docket for the week which I'll make a cabbage slaw to go with and then maybe use up the radishes and sweet turnips with the greens in more salads. Occasionally I have stuff left to pickle or freeze, but most of the time since we eat at home for all meals of the day anyway we blow through it all by the end of the week. Meal planning really is key, though. Once I bring my haul home I make a list of what I bought and then plan out how I'm going to use it all. Makes me less likely to miss anything and have it go to waste!
Wow that's awesome Katie, great that you've managed to turn the situation around! I won't go near the shops now so have ordered online but they have hardly any veggies, I'm really missing that as my veggie vendor is not allowed to operate now and we have limited veggies in the garden at the moment. Sounds like you've adapted very well to the restrictions!
Oh man, that stinks about the lack of fresh produce. Our garden is showing good promise, but it will definitely be a while before we have anything to actually eat from it (other than herbs). I'm keeping my fingers crossed the farmers will be able to continue doing what they are doing for now. Can you imagine all the wonderful produce going to waste for those farmers that can't? Makes my stomach turn. I hope we can all hang in there and this turns around soon!
Wow great picks, Zoom has been fun for sure to connect with family.
Thanks! Yes, it has been great to be able to use it. The rest of my family all has iphones so they can Facetime, but I don't so I'm happy to have Zoom to use instead. It's work out great for my business, as well, so it is beneficial on so many levels!
Every time I see toilet paper since the outbreak, I must lough!!!I bought so far only one pack and there is no lack of it in the supermarkets. But people were stocking up, like the toilet paper is going to save their lives, lol.
Anyway, always love to see your garden, veggies from local farmers and delicious food. I am also happy to see your lovely face 💚😍💚