Learnin’ Stuff

Let's Learn About SCOBY | Nadia La Russa

Let’s Learn About SCOBY

If you know me, you know about my love for Kombucha and my two fermentary businesses here in Thunder Bay, where I regularly brew Kombucha and make other delicious fermented foods. So you might be wondering why I’m talking about Kombucha when I’m supposed to be talking about SCOBY? What does Kombucha have anything to do with today’s topic? Stick around, and I’ll tell you all about it.

Kombucha is a fermented beverage people enjoy for its unique taste and tremendous health benefits. It contains many powerful ingredients and one of those ingredients is called SCOBY.

What is SCOBY?

SCOBY is a thick, cloudy rubbery mass that helps the fermentation process. SCOBY stands for “Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast,” and it’s an essential ingredient that I use in the fermentation and production of my Kombucha.

Fermentation is a chemical process where carbohydrates like sugar and starch turn into alcohol and acid.

The appearance of SCOBY can vary, but usually, it’s round, dense and a little rubbery. It also looks a bit cloudy with a very mild smell of vinegar. 

How SCOBY Works

When producing Kombucha, you add a SCOBY into sweetened black or green tea, and then you let it ferment for a few weeks. 

The bacteria and yeast in the SCOBY start to break down the sugars in the tea and convert them into alcohol and carbon dioxide. 

In the end, it has a sweet and tangy vinegar-like taste with specific flavours that you leave to ferment. 

The fermentation process also increases probiotics’ concentration, which brings lots of positive health effects to your gut. 

Many studies have connected probiotics’ consumption to reducing cholesterol levels, improved immunity and enhanced weight loss, among other excellent benefits.

Can You Eat SCOBY?

Yes, you can eat SCOBY! They are perfectly edible and good for you. SCOBYs are safe to eat on their own and will not cause you any harm.

However, be careful when incorporating SCOBYs into your recipes because they are not as simple as you think. If you have experience cooking with SCOBY, then go for it. You can make many tasty treats like smoothies, fruit leathers and jerky, but remember that what you make and how you go about it will make your SCOBY dish either edible or inedible. 

But before you experiment with cooking with SCOBY and making different dishes, I suggest you start by making your own batch of Kombucha. Unleash your inner kombucha brewer with my Kombucha Starter Kit! I include instructions and a little gift receipt for a $10 coupon.

If you don’t want to brew your own Kombucha but enjoy drinking it, try some of my current favourite flavours and let me know what you think:

In Health and Wellness,

Nadia La Russa

Click here to learn more about Narrow Gate Foods, my small-batch, big-love fermentery in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Click here to learn more about Kumbaya Kombucha, another fermentery in Thunder Bay that I recently purchased.

How To Take Control of Your Finances | Nadia La Russa

How To Take Control of Your Finances & Create a Customized Budget For Yourself

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re starting to get the hang of 2020 and are thinking about setting up a budget for the rest of the year and beyond. Amazing! As a serial entrepreneur and mom of five, I know a thing or two about budgeting and managing finances. After all, a significant part of my work life consists of putting together customized accounting solutions for small-medium sized businesses, and truth be told, it really isn’t that different for personal finances.

If you’d like to learn how to put together a customized budget and take control of you and your family’s finances, please scroll down!

Tip # 1: Stop Thinking of Your Finances as Something Out of Your Control and Disconnected From Your Everyday Reality

One of the most common mindsets I’ve noticed when other people talk about their personal finances is how disconnected and out of control, they feel from them. Once they’ve received their bi-weekly pay from work and bills have been paid, whatever amount is leftover usually becomes discretionary income. Some months it’s less, other months they have more to play around with. 

The issue with this is that when we train ourselves to spend discretionary funds unconsciously, we neglect to consistently track our spending and we’re often left completely unprepared for emergency situations. If 2020 has taught us anything in regards to finances, it’s that preparation is everything.

Tip #2: Take 1 Hour To Create a Budget For Yourself and Your Family

The best way to really take control of your finances is to take one hour by yourself or with your partner and set a basic monthly budget. List out all of your bills, income, decide on an amount you want to stay within for the rest of the year, and most importantly, stick to it. Any extra income you make one month should be put into a separate Savings Account for those emergency situations. By sticking to a consistent budget, you’ll quickly train your brain to spend within your means and won’t be so scattered anymore with your spending. Trust me, you’ll love feeling in control of your finances!

Tip #3: Track Your Spending & Give Yourself a Raise

After you’ve gone ahead and created a budget, the next habit you should really be practicing is tracking your spending. By doing this, you’ll be able to identify certain expenses that you could happily do without (monthly subscriptions, for example) and start seeing your bank account grow. The next time you cancel a payment you don’t need and keep it for yourself, think of it as if you’re giving yourself a raise.

Here are some handy (and free!) apps that can help track your spending for you:

  • Charlie – this app is created with artificial intelligence and does an amazing job of helping you track your spending. To do so you’ll need to download it from your phone’s app store, connect it to your bank account and it’ll start monitoring your account for any signs of unproductive spending. This is great for anyone who is having a hard time thinking of what expense they should eliminate!
  • Mint – this app helps you store all your finances and bills in one place, giving you a good idea of what you’re working with. It’ll also calculate your spending by category so you can see your spending patterns and know what you can cut back on to be able to give yourself a raise each month.
  • Alternative method – Use a Google Sheet! You’ll be able to view it on your phone, desktop and be able to customize it as much as you want. You won’t receive any automatic alerts but manually adding in your expenses each month would be a good way of becoming aware of how much money you do spend on a monthly basis.

The great news is that you’re ready to take control of your finances and it doesn’t matter what your financial circumstances are – anyone can create a budget for themselves and track their spending. When done effectively, you’ll be able to meet your financial goals, give yourself a raise, and worry less when those inevitable life emergencies happen.

With You – 

Nadia La Russa

P.S. If you’re feeling excited about taking control of your finances but aren’t sure when to start because you’re always so busy, be sure to read this blog post I wrote on how to take control of your time. After all, we all have the same hours in the day as everyone else!

How to Choose Your Next Pair of Fitness Shoes | Nadia La Russa

How to Choose Your Next Pair of Fitness Shoes

Are you a runner? If so, you need to know how to choose the proper footwear. Choosing the right pair of running shoes will improve your performance, boost your safety, and even help you save money. After all, quality, durable supportive sneakers and running shoes don’t need to be replaced as often as a poor quality pair.

The following tips will help. Remember them the next time you’re looking for your next pair of running shoes.

Determine How You Run

Not all running footwear is the same. Different types of shoes are best for different types of running. Just as you wouldn’t wear a pair of comfortable sandals on a ski trip, you want to make sure your running shoes are suited to your style of running.

For instance, if you run offroad most of the time, you need trail running shoes, which are designed for maximum traction. That’s not necessary if you run on the road or other relatively flat and even surfaces.

Check Your Worn Shoes

Do you have a current pair of running shoes that’s fairly worn down? If so, it can give you a lot of information about the way you run.

Check the wear patterns on your shoes to find out how your feet tend to land. If the wear tends to be most noticeable around the ball of the foot, and a small area of the heel, you have a neutral pronation. Overpronation, which involves the arches of the feet turning down or inward to an excessive degree when they land on a surface, results in greater wear along a shoe’s inside edge. Supination, or underpronation, occurs when the foot doesn’t roll inward enough, putting excess strain on your ankles. Outer edge wear is a sign of supination.

There are running shoes designed specifically for people with neutral pronation, overpronation, and supination. However, the best option may actually be a minimalist shoe.

Minimalist footwear differs from traditional running shoes in several ways. The main difference, however, is that minimalist shoes are designed to recreate the experience of running barefoot. This offers many benefits, such as strengthening the muscles in your feet and lower legs.

It also promotes a more natural foot landing. Getting used to running in minimalist footwear may eventually help you avoid problems like supination or overpronation entirely.

Don’t Assume You’re the Same Size

This is a quick tip, but it’s important to remember. Checking your shoe size before buying a new pair is always essential. The size of your feet can change all throughout life, and even if it remains the same, manufacturers may have different standards for various shoe sizes.

Keep Fashion in Mind

Again, finding the right pair of running shoes can help you save money. That’s partially due to the fact that quality running footwear stays in good condition for a long time.

However, some running shoes look stylish enough to be worn during many activities. This means you could avoid buying a few extra pairs of shoes by using your running footwear more often.

That’s another reason to consider a minimalist shoe. Since minimalist footwear doesn’t need to offer the same cushioning and heel-to-toe drop as traditional running shoes, it doesn’t need to conform to the same design requirements. This gives designers greater freedom to create running shoes that boost your safety and performance while also looking great.

Remember these points if you’re in the market for a new pair of running shoes. This is an important investment. By following these tips, you’ll be much more likely to make the right choice.

To Dodging Bullets

“On Oct. 1, 2017, from a room on the 32nd floor in Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, “***********” (name removed, because I refuse to acknowledge him with a name) rained down bullets on approximately 22,000 concert-goers who were attending a Jason Aldean performance. Police said he killed 58 people and wounded more than 850 others. As of today, it is still considered the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. History.”

Myself, Brent and our friends Alison and Michael were 4 of the approximately 22,000 unsuspecting concert-goers.

As today marks the one-year anniversary of this fateful event, I am releasing my first ever written account of what happened, and how my life has changed since then.  I use an interview style of the various questions that have been asked of me over the last year. This is, without a doubt, the most raw I have ever been. This story is not for the faint of heart, or the weak in spirit. Enjoy.

Were you hurt?

When people ask me “Were you hurt?” my response is deliberate. “We were not physically injured in the attack.”  What I mean here is, we didn’t get shot. But we did get hurt. This kind of hurt isn’t seen to the naked eye. In this kind of hurt, sometimes, months later you wake up in the middle of your kitchen, under your table, because you’ve run there in your sleep. And you’ve run there in your sleep because your dream was a vivid re-living of running away from the gunshots.

Some noises are triggers – the sound of fireworks.  The bang of a car going over a curb. Sirens. Screams. Gunshots in action movie scenes.  Music by Jason Aldean that comes on the radio.

The worst part is that there is no planning for this hurt. There is no direct way to get better.  There is no telling what days are going to be good days and what days will not be. There is no prescription, and no timeline.

Where were you exactly in relation to the gunfire?

Interesting story. Because we had spent the first two days standing on the grass area, we decided to treat ourselves to bleacher style seats on the roof of the House of Blues for the last day of the concert. I had won $400 playing Blackjack that morning, and we scored ourselves the last four seats up on that roof. It was epic – a nice, raised view of the stage, private bathrooms, and a bar right up there. They only had 250 seats up there so it was a small crowd with couches to relax on and big bean-bag chairs.

What we didn’t know at the time was that this raised view would give us a clear view of the crowded area on the ground – the very place where we had spent the last two days of the festival.

Did you know right away that it was shooting?

Nope. In fact, I remember the 10 seconds of disbelief as my brain tried to recognize what my eyes were telling it.  I remember saying to Ali “what is that weird noise?” at the same time she asked me “why are all those people running?” and then 2 seconds later the two of us were on the ground, under our chairs staring into each other’s terrified eyes.  My brain flipped back and forth in rapid succession:

“That’s not gunfire. I have heard gunfire before. I shoot guns. That’s not what it sounds like. It’s fireworks. Oh shit. It *is* gunfire. Wait. No, it isn’t. It’s fireworks. But I don’t see any fireworks. Ok, it’s gunfire.”

Brent’s brain went into autopilot mode. I do also remember looking towards him and saying, “what do we do?” and he said, “I can’t tell if that’s gunshots or not.”

During the third round of shooting, the circumference of the bullets started including the area we were sitting. Any an all doubts we might have had about if it was or wasn’t actual gunfire were put to rest as we all heard the very distinct sound of bullets hitting the chairs and bleachers around us.  At that same time, the bullets hit the stage screens, and the music stopped, and the lights went out.

So, what were you thinking?

I had one, single, clear thought. “I need to call my mom.”

I can’t explain this thought, but that was literally all I was thinking as I was laying there on the ground.  I knew we were getting ready to run, so I looked around me and I spotted my sunglasses case and cell phone. I grabbed both of them.

How did you know where to run and when to run?

While I was on the ground, thinking about my mom, Brent was strategizing.  Unbeknownst to all of us, he had gone into tactile mode. He was looking at the crowd, watching where people were running to. He was watching to make sure he wasn’t going to lead us into danger. See, as we lay there, a few things became clear:

  1. That there was only one shooter. We knew this because the gunfire would stop for several seconds at a time. Multiple shooters could have prevented pauses in the rain of bullets.
  2. That the shooter was not in the crowd or visible. We knew this because it went on far too long for him to have been in the midst of all the police presence that was at the event.

There were many, many unknowns though. One of those unknowns was the direction from where the bullets were coming.

So, Brent watched. He strategized. He had two objectives; to keep our group of 4 together and to get as far away as possible, fast. He decided to have us run in the opposite direction of the entrance, and down the street behind the concert grounds.

And then, we ran.  We made it down the back of the House of Blues, and by this time the chain link fence surrounding the event had been knocked down. We ran down the street and crouched behind a police car for the next round of shooting. Then, we ran to behind the wall of a church.

There was still more shooting. So, we ran some more.

We finally stopped running as Brent hailed a limo-style bus. The driver let us on and took us down the Strip in the opposite direction. My Fitbit congratulated me on completing a 5k run.

By this time, it was evident that an emergency was happening. Ambulances, police cars and fire trucks were screaming towards the festival.

So, I called my mom.

Did you see anyone else get hurt?

Yes.

Oh my God. I can’t even imagine.

No. You can’t. And please don’t try to imagine what it was like going through this.

Are you ok?

Interesting question.  We got asked this a lot during the first few days after we returned home. I decided to be completely honest whenever someone asked me this. Sometimes the answer was yes, and sometimes it was no. We found that visiting with our friends and telling the story was the best way to process through our confusing memories and thoughts as we tried to have normal lives again.

We have made deliberate attempts not to let fear run our actions and choices, but that has been tough.

I found that for the first time ever, I wasn’t able to protect my kids from the news. By the time we returned home, they had seen the news coverage.  It was heartbreaking to have the initial conversations with them about what happened, and what we saw.

I’m definitely ok-er now. I can tell the story without crying. I can now clearly see the lesson in all of this, at least for me.

What did you learn from this?

So many things. Literally dozens of things, but one lesson stands above the rest.  My only regret is that it took this event to make me realize what I should have known all along.

When you get married as a Christian woman, your husband vows to love you as Christ loved the church. What this means is that he is willing to lay his life down for you. Wives, I pray that you never, EVER have to test this vow in real life. I hope you can know now, without going through something like this, that if you have a man that will physically lay his life down to protect yours that you should honour him until your last breath.

I certainly wasn’t the perfect wife, and I certainly don’t proclaim to be now. But, what I now do have is a much clearer view on what actually matters. How you treat people matters. Who did or didn’t clean the dishes, or went out with friends, or left the bathroom a mess, or any of that other trivial crap DOES NOT MATTER.

Jackhammers and Immigration Officers | Nadia La Russa

Jackhammers and Immigration Officers

Goodbye boys, hello new villa!

Week 5! One week to go! We said goodbye to the boys this week as they ventured home and left us girls to fend for ourselves.  On Tuesday, we had to move to a new villa. Our old villa was familiar an comfortable and I was sad to move, however, they were re-doing the road outside and there was jackhammering. All.Day.Long.

So, I reached out to my host, and luckily, she had another villa that was available. So, we packed up and moved into the new digs!

On Thursday afternoon the boys packed up and headed home, leaving the girls and I to explore the new neighbourhood, do a bit of shopping and making plans for the rest of our time here.

The dynamic is so much different with just us here. We can travel in a normal taxi, it’s quieter, and food is easier. But we do miss our boys! We had a chance to celebrate the twins’ birthday before they left with a delicious banana flour cake.

And then, it was off for some excitement! This week we chose white water rafting – wow was it cool! There is only one river here suitable, and I think it was definitely an “easier” paddle but it was loads of fun!  It took us about 90 minutes to cover the 10km journey, passing by beautiful stonework, caves, and trees.  Definitely an unforgettable day!

 

It hit me on Thursday that the girls and I had been here a month, and that our tourist visa was about to expire. So here is the story you have all been waiting for – Nadia and the Immigration Shenanigan.

I went to the visa renewal office alone, with my passport and the girls’ passports in hand, fully expecting a simple process costing approximately $30.  Little did I know what was in store.

Rewind to arrival day – a blurry eyed Nadia gets instructions from the immigration officer that sound something like “You tourist Visa is good for 30 days, make sure you renew it before it expires” which translates to my exhausted brain as “you have a month to figure this out.”

Not so.

When they said “30 days” what they meant was “30 days, and today is day 1.” And that is NOT the same thing as one month. So, we got here on the 24th. When I arrived at the immigration on the 24th I was two days late to renew. Apparently, this is a big deal. I asked the quickly-becoming-less-and-less friendly counter person “So what do I do now?” and the answer was “You leave the country. Immediately.”

So herein lies the problem.  I had no means to “leave the country immediately” for several reasons, the main one being that I didn’t have my children with me.  I started to protest, which was very quickly met with me getting ushered – and I use that word lightly – into the small, grey room with the table and two chairs that you see on television.  Enter Big Balinese Immigration Dude and Even Bigger Balinese Immigration Dude. Dudes were not pleased.

For the next 10 minutes or so, I was subjected to a very loud and stern talking to about the importance of respecting authority, following process, and removing myself from their land.  It didn’t take much to have me do what any self-respecting, confident woman would do – I burst into tears, and sobbed uncontrollably.

That was their cue. They left the room without a word, and entered a very small, sweet, kind and helpful lady with tissues. Calm Sweet Lady apologized for her mean friends, and suggested that there might be another way to get my visa extended.  It all became clear at that point what has happening.

“Money?” I said. “You want MONEY? Frick, why didn’t you say so. How much do you need?”

And it was done, just like that.  I handed over $500 and all of a sudden I became a respected and esteemed visitor. Not only was I allowed to stay, but now my passports were going to be “fast tracked” through the “speedy system.”  The next day, the girls and I made our way to the central immigration office, and were escorted to the front of the line for photos and fingerprints. Amazingly, our files were already at the office all ready and waiting for us.

Upon further research, I learned that this is a pretty common occurrence. That the intake officers at the airport are intentionally vague about the details and that this good-cop-bad-cop game is a way to line everyone’s pockets. Lesson learned for sure!

Thankfully, its all sorted. As they say, every trip has a story!

Busy? Take Control of Your Time!

Tired of Being So Busy? Take Control of Your Time.

How often do you find yourself saying “I’m SO busy”? We have the same number of hours in the day as everyone else. So why can some people take control of their time better than others?

“To me, ‘busy’ implies that the person is out of control of their life.” – Derek Sivers, Entrepreneur.

It’s true. Life gets pretty overwhelming when your time is controlling you, instead of the other way around. If you’re tired of being forever busy, take control of your time with these tactics:

Understand Where Your Time Goes

Document where all your time actually goes. For one day, write down (or use a free timer like Toggl) to see how much time you spend: checking emails, travelling, sleeping, watching TV, going to the gym, chatting on the phone, checking Facebook, cleaning, eating etc. You might be surprised to learn how much time gets sucked up by “simple” tasks. For example popping out to grab a coffee every afternoon might take much longer than you think (i.e. 20 minutes x 5 days adds up to an hour and forty minutes each week). So making your coffee at work could save you a decent chunk of time. Or if you sit in peak hour traffic each morning, arrange to start earlier/later to spend less time in transit.

To-Do Lists

At the start of each week, jot down everything you need to accomplish. Each morning, write down each item that needs to be done that day (the Bullet Journal approach might work for you). Prioritize the order of importance, and if helpful, add the estimated time you think it will take to do each task so you can plan out your day. It’ll feel so good checking off those items! Or, reach out to me, and I will mail you one of mine!

Calendars

Whether on your wall calendar, planner, diary, or Google calendar; scheduling appointments increases your chances of getting them done. Your mind is also free to focus on the task at hand knowing you don’t have to remember when and where everything else is supposed to happen. (Set notifications to pop up if you need to.)

Schedule Regular Breaks

You know I’m a huge advocate for self care! When we get busy, self care activities are often the first to get axed. But it’s so important to take me-time to improve clarity and focus. When you’re working hard for long periods of time without breaks, your brain becomes less productive. Know that feeling of staring blankly at your computer screen? Or getting up to do something and completely forgetting what it was? It’s a sign to give your brain a break!

Checking Emails and Social Media

These beasts get out of hand FAST! Take control of emails and social media by allocating certain times for checking and responding. Turn off notifications and close browser tabs if you get distracted easily. You could set up a system to reward yourself with ten minutes of social media time each time you complete a major task on your to-do list.

Multitasking

It doesn’t work! Studies show multitasking reduces productivity by up to 40 percent! As NPR Science Correspondent, John Hamilton puts it: “The human brain is designed to do one thing at a time…sequentially. We can kind of fake doing several things at a time. But what we’re doing is putting one thing on hold while we shift our focus to the next thing and then we’re switching back. And every time you switch, there’s a little big of a lag. You lose a little something. It takes a little bit longer to get your brain back to where it was.” Though it may only be a 30 seconds wasted at a time, it adds up. So no more multitasking. Pick one project and focus on it.

Say No

Busy-I-Am-TooIf you’re always agreeing to do things for others and your own work isn’t getting done, say no. Or if you have a dozen things to do today, but two items that aren’t really a priority, cross them off the list. Figure out what’s really important and say no to the things that aren’t.

 

What helps you take control of your time? Add your good habits in the comments below!

 

If you need to take control of more than just your time, email me about my new 12-part Take Control coaching program. This powerful one-on-one program will help you take control of the three key aspects of your life: career, money and relationships. I’ll help you uncover and overcome the hidden obstacles holding you back from living the life you really want.