JessVersteeg

June 27, 2013June 26, 2013

Zevia review (part 2) + Giveaway

Shortly after I posted my first review of Zevia vs Krisda, I received a reply on Twitter inviting me to try more flavours of Zevia, for free.

Obviously, I took them up on it, since a can of the stuff costs $1 at the local grocery store. I requested Cherry Cola, Black Cherry, Dr. Zevia, Ginger Root Beer (say what?), Gingerale and Cream Soda. As I was emailing back and forth with Kipling (their digital marketing manager), she explained something that was pretty helpful and very fair:

“We understand many people come to Zevia because they want to “replace” their bad soda with healthier Zevia. Sometimes this leads to frustration because our Cola doesn’t taste like your old brand. We’re certainly not trying to mimic the competitions’ flavor, but we know there is an expectation that our Cola taste like some other brands!”

I did expect this! I realize now it’s not very realistic.

Back to the testing. Now, I didn’t sit down and drink them all side-by-side again, and I didn’t have Krisda to compare it to this time. It’s not a scientific study, people! But I think it is helpful to know that I enjoy these drinks more and more when I’m not drinking actual diet pop. These drinks taste better when your tastebuds are expecting the Stevia/Erythritol combo. You can taste the flavour more (though the sweetner is still evident, but that’s true of diet pop, too, we’re just more used to it).

Ok, enough with the disclaimers.

Zevia (accidentally, or super creepster-like) got a big point because the drinks arrived on my birthday (yay!).

The first one I tried was Cherry Cola. Right off the bat, I liked it more than the Zevia cola. In fact, I really liked it. The stevia taste was still there, but I’m pretty sure (but again, wasn’t testing it right side-by-side) that the cherry cola flavour was more evident than the cola.

Next, I tried the Black Cherry. I brought it to the Versteeg Picnic. I forgot to take a picture. I was a bit surprised Zevia had Cherry Cola and Black Cherry. They’re pretty different because I didn’t really like the Black Cherry (go figure).

Next, I tried the Ginger Root Beer. I had no idea what it was going to be like. Gingerbeer? Rootbeer? I found it started off more like rootbeer and ended with a bit of ginger. You might not even notice if you didn’t know that’s what it was called. I liked it fair enough.

I don’t remember the last time I had Cream soda but it was my favourite flavour as a girl. Two guesses why (it was pink and tasted like it!). While I was sad it wasn’t pink when I poured it (my first guess was the gold can), it was good! I really enjoyed it. Though I still partly can’t deal that it isn’t pink or at least clear. Sigh.

Last up was the Gingerale. I’m glad I saved it for last because I ended up having it on a day I had an upset stomach, which, if you know me, is frequent. I consume a decent amount of Gingerale when I’m sick, but often it’s hard to find the diet stuff. Now I don’t need to! Plus it’s got Vitamin C in it (all of the drinks do).

So there you have it. Guess what? I’ve hooked you guys up with a giveaway. Zevia is going to give 5 vouchers for a 6-pack each. That means five of you can win! The only entry that is mandatory is leaving a comment. Note that Rafflecopter uses Javascript, so for you iPad/iPhone users, you might find it tricky.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

June 26, 2013

Camp Nanowrimo

You’ve heard me talk about Nanowrimo before. One month, one novel. For some of you November is never a good time of year to do it. Now there’s Camp Nanowrimo in July. You don’t necessarily have to write a novel (though writing anything but a novel is still called ‘rebelling‘). You can write a memoir, an epic poem, non-fiction etc. For some of you this is a good opportunity start the habit of writing regularly.

And yes, you guessed it, I’m thinking about doing it. Not a novel this time.

We’ll see….

June 20, 2013

Slow down, grow up

This week things are slow. My stamina in running is growing, but my foot muscle pain prevents me from running as long as I’d like. I can only run for about 15 minutes before my feet hurt enough to make me think it’s smart to stop. So that’s not going how I’d like it to.

Yesterday I read a bunch about the health benefits of fermented foods on our stomachs and digestion. I read this article that mentioned wheat intolerant people (in some cases) being able to eat rich sourdough breads. It can help my digestion and cost a fraction of all my other flours do? I decided to try it, so now I’m on day two of growing my own sourdough starter. The whole process is going to take about a week for just the starter and then the bread will take a good while to make too. Apparently, the longer the bread “prooves”, the more likely the cultures will eat the gluten out of the bread. Or something sciencey.

So far this month, I’ve slowed down a lot. Enjoying the pace of the (start of the summer). Reading, swimming, trying to run, baking, when I’m not working.

Usually, I’m all about fast, but for some reason I’m getting used to this slow persistent nurturing thing. That’s probably a good thing, right?

Also: I’m going to name my sourdough starter “monster.” Comment away with your name suggestions!

June 16, 2013

For my Poppy

I have two significant memories of my dad when I was really young, probably 4 or 5. One was a hot summer day in Saskatoon and the boys were all out in the back yard working on my mom’s extensive garden. My older dad peeled off his shirt, my older brother peeled off his shirt and my toddler brother was just in his diaper anyways. I was left the only shirted person there and I started to do the same when my older brother said, “NO! You can’t take off your shirt, you’re a girl!”

I didn’t even understand how those two things were at all related. It was hot out. I looked at my dad, “Dad? Can I take off my shirt?” and he replied “Go ask your mother.”

I learned how to deflect tricky parenting situations from him. Actually, my mom was pretty good at it, too.

There were a few things my dad taught me about consistency. He came home from work every day at 5:30 and we ate supper more or less right away. He would walk in the door and whistle (twice high, then lower) to let us know he was home. This whistle eventually evolved to him just calling out “foo foo” because this was easier than whistling I guess. (Few things in our family stayed one way ever, we had this always evolving language based on English what French my parents remembered from High School/Dutch/our childish misunderstandings of what the words actually were.). Every morning when I was young enough to wake up at 6AM, I would find my dad stretched out on the couch with a Bible in his lap. He would get up at 5:30 every morning to read the Bible and pray. As a very little girl when I watched him do that with probably more consistency than I saw him do anything else, I learned two very important things:

1) When my daddy says he’ll pray for me I know he will, and I know he will even when he doesn’t tell me he will.

2) Our children watch us and pick up on our habits whether we intend for them to or not.

June 13, 2013June 13, 2013

Update on my New Years’ Resolution to Read

So this morning it occurred to me, I don’t think I’ve read any books since the beginning of May. So I sat down to think about it. I was doing so well up until our regular routine was interrupted by leaving Montreal for the month of May. I managed to do tons of reading in April. Reading became easier and easier and as I picked books that interested me more and more, I was reading more and more. If you take a look at my Books in 2013 page, you’ll see that I went above and beyond my 2 books a month/a book every 2 weeks goal. I read 5 books in April!

Actually, now that I see the list again, I did read 2 books in May. It just didn’t feel like it because I read one book in one day and another book another day. They weren’t spread over a few weeks. Also they were both short novels, but that still counts as reading!

I need to get reading back on my list of things to do. I’ve been more into fiction lately which is a switch from almost everything I’ve read in the last year and a half.

I’m just a better person when I read. I’m nicer, happier, a better conversationalist. I’m all around better. Yet, sometimes, I still need to coach myself to make reading a priority, and this month that is what has to happen.

June 10, 2013

“Two Frayed Strands” on Medium

Have you guys heard of Medium yet? It’s the brainchild of Ev Williams and if you’ve been following his career, everything he touches turns to gold. Blogger, Twitter, and now this. You can find the link over on my social sidebar, it’s the M. I’ve decided it’s a good spot to publish some writing that doesn’t fit within the boundaries of this blog. The following is the first paragraph from my first post “Two Frayed Strands.”

I knew something was very wrong the moment I woke up. This morning, I sort of wished I hadn’t woken up. It wasn’t that I wanted to die per se but that the well of my soul was so parched it was as if it had been millenia since water filled its walls. Anxiety filled me where a sense of self should have. I made a mental check-list of what I was supposed to do that day and the rest of the week. It all needed to go, save studying for my University finals. I would skip my classes, cancel meetings. I had nothing to give.

I was too thin of a strand to support any weight. I was too limp, frayed, too wispy and frail to even count as a whole thread, a real human being.

I rolled over and went back to sleep……

Read the rest here.