The Spicy Spatula

Hey there, Party People! Happy Wednesday, how are ya?

I figured I’d take a break from vegan food for today and talk about something else that’s really important to me, and also an important part of a vegan (or non-vegan) lifestyle.

Mental & physical health.

For most of my life I was an urbanite. I grew up in two different major cities, surrounded by concrete and I loved every minute of it. There was an endless list of things to do and places to go, and traveling just a few blocks felt like you were in a different world.

When I moved to the suburbs as a teenager, I still considered myself a city-dweller. It took years to get to sleep in the shocking silence of life outside of the city, and honestly the insomnia didn’t go away until about 18 months of taking on a vegan lifestyle.

What’s my point?

Simple. Despite loving the city–still do, kind of–I have very much become an outdoorsy girl who loves sucking down that fresh mountain air. What can I say? I’m complex. 🙂

As a self-employed writer, it is also important for me to take time for myself and often heading to the city doesn’t really relax me as much as it used to. I love all the things to do in the city, but after a really great day of doing whatever, the drive home in city traffic inevitably dampens all that. My time is precious and I prefer to feel refreshed from a day off or an outing rather than needing to recover from it.

This new outdoorsy me began when I lived in Germany and she hasn’t gone anywhere, if anything she’s cranked up her outdoorsy-ness since moving to Romania. It helps that Romania is very mountainous with a rich history and so many ways to enjoy the outdoors.

It’s good for my creativity, my mental health and walking around in nature has only enhanced my physical fitness, my strength and honestly my comfort being in places where I might encounter wild animals, particularly bears. There are bears everywhere around here!!!

Canionul Șapte Scări ~ 7 Ladders Canyon

This was my second trip to 7 Ladders Canyon but the first time I went my goal was to just make it through. I was still in the early stages of losing weight and getting healthy five years ago and I struggled to finish it. A lot. In fact, as we were coming down the canyon I told my Hubs that the hike felt a lot longer the first time around and he reminded me that it had been 5 years since we were last here.

This canyon is called 7 Ladders (technically 7 stairs) because of the ladders that take you to 7 different waterfalls with the tallest being 35 meters (100 ish feet). It really is a beautiful area and I urge to read up about it if you want to know more.

I’m going to add some photos of the ladders so you can understand why I don’t have any photos from there…

Waterfall, Ladder & Platform photos courtesy of Muntii Nostri.

I came back feeling refreshed and ready to get back to it. If you love romance stories of love, lust, cocktails & happy endings, you’ll probably like my collection of books. Find me on social media if you want to talk about romance, outdoors, true crime, travel…and a lot of other things. Or buy my books here.

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