It’s been 4 years since the keto diet cured my back pain. Then it went ahead and cured my sleep habits, my migraines, my reflux, my plantar fasciitis, my menstrual cycle, and my depression. Suffice it to say, keto changed my life.

I’ve written a keto quick start guide that is the least you need to know to get started eating keto. If you just want to jump right in and get started without a lot of extra details this keto quick start guide is for you. Additionally, at the end I’ve included a troubleshooting checklist for if you have any problems along the way.

I’m rocking a brand new canvas bell tent for this year’s camping season. I spent days pouring over the options before choosing which one to buy. I figured you could use a hand if you’re looking through canvas bell tent options yourself. As I told people at Euphoria this year, I think this is the perfect tent – a fantastic balance between the cool factor and practicality. Let’s take a look at the options!

Size

The canvas bell tents tend to come in 3m, 4m, and 5m options.

Go for 3m if you’re one person, doing short weekend trips, or if you want the easiest tent to put up and the easiest tent to heat.

Choose at least 4m if you have more than 2 people, if you have kids, or if you know you like a little more space.

I chose the 5m option because I am a princess. I love camping, but I don’t do roughing it! We fit 2 queen size mattresses in our tent, with half the tent left over.

Amazon sellers tend to carry the most popular sizes of 4m and 5m. (These are affiliate links!) Try Danchel Sport or Dream House. These are both similar tents with simple features, good reviews, and good prices.

Color

When looking at canvas bell tent options, you’ll find that you don’t have a lot of color options! For the most part you’re looking at sand-colored canvas. I have occasionally found a company with colorful options, but they tend to be sold for a limited time. Let me know if you find a company with current color options!

Groundsheets

For groundsheets, your options are SIG (sewn in groundsheet), ZIP (zip in groundsheet), and separate.

The SIG option is the simplest and the easiest to set up. However, it means you can’t wash your groundsheet separately, and you can’t pack it separately if you are concerned about packing size or weight.

A ZIG is as secure as a SIG but gives you those other options: separate cleaning and packing. Plus you can strategically unzip to give you customized airflow.

A separate groundsheet gives you all the options of a ZIG except it doesn’t have the same rain protection.

I got a ZIG on mine. It’s a poly bathtub bottom, meaning I have 4 inches of ground water protection. If I ever accidentally setup in a run off stream I’m set!

Accessories

I spent as much time deciding on fun accessories as I did any of the other canvas bell tent options! These are affiliate links to things that I added to my camping setup this year.

You might want:

• A flag bunting banner to decorate inside or outside your tent.
• A collapsible clothes hamper to toss dirty clothes after a day of hiking.
• An indoor/outdoor rug to decorate inside or outside your tent.
• Battery-powered decorative LED lights.

I’m wanting to blog more about camping – if there’s a camping topic you want to know more about, let me know!

I recently posted about the song Stressed Out from Twenty One Pilots:

We used to play pretend, give each other different names,
We would build a rocket ship and then we’d fly it far away,
Used to dream of outer space but now they’re laughing at our face,
Saying, “wake up, you need to make money.”

This stanza really moves me.

Have you ever seen a gaggle of 5 year olds dressed in tutus and cowboy boots, making up superhero names for each other and pretending they’re blasting off to the moon? And felt the bittersweet pull of a simpler yet more dynamic life?

When it’s time, it’s time! I decided to stretch my ears from 00 gauge to 7/16 inch. It’s a stepping stone on the way to 1/2 inch. Want to see the results?

To be the first to see my body modification pictures, follow me @issawaters on Instagram!

I’ve bought from Urban Body Jewelry before, and this time they offered me some free plugs in exchange for this post. There was no other compensation, and all these opinions are mine.

One fun thing about stretching is that you get new jewelry at every new size! There’s limited selection at 7/16″ size, and there are certain pieces I look for every time, and Urban Body Jewelry came through for me! You can search their site by size, material, and jewelry type. They have all kinds of body jewelry for those of you with more than just your ears pierced!

Here’s what I got:

For everyday wear, I use silicone ear skin tunnels – I picked purple this time. This is what I generally wear 24/7. Lightweight, flexible,  comfortable – I forget that I’m wearing anything in my ears at all.

Sometimes I talk to women about why they shave their legs or their pits. They say things to me like, “I tried not shaving, and after two weeks it was driving me crazy. I shave now because -I- like it.”

Which is complete and utter bullshit.

Here’s how I know:

It took me ten years to like my hairy legs.

Ten. Years.

I started out not shaving in the winter because pants, but I still shaved in the summer. Then I stayed hairy in the summer, but still shaved on days I went swimming. Then I stayed hairy all summer, but I shaved for dates and parties. Then I stayed hairy full time, but I disliked the hair the whole time. And then sometime after THAT I finally got used to my hairy legs. Each of these stages took 2-3 years.

Your two weeks are a joke.