Hindsight is 2020. That’s the catch phrase we selected for December 2020 back in December 2019’s planning session. Had we only known what 2020 had in store for us all.
Luckily, with just the right amount of chance foresight, we spent December 2019 DIYing a beautiful home office that gave us a serene productive space to come into every day. It’s still not 100% finished so expect some cool DIY topics in 2021.
We can’t say we were productive or at our best every day, week or month of this crazy year but every little effort stacks up and we are proud that we managed to publish over 150 articles this year.
To celebrate our content, we’re taking a trip down memory lane to recap the best of what we shared in 2020.
Our Most Featured Topics
This year books, recipes and books about recipes reigned supreme, so we’ve dedicated a best of roundup for each.
For best books, click here
For best recipes, click here
For best cookbooks of 2020, click here
Fitness
January started with a 1.2km open water swim. After Zissy’s traumatic 3km open water the previous December, it was a big deal. At the time we didn’t realise this would be our first and last public sporting event of the year.
Right before lockdown started, we managed to sneak in a session with Cayla Urdang from Shenaaz Bhabha Biokinetics which resulted in our guide for and At-home Resistance Bands Workout that everyone should incorporate into their fitness routines.
Once lockdown was in full swing, we shared our lockdown exercise routine and sport scientist Adrian Le Roux shared his Trail Running strengthening exercises to do at home. Once hard lockdown lifted and training outdoors, but with a mask, was allowed, we put all the best sports face masks to the test.
It wasn’t only the humans that needed indoor training tips so we turned to dog trainer Karis Nafte who shared ticks to train your dog at home.
We also learned about body positivity from 6 women who shared their joy of pole dancing workouts and in the female training arena, we learned that training according to your menstrual cycle is a thing.
Health & Wellness
We started the year watching Gwyneth Paltrow’s The Goop Lab on Netflix and shared What we can learn about wellness from it. We came full circle in December when we discovered how ungoopy we were when we decided against reviewing Yoni eggs. We did however explore the concept of Seed Cycling with Rona Mirimi.
When Covid hit, we shared a roundup of news resources but within a month we well and truly over refreshing news sites on the hour for latest stats. Instead we decided to pause the Carona Coaster by learning Lockdown Lingo and brush up on everything hand sanitiser related. The stress and anxiety that accompanied the unknowns of the year, leant itself to our guide on natural products for anxiety and stress.
After reading the Collagen Diet, we finally tried out the Collagen cleanse which was intense. That combined with Zissy finally finishing How Not to Diet, we decided we will quite happily stick to our balanced eating approach.
Home & Lifestyle
January was about starting fresh so with the helping hand of Marie Kondo’s The Life Changing Manga of Tidying Up we learned how to tidy, and stay tidy. Later on in the year we applied her techniques to the work space by workshopping her newest book with Scott Sonenshein, Joy at work.
Once our space was tidy, Jen owner of Alex Lily (Alexa Lily is the best diary/planner we have ever used) shared with us how to get organised and make lists that work.
We also discovered some really cool local brands specialising in home and garden products at the Homemaker’s Expo – another first and last outing of 2020. And Shavon taught us how to become indoor pant ladies.
In classic Nutreats style we celebrated Mother’s Day by sharing some of our readers’ habits that they’ve picked up from theirs, and Father’s Day with practical skills learned from their dads.
For plastic free July we found Plastic free alternatives for the bathroom and also explained the difference between zero waste, recyclable, biodegradable, compostable and reusable.
In the kitchen
When she wasn’t whipping up recipes, Zissy shared how to cook dry beans perfectly (don’t knock it till you’ve tried it), introduced us to more salt and oil than we knew what to do with and shared her underrated favourite kitchen utensils. She also tried to tie dye using vegetable scraps, which we aren’t going to talk about.
What we will talk about is when she tested and reviewed Instant Pot’s latest offering, the Duo Plus which resulted in a delicious Sous Vide Trout. While our taste buds were primed we also tested and reviewed the best plant based burgers and obviously crowned a winner. And while we were testing and reviewing we also tried out every single eco-friendly kitchen cleaner spray, because who wants chemicals landing up in their food?
Beauty
This year’s beauty content revolved around adult acne, and this started long before mascne became a catch phrase and common ailment. Feige shared her struggles in February, tried out a host products including Bioderma’s Sebium Night Peel but really hit the jackpot when she discovered Skinoren, the best acne cream to ever exist. The other greatest beauty discovery we made was learning how to do Gua Sha, which is a routine we keep up with weekly.
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And that more or less sums up 2020 at Nutreats. Thank you for reading, subscribing and following along. If there’s anything you want more or less of next year, let us know in the comments below.
Wishing you all a safe and blessed festive season and here’s to a better 2021 for us all!
