Ali Amad

Jan 6, 2025 | macleans.ca | Ali Amad

Last January, midway through my third year as a psychology student at Mount Royal University in Calgary, I needed a new place to live. At the time, I was going through a separation and paying $800 a month for a campus dorm room. The situation wasn’t ideal: I was 45, more than twice the age of most of my neighbours, and the noise through the thin walls was a near-constant distraction. But when I looked at rental options near campus, they were easily more than double what I was paying.

Dec 11, 2024 | torontolife.com | Ali Amad

I love cooking, so when my family surprised me last December with an “Into the Kitchen” experience for my 30th birthday, I was ecstatic. The company gives amateur chefs like me the chance to cook in a professional kitchen alongside renowned local chefs, including Mamakas Taverna’s Rafael Freitas da Rocha and the Chase’s Cory Vitiello.

Dec 11, 2024 | torontolife.com | Ali Amad

I grew up underwater. My dad owned a dive shop, so I had my own tiny oxygen tank at the age of four and was diving in the Caribbean by the time I was 10. I took over the business in 2012, and when I’m not manning the shop, I’m probably exploring Second World War–era shipwrecks in the Pacific, or maybe I’m 400 feet down in a tea-coloured lake in Bon Echo Provincial Park. Of all my favourite dive sites, however, Tobermory, a harbour town on the Bruce Peninsula, is the one place that draws me back.

Dec 11, 2024 | torontolife.com | Ali Amad

Besides Pizza, Beast Pizza is known for their whole-animal dinners, which transform entire lambs, ducks, elk and other creatures into six-course experiences for $175 per person. Read more: The ultimate try-anything-once bucket list for 2025This past November, my wife and I decided such a dinner was the perfect way to celebrate our one-year wedding anniversary, and we settled on lamb. You also get to choose how adventurous you want the menu to be.

Dec 11, 2024 | torontolife.com | Ali Amad

Because of my work, I spend a lot of time online, checking notifications, monitoring client accounts and drafting content. When I started my social media consulting business in 2020, the demand was intense. I worked 60 hours a week, bouncing between clients across several social media platforms. Managing all those accounts was exhausting. I’d start and end my days the same way: lying in bed, glued to my phone, scrolling.