Rest

photo from Jen G. on her recent excursion to Hawaii

Last week, Neil, my handsome husband and I had a "date day."

I called him at work a few weeks back and asked him to plan to take a day off, for a surprise.

Our young son was quite delighted and seemed to love the sound of the word, "date day," roll off his tongue.

"Date Day" finally arrived and I unveiled the surprise.

Scandinave Spa at Blue Mountain.

Relaxing.

Rejuvenating.

Refreshing.

                                                            Restful.

Photo Credit

It was so restful to be in a quiet atmosphere and enjoy a massage, a leisurely hot soak, an uber quick cold soak and then a rest in a warm room with a view. 

That was the pattern. Hot, cold, warm, repeat. 

There was a sauna, but I was less able to relax, because it was reminiscent of Hot Yoga and any minute I felt like someone was going to guide me into weird and wonderful stretching and poses.

My favourite was the eucalyptus scented steam room. On the door, it said, "Absolute Silence." 

It was great for a talkative person like myself to be blissfully quiet.  While I am an extrovert, I do love my quiet hours.

Our spa dinner was delicious and nourishing. 

We spoke in hushed tones throughout the day and I wondered aloud if Neil loved the quiet day, with a quiet wife. 

Because he loves the whole me, he answered that he loves to listen to me.

Being at rest with the one I love, being at rest with the one who loves me...

Grateful.

photo credit

How do you make time for rest? What's restful for you?

thanks for reading,

kelly

Change

photo credit

Because I want to see fitness be an integral part of my life, I am reading interesting books, watching sport related movies, going to the gym with specific goals and listening to people who have fitness embedded in their lives.

This week I had the privilege of interviewing personal trainer Jasmine from my gym. She had this to say,

...my life is fitness, I love what I do...

Jasmine is constantly striving to take her personal fitness to new levels. She is a young college graduate and a certified member of Canadian Society of Exercise Physiology. She has earned her Pilates certification and this training underpins much of what she does with clients in personal training or group fitness classes. 

Over the past month, she has participated in a 30 day Hot Yoga Challenge. In addition to training once a week together, we have run into each other at the yoga studio, where I continue to challenge myself as part of my commitment to the Rogerstv show, the Yoga Monologues (working title.)

Learning from someone who is a lifelong learner has always been a joy of mine. Whether it was learning how to clean the house from my Mom, guitar in Grade 6 from a Rock and Roller dude, Counselling Courses from a professor helping clients in private practice, Home Schooling advice from a mentor, or resistance training from Jasmine; I have loved learning from someone who is still learning; still in process.

Learning from someone, steeped in their field of knowledge and still growing, is wonderful. All these people, while authorities in their field, seem to have a posture that leans towards humility, without even trying. It's easy for me to learn from that kind of expert.

While Jasmine and I appear very different and we are (she: early 20's, me: mid 40's, she: tall, slim, brunette, me: average height, curvy, blonde, she: very fit, me: getting fitter)... we share some commonalities...

• Need for Genuine love
• Dreams for the Future
• Motivation to care for self and stay strong

Today is a Rest Day. A day to contemplate change, needs and goals, and write about them; a day to bake Zucchini Loaf for my family, and a day to allow my sore legs from Bootcamp (3 exercises with 30 reps of squats X 3 rounds) to recuperate.

I know this: Learning to truly care for myself and learning to be fit is a journey worth taking.

What are your fitness goals? Is there anything you are trying to change in your life? 

Until next time,

kelly

Quitting

Spin Bikes

I felt like quitting the Tri Club this morning before I even entered the change room.

Yep, quitting.

Living athletically must be like this. This has got to be normal from time to time.

Next week, I hope to find out. The plan is to  interview Jay, a member of the leisure centre who can jump from the floor to a platform that appears to be at least three feet in height. To me, that's impressive.

So impressive, that I approached Jay (a complete stranger) and told him I was writing a blog to discover how to live like an athlete. (For those who are getting to know me, I approached him with my man and asked if he was married and if his wife would mind us meeting to discuss fitness.) I am all about maintaining and building happy, strong marriages. I digress. He happily agreed to an interview, we exchanged contact information and I am looking forward to hearing his story.

You know what's funny to me? I even struggle to correctly spell the word "athlete" and "athletically", thank goodness for spell check! That's how far this concept is from most of my adult life.  In case any of you were wondering, I do not have a life long history of participation in athletics.

My Year of Living Athletically is challenging physically and emotionally.

Working out most days is the plan and I have injured myself a couple times by going to a class or lifting weights, when I should have incorporated a rest day. Rest day = self care = less injury. I am learning.

In other news, I had my first adventure in hot yoga this past week. For those of you who are new to yoga words..."Hot" yoga is not "sexy" yoga; it's heat panels in the ceiling, making the room extra warm.

I had an authentic person jokingly, yet seriously ask, "are you trying to spice up your love life? what's with the hot yoga?" Good question! If this person is wondering, the law of questions would dictate that there are others wondering as well. Mystery solved.

My second taping at RogersTV Studio, Newmarket for the Yoga Monologues, the stories of 3 ordinary people who have never practised yoga before." (working title) went well. I felt less nervous, although somewhat quiet. Turns out I have pretty good, "downward dog" pose and I was not self conscious at the yoga studio. I was able to follow the verbal cues and was more interested in following the instructor than anything else. 75 minutes flew by and my eyes were shiny and my skin looked great. I felt very relaxed the balance of that day.

Spin class was a struggle, lots of hills, my calves got a work out.

Grateful. I have all this energy; left over or freshly created? Not sure, an athlete would know. :)

So, for today, I am not quitting. I am going outside in 40cm of snow to soak up the sun with my wool hat, mittens, snow pants and favourite big and little men.

Tri Club Cycle Class

This morning at 5:30 am, I hit the snooze button to grab a few more minutes of cosy sleep.  

The thing is ...something is changing inside of me.

I wanted to get up and "go spinning," not out of duty, or responsibility or even because I know that it is healthy, but because it brings me pleasure, even though it's a bit of work.

After a quick change into pre laid out work out clothes, I headed downstairs for my favourite meal of the day.  It tastes great, nourishes me and gives me staying power for the work-out and beyond. I have plain yogurt, a scoop of fresh fruit, ground flax seeds and 1/4 cup of Jordan's brand granola followed by a big glass of water.

I felt so great during and after class today. I have been at this exercise thing pretty consistently since the fall and I am learning greater self care and patience with myself and that some days are better than others.

And isn't life like that? Some days are Better than others. And the converse is also true, some days are terrible, but that's another post for another day. 

I know this, I was hydrated, rested and at peace with those I am relationship with, yet something internal is also happening.

While I struggle with precise understanding of all that is changing inside of me, I am simply grateful that I responded to the desire to leave my cosy bed and have one of those Better days.