Thinking Out Loud {#10}: Yoga Class Musings

It's been a long time since I've linked up with Amanda for a Thinking Out Loud post, and since they are some of my favourite types of posts to write and read, here you go! The random thoughts and going-ons in my life!

1. Working out hasn't been a priority in my day to day life ever since summer rolled in. I'm not sure if the hot weather is to blame for my lack of motivation or that my routine was thrown off by having lots of visitors these past two months, but whatever the reason, I haven't been going to the gym. I knew I needed to get myself back there so yesterday I committed to going once Jim got home from work. I decided to take a BodyFlow class at GoodLife Fitness and I was reminded of how much I love that class. You might not break out in a big sweat, but it still gets my heart pumping, and I'm always surprisingly somewhat sore the day after. It's really such a great class and I think I'm going to try and go 3 times a week for August. I'm not really feeling BodyPump right now, but that's ok, it will be there for me when I am.

2. Speaking of BodyFlow - for those that aren't familiar with it, it's a combination of tai chi, Pilates and yoga, and it's similar to other Les Mills classes in that a class is released every three months, using new music and new choreography. Anyway, the class ends like a traditional yoga class, with approximately 10 minutes dedicated to shavasana. I don't know about you, but this is my favourite moment of the class! Plus, I believe it to be beneficial to your practice. But you know what I notice every time I take this class? Almost everyone leaves before shavasana starts! (And some leave during it!). I don't get it! It's also kind of rude to the instructor and the other participants to leave nosily during what is supposed to be a relaxation period. Yesterday, the class started with 14 participants, and by the end of shavasana, there were only four of us left. FOUR!

3. Ok, one more thing I need to get off my chest about yoga classes. Why do people insist on wearing their socks during the class? And I'm not talking about proper yoga socks. I'm talking about people who don't take off their gym socks and then struggle to keep their feet in place during the poses. Again, I don't get it?

4. I think I committed the biggest sin at the gym yesterday and I'm kind of embarrassed about it. Since I was going just to do a yoga style class, I didn't wear socks and just slipped on my Toms for the drive to the gym. When I got there, I'm so accustomed to following rules and taking my shoes off, that I did so and I walked into the gym barefoot. (I'm cringing just writing this). Of course, as I was queued up outside the class waiting for it to start, I noticed my faux pas, as everyone was just walking  into the gym with their outdoor runners/flip flops on. I felt so foolish and embarrassed since I was literally the only person in barefeet. Also, gross, I know. I'm sorry, it will never happen again!

5. Keeping with the "theme" of this post (which wasn't planned, I just write what comes to me!), I have to share something adorable that Sully does. For a while there, I was practicing a lot of yoga at home up in my bedroom. Sully loved when we would do yoga together and now he always goes "Mama! Let's do yo-ya!", and then he gets down and does a plank, a v-sit, pike sit, straddle and tuck sit (left over knowledge from his gymnastics days!) It's the cutest thing ever and I need to capture it on video before he stops calling yoga "yo-ya".


Questions for you!

Yogis: Do you leave before or during shavasana in class? If so, why??

Do you go through phases of favouring one type of workout class to another, or do you always stick with what you know/like? 

*This post was written as part of the GoodLife Fitness Blogger Ambassador program, 

however all opinions expressed are my own.

An Extra Long Weekend with Gramma

This weekend was extra special because we got to spend it with my mom. She arrived late on Thursday night, and then left this morning, which is why I'm just getting around to writing this post now. We hadn't seen my mom since January, so her visit was LONG overdue. And as a nice surprise, she brought along my grandma for the visit! My grandma lives out on a farm north of Edmonton, so I don't get to see her very often at all. Sully was over the moon to have Gramma and GG here, and he never let my mom out of his site for very long!

Friday, Jim had to head off to work, so we hung out at home with my mom and grandma. The weather was beautiful and in the afternoon, my aunt and her husband joined us. We ordered Chinese food for supper, and Sully thoroughly enjoyed being surrounded by so much family. He even got to go on two walks with my aunt and her little dog, Oliver, who Sully calls "Aw-we", which I think were one of the big highlights of his day! Sadly, I have no photos from this day. I really need to step up my photo-taking game!

On Saturday, Jim and I took advantage of my mom being here and headed out when Sully went down for his nap so we could run a bunch of errands childfree. It's amazing how much you can get done when you don't have to lug a toddler in to each store with you! We arrived home around dinnertime and spent the rest of the evening hanging out with Sully and my mom.

Sunday at noon, we had a mini photoshoot booked, so we headed north to Confederation Park for that. It was so hot out that we didn't stick around to explore after our photos were done seeing as how I had failed to pack a hat or sunscreen for Sully. We passed Peters' Drive-In on the way home, so we stopped there for a late lunch. I honestly can't say if I've ever been there before or not! Their milkshake (we got chocolate) was amazing! And their onion rings were perfection too. Just the right amount of batter to onion ratio.

We headed home after that and I ended up having a nap while Sully napped. That evening, Jim took me out for dinner to The Italian Farmhouse in Bragg Creek. It was such a quaint little place and the food was amazing. The menu isn't overwhelmingly large, but it was still hard to decide what to order. I ended up going with the Braciola Di Maiale, and Jim got the Pollo.

{stuffed pork chop with apple & fig in an apple cider & sage sauce,
with beets, broccolini, pumpkin & garlic mashed potatoes}

{prosciutto & sage stuffed chicken breast, topped with a marsala demi-glaze, with the same sides as mine}

After dinner, we drove to two near by campsites just to check them out, and as we were about to leave the second one, I asked Jim to stop at the washroom for me. When I was walking back to the truck, Jim goes "we have a flat tire"! Not the words you ever want to hear at 930pm on a Sunday night, in the woods, where you have no cell service! Luckily, my husband is smart and handy and he had the tire changed in about 20 minutes, just as the sun was setting. Neither of us has ever had to change a flat tire before so it was actually kind of a good experience to go through. We were exhausted by the time we got home, but not tired enough to not watch one more episode of season 2 of Bloodline - we only have one episode left and I'm so sad!

Yesterday was a quiet and lazy day. My grandma has been at my aunt's since Saturday, so I just spent the day hanging out with my mom and Sully. I headed off around 630pm to my weekly Bachelorette girls night at Ange's place. And that pretty much brings us to today (Tuesday). My mom left before lunch today, and then because I was feeling sad, I hustled Sully out of the door and off to the library and then to the grocery store. It was so nice having my mom here even if the visit was much too short. I'm already looking forward to when she can come back!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! 

One Year Later

We've been in our house in Calgary for a year now. Well, 13 months to be exact. And while there was some back and forth going on between Edmonton and Calgary in the few months leading up to us moving into our house, I feel like the date we moved in marks our official day in Calgary. Or at least mine and Sully's.

{Our old house}

Anyway, in some ways I can't believe it's already been a year! I feel like so much has happened in the past year that it can't possibly have only been a year. It feels like we've been here for much longer, but  these past 13 months have also flown by. Whenever Jim and I make a big move, we always say, we'll give it a year. It takes a long time to settle in, get your bearings and figure out if this new place can feel like home. (The only exception to this "rule" is our move to Montreal. We knew within a few months that it was not the place for us!).

Before we made the big move to Calgary, we talked about it incessantly. Was it the right move for us? Was the timing wrong? Would I regret giving up my friends, my job, and the proximity to my family? Since Edmonton is my hometown, I was giving up the most by moving. But when this opportunity to move came up, I knew it was meant to be. Something about it just felt right and I knew it was going to work out. And since I was the one staying home to raise our son, who was I to tell my husband he couldn't follow his career ambitions? We also knew a move was most likely inevitable in our future, and I wanted to do it before our kid(s) were older.

Throughout this past year, Jim frequently "checks in" with me, asking me to tell him how I honestly feel about the move. Am I happy? (Yes), do I like our neighbourhood? (I do), do I miss Edmonton (not really), what do I miss about it? (see below), and would I ever want to move back? (probably not).

The truth is, I don't miss Edmonton. At least, not the city. Of course I miss my friends and family. And sometimes I miss the ease of a city where everything is in place for you (your hairdresser, your doctor, your gym, your chiropractor, your dentist, etc.). Having to re-find those things in a new city is always the most challenging and stressful for me. But you do what you gotta do! I do know that despite these inconveniences of moving to a new city, moving BACK to a city you once lived in (or grew up in in my case) is never the same as the first time you lived there. And we've already moved back to Edmonton once before. I really can't see us doing it again.

I think the best thing that happened to me with this move though, is the community I have found. I'm not sure what the difference is, but when I moved to Calgary, I discovered a huge online presence from Calgary bloggers and if there's one thing that I love about blogging, it's the friendships I've made because of it. When I knew we were moving for sure, I started to reach out to Calgary bloggers more in hopes of developing some sort of friendship. It all started with running in the Calgary Marathon and just kind of snowballed from there. What I didn't expect though was the actual real-life friendships I have made. Some of my closest friends right now, I met through blogging (which can be really weird to explain to non-bloggers, but it's true). I have made friends here with women whom I get together with to do all sorts of things, like have playdates with our young children, run in races, and go to movies, take fitness classes together, celebrate birthdays, and watch The Bachelorette on Monday nights. Our blogs may have brought us together initially, and I'm thankful for that everyday, but these are women I would genuinely want to hang out with even if we didn't blog anymore.

{Calgary Marathon 10K 2015}

Other than that, I truly believe that life is what you make of it. At the end of the day, I really only need Jim and Sully to be happy. But how I choose to spend my days, and how we choose to make the most of our new life here, that's up to us. Sure, I could sit at home and feel sad that we moved and that I miss "x y z" about Edmonton, but what would that accomplish? A cranky wife, a bored toddler, and a husband full of guilt for moving his family, that's what.

Instead, I choose to be happy.

I choose to enjoy what this move has brought us. A bigger home, the ability to stay home with my son, new friends, new places to explore (places we would never visit being 3 hours further away in Edmonton), the mountains, a better commute for Jim, and getting to spend more time with my Aunt and her husband.

I choose to be thankful. That my husband has a job, for our home, for the health of our family, and for the friends I have made.

I choose, most importantly, to make the best of a situation. Life isn't always easy no matter where you live. There are going to be hard days, tiring days, long days, days I wish I lived next door to a family member, days I feel lonely and days I wish I could crawl back into bed and hide. That's just life. So I push through those harder days and embrace the good days.

Life is what you make of it. Calgary has been really good to us, there's no denying that, and while I never, ever thought this was a city I would one day live in, I'm happy that we are here.

{hiking in Bragg Creek}

Do you think you can be happy anywhere?

What defines happiness for you?