Happy New Year (11 days late)

Hello!

Happy New Year! Our holiday was absolutely perfect. I really could not have asked for a better time with my friends and family. December was a stressful month for me at work because I was trying to get as much as I possibly could done before the break. I did accomplish a lot and on my last day of work I had finished most things on my to-do list which was a really nice way to start my holiday. On the last night of work we had our staff holiday party. We decided to do an organized fancy pot luck and it worked out really well. The food was amazingggg and just like the entire holiday season I ate too much food! It was all SO good though and really hard to pick just one thing - even though my intentions were good ;). The next day I started off my break with a 90 minute relaxation message and it was amazing it was so nice and relaxing and the perfect way to start a two week break (after a night of laughter and great food of course). So after that I had two weeks of holidays and my main goal for the holiday was to relax. I had not taken a break really (other than a few days here and there) since I had returned to work from mat leave in March. And let me tell you, being full time mom, full time work, doing the house stuff, running errands, getting in my workouts etc. is exhausting (even though I have a supper hubby who helps me SO much). So I spent a lot of the holidays just relaxing. The first few days I still sent Rylee to daycare full time so I could finish up Christmas stuff, get my gym time in, run some errands, and just plain relax. I am guilty of sleeping in a bit a few days (usually until 8) and taking some mid afternoon naps a few times. It was wonderful.

Sean’s work schedule was really nice too – because of the way that the holidays were it allowed us to spend a lot of family time and since Rylee was home with us all day I got to see her a lot too. It was just all around perfect. Christmas eve we had a nice dinner at home and then went to our church service. Christmas day we had time with just Sean, Rylee, and I, and then my family came over for the afternoon to open gifts and have a traditional big turkey dinner. On Boxing Day we went to see Sean’s grandmother in the morning and then we went to Kitchener to spend the day with Sean’s family. We had a really lovely time. The rest of the holidays were filled with more relaxing and doing a few things here and there but I definitely went back to work feeling very refreshed which was my main goal of the holiday so it was a complete success.

In the New Year I switched up my work out to be more challenging. I am also recording my session on paper now so that I can go back and see what progress I have made and try to do something better (more reps, more sets, higher weights etc.) over the course of the program. So far it has been really good and I am quite enjoying it! Some of the activities are quite hard which is a nice challenge and some of them are easier to create a nice balance. I have also returned to taking the stairs up at work. I aim to do it at least twice a day and they are 8 flights each time. Sometimes I get a few more sets it, depends on the day and how busy/tired I am.

Our next exciting thing is in less than a month now – we are going to Florida and the Bahamas! I am really looking forward to getting away in the middle of a cold month to somewhere that is much warmer than where I live! Rylee and I are gone for a total of two weeks. We are doing a week and a half in Florida and then ½ a week in Bahamas. Sean will be there for our first week in Florida. I am really looking forward to spending time with family, swimming, relaxing, and of course shopping!

2014 Goals

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2014 is here! I won't lie and say I saw it come in because I was in bed at 9:45 (I tried to last later honestly I did) and slept right through the entry of it - but that doesn't mean I will sleep through the rest of the year!

I know that making resolutions are very cliche and I really am not one to make resolutions but I am VERY pro goals. I love making new goals, reaching them, changing them as I go along and everything in between. I also love fresh starts, and there are two times a year that tend to be "fresh starts", September and New Years.

It is also the beginning of the first quarter of the year and I am a numbers person and like things to be even so the first of each quarter is also a good time to look at things and set some goals as well as monthly goals.

I do have a few goals that I will share with you:

1. Sean and I will be consumer debt free by the end of this year, possibly sooner, but our goal date is December 31, 2014. 

2. Get back to my goal weight.

3. Rank advance with my company.

I also have two more goals that are private and I don't care to share them on here (as much as I love you all)! 

Goals are great and all but if you don't break them down into a plan and small steps you will NEVER reach them. I have broken down each of my goals and made a list of what I need to do to reach them. I will continue to assess these goals on a monthly basis and change the plan as need be. I think the first of the month is a good time to do so. I have put this in my calendar so that I will remember to reassess them.

I also plan on watching this video often as it is a great reminder to reach for something greater: Motivation Video. 

I have also decided that I need to give up pop, for a few reasons. 

1. I don't want Rylee drinking it and don't feel that it is fair to drink it in front of her when she isn't allowed to have it.

2. There is nothing and I mean NOTHING good for you in pop - both regular and diet pop are FULL of chemicals and sugar and garbage your body does not need. 

I don't drink pop often, mostly when we go to a restaurant, but I was planning on giving it up anyways so I figured I might as well pick today to be day 1. When I am craving something with carbonation I will drink our energe drink which tastes similar to pop but is GOOD FOR ME.

I hope you make some goals to better your life in any way and more importantly make a step by step plan exactly how you will reach them.

Happy New Year again everyone. 

Foam roller

Another Christmas has come and gone. Rylee's first Christmas too! We had a good day with family and enjoyed a good Christmas dinner...maybe enjoyed it a bit too much ;). Today is just a lazy day here for us, lots of pajamas, blankets, books, fire place, and relaxing! We did go out this morning to use a gift card we had gotten on a new blue ray player. We just needed a basic model so we didn't have to keep switching ours back and forth from the TV's. First world problems I know!

So it is almost 2014 - and although I am not really one for New Years resolutions I am actually going to make one this year (shhhh it was something I was going to do anyways, but might as well time it with new years to give myself a start date). But you will have to read later on this week to find out what my new years resolution actually is.

I have some lofty health and fitness goals and will be attacking them full force, no excuses. I have done it before and I KNOW I can get back there again. I am very close to my pre-pregnancy weight and then I will be losing what I had gained before getting pregnant. 

I have specific weight loss goals that I want to accomplish but I can't figure out a fitness goal. I think it would be helpful to work on them together since they go hand in hand but for the life of me I can't come up with something. I see my personal trainer three times a week but I know that I want something more -- I just don't know what.

We also have some financial goals we want to meet. We have made a debt repayment plan to be 100% consumer debt free by Dec 31, 2014. After that we will have a bit of business debt still to pay off but it will feel so good to get our consumer debt gone!

Today I made the next two weeks of meal plans and tonight I will go get the groceries after dinner. I am looking forward to stepping up the workouts, focus more on clean eating as well as point friendly foods and just continue on my weight loss journey. I do know that this is a process that I will take step by step - one day at a time! I also know that it is a journey that I will be on forever, and I am totally okay with that. On a side note: I am allergic to bananas and I am really sad that I have had to give them up. I really miss adding them to things like cereal, oatmeal, yogurt ect.

One of the gifts that I got is a foam roller, which will really come in handy over the next year as I get deeper into my workouts. What the heck is a foam roller you ask?! Well it is exactly how it sounds, a large roll of dense foam. It is for stretching out and massaging your muscles. It really hurts at first, especially if you are really sore but it feels SO good afterwards. One day my trainer made me do this crazy calf exercise and legit I had charlie horses in my calves for two days. It was beyond painful = not cool. We did some sessions on the foam roller and although it was painful at the time, I could literally feel the muscles relaxing. The pain relief was instant - I knew I had to get one for home! Since then I have used it on my legs a number of times and it feels so great. I am super happy my awesome hubby got me one for Christmas.

Rylee will be 10 months old on Saturday which means I only have two months left of my mat leave as I mentioned the other day. I totally plan on making the most of it!