Newfoundland: Goodbye until Christmas

It feels, and it has been ages since I blogged last.

I took a much needed break from my website, when I went on vacation back home to Newfoundland. Hope you didn’t miss me too much ;)

I’ve been back on Ontario soil for almost 12 hours. I went to bed last night and woke up at 4am for the 6am flight. Then worked the entire day. Call me a trooper.

I already miss my family, and friends. I didn’t get to hang out with my friends as much as I had hoped. The week just flew by.

I’ll leave you with a few snaps of while I was down home, to tie you me over until my next blog entry ;)

My best friend, Trevor and my Sister-In-Law and I playing around at Sport Chek.

Super fun hand chairs at the Village Mall.

My amazing Daddio and I, out to lunch at Montana’s Cookhouse :)

Alfie and I on a trail walk

Saying good bye to my nephews yesterday. :(

Just look at those faces looking up at me! So hard to say so-long til Christmas.

Until tomorrow… I’ll bombard you with a ton of photos this week. So mark your RSS feed’s as read, if you’re uninterested, haha!

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This is My Better: My fitness journey

I guess it’s about time I explain why I’m posting all sorts of photos of me hoisting up goodies that Sport Chek sent me, all while using the hash tag #MyBetter on twitter.

I am now part of the Sport Chek campaign called #MyBetterMVP / #MyBetter. They have contacted some Canadians and sent along an inspiration kit to help us reach our personal bests. My inspiration kit has already been featured on my instagram and twitter (@spiffykerms for both).

Sport Chek has reached out to a lot of athletes in all sorts of areas of fitness. Everyone has all sorts of goals when it comes to being healthy and fit. I’m here to help people stay inspired and motivated.

These are “my” sports: climbing, soccer, running, CrossFit, and hiking.

I’m not training for anything in particular. I am however, training to be the best person I can be. I want to stay healthy, fit, and happy. I’ve tweeted numerous times that I’ve been in cranky moods, feeling lazy or just have a headache. I head to CrossFit and after a long hard workout, I’m feeling on cloud 9 again. You never hear someone say they regret a workout, do you?

What inspired me to begin my fitness journey?

I don’t think it ever really started anywhere. I’ve always been quite active in my life, ever since I was a kid. I was involved with soccer, dance classes, my Dad teaching me baseball in the back yard. Being the only neighborhood girl, as I had all boy neighbours to play with thus me being quite a tomboy as a kid – I had to keep up with them. It wasn’t out of the ordinary that you’d see me hanging upside down from tree branches!

 Or even now, years later — just doing handstands at home.

It wasn’t until I was in my teenage years when the local climbing gym opened up, that’s when a passion started burning in me and that was when I was full-tilt doing my “hobby” which also worked out as exercising. Bonus! It was my hangout place, and I’ve met most of my long-time best friends at that climbing gym, who now read my blog on the regular since I live a 3 hour flight away.

Some amazing friendships have come out of climbing. Hi friends, you know who you are!!

Johanna and I. May 2012 at the climbing gym back home in Newfoundland.

Lori (my first climbing partner ever, circa 1995!!), me and Kerry. We always meet up for a climb when I fly home.

My bestest friend in the whole world, Trevor. Anytime I fly home, I immediately go to his house and hang out with him. He’s the funniest person on the planet. He’ll probably read this and be embarrassed (I hope not! Sorry! lol) that I’m posting a shirtless photo of him here on my blog. Here we are circa 2005-ish. Taking a break from bouldering.

I took a break from climbing for about 5 years after moving to Ontario (I’m from Newfoundland), because there wasn’t a climbing gym around me. That all changed, during summer 2011 when four local guys opened up a climbing gym here in my city.

From there I kept up soccer throughout high school, and still play now. Occasionally I throw in a random sport whenever I feel myself getting bored of my routine. I started CrossFit on a whim, because in the winter’s is when I usually slow things down a bit. My “running buddy” introduced me to CrossFit back in February 2011, and I’ve been hooked since.

I feel like if I don’t work out on a regular basis, I get in a bad mood. That doesn’t mean I work out every day though, because that too puts me in a bad mood (ha!) since I feel like I’m rushed in the evenings and feel as if I don’t have time for anything else.

I’ve recently gotten into Yoga as well. I had a two week trial membership at the local YMCA. But didn’t want to go buy a $60 month membership when I’m currently spending almost double that to attend CrossFit monthly. My local CrossFit box is now incorporating Yoga, starting in October. You betcha bottom dollar I’m excited for that to start.

I absolutely LOVE my job – it doesn’t feel like work at all. I’m a Graphic Designer/Marketing Assistant, and sit all day at my desk from Mon-Fri: 9-5, so I need some physical activity. I have tried to work out in the mornings but I’m really not a morning person, and I’m quite lethargic if I try to do so. I save my workouts for immediately after work, and then come home to make dinner, do some chores and hang out with my little family of my Triathlete boyfriend and our Pomeranian dog.

So. That my friends is #MyBetter, my fitness journey. This is just the beginning, for both you and me. Sport Chek is allowing me to host giveaways to help you reach your goals too.

A few questions:

What do you do, to stay active and lead healthy lives?

How do you stay motivated?

What do you do, to get out of a bad/cranky mood? Do you workout?

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CrossFit: Beauty in Strength

I’ve been involved with Crossfit for almost two years. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long. Those weeks, turned into years now— have just flown by. Why get involved? You’re going to get proud of what you can do. What your body can accomplish.

What the hell? Who knew I could flip a freaking tractor tire! I swear, it’s all mental. It wasn’t even that difficult. It was just getting the proper form, and getting over that mental barrier that it’s a tractor. I couldn’t do it during the warm up, but when it was time to compete I flipped it no problem.

I’m enjoying running again. Before our warmups at CrossFit we almost always have to do a 1k run. It makes for easier runs with my co-worker, L. We’ve ran a lot this summer!

Like I said before, why I chose CrossFit over an ordinary gym. CrossFit changes daily. You’re always working different muscle groups, there’s no time to plateau. Plus, I love going there because I feel like the people who go to CrossFit makes for a warm and friendly environment. People are always welcoming and smiling there (pre-workout, haha).

Yes, it takes a lot of hard work. CrossFit is difficult, but it’s fun and absolutely worth.

See my older posts about CrossFit:

I have one more video to share. It’s my fellow #FitFluential Ambassador friend Scott Thompson from Your Inner Skinny. He’s also from the East Coast of Canada, living away from home. He shared this video with us all the other week. Great motivation, I got goosebumps watching it:

 What are you doing to better yourself? This is #MyBetter.

This is a box of goodies that Sport Chek sent over to me, ever so generously. I opened it last Wednesday evening after my 10pm soccer game. That’s way past my bedtime, by the way! lol

It involves a bunch of goodies that I can incorporate into my favorite sports: climbing, CrossFit, soccer, and running. I’m excited to talk more in depth about the new items I received. Mostly about the Zoots. They’re triathlon sneakers that are to be worn without socks. When I opened the box, my Boyfriend (a 4th time Ironman Canada finisher) kind of chuckled at the fact I even asked for Zoots, seeing how I have absolute zero interest in ever finishing a Triathlon.

To be honest, I had two options picked out when I was speaking with the folks at Sport Chek. Another pair of Nike Free Run’s, or try something completely different: Zoots. My boyfriend owns a few pairs already so I know that they’re a great shoe, by the way he speaks about them, and wears them to his races. I can’t wait to elaborate more on them.

Uh oh – gotta go, see you soon where the flowers bloom ;)

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