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November Fitness Challenge?

As I write this, it’s December 2nd. Where did November go?? For some reason, time just feels like it’s flying by! Although November came and went, there was a challenge in there. The November Three-way Challenge of Awesomeness. To recall, friends Dan, Beth and I, after realizing that we were quite lazy throughout the month of October, decided we would do some kind of activity every day in November. We would be accountable to our goals by tracking the activities on a shared spreadsheet. We enjoy challenges, yes, but the main purpose of this undertaking was to motivate each other to schedule fitness activities into our day-to-day lives, especially when things get quite busy or that lazy feeling sets in. In the end, we all increased the amount of time doing something each day in November (on average) compared to October, whether that was running, biking, cardio, stretching, etc. In that regard, the challenge was a complete success and we all won. Yay!

For me, life these days is certainly not like the life I lived 2 years ago when I was able to do a 90 day P90X plan without missing a day or workout. Now, it’s a challenge to incorporate something every day, although as I write that, I hear myself screaming “Excuses!” The November Three-way Challenge of Awesomeness went well in that I managed to do something every day. Sometimes it was 90 minutes of Bikram yoga. Occasionally, there were wintery activities, such as skiing or snowboarding. And when time was seemingly nowhere to be found, I would target my abdominal muscles for 10 to 20 minutes. Of course, sometimes I was enthusiastic for the workouts; other times, I worked out begrudgingly. For posterity, here are my activities for the month:

Since I like metrics, that works out to be 1,351 minutes of activity over a 30 day period, or 45.03 minutes/day on average. I’m quite happy with those numbers. I did a bit of googling and came across the Public Health Agency of Canada’s site on physical activity. We all know that living a healthy lifestyle that incorporates physical activity can: prevent chronic diseases, like heart disease and diabetes; make us stronger; decrease stress; combat obesity; improve mental health and morale; and give us more energy. According to the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP), an adult between the ages of 18 and 64 should accumulate at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity to vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity per week. That physical activity should include some strength resistance activities at least 2 days a week. I like the slogan that the CSEP uses in their guideline pdfs: “Pick a time. Pick a place. Make a plan and move more!”

Even though I’m quite pleased about surpassing 150 minutes per week, and integrating strength training and cardio throughout the month of November, I have learned and realized a few things:

I want to step it up. Big time.
To do so, I need to eat better and start trying to get more sleep. (I make no promises on the sleep part!)
In order to complete everything I want to complete, I need to work on a schedule. This is super important in order to fit in the workouts.

My plan, once again, is to start a round of P90X in the new year. Hopefully I’m not plagued with the same injuries as this year, but since I’m still recovering, anything is possible. But I’m not going to get too tied up with this. As long as I continue living a healthy lifestyle, watching what I eat, and exercising safely, I will be very content :). With that said, I have taken a few days off to relax. Apparently relaxing once in a while is also important for a healthy lifestyle….

Devonian Gardens. Four Years Later.

When I was preparing for the big move to Calgary, I remember wondering: What kind of attractions are in Calgary anyway? I remember reading about Devonian Gardens in the downtown mall, and I was looking forward to seeing it! After settling in to my apartment downtown, it was a surprise to learn that the gardens had closed in 2008 and were undergoing quite an overhaul.

An overhaul that would take 4 years!

Devonian Gardens reopened this past June, and it apparently took $37 million dollars. 4 years, and $37 million. And there are 550 trees of 18 different species. All in The Core shopping area downtown. Wow.

I finally had a chance to eat lunch in the gardens today, and they truly form quite an oasis. I would love to work downtown with easy access to that area, especially during the winter months where one can feel the warmth and humidity among all the greenery. So pretty!

A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss

“Congrats Son!!! They say a rolling stone gathers no moss.” That’s what my dad wrote me when I sent the family news about a change that’s happening…

Today is my last day with the Alberta Kidney Disease Network (AKDN) at the University of Calgary. Although I am excited for the opportunity to come, I am sad to be leaving such an amazing group of academics, researchers, colleagues and friends. I have spent the last several weeks wrapping up studies, transitioning tasks, and documenting several details that my brain has accumulated over the last few years. Over time, my workspace had become a reflection of me, so it was interesting and a bit disconcerting to clean it and remove all of my personal belongings. It has also been strange to hear that my computer and accounts will be deprovisioned and my access will cease at the end of today. It all just seems so formal and official. Well, I guess it is pretty official… today IS my last day :S.

It’s crazy to think that 3 years and 8 months ago, I boarded a plane, suitcases in hand, to start a job in Calgary. I remember telling people that I was moving, and they proclaimed, “You’re finally going somewhere hot!” Well, not really. In fact, Calgary was never on my radar until I stumbled upon a posting for an analyst position with the nephrology group at the UofC. After a quick phone interview and some reference checks, I was offered a position. At that time, I was also offered a comparable position in Toronto, but given that I have an odd yearning for adventure, Calgary seemed like the better choice, for me. I told myself that I’d give it 6 months to a year. Little did I know that the decision to uproot myself and head to Calgary would be one of the best ones I’ve made. At this rate, it could be a while before I return to the GTA. Crazy!

As for where I’m going…

During the summer, I came across an opportunity for a Senior Analyst position in Chronic Disease Management Provider Education within Alberta Health Services (AHS, the health authority for Alberta). I can’t quite remember how I found the posting, or why I was looking in the first place, but after reading the description, something told me that I should send in my CV. So I did. Months passed by and I kind of forgot about it…

One morning in mid-October, as I was brushing my teeth and getting ready for work, my phone rang. It was someone from AHS wanting to arrange an interview a few days later. It was a funny conversation exchange, since I was literally in the middle of brushing my teeth, so after the initial introduction, my muffled response was “I’m brushing my teeth. Can you hold on a second?” What followed was an interesting few weeks, with an interview at the AHS Southport office, some further discussions, and eventually an offer of employment. I weighed the pros and cons heavily, but in the end, the opportunity was too good to pass up. And now I start next Monday. Yikes!

I truly believe that my experience with the AKDN has been amazing, and I could never thank my bosses enough for taking a chance on me. It’s quite the risk to hire someone over the phone! I have watched the research group grow from fairly humble beginnings to the research powerhouse it is now, with many analysts, trainees, knowledge translation personnel, principal investigators, and staff. I have met some of the most genuine people who I can truly call my friends, and although I know I will continue to see them, it won’t be the same without the random chats in the hallways, the intellectual stimulation of a multi-faceted team, the collaboration within the group, and the walks to the cafeteria for lunch. I’ll miss YouTube video breakdowns, the judging of workplace attire, and the general jokes, ridiculousness and hilarity. Working with the AKDN has also provided amazing opportunities to take courses at the University of Michigan, attend the SAS Global Forum in Las Vegas, return to Guelph for the SSC, and travel to Vancouver, Montreal and Halifax. These trips have helped me grow professionally, but have also affected my life in very significant ways :). Lastly, I couldn’t have asked for a better boss and mentor, Brenda. She has been such an incredible role model in many ways, and has supported me in my professional growth at every step, including this change. Even though she did not want to see me go, she is happy knowing that I will continue to grow in my career and be challenged. I have ambitious goals of working my way up to the management level, and I know that if I can emulate Brenda, even a little, I will do okay.

Thank you to everyone who helped make the last few years so special.

There was a day last week, as I was driving to work, when I couldn’t help but notice how pretty everything looked. Snow had fallen the night before and so the trees had a generous dusting of snow. I love that look. And then I began to feel kind of sad and anxious because I realized that I would not be making that drive much longer. But sometimes change is a good thing, and I am quite optimistic that this new venture will be an amazing one. It’s similar to the feeling I had when I decided to move across the country for the unknown and trust that it would all work out in the end. And so, I’m nervous about the upcoming transition, but I’m excited nonetheless. A rolling stone gathers no moss :). I’ve always liked that saying. Moss is kind of icky anyway.

Kicking Off Ski Season

I’ve been here almost 4 years. In that time, I’ve managed to endure 8 month winters without immersing myself into winter activities. Well, that’s slowly starting to change. It may not be the end of November as yet, but here in Calgary and the surrounding areas, we’ve had lots of snow. And so far this year, I’ve managed to go snowshoeing, snowboarding, and this past Sunday, downhill skiing at Sunshine Village.

Similar to last year’s experience, Sunshine was quite sunny and the snow was fluffy. This made for an awesome skiing experience. Being a beginner, I did fall once, but overall I think I did pretty well. And the views while riding the gondolas and chair lifts are pretty spectacular, especially when the sun rays are beaming down on the snow and everything glistens. Overall, an incredible day with about eleven runs followed by the ski-out. I can’t wait to go again :).

Snowboarding Attempt #2

About 4 years ago, before I moved to Calgary, I tried snowboarding at Glen Eden in Milton, Ontario. My brother was teaching my mum and I, and though we fell a few times, it was lots of fun. Since then, I’ve been wanting to attempt it again, and though I had ambitious plans to do so once I moved to Calgary, it never happened. Fast forward to yesterday. I can finally say that I’ve tried snowboarding… twice.

My friend Divya from work is learning to snowboard and asked if I wanted to join for a lesson at Nakiska. I figured it was good motivation to get out to the slopes! And by slopes, I mean bunny hill, since falling was pretty much expected. Robbie was interested in trying it out as well since he had never been on a snowboard before, so we woke up early Sunday morning and headed to Kananaskis. The weather wasn’t too bad- a bit windy at times, but pretty decent conditions for learning!

We met Divya for the lesson, and before we knew it, we were strapping the bindings, learning about heel and toe edges, and attempting to change directions while descending the slopes. Our instructor, whose name I think was Leo, was awesome and very encouraging! We felt great about our progress!

But once the lesson was up and we were left to practice the skills we learned, it was downhill from there… both literally, and figuratively. Robbie and I had some good runs, but equally, some great and painful falls. And boy was it ever exhausting!! All in all, though, it was a fantastic day, and so much fun. I guess more progress was made than not, since practice makes perfect. My goal is to actually snowboard a few times this winter… as well as ski once or twice. With winter being 8 months long, it’s time to start taking advantage of this whole snow business!