I got to go to family swim this week! Once with Daddy. And once with Mummy!

He said

For me (and well Danielle too for that matter) this week was focused completely on working out and eating better. Like last year, February is the start of a Wellness Challenge at work that combines both exercise and making better dietary decisions and tracking all of that in an App called Lose It which gives you points for doing so. We’ve paired off into teams of four and I have managed to be on the same one as last year which is great cause we’re all committed the same way and are having fun.

Monday was the first day of the competition and it was my first day back to the gym since getting my regular routine, submarined by the holidays. But since then, I have managed to exercise for at least 30 minutes each day of the first week of the competition. I have worked out harder and gotten more points than the same first week last year which feels phenomenal. What makes it even better this year is that we have both the Vitamix and the Instant Pot in our meal arsenal! It has been so easy to load our meals with vegetables—and in some cases even hide them that I can’t even tell!

To add to this competition (and to help with the results), Danielle suggested we add to it giving up any alcohol for the month. So in addition to the savings for the wallet, it will also help to the bottom (waist) line as well. It seemed like an easy thing to do and since it was something Cancer Society encouraged through Sober February. While wine is our favourite, it has lots of calories so it made sense to add that to our part of the challenge. Whether we miss it and continue on in March or alternate months on and off remains to be see in the future, but even one month out of the year will help.

Speaking of sparing money, the relevancy of that rose tenfold as we kissed goodbye the money for the cruise as we made out final payment that was necessary for our berth on the cruise. While it is exciting that the cruise is all but booked, the tough part was saying goodbye to that money—especially with the Canadian dollar being worth so much less than the US dollar. That said, the time is booked off for work, the cruise is paid for, and today officially marks three months until we set sail!

Emelia definitely benefited from an activity (and staying up past her bedtime) standpoint this week as we tried to make the workouts at the gym fit into our schedule. On night’s Danielle worked out later, I took Emelia for a swim and the same was true when I squeezed in a later workout. In either case I was delighted to see how comfortable she has gotten in the big pool traversing the deep end without a second thought—all thanks to her swim lessons. She’s become such a fish.

Aside from planning and booking the final touches for the cruise, the only real other topic around these parts these days is mapping out trips in Wolfie for this summer. Of, course there will be no camping in May what with the cruise, but we’re definitely planning on three other trips throughout the other summer months and of course as always, one of those will be to Wolfe Island for the music festival Emelia gave the trailer her namesake.

The good news about all this planning and exercising is that bathing suit season will come a lot sooner than normal. And that we’ll actually be able to fit into them too!

She said

The main focus this week as John has mentioned was the health and fitness challenge. John and I are pretty healthy eaters and are active people but there is always room for improvement. What I love about this challenge is the joint effort for both John and I to eat healthier and for me to plan and execute vegetable heavy meals.

This year with the addition of the Vitamix and the Instant Pot, the entire process is much easier. We are going through veggies at a rapid rate and we are both feeling amazing. The week has been all about meal planning, prep and getting to the gym each and every day. I managed to get to the gym every day this week, I was able to fill the 6th day not in the workout room but in the pool with Emelia swimming up and down the lanes in the big pool. She has become such a strong swimmer and it is so much fun playing with her in the pool.

The other focus for me was getting a few more things figured out for the trip. We are travelling this trip with John’s cousin Bill with his daughters and mom Aunt Bonnie. Bonnie and I were messaging back and forth trying to decide where we would stay the night before the trip. We had been co-0rdinating the trip through an agent that John’s Aunt Babs has used in the past. It made things easier as it was different families from different cities and we wanted to assure the bookings were linked properly so we could have our meals and rooms together.

Anyway the agent had pre-booked a room the night before at a hotel but the rooms were very pricing and with the horrible exchange rate it made the rooms even more expensive. So I started researching hotel options. After a bit of searching I found the International Palms in Cocoa Beach which is very close to the ship. The hotel is right on the ocean, it has a pool, waterpark area for the kids and best part is that we were able to book it through expedia in Canadian dollars for a fraction of the cost of the original hotel. Between booking the hotel and making the final payment on the trip has made our bank account empty but it has made the trip that much closer.

The next few weeks will be about keeping our fitness and health goals in check, as well as saving money to assure we have some fun spending money for the trip. The last piece of the puzzle is booking the flight home which we are still watching prices on and the little odds and ends.

Three months today we are going to be on the ship looking over the ocean from our balcony and all the saving, planning and stressing will be worth it. We cannot wait!