Author: Nadim

My new favourite game is, what will the sidewalk at the hill look like on Friday mornings. What I think will be there in terms of ice/clear side walk, never lines up with what is there. Shifting gears, today was a disappointing day for our favourite game “What’s in the Bag?”

Many of the NP jokes are a “you had to be there” type of thing. Anyone CAN be there, and we definitely hang on to some of these inside jokes well past their expiry dates. (eg. the DBAD rule, Jen’s gotta go to work, etc). The whole “What’s in the Bag?” game, is so hilarious to me. If you’ve come to NP between November and today, you’ll know what it’s all about. However, if you haven’t been, it sounds like the most ridiculous thing on the planet. I’ll take that one step further. If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that there are 11 #NPbuttons that you can collect throughout the winter. A large majority of those buttons will have no meaning to most people, but everyone at NP will know, recognize or understand them. For example, one is a can of spray paint. Specifically, it is a can of Krylon Flat Black spray paint. That’s the spray paint we use to tag our shirts. Completely confusing to almost everyone else, but somehow normal to the world of NP. Yesterday, my brother sent me a screenshot of a text with one of his friends. His friend had seen a little girl wearing an NP button of me and was so confused by it that she wanted to take a picture of the little girl. She tried, but the girl’s mom gave her a strange look, because strangers taking pictures of your child is a pretty alarming thing. Anyway, the whole situation is another reminder that the world of November Project is extremely weird. It’s so weird, and I hope that it never changes. By the way, with only 2 buttons to go, and 1 month left before we’ve released them all, I’m so curious to see who has been able to collect them all. If you got the 9, or are even close with 8, we want to know about it. To me (and maybe only me), this is just as exciting as the Oilers’ Playoff race. read more

For today’s blog, I’m actually going to write a part 2 to what Rob wrote last Monday. To recap, we’ve been going through the November Project’s Community Agreements in a bit more depth and I wanted to reflect a bit more on the identities part.

Respect…. Our Identities

Our emotional experiences and social attributes define our identities. We respect and celebrate those unique traits that make our communities more vibrant and diverse. read more

… then to be understood.

On a day where so many have love and caring on their minds, it seems fitting to talk about the next part of the Community Agreements, Call In.

Whether it’s in person, or on the socials, it has become commonplace for people to call others out when they disagree with something. There is no shortage of critics these days and all are willing to tell you that you and your beliefs are wrong and you should do or believe <INSERT BELIEF HERE>. Now, I’m no lawyer, but I do know that there are always two sides to any story. When I was a camp counselor and two children got in an argument, the first thing you did was to listen to both of them tell their side of the story. After that, you then end up telling them that it’s ok to disagree with each other but you can’t hit, yell, call them names the other person. You had to treat each other with respect, even if you disagree with them. Just so we’re clear, you didn’t have to take any sides, but you did try to understand both sides. I believe that most people don’t wake up and choose to be a bad person on any given day. I also believe that people make choices based on their life experiences, their values, and what’s important to them. But when those aren’t the same as someone else, that’s when you run into problems. read more

As mentioned on Monday, we will be highlighting some of the November Project Community Agreements that were formally introduced a while ago. It’s always good to visit the core values of our community and ground ourselves in what November Project all stand for.

Today, we’ll be talking a bit more about: Grow Community. read more

Ummmmmmm… what happened this morning? Why were there so many people that showed up this morning? You are all lunatics. I still haven’t warmed up from this morning and it’s almost dark out again.

To those who came, I hope you had fun. And to those who chose to not bear the temperatures, I commend you. I must say, I’m still on the fence whether or not we all just have bad judgement or we truly are pushing limits by being out there. There are definitely times when we hope people who don’t show have FOMO. I don’t think today was one of those times. In fact, I don’t truly know how cold it was this morning. I checked at 5am and it said it was -40. And I had no care to check it right before and after the workout. All I wanted to do was get warm… I’m still wanting that by the way. read more

There’s something special about -30 days. As you may or may not know, I don’t look at the temperature until the morning of the workout. That’s when I figure out how many layers I need to wear. And usually, I mess it up and wear too much. Today was no different. And for those 30 minutes between checking the weather and arriving at the workout, I was worried I was about to be frozen until the end of time. Then, I walked up to the group. And it reminded me of our first ever -30 day in December of 2013. The fun thing about that day was that you could only see peoples’ eyes. Everything else was covered. It was a pretty good test to see how well you knew people. I enjoyed that game. Today was no different. When I got to the group, I just saw the eyes of so many of you and it made me smile. I didn’t have the panic of “oh my goodness, who is that?” Instead, I was just excited to see so many of you, like me, not be sure what layers you needed, and put on basically everything you own. read more

During the workout, I noticed a bunch of ornaments hanging from the trees at the bottom of Walterdale Hill. They all had a tag that said “Please take me”. I thought it was a very thoughtful thing from some very thoughtful people. It wasn’t until after the photo, when someone showed me their ornament and written on it, was #justshowup. That’s when I realized that it was some sneaky elves who did that for their NP friends. Hopefully, you were able to grab one and see some of the encouraging messages written on them. To those who created them (I won’t spill your secret), THANK YOU! The group thanks you! read more

Every once in awhile, it is good to figure out where your limits are. After all, they will change over time. One of the great things about November Project is that you can actually push some of your limits every week. For example, if you’ve never worked out in cold weather until today, then after this morning your new limit would be -18C (I’m not actually sure how cold it was, but -18C feels right). And, if later on this winter it gets to -30C and you earn a badge, then that becomes your new limit. Let’s turn this around and talk about today’s burpee challenge. Get to the top, do as many burpees as you can then add one more. And, let’s be honest, if you’re adding one more, then your perceived limit is not your actual limit. Typically, we do 30 reps at the top of the stairs, along with a high five before we head back down and repeat. Today, every single person pushed their limit by one burpee. It may go unnoticed, but every time you push through your limit, you’re overcoming a mental obstacle. You’re proving to your mind that your body can do more than it thinks it can. And the more you do that, the more your mind will start to realize that you can accomplish more in other parts of your life. So, whether you did 0+1 burpee, or 30+1 burpees, OR 50+1 burpees like a few, everyone became a better version of themselves this morning. read more

When did 1000 become such a milestone? To be honest, it never was, but earlier this summer, we realized how close were and we began to think of how monumentous (not a word) 1000 workouts is! 

Let’s think about it. How many things can you name that you’ve done 1000 times? My list is pretty short. The more I think about that, the more I have the opportunity to reflect on today and the previous 999 mornings of this crazy free fitness movement. read more