Free Fitness Movement. All you need to do is show up!
November Project SNOWGLOBE 3.0 is a mere 55 days away!
Here in the Great White North-East and the equally Great White Slightly Further South-East have been hard at work getting ready to host our favourite people (yes, that’s how we spell favourite) for some snow-filled. fun. free. fitness. on Feb. 9-12, 2023.
Good morning, YOWzers!
Thanks to you it was a delightful mix of silly movements, smiles & sweat.
Since Becca and Ryan are still enjoying some time on the California coast, this blog will be 99% less punny. By now you may have seen way too much coverage of NP Summit 9 in San Diego on social media, and we are very sensitive to the fact that it was not accessible for many people for many reasons this year. Some day – when travel is easier, when covid is less of/not a concern, when the location is closer – we really encourage you to consider attending. If you want to hear some of the Summit stories, come let’s have a chat, or search the #NPSUMMIT tag on instagram – the warmth of the California sun, and the NP Smiles shine through strongly.
The challenge this week is to listen to what’s out there. Be open to what others are sharing and create a safe space for those voices.
There is more on that to come and what we can do as a community to be better.
Here’s to bringing “Soles” together,
Liz and Lauren
So, time for reflections during this period of unique times. We have learned about what zoom workouts mean. It’s been honestly better than we thought it would be! We get to share the morning with the beautiful faces of NP Ottawa. We are missing your hugs, but we are looking for the good that appears on the screen at 6:29am. But can we do better? What is the most important thing to make sure the 31 minutes we have together?
Do you remember when we started these zoom workouts, it was still dark outside? The sun wouldn’t come up until about half way through the workout. Or perhaps we captured the beautiful sunrise. Now we start the morning with the sun up, either shining through your window, peaking through the basement window, through the garage door, in the park nearby, or on your driveway, porch or lawn. Have you had any neighbours join you from afar? or mostly funny looks? Well, in typical times, we get weird looks every time a dog walker passes us during our Lansdowne workouts, or pedestrians on the bridge, or cyclist on the bike path. There’s nothing new there. Doesn’t it kinda feel good to be doing something different, something you know is unique, has a new challenge, and that the norm questions? And anyone can join the weird anytime they want!
We thought we had this thing figured out didn’t we- did anyone else have a momemtary panic they were going to miss the workout this morning, when you signed in and realized you had no idea WHAT the password is? Have I ever had to put in a password? Did I miss a post? How early is it? FOMO is at an all time high. The possibility of missing it is a real challenge. The workout has been posted, I can do it on my own, but I woke up to do this WITH everyone else, on zoom and at 6:29. Well, at 6:26-6:32am, multiple messages being tossed about the virtual world, “What’s the password?” “it’s not working” “it won’t let me in” well, you were not the only ones my friend. We were just as surprised as you, and in fact, we made the NP link so long ago, that I’m not even sure how we would have found the password for that original link. Well, it was great while it lasted. Security is up, which is great, and another change tossed our way. But how quick did things adjust this morning? In about 6 minutes. We were moving that spoon about bouncing while people logged in around 6:33 to the new zoom code SO quick, and jumped in to Row, Row, Row your boat, and quickly into the movement of the day.
Do you remember when we did the Sunrise 6K two weeks ago? There was something about sharing how we felt, and connecting together virtually that was pretty special. Today was the exact same distance, early morning 6k, same, same, but yet, we shared the sunrise with the entire world.
Some of our most memorable physical accomplishments may not have been personal records or the most successful attempts. Through these tense times, our goal is to celebrate the privilege of being able to move and create a connection with our fellow humans. In reflecting together, the connection continues with your story from this morning that you can share with the world.
Today we got to share the morning and the sunrise with Newport Beach, who joined in on the zoom workout. Shout out to Chicago for the pot workout, it was SOLID.
Although this is a challenging time, without our regular activities, visits and human interaction, as well as the stress of health and finances, we are grateful to have this community. It has created a coming together, even of cities we have never worked out with before! When else would we have been able to workout with people from Newport Beach and Ottawa at the SAME TIME? It just makes us appreciate this shared experience, and making the most of these times. Not just surviving, but making new connections, new relationships, creating new memories, and putting smiles on people’s faces early on a Wednesday morning. The bonus of coffee time together post workout is not getting old. We are all in our living rooms/kitchens/dens/decks?/basements having a cuppa Joe, while learning about other people.
How many parts of this city have you yet to explore? What little nooks and crannies, parks and park benches have we yet to burpee step up on? With each year that goes by, we get to collect memories from mornings together, in different parts of our beautiful city.
Last week was one of those memories- never forgetting that sunrise and a few reactions in awe of the views. It makes us so proud to be using those spaces, to see Parliament Hill from various angles, to explore the Quebec side of our region. This week, we went over to gather memories at a brand new spot.
Today we adventured on a new route to get to our PR location. With some gates, barriers, and ice patches, it didn’t stop us from moving today. Some variation of hills, walking, running, jogging, and movement for 25:01 took place.
We appreciated the messages and heads up about the closures- we feel so supported when people in the NP community are looking out for things happening in the city, and are so familiar with the regular routine, that you can keep us posted on possible barriers to accessing those. So thank you.