Tag Archives: holiday

Luxury, therapy, and a good day

Today I splurged and had a relaxing massage that was purely for enjoyment. It was a deep tissue massage and I needed to ask the masseuse to go a little deeper at the start, but then I just sat back and let her do her work. Normally I spend an entire hour with my therapist’s elbows in my back. Today’s massage included arms, hands, legs, and feet. There was time before hand to sit in a hot tub and do a couple cold pool dips (not something I plan to repeat soon, but glad I tried).

Then the massage room had quiet music playing and between camomile and lavender scent, I chose the lavender. It was so nice to sit back and relax, being pampered without thinking about therapy and having to breathe through intense pressure on my back. It took a mindset shift to just enjoy and lap in luxury.

I read a great quote in James Clear’s weekly email newsletter yesterday:

“The question is not: will today be a good day? 

Every day is a good day. 

The question is: how much good will you get out of today?”

I enjoy my therapeutic massages because I suffer with regular back aches and pains, and I could easily have gone into today expecting a similar experience… and I would have been disappointed. Instead I just appreciated what I had. Admittedly this is a lot easier to do, choosing luxury as a mindset, but it’s a good reminder that how we frame things matter.

Today has a lot of good to be found. Tomorrow will be good despite hours of travel time. Regardless of the day, regardless of the challenges, regardless of the unexpected circumstances, we have opportunities to find good in every day.

Summer vacation

Three more days of work and then I’m off on holidays!

I’m only home for 10 days this summer. I have 3 very different trips planned, each with their own benefits. I’ll be staying at a resort, I’ll be camping in a trailer, and I’ll be visiting my mom. That’s over a month away from home, with a couple less-than-a-week gaps.

I’m excited about all 3 trips, and I know I’ll come back to work well rested. I also wish that I had a few more days to enjoy at home. It’s weird. I’m not complaining, and I wouldn’t want to shorten any of the trips, I just also wish I could spend a bit more time holidaying from the comfort of my house.

I say this is weird because I’m not really a homebody. I enjoy travel, and I’m not overly attached to my bed. Part of me is nomadic, and I can feel pretty at home away from home, even sleeping on a couch at my mom’s place. Maybe it’s our recent renovation, my home feels so much more comfortable now.

Regardless, I have a fantastic summer planned, and I haven’t looked forward to a summer this much in a long time. This school year kicked me in the butt, mostly but not only because of my health. I missed a lot of the year and felt like I was always catching up, always rushing things I am usually on top of, and even dropping things that I don’t usually drop.

I couldn’t pick a better year to jam pack with holidays. Sun and fun, rest and relaxation, and family… all squeezed into an amazing summer that happens to be mostly away from home.

Flaked out

Who else just flakes out at the end of the school year?

At least I didn’t get sick. That sometimes happens… I reach Christmas break, March break, or summer, and my body crashes.

After work Friday we hopped on a ferry to visit my in-laws and oldest daughter on Vancouver Island. We were there for a little over 24 hours and then back home last night. Today I started with my Coquitlam Crunch walk, and that was the extent of any physical effort I put into the day. Its also a great opportunity to connect with a friend.

After I came home I had a hot tub, and a nap. I cooked stakes for dinner. I’m on the couch with my wife watching Jury Duty.

It’s 11pm and I’m finally writing my post, and I still need to meditate. I’ll hit my targets… and that’s it. That’s enough… A typical start to a holiday. A good flake out day.

4-day weekend

I’m looking forward to the Easter Break! Having both the Friday and Monday off is a treat. A 3-day weekend is nice, but getting that extra days makes this break special. It becomes a ‘real’ break where I know that I can actually let go of thinking about work. It allows true down time.

I find that a 4th day makes the break into a real holiday… and I can come back to work refreshed. I’d give up my second week of holidays at Christmas so that I could get a few more 4-day weekends throughout the year. I’m not sure that would be popular with everyone, but it would be ideal for me… Mini holidays throughout the year! Am I the only one that thinks this is a good idea?

Time for a break

It’s the last day before March Break and it’s going to be a long day. My final ‘to do’ list is quite big and my goal is to get it done and not take it into the break. Sometimes these holidays sneak up on me, like this one. Other times I am counting down the days. But despite the fact that this two-week holiday seemed to come so quickly this year, I can tell that I need a break.

It’s a reset for me. A chance to rest my aching back. A chance to listen to a fictional novel. An opportunity to visit my parents. And most importantly, a chance to switch work off for a little bit. The last semester of school from March to June is always a whirlwind of non-stop activity and this break is the preparation for it.

My brain won’t totally let work go on this break, but unlike a weekend, I will be able to go a couple straight days without thinking about work. I’ll put my vacation response on email, and I’ll not be checking email daily. I used to not do this, but over the years I’ve realized that when I actually let myself take a break, I come back more rejuvenated and ready for the homestretch.

So while I’ve got a long day ahead of me, I hope to leave work at work and take some time completely off this holiday. The test of this will be my daily writing… how much of it will show that work is still on my mind? We’ll know in a couple weeks!

Workout whimper, not bang

We spent almost a full two days getting to Spain, having booked our trip to Paris first, then deciding to continue on to Barcelona rather than staying in France where my oldest is living. I was up at 4am on the Saturday morning and we didn’t get to our final destination until almost 8pm Sunday. I obviously didn’t get my workout routine in, then the next two days I woke up early and did pushups and leg raises to check off my daily workouts. I wrote about this in a post, The long game, and finished that post saying:

I’m not trying to run ultra marathons or have a bodybuilder physique. I’m actually going to let myself let loose and eat a bit more gluttonous while on vacation. But I’m also going to find time to exercise, I’m going to return home and be more thoughtful about my diet after my vacation. I’m going to keep playing the long game and not worry about minor fluctuations in my schedule. Because while there will be fluctuations, I’m going to keep a schedule of writing, meditation, and exercise. I’m not looking for quick gains, I’m just working on staying on a healthy path, knowing positive results are still to come… in time. Perseverance and the long game are the path I’m on.

But here is the confession, while I’ve done a lot of walking since then, I haven’t done my fitness routine at all and have only meditated a couple times. I’ve been out late with my family, and not waking up to do my routine. I’ve maintained my daily write, but mostly on the go, and when my family shops, or when we have down time between planned activities. My lack of exercise was more than a minor fluctuation, I’ve gone 10 days without a workout, which is the longest break in my streak since I started tracking in January 2019.

I’m not beating myself up about this, I’ll be back on track when I get back home. I just wanted to share because I think it’s important to share that while I’ve been on a pretty amazing fitness journey, it can have bumps and things don’t always work out as planned. After three years of dedication 2022 is ending on a whimper, not a bang, and while I’m on the worst streak of my 3 year journey, I’ll be back to my routine in the new year.

Things don’t always go as planned, and while things haven’t been great in the short term, I’m here for the long game and this blip will be over when I get home tomorrow… well maybe the next day since with time zone changes tomorrow will be longer than 24 hours and spent mostly on airplanes. The point is, I failed to keep a workout and meditation schedule while vacationing with my family, something I won’t get to do too often anymore now that my daughters are 23 and almost 21. I know I could have done more, but I didn’t. Things didn’t go as planned and that will happen. It did happen, but it won’t define any lasting pattern and I’ll be back at it in no time.

The long game

Playing the long game is often referenced in sports and revenge. ‘Wax on, wax off’ for the Karate Kid, with thousands of repetitions leading to skill improvement.

Or one of the best ‘long game’ movies I can think of, Fresh, where a young kid makes strategic sacrifices to get him and his sister off of a dangerous path.

It’s 3:30 in the morning and I’ve been up for a couple hours. My plan to stay up and adjust to the new time zone after my long trip to Barcelona failed. And so after 2 days of travel with no exercise I decided to work out. 5 sets of 20 pushups, leg raises, and crunches. Then a meditation. Right now I’m writing this listing to some 432 hertz music and I’m going to try to go back to sleep for a few hours.

I decided to write this first because the meditation I did on the Calm App with Jay Shetty was about perseverance, and while I listened I could see my reflection in the glass balcony door. In the reflection I saw my shoulders, trapezius muscles, and physical outline clearly, while my features were less visible in this not-so-perfect reflection. I noticed that over the last 4 years I have really transformed my body.

Four years. Not 3 or 6 months, not even 1 year, four. I started my fitness journey with a calendar on January 1, 2019. This was my reflection after a year. The path has been a tiny bit bumpy, but overall extremely consistent and without any significant injury as a result of my fitness regimen.

So often people (including me in the past) go on fitness binges and/or eating diets. It’s a race to see results. And while results can come from these brief attempts to improve, unrealistic fitness plans and unsustainable diets eventually lead to a point where they can’t be sustained.

I’m not trying to run ultra marathons or have a bodybuilder physique. I’m actually going to let myself let loose and eat a bit more gluttonous while on vacation. But I’m also going to find time to exercise, I’m going to return home and be more thoughtful about my diet after my vacation. I’m going to keep playing the long game and not worry about minor fluctuations in my schedule. Because while there will be fluctuations, I’m going to keep a schedule of writing, meditation, and exercise. I’m not looking for quick gains, I’m just working on staying on a healthy path, knowing positive results are still to come… in time. Perseverance and the long game are the path I’m on.

Sleeping on a plane

I still marvel at the idea of large planes traveling with the weight of people and luggage, defying gravity, thanks to forward propulsion and Bernoulli’s Principle. It still seems like magic to me. But the cost of this miraculous feat is such that people are squeezed into planes like sardines. This is not conducive to seats that are comfortable for sleeping.

That’s not a big deal for short flights, but on long trips, and multiple trips with layovers, that extend over several time zones, the lack of sleep is less than desirable. For me, travelling east is harder than travelling west, and getting some good sleep on the trip would be desirable… but not achievable.

Every time I do a trip like this I think, there must be an app that helps you plan your trip such that you reduce jet lag. But, I don’t travel enough to actually make the effort, and besides, even if I did, I still wouldn’t be able to get the recommended sleep suggested.

I just had a 4.5 hours flight from Vancouver to Toronto that was delayed almost 2 hours. Then power walked to a gate that felt 2 kilometres away to arrive at the gate for our our next flight about 20 minutes before boarding. That was a 7+ hour flight from Toronto to Paris. Now we’ve just finished a 4 hour layover and have a 2 hour flight to Barcelona. I’m tired. I didn’t sleep enough, but I’m afraid to even try sleeping now for fear of getting up in the middle of the night ready to start the day.

My strategy for not being able to sleep on a plane is to fight sleep until regular bedtime in my new time zone. It doesn’t make for a very comfortable travel day, but hopefully I won’t be falling asleep on my first full day in my new destination. Wish me luck.

Airports and airplanes

Today we travel from Vancouver to Toronto to Paris to Barcelona. Including an early arrival to the airport, on one of the busiest travel days of the holiday, we will be traveling for 26 hours. Add another 9 hours on the clock to that for time zones and this makes for a looong day!

But we finally get to see our daughter, who turned 23 a couple days ago, for the first time since she moved to France. And our youngest daughter is with us, and this is our first family vacation in a few years.

We are going to spend a lot of time in airports and on airplanes… but I’m finally getting excited about the trip. And I’ve got a few episodes of a show downloaded on my iPad as well as 2 audio books on my phone. I have snacks, headphones, and AirPods, and a battery power bank to keep my devices charged. I’d like to just click my heels and arrive at my destination, but if I’m going to spend a whole day traveling, I might as well keep myself entertained.

Barcelona… here I come!

Travel plans

I find it odd how much time we spend planning to go away. We have a cat that needs attending to, and fortunately we have a nephew who will be staying at our place while away. There are flights and places to stay to arrange. There is the packing, and the planning of things to do.

Holiday getaways are wonderful things, and I feel fortunate to be able to enjoy the great trip to Spain we have planned, but I don’t get excited by the planning and prep work the way I see others get. I don’t know how to ‘do’ anticipatory excitement. But I love arriving at a new destination. I love waking up in the morning in a foreign place knowing that the sights and sounds of the day will be different and new. I enjoy the flavours of new foods.

Now it’s time to start packing so that I’m not in a scramble the night before we leave… and hopefully a little excitement will creep into the tasks I need to do.