2013 - A Year in Review

Happy New Year!

We rang in 2014 quietly on a plane bound for home. When I was booking flights, I was so focused on the routing and layovers, that I completely missed that our flight would leave at 12:35 am (not pm!). This meant that instead of celebrating the New Year with friends in Cape Town, we were at the airport boarding our flight home! But we had a great three weeks with them and sometimes these things happen. I'll know better for next time!

Since arriving home, our whole family has been struggling to overcome the 7 hour time difference, but the early mornings have given me some time to reflect on what a great year 2013 was, both personally and professionally.

2013 marked my third year running FITMOM Ottawa and the eighth year FITMOM has been offering classes in Ottawa. It seems like so long ago that I was working in the corporate world and attending FITWOMAN classes once a week! After three years, I can't even imagine a life that doesn't include FITMOM.

While I have certainly had the full supported of my family, none of this has been possible without the support of all of my clients. In just three years, I've worked with nearly 500 women! Some women (who I now call my friends!) have been coming to FITMOM since I taught my very first class in 2010. I've seen many women who began in FITMOM 2B, brought their babies to FITMOM and Baby and are now back at work and attending the FITWOMAN evening classes. But one of the best things to happen this year was to have a number of moms repeat the FITMOM 2B class with their second baby! They've come full circle and I'm just as happy to be an integral part of their health and wellness plans during their second pregnancy.

I thank all of you for not only choosing FITMOM Ottawa but for also telling all of your friends about our great programs!

I have also been supported by a number of women who help me teach some of the FITMOM classes. Lindsay is our regular FITWOMAN teacher on Monday nights. Having her teach this class allows me to continue playing volleyball once a week on a team I've played with for over 15 years, which I truly appreciate. FITMOM policies are flexible to allow moms to miss a class once in a while and on occasion, I also need to miss a class! I've been very lucky to rely on Marie, Laurie, Jules, Pamela and Kim over the years to help me out. Thanks to all of you for helping to make FITMOM Ottawa a success!

Also in 2013, FITMOM embarked on a journey to update our web presence across the country, which included a new website for FITMOM Ottawa, a complete overhaul of the FITMOM Canada website and an updated FITMOM logo.

Now, whenever you see our logo, you can be assured that you are experiencing the highest quality pre and post natal fitness programs and are designed to support you during your pregnancy and post partum experience. Under the guidance of our founder, Andrea Page, FITMOM continues to be the leader in prenatal and post natal fitness.

Personally, 2013 began with a bit of a rocky start - my son broke his arm just before Christmas! While he wasn't happy about laying low for a few months, it was a bit of a blessing for the rest of us, as our schedule wasn't quite as hectic!

Early in the year, as some of you know, I had a few issues with my hips and it made running painful and difficult. Since it wasn't debilitating or preventing me from doing anything else, I put off seeing someone about it. Finally, I took the plunge and had active release therapy (on both hips!) and am slowly getting back to running. In the fall, our family decided to participate in the 5K Colour Me Rad run in Gatineau. My sister and niece joined us and we had a blast (no pun intended!). We will definitely do the race again in 2014!

Finally, over the past 18 months, we've been planning a huge trip to Africa to visit our friends that were posted there in mid-2012. After months of emails, spreadsheets, visa applications, plane tickets, hotel bookings, car rentals, packing and planning, we finally left on December 7th. We visited Amsterdam, Hazyview (South Africa), Maputo (Mozambique) and Cape Town (South Africa) over nearly four weeks. We saw elephants, giraffes, zebras, wildabeasts, water buffalo, hippos, crocodiles, hyenas, penguins and, of course, impala. We were also very fortunate to see three cheetahs and one leopard! We embarked on this trip with a bit of trepidation, but our friends were terrific in taking good care of us and showing us the sights. A very important aspect of their job was introducing us to some great South African wines:) It truly was a trip of a lifetime!

We're looking forward to a great 2014 as we get ready to welcome a new niece or nephew to our family! And I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at FITMOM classes again so that we can work together to achieve our health and fitness goals in 2014!