This may not have been the start I’d hoped for this year, but I figured if I’m at home sick, I should make the most of my time and start writing! This blog idea started back in April 2013, but life kept getting in the way and it never materialized. It was always a case of “once this is done, I’ll get to it… once this happens, I’ll work on it…. when life calms down, I’ll do it….” and suddenly, it’s 2014! Life is probably as calm as it’s going to get, so it’s time to get to business.

So much happened in 2013, that I think a little background is needed before we can move forward (also, check out the About section to learn a little more). Last year was full of a lot of ups as well as a few downs for us.

Obviously, the major highlight of the year was getting married. Neither of us are big fans of traditional weddings, so we planned a surprise wedding! We invited our immediate family and our closest friends to our engagement party, which turned into our actual wedding. It was an incredible day, and we’re so lucky it worked out as smoothly as it did, with some people travelling pretty far to be there with us. I’m sure we shocked the majority of our guests, which was exactly what we wanted. It was perfect!

Both Kyle and I stepped on stage as fitness competitors – Kyle as a bodybuilder, and me as a bikini / fitness model competitor. It was an incredible first season, with both of us coming away with first place trophies and excited for what will happen next. We’re both targeting to compete again in June, so we’ve got a couple more months of “off-season” left to make the most of.

Personally, we started a big, exciting project – building a new house. Kyle had the whole house planned out in his head, so we worked with an architect on the plans and found a great lot to build on.  We sold our house (the first house I had bought on my own – tear!), and thennnn, things changed. We backed out of the contract the day before our final condition was due. We had a bad feeling about things, did our research, made our decision – and haven’t looked back since! However, this meant that we had two weeks to move, and no new house on the horizon. Through a friend at the gym, we found a place to rent (with no lease!). We moved 90% of our stuff into a storage locker, our dogs moved into Kyle’s parents house, and we moved into our new space. This new space has been a major adjustment for us – moving from a 3 bedroom house to a 300 square foot apartment is a big change, and throw in the fact that Kyle was prepping for a competition at the same time… it was tough on us. Once his competition was over, we started house hunting. A LOT. We changed our minds a few times about what we wanted, saw a lot of terrible houses, even put in two offers that didn’t work out. But, everything does happen for a reason, because we then found the most perfect house. We take possession at the end of January and will spend a month gutting and renovating the main living spaces to make it our dream house.

While the house will be a main focus of our lives for a few months, we’re still committed to our fitness goals. We will both be competing at the Ontario Provincial Championships, and I’m aiming to move out of the bikini category and compete in figure later this year.

It’s going to be a busy, exciting year, and I hope you’ll follow us through it all! This blog will chronicle everything along the way – and I’ll share our fitness, food, and life tips / lessons as we learn them. We’ll post everything from recipes, workouts, and pictures of our fur babies.

Welcome to our life!