Trying Something New - Kayaking!

I can't think of a nicer way to spend a beautiful early summer evening. How fabulous!

I saw a deal on Groupon a while back for a kayak lesson and guided tour along the Humber River, and snapped it up for my son and myself. I've never been kayaking before and was eager to give it a try!

Setting out - my son's a natural!

We had a brief lesson in paddle theory and then hit the water. We found this fairly easy to learn and had fun practising steering, going backwards, turning around, speeding up, stopping quickly - and managed not to tip over! We then paddled along a very peaceful route out and back, about 5K in total.

Think my son found this a bit tricky, simply because he was using adult-sized equipment. Once he grows a bit taller, this will be no sweat for him. Still - my buddy paddled 5K after a busy day at school and didn't complain once. Well done!

I had a great time...and...well...couldn't stop admiring my rippling arm muscles. OK, maybe not rippling, but all of the hours that I've put in at the gym made this tour a breeze. But then, I guess that's really the point of the gym - to make people strong enough to Do Life. I don't think that I genuinely understood that until now.

An aside - I've lived in Toronto for over 20 years and had never been to the Humber River area before this. Why, I do not know, especially since it's a reasonably fast drive from my house. After tonight, we'll certainly be back - this is a beautiful spot in the heart of the city, yet the only sounds we could hear were water, ducks, geese and cormorants. Can't wait to check out the bike trails in the region.

Interested in trying this yourself? Check out our guides at http://www.torontoadventures.ca/.

Here's this week's recap -

Pit stop during Saturday's ride. Hard to tell, but that's my bike helmet on the left side of the table.

Saturday - Stiff as heck after yesterday's boot camp. Tried to loosen up with 5K on my bike to the Farmer's Market, Starbucks and home again. Later - did about an hour of cleanup in the garden and went on a 3K stroll with the kids and neighbours. Love being outside so many hours in one day!

Sunday - Celebrated a wedding for my husband's cousin. Beautiful ceremony for a very lovely couple! Very little moving and very much nibbling.

Monday - Stairs to 7 in AM, Curves + 27 pushups after dinner. My abs are STILL tender after last week's boot camp!

Tuesday - Stairs to 7 in AM, 1.1K power walk at lunch.

Wednesday - Stairs to 7 + 1.5K power walk at lunch; Zumba AND boot camp after dinner.

Beautiful evening at the park

Thursday - Stairs to 7 + 1K walk at lunch; stroll down to the park & wiffle ball after dinner.

See that smile? I'm loving this!

Friday - Kayaking. So lovely. At the end of the tour, our guides gave us passes for half-price canoeing lessons...can't wait to give that a try!

Finally, Here are the Week 2 'Queen of the Circuit' challenges -

Drink more water - Check

Give up a sweet - Check - gave up my after-lunch piece of chocolate. Grrrrr.

Try a new healthy recipe - Check - found a low-fat banana bread recipe, made it with my son

Bring in a picture of yourself - Check

Workout 3x - This will be a check after tomorrow's workout.

Attend a boot camp class - Check

Check body mass - Check - dropped from 38.0 (gulp) to 37.6