The bonus offers of this promotion:

1. Following the $30 for 30 Days promotion, if you sign up for a 3 month Flexipass (currently priced at $117.71 plus tax), you get an extra month for free! The way my bargain loving eyes see this is 5 months for $147.71  (plus tax) OR $29.54 (plus tax) a month (price of 3 month Flexipass + $30 promotion + one month free). So for about $1 a day you are on your way to getting and/or staying fit, healthy and active in 2015! And some more math for you, in 5 months time it will be summer. Yes, the dreaded bikini season, which you may not (and should not) need to be dreading anymore (love your body!!!), and where you (hopefully) wont need the indoors to be active...so Vancouver Park Board really knows what they're doing with this promotion! 

2. Receive $50 off a 5-session personal training package. This is currently priced at $208.95 plus tax. Take $50 off that making it $158.95 plus tax. Divide that by 5 and you've got yourself a personal trainer for  5 sessions at $31.79 per session. That's poppycock! Especially in this city (and actually most cities)! 

Now, from my experience, these are the added perks of this promotion (and the Flexipass in general):

This promotion is great for those that are not fans of the gym or need low impact exercise as you can go swimming instead. Need a night off to relax or your muscles are aching? Hit up the hot tubs and saunas! Just want a leisurely excursion with the kids? Take them to the amazing pool facility at Hillcrest (and try out the lazy river - you wont want to leave)! It's all included. And with very affordable admission prices for those that do not have Flexipasses (and even free at some facilities at certain times of the week), skating and swimming are great activities for outings with your family and/or friends.

Another great thing about this pass is that, with so many Park Board facilities in Vancouver (did I mention 21 fitness centers, 9 pools and 8 ice rinks), there is bound to be one close to where you live, work, play, study, go to school etc or even along the way to one of these locations so it is very convenient (and I know many of us need convenience in order to keep us going to the gym)! Also, if you are not a fan of routine, you could go to a different facility everyday or partake in a different activity everyday, if you so wish to keep things interesting! Some facilities are more dated than others (like Britannia) and some are state of the art (Trout Lake and Hillcrest, for example) but they all have something to offer (the dated ones are usually less busy) and almost all  have hours of operation that will work with most of our busy schedules, adding to that convenience. The fitness center facilities also provide details of when the busiest and least busiest times are if you wish, and are able to go at a quiet time. And also, some fitness centers have "ladies only" time slots if those women out there feel more comfortable working out in a "girl power" environment.

And yet another reason why I love the Flexipass is that you can suspend it if you need to (going away, need a break for an injury to heal etc). I was hesitating signing up for the Flexipass promotion this year as I am going away for a week at the beginning of February but then I was told that they can suspend the pass the week that I am away so I can take full advantage of the 30 day validity. 

So there you go folks. About $1 a day to keep the pounds away and to be healthy! No registration fees, no contract, no pushy sales representative calling you every day to get you to sign up! What a bargain! No I was not hired by the Vancouver Park Board to rave about this promotion and their Flexipass, although I wouldn't be opposed to any compensation ;-), but I really enjoyed the experience when I signed up for this last year and feel that by sharing my experience, others may benefit from this info. The promotion ends on February 8th, 2015 so visit a facility up until then to take advantage of this great deal!

For those of you that have taken advantage of this promotion, what is the biggest perk for you? What is your favorite facility and why? Would love to hear feedback and if you do decide to sign up for this promotion, let me know how it works out for you! Are there any other great deals in this city that would benefit our health and well-being? Let me know by commenting on this post or by any of the contact methods on the top right hand corner of my blog.

I leave you with details of the facilities that you can use this promotion at so you can weigh out the pros and cons and see if this is for you (click on the link):
Fitness Centers that accept Flexipass
Ice Rinks
Swimming Pools

I hope your 2015s are off to a great start! :-)

As I was browsing my Facebook News Feed on New Year's day, I came across a post from HelloGiggles entitled "Why You Need to Start a Gratitude Jar Today". This intrigued me as one of my resolutions is to be more positive in 2015 (and beyond) and this idea sounded like something that would help with this particular resolution.

The idea of the gratitude jar is to take a moment out of each day (or however frequently you choose) to write down something you are happy about or grateful for each day and store it in a jar or container. It can be anything from "happy that I got to see my best friend" to "happy that I paid off my credit card" to something as simple as "happy that there is only one more sleep until the Game of Thrones season premiere". It can be absolutely anything. At the end of the year, you can read through them and have nice reminders of the year that has just passed us by. 

As soon as I read the HelloGiggles post, I was adamant about having a Gratitude Jar in our home. I searched through the house for a container to use as my Gratitude Jar. You can use anything really: a shoe box, a mason jar, a vase, a tupperware container, a Ziploc bag or whatever you may have lying around the house. .I chose to use a Bookers Bourbon signature wooden box that was sitting there waiting to be used for some sort of DIY project (my husband Perry works at the  Liquor Store and he is always bringing me home wine crates and wooden boxes to use for projects...so I am sure you have something in your home that can be used as a container). For the paper, I just cut some Post-It notepads in half (again, you can use any paper you desire). I started my first note immediately and am currently on day three.

I am really excited about this project and, each day, I have looked forward to writing my note down. I asked Perry to participate in this project with me and after much hesitation, he agreed. It will be fun to go through them at the end of year (and perhaps even years to come) and think back to days and moments we otherwise would have forgotten about. I am even thinking of allowing visitors to our home to participate and add to our Gratitude Jar. There really is no harm in reflecting on your day and thinking back to all the good things that happened rather than focusing on the negative. The way I see it, it helps us to appreciate what we have and to complain a lot less. At the end of the day, no matter how bad our day seems to be going, there is always going to be someone out there in the world (usually a lot of someones) whose day is a thousand times worse than ours and we really need to be more appreciative of what we have. 

I hope I have inspired some of you to start this project. To get more ideas on Gratitude Jars, just complete a Google Image Search or browse through Pinterest for inspiration. 

What are your thoughts on this Positivity Project? Is it something you are interested in trying out?

Check back in the next few days for more Positivity Projects to help you be more, well, positive!

Happy crafting and happy reflecting everyone!

I wasn't a huge fan of 2014 but I think this is because we didn't travel as much as in previous years and didn't even go on a plane. Not 1! The previous year, we went on 10 that I can recall! Travel withdrawal is not the end of the world though and one of my resolutions this year is to be more positive and eliminate negativity as much as possible! There were many great things that happened in 2014 too. We witnessed many friends get married, many friends give birth to beautiful healthy babies, we went on a couple of pretty great road trips....BUT I am very excited for the new year. I have high hopes for 2015 and feeling extremely positive about it. With ringing in the new year with some of my favorite people, to Tottenham kicking Chelsea's butts in a Premier League match and our first plane ride since 1.5 years ago coming up in one month (for a quick getaway to England), this year is already off to a fantastic start and I am looking forward to all that's in store for us!

As mentioned, a major focus this year is to be positive. As I was decluttering and purging earlier this week, I looked back at photos and mementos from my teen years, including my journals. They were filled with such simple and positive words and I definitely saw the world in a better way back then. Yes, as adults most of us are not as carefree as we were in our teens and we have a lot more responsibilities, but this doesn't mean we should allow the responsibilities and routines of adult life get in the way of us looking in the world in a more positive light and being optimistic and happier ourselves. 

I have a few other resolutions and goals for this year as well:
- hike at least two times a month and spend more time outdoors
- meditate twice a day for at least 5 minutes
- learn to drive
- read more
- blog at least twice a week and generally write more and be more creative
- exercise at least three times a week
- and the usual: stress/worry less, declutter, stay organized, spend more time with family and friends, don't be judgemental etc etc (just be a better person)

I believe that being positive will help me achieve these goals and also sticking to these goals will help keep me positive and ultimately help to clear my mind and keep the stress levels down. I have already registered for a meditation seminar and class and am really looking forward to exploring this practice.

I also have some simple tools that will help keep me positive and I will be sharing these in the next week.

What are your goals, resolutions and hopes for this new year?