2015 Calgary Expo - The Year of Special Moments

There is no place in the world quite like Calgary Expo.  It is a place where it doesn’t matter who you are or what you are geeky about, you can truly belong, even if it’s only for a weekend.  I know that I say this ever year but this year’s Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo was the best yet.  I had a lot of amazing moments with some wonderful media guests but I also had a lot of personal really cool moments that were just about me.  Considering I thought this year really was going to be a quiet year – because I didn’t feel like I needed three of me to do everything I wanted – it brings me great pleasure to write this entry to say that it was far from quiet.  I may not have had as much on my schedule as I did in prior years but this one is full of moments that I will carry with me forever.  I have more written about this Expo in my notes than I have any other one I have gone to before.  I have never felt more special, more confident and more thrilled than I was this year.  As I get back to reality (and prepare to start my scrapbook) sharing these memories is my chance to make the Expo feeling last just a little bit longer. 

This year was truly an amazing year.  There were so many great moments from meeting Neil Patrick Harris, to getting a hug from Scott Wilson, to watching kids beat up on vikings with foam swords.  It is hard to pick a few memories when so many stand out.  I managed to do seven photo ops, get nine autographs and still saw a bunch of panels (thank god for my VIP pass).  If I was to share all the great moments this blog would be pages upon pages long so I have decided to once again just pick out some of my favourites to share.  Thank you for indulging me in my memories and helping me stave off Expo withdrawal for a few more hours.

Favourite Weight Loss Journey Moment (yep even at Expo my weight loss journey is still present)

I have to say that this year was a pretty eye opening year for me.  Normally all the walking and standing of Expo wear me right out after the first day, leaving me hunting for spots to sit and rest.  This year I found that my body felt much stronger, less tired and until Sunday my feet didn’t even bother me.  At first I thought it was that I didn’t walk around as much (having a less crazy schedule) but my average steps in 2014 over the four days was 12,982 and this year it was only a fraction less at 12,795.  The crazy part about that is my days were longer last year so I actually moved more in a shorter period of time this year.  Looking at these numbers made me realize that it is proof that I am getting stronger and lighter.  My body is better able to deal with walking, stair climbing and lines this year that it has been before. Now all this being said the very coolest moment for me though was walking back from the Olympic Plaza to the Stampede Grounds.  In past years I always hopped on the c-train and took the quick ride back.  This year I didn’t even consider that.  I knew going down that I was going to walk back.  It was the balance to the fact that I was going to miss some of my normally scheduled workouts.  The walk is not long (probably about 1km) but in past years there was no way I would have made it knowing I was going back to spend hours upon hours walking around the Expo.  It made me feel pretty proud to make the choice to walk back and to actually do it.  I will never crowd onto the c-train after the costume parade again.  Hehehe! 

Amazing costumes and tonnes of people make for a very cool parade but a busy commute back to the Expo.

Favourite Moment that Surprised Me

It takes a lot to catch me off guard but Sunday morning as I entered the Expo I had to say I was taken by surprise.  It is not every day that as you walk through a hallway people cheer, clap and high five you.  It was weirdly cool.  It put a huge smile on my face that stuck with me all day.  Sometimes it really is the small things that can make big impacts.  Starting the day with so much energy and positivity set me up to have my best day of the Expo (even if it was also my most tired day).  To all the volunteers that were there (and all over the Expo) thank you for being so positive, helpful and great.  I know you all have to deal with a lot of crazy but you guys do an excellent job and help make the Expo a great place to spend my time.

Favourite Panel

I don’t think I have ever gone to a panel that I didn’t love (even ones that I just sit through just to kill time) but this year there are two that stand out as my favourites.  The first was the Once Upon a Time – Queens of Darkness panel.  Lana Parrilla, Kristin Bauer Van Staten, Merrin Dungey, and Victoria Smurfit were absolutely lovely ladies.  It was great to hear about their work on the show.  I love the characters they play and there were fascinating to listen to.  I also loved the fact before the left the stage they posed with the big pictures of themselves that were on screens behind them. 

As great as I found their panel though if I’m picking my favourite panel of the entire 2015 Expo there can only be one.  It was legen…wait for it…dary!  The one and only Neil Patrick Harris came to spend a day in Calgary and his panel Friday night was awesome.  I have adored NPH since first seeing him forever ago on Doogie Howser.  He is such a talented guy and it was an amazing opportunity to get to hear him speak.  He was funny, charming, intelligent and sweet.  I loved that he broke out with a little Dr. Horrible – Brand New Day.  It was super cool to hear him sing in person even if it was only a few lines. He is such a fascinating person.  I could have listened to him talk, joke and tell stories for days.  I suspect it was a highlight for a lot of people.

Favourite Photo Op

I did 7 different photo ops this year – not a record number for me but still a lot.  I love all of my photos.  Each one of those photos was a really cool, special moment captured.  The smile on my face is never bigger than when I’m hanging out during Expo.  When I look at my photos all the memories come back along with the smile that is permanently glued to my face one weekend a year.  As much as I loved each of my photos I always have one that I tend to be drawn to more and this year that was my 90210 team up photo.  It is the perfect mix of nostalgia and good looking men…not to mention super friendly and sweet.  I was definitely the giddiest in this photo and walked away shaking.  It was awesome!  I will share more about this later though.

The Gentlemen of Beverly Hills 90210 - Luke Perry, Ian Ziering and Jason Priestly

Favourite Media Guest Interaction

I have to say that over the last four years that I have been going to Expo I have had a lot of great meetings with different guests.  In fact with the exception of one, I would say they have all been beyond anything I could imagine.  I am not always the coolest person (although I like to think as each year passes I am gaining the ability to keep the fan girl giddiness inside while showing my calm collected self to the guests) and I certainly more times than not have no clue what I’m going to say but I’m always blown away at how well I am treated (This probably says more about the expectations I generally carry about people than it does about how great Expo guests are mind you.)  This year there were numerous moments that I loved but two stand out.  One I will talk about later because it’s also my top memory from the Expo but the other was meeting Ross Marquand which I have chosen as my favourite interaction for this year.  All the Walking Dead cast members were amazing but Ross made me feel incredibly special.  Judging by the comments I have been seeing on Facebook and twitter I was not alone in this but it doesn’t matter.  I love meeting genuinely nice people.  It started when I went to do a photo op with him on Saturday.  He smiled and said hi when I entered the photo.  Once it was taken he smiled again and told me he loved my hair.  I was over the moon excited by this and it made my day.  It’s not all that common for me to get compliments (although that is happening more these days) which is probably why it stands out a bit more in my mind but none the less it made Saturday wonderful.  Then on Sunday having heard a lot of people talking about how great he was I decided that he would also be the very last autograph that I got.  I had a good feeling that it would end my expo on a high note.  I wasn’t wrong.  He started once again by complimenting me on my hair which got us talking about the colour and how it makes me sad it comes out so quick.  Somehow that transitioned into talking about Expo and how he geeks out at these things too.  He said he was super excited to have gotten to have lunch with Hayley Atwell and you could see the excitement about it on his face.  It was pretty cool to hear.  After all of that I finally told him what I had planned to tell him which was that I was so happy he has turned out to be good cause I really wanted to love his character.  At the end he came out from behind the table and gave me a great big hug.  It was only a couple minutes of the whole weekend but it was so very cool. 

Ross Marquand - Super friendly and wonderful.

Favourite Unexpected Coolness

After the epic day I had on Sunday I decided to send a tweet.  I tagged Ross Marquand on it to thank him for making my day perfect.  I never actually expect anyone to see the things I tweet but he did and he favourited it.  There is something cool about knowing he saw it.  It was kind of like the cherry on the top of the ice cream sundae that was Calgary Expo.

Favourite Overall Memory

Of all the very cool things I saw, experienced and did over the past weekend one stands out above all of them and it totally took me by surprise.  I still remember the morning I got a message asking if I had seen the guest announcement of the day.   I was home sick and hadn’t been playing on my computer but very quickly had it on and open and saw that Luke Perry had been announced.  I was beyond excited by this.  I loved 90210 and was super excited.  You can imagine how much more excited I was when they announced Ian Ziering and Jason Priestly.  Of all the guests coming this year I think I was probably the most excited about them (well until they announced NPH).  On Saturday when I woke up I was stoked because it was the day I was going to get to meet them.  I had a photo op with all of them and also decided to get an autograph from each.  Luke Perry’s was the last autograph I got.  When I walked up he smiled at me and I melted.  I had always been a Brandon girl but Luke Perry was instantly charming so I was starting to jump on the Dylan ship.  He told me a story about how he once shaved the head of a girl named Jill to raise money for cancer.  He then told me he was going to sign my autograph that I had lovely hair so I would remember him.  It was the weirdest and coolest compliment I have gotten on my hair (which seemed to be a hit with a lot of people at the Expo).  We chatted a little bit more and I walked away feeling like the only person in the expo.  Later on that afternoon it was time for my photo op.  All the guys were shaking hands with the girls as they came into the photo area.  Jason shook mine and before Ian could shake my hand Luke was there.  He was all ‘I remember you.  You stayed and chatted with me.  I loved that’ and he pulled me in beside him.  I don’t remember the photographer telling me to look (which they always do) and I don’t remember much of anything but the warmth of Luke Perry’s check next to mine.  Jason and Ian could have been on another planet…or maybe it was just that I was.  When you consider there was over 100,000 people that went through the Expo over the weekend to have a moments where you truly feel like the only person on the planet, even if it was just for a few seconds, it is pretty special.  It is not often that I get to feel the way I did in that moment (special, pretty, wonderful) and that will stick with me for a long time.  I know this because it echoes last year’s favourite moment with Mark Hadlow and I still remember that moment even a year later. 

A cropped version of my 90210 photo and the wallpaper on my phone now.  Hehehe!

The only way I know how to explain how I felt this year as I walked to my car for the last time leaving Expo behind was blissful.  I was happy, relaxed and smiling from ear to ear.  When I look back at the last couple Expos I have attended I have to say they have been really great for me and I suspect some of it comes from the fact I’m finally accepting myself for who I am.  I can walk up to the guests with a smile on my face and for the most part just be my normal self which inevitably seems to win them over (for some crazy reason).  I feel comfortable and confident and I love Expo for helping create this environment each year.  There is really nowhere else in the world that will let you completely be yourself and where you can let whatever you love shine proudly through.  I have never once felt judged, never heard a bad word spoken behind my back or felt anything but love and positive energy.  I look forward to Expo every year because I know that no matter what I love and no matter what I look like, it truly is the one time of year I get to just be me – even if I’m fangirling and being 16 at heart.  There really are no better people in the world than geeks.  They are the most accepting and wonderful group of people. 

Thank you to all the staff, volunteers and guests of this year’s Expo.  I loved every minute of it and will carry with me a lot of very strong, powerful and amazing memories that will have me smiling and remembering just how cool it is to be a geek until next year when we do it all over again.

A Milestone Anniversary

Saturday marked the one year anniversary of my very first workout after joining the YMCA.  At the time I had a joint membership that allowed me to workout at work and at any of the Y locations.  On April 4, 2014 I entered the gym at work at 6am and I was ready to commit.  I made a promise to myself that I was going to make a permanent, lifelong commitment to living a more active life.  This was a continuation of a promise I made myself when I invested in my Fitbit, which was to just move more.  This was my next step.  In the 52 weeks that have passed since that first morning I’m proud to say that I have been able to keep that promise to myself.  In fact I have only missed a small handful of workouts in the last year.  My goal when I started was to get to the gym 5 or 6 times a week.  I haven’t always gone to the gym to get my activity in to achieve that goal but I have managed to find ways to workout even when I didn’t have access to the gym.  I have found ways to workout on holidays, when I was sick and a lot of the time when I was just plain tired.  Working out over the last year has also taught me a great deal about myself and my body.  This entry is a look back at where I was and how far I have come.  It is also a celebration of all that has changed in the last year.  I am incredibly proud of every moment of this journey (which shockingly looking at this blog is in its fifth year) but this last year has been extra special because I finally feel like I’m making progress and am on the right track.  The pieces are falling into place.

Then and Now:

One of the biggest factors for me in finally finding some success on this journey comes from the various forms of tracking I do now.  I have talked about how valuable tracking is before but for me it truly has meant the difference between just saying I’m going to lose weight and actually losing it.  I never realized how motivated I was by numbers and tracking things until I started doing it.  Being able to look back to a starting point has really helped me through a lot of hard days.  I track in various forms including a spreadsheet with my weight and measurements, a workout journal and of course pictures.  Each offers me the opportunity to appreciate different aspects of this journey by comparing then and now.  Here are a few of those comparisons.

My first gym selfie and the most recent.  My face has been where I have seen the most change.  I have a photo on my phone so that every time I unlock it to do anything I'm reminded how far I have come.

When it comes to my workout journal it has evolved over time as well.  The notes I have about my first workout are limited because I didn’t realize just how much I would actually want to track as I got better and stronger.  The most recent entries have much more detail around what I am actually doing day to day in the gym. 

My first work out was 30 minutes on the treadmill.  I did 5 minutes warming up and cooling down with 20 minutes on a speed of 2.0 miles per hour.  The comments were “Felt sluggish, tired and back feeling really tight.”  I know that I was really proud to be back at it and excited to have the goal of running a 5K but I was also disappointed because it was a realization of how much slower I was now than when I used to use a treadmill that I had at home.  It was an eye opening day.

Saturday’s workout was a lot different and I think a good highlight of the changes I have made.  Normally Saturday’s would be done with my trainer but she was off for the long weekend so it was a solo workout.  This turned out to be very cathartic for me because I started this journey on my own and doing my one year workout on my own really showed how much things have changed.  I felt empowered to know that I could push myself hard even without my trainer there and reminded me of the determination I had when I started a year ago.  I am still determined to change my life and I’m not afraid to do the work it’s going to take.  Saturday’s workout started with 5 minutes on the curve treadmill to warmup.  This was followed by circuits of modified burpees, squat & press with a 12 pound medicine ball, medicine ball smashes, reverse lunges and medicine ball side tosses.  I repeated these exercises 4 times.  When that was done it was time to hop on the treadmill for 30 minutes to help me get my step count up (this is totally a curse of my fitbit…I can’t not work to earn my steps each day).  Like my first work out I included a 5 minute warmup and cool down on the treadmill but this time the main 20 minutes were done on a speed of 2.8.  I ended my day at the gym with 15 minutes of cooling down and stretching.  With the two different parts of my workout (cardio session and treadmill) my comments were “tired and my legs are a little shakey but well worked.  Feeling strong and proud” about the training and “treadmill felt good although legs are definitely tired now.  All and in all a great day at the gym” about the treadmill and the whole workout.  I left the gym as I always do these days with a smile on my face and feeling like I can take on the world.

I think the biggest things these two workouts demonstrate to me are the fact that I am not only faster but stronger as well.  I also realize how much more I do during my workouts.  When I first started the only thing I would ever do was the treadmill and now I can’t imagine just sticking to it.  Adding strength training and stretching into my routine has made a huge difference in how my body feels.  If nothing else it has also helped keep me from getting bored at the gym.  I look forward to going each day to see what else I can learn and do.

The last comparison I want to share will probably not be that surprising when you consider the fact that my workouts have gotten longer and that is the difference I see on my daily step counts.  My average step total during this week in 2014 was 7,871 steps and last week it was 10,988.  My best day the same week in 2014 was 11,206 steps and my best day last week was 13,714.  I continue to work towards moving more every day and it is very rewarding to see that I am actually doing it and not just saying it.  The activity has sort of snuck up on me.  What was once a chore to get up and move more now just seems to happen without too much of a struggle.  It has very much become a habit in my life.

Changes in the Last Year:

I have said this to many people and think I have written it in my blog as well (although it may have been on entries that weren’t posted) but when I think back to the person I was before I joined the gym I feel like that version of me is a fundamentally different version then who I am now.  The way I view the world and interact with it is changing, as is my body.  It is hard to pinpoint all the things that have changed (because most of it has been a working progress for awhile) but these are a few of the ones that are easy for me to lock down as being distinctively different from a year ago.

The biggest changes have come in the terms of how I think about a lot of different aspects in my life.  I have learned just how much important it is to get your brain on board with the whole weight loss journey.  When I started last April at least once a week I was having to battle the negative voice inside my head that would say this journey is too hard, too long or it’s not possible to do the things I wanted.  It was much easier for me to feel discouraged and frustrated which often led to me not giving it my all in the gym.   I would love to say that now a year later I don’t battle that same voice but it does still sneak up but it is far less often, probably only about once a month now.  The biggest change though is that I am able to recognize that voice and the reactions that I have to it.  This has allowed me to find ways to control the impact it has.  Now when I have a bad day or workout I take some time to try and look at it objectively (usually through writing) to see if I can figure out what is going on, what I need to change or if I just need to tell the voice to shut up because it’s crazy.  This has helped me to stay more positive about everything and I feel like it has greatly helped with my overall contentment in life.  It is still very much a working progress but definitely I can see and feel the changes that this has brought to my life. I am a lot happier and smiling a lot more.

Another one of the changes that has happened that actually sort of snuck up on me was a growing desire to be healthy.  The more active I am the more active I want to be.  Also the more active I am the more I want to eat better.  Before joining the gym I would have said no to going to get a coffee or going for lunch because it was “too far” away.  The scary thing with that is that too far away was probably no more than a block or two but I just wasn’t motivated to walk it.  Now I look forward to getting out and try to go for walks during at least some of my lunch hours each week.  The other thing that is cool is that I don’t have to worry about saying no to friends because I think that I might not be able to keep up or worry about how tired my legs are going to feel.  I’m still not as fast as some of my friends but I can keep up and enjoy spending time being active with them.  I love moving now.  It’s funny because before I could spend hours at my desk not moving and now if I sit too long I actually get really antsy to move, I even have a calendar pop up set that reminds me to get up and move.

With becoming more active throughout my day the other thing I quickly began to realize was that I actually felt better if I ate properly.  Before if I felt tired or sluggish I never blamed it on the food I was eating but came up with lots of other reasons why I was feeling that way.  But in the last year as I have been training harder and harder I have quickly realized just how much a factor what I’m putting in my system matters.  There have been a couple workouts where I eaten fast food before and the tired and sluggish feeling would plague me on workouts making them much harder than they should be.  They were workouts that I knew I should be able to kick ass on.  Logically I have always known eating better would help but in the last year I have seen the actual results of it.  I don’t expect that I will ever give up all my “junk” food but knowing that if I eat it I’m going to struggle with my next workout helps to keep the cravings at bay for a lot longer.  It has also meant that I’m a lot more careful about what days I choose to indulge in treats.  It is not very often now that I just buy fast food or a treat on a whim.  It is almost always planned out ahead of time, which would have been totally foreign to the me of a year ago.

The last change is of course the changes in my body itself.  I am losing weight and inches.  I don’t have a total for the number of inches because I only recently started taking measurements but from April last year to this past Saturday’s weigh in I have lost a total of 24.1 pounds.  More than half of that number has been in the last 3 months so I expect a bigger number by the time my second anniversary rolls around.  One of the things I have been conscious of when it comes to the number on the scale is trying to find a way to make it more tangible so I can really appreciate how much I have lost.  There are times when I think I haven’t really lost that much weight, or that I don’t feel that different but then I go and pick up a weight at the gym or in the case of the24 pounds I have lost since last year a turkey at the grocery store, and it is kind of amazing to really feel how much weight that is.  I still have a long way to go but like everything else I am incredibly proud of the weight I have lost in the last year.  It has brought me to a grand total so far of 41.5 pounds lost which is very nearly the most I have ever lost.  (The first time I did Weight Watchers I lost 50 pounds before quitting.)

Accomplishments in the last year:

I can’t write a blog entry about the last year and not at least mention a few of the things that I managed to accomplish on this journey in the last year.  All the changes and work have helped me to do a lot of things that I never expected or thought that I could.  Three jump immediately to mind when I started to think about the last year.  The first of course is my first 5K run in September 2014.  The second was facing some personal fears about being judged and actually signing up to get a trainer in November 2014.  The last was when I went to visit my parents for my summer vacation in July and I made the conscious decision and goal to get out and do a walk for exercise each day of the trip.  There were other smaller moments and accomplishments and things that I’m proud of but these three marked not only a shift in my abilities but were also accompanied by a realization of just how much I have changed my thinking and behaviours.  They are moments that I will always look back to and smile about.  They make me feel proud for what I have done but also give me hope for what I will do in the future.  (I totally have box jumping on my goal list for future accomplishments!)

I truly do believe that my life is fundamentally different now than it was a year ago.  I am becoming a version of me that I have always pictured and yet I still find myself amazed that I’m actually achieving it.  Each morning I wake up happy and excited for what the world will have in store for me.  I am actively seeking out new challenges and am ready to prove to the world and to myself that I really can do anything I put my mind to.  I still have a long way to go on this journey but I know and trust more than ever that I will get there.  I will continue to work to transform my life one step at a time while looking to the future but always remembering to take the time to acknowledge and look back to where I came from. 

“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” – Francis of Assisi