I love winter. I love winter sports. I love the feeling of cold air on my face (and the excuse to cuddle up in something warm when I go inside).
But this winter has felt unusually long and hard. My first snow image is from November 9. I took another on March 28, following a brief squall.
Top: a snow-covered bike path from early November 2025. Bottom: a snow-covered road and trees from late March 2026.
All the jokes about second winter, false spring, and mud season aren’t landing this year because it hasn’t been warm enough to claim that anything was close to spring.
But now it’s April 1st. Surely things will get warmer? My snowdrops are starting to bloom, and I did manage a brief walk with my grandson on Sunday, so maybe. Or am I living with false hopes because it is April 1st and Mother Nature is about to play another winter trick on me?
The only way to know for sure is to get out for a walk or bike ride. Assuming it gets warm enough for the freezing rain to stop, of course.
I’m probably not alone in having stops and starts in my fitness routines. My favourite themes over the years have been about starting small, doing less, getting over injuries with small steps. And that’s where I am again after deciding that I would not participate in winter running this year. It’s been a long winter. I got out there today after a four-month hiatus.
Since I’ve never really managed to stick with a consistent running routine for more than a few months at a time since just before the pandemic, I feel as if I am starting at the beginning.
Today was the first nice day of nice spring running weather, where I could run in shorts and a t-shirt. And so I chose it to be my day one of the beginners running program, Couch to 5K.
Couch to 5K is probably the most widely used learn to run app. It’s a nine-week program designed to get someone from not running at all to running for 30 continuous minutes over the course of three runs a week for nine weeks.
It starts easy and that is just what I want after a long hiatus. Week one has three runs the same: 5 minutes warm up walk, and then 8 intervals of 1 minute of running followed by 1 1/2 minutes of walking, and closing out with a 5 minute walk.
I’m going in with beginners mind because despite having many kilometres under my feet, I feel like a newbie. And I’m open to learning something new about what I can do and how I can do it.
I have let go of what I “used to be able to do,” and am focusing on what I can do today.
So, apparently we’re starting April tomorrow which is bizarre because I am pretty sure we just started March.
Time is a mystery.
But seeing as the calendar is insisting that a new month is imminent, I thought it would be fun to look at some of the fitness and wellness related days that have been assigned to April.
April is…
Move More Month – that seems pretty promising and it could be pretty easy, if the weather cooperates even a little. And for many of our bloggers and readers, it ties in nicely with the fact that April is also Active Dog Month -it’s like a 2 for 1 special, really.
Stress Awareness Month – I think we are all pretty aware of stress (ha!) but this could be a good time to pay attention to your stress levels and see if you can find some relief.
For me, though, the best awareness day this month is April 5 – which is My Sister Denise’s Birthday Awareness Day.
Denise is a fun, creative, outdoorsy person and I highly recommend that you celebrate My Sister Denise’s Birthday Awareness Day by finding some nonsense to participate in, by taking yourself outside for some fun, or by doing something creative.
In fact, if you *do* celebrate My Sister Denise’s Birthday Awareness Day on Sunday, let me know and I will draw you your very own gold star as a reward.
Being a person who is good at getting things done is part of my identity.
And yet lately, I’ve been struggling. Not with everything. In the world of fitness, I’m struggling with one very specific, very small thing: doing my daily mobility routine. The routine includes exercises to improve my hiatal hernia, hip mobility movements, and some stretching to maintain the range of motion I worked so hard to get after knee replacement surgery.
I’ve got three different 10-minute routines–one done lying on my yoga mat or in bed, one to be done with a chair, either seated or standing holding the chair for support, and a flow version for when I’m feeling extra good.
My plan is always to do them in the morning. In theory, I’ve got time between when I take mediation and when I can eat breakfast. There’s supposed to be a full hour there! And yet…sometimes between Wordle, and drafting my #ThreeGoodThings and “Hey, Google please play the CBC news” and similarly “Hey, Googling” the weather in Guelph today and showering and putting on coffee and thinking about breakfast and lunch…well, you get the idea.
I’ve written about my 5 to 9 routine here before and admitted that really for me, given my work schedule, it’s more like 5-7 am and I listed some options for what I might do in that time. The options were write, walk Cheddar, ride my bike, or my physio/mobility routine. And yet I’ve mostly managed to do none of those things in the 5 to 7 am time slot! It’s all Wordle, scrolling and going back to sleep. To be fair, that’s also when I share our blog posts to social media, which WordPress won’t do automatically anymore.
I said “mostly” because the week gets a great kick off with all my Monday morning energy going into the Herd’s Morning Morning Coffee Crew ride. And Tuesdays and Thursdays we’re at the gym at 7. The mobility routine has to happen first, before these things. And it’s just 10 minutes.
I could do it while the coffee drips! Actually, that’s not a bad idea. I might try it.
Do you have a small thing you struggle to do? What techniques have worked for you to just get it done? I’m listening….
Whatever the weather outside, it’s definitely spring here in Ontario. And for those of us with summer fitness ambitions, it’s time to ramp up our outdoor activity levels. April 1st is kind of the outdoor hiking/biking/running/paddling January 1st, if you know what I mean. There’s no more winter-weather excuses. It’s time to get out there and do your thing.
(Yes, I know Spring Equinox was March 20th, but for me, it’s really April 1st that feels like the first day of spring.)
I’m looking at the calendar and counting down the days until #30DaysOfBiking begins. (I’ve also got my trainer at the ready in case of snow, freezing rain or other forms of wintry mix get in the way of my outdoor riding plans.) See April’s Gonna Be Pure Joy, Baby
I’m also thinking of trying something new for April 1st, adding a second low-stakes fitness intention. I’m calling it the New Path Protocol.
As a cyclist, I am a total creature of habit. I have my “standard” 20km loop I can sneak in before work, my fave weekend 50 km route, my everday “quick” commute, and my scenic “take the long way” route to campus. I worry that I’ve lived here in Guelph for 8 years and there is still a lot of the city and surrounding area I don’t know.
The New Path Protocol is simple: Commit to taking a different route on my bike at least once a week. Choosing a path just to explore on my daily commute is an act of curiosity. Taking a new path might mean finding beautiful gardens on a side street I usually skip, or on the weekend, on my longer rides, it might mean discovering exactly which gravel trail is currently an unridable swamp. I’m in! Either way, it’s about exploration, not about speed or distance. At the start of the cycling season, I think it will feel good to have some low stakes goals. After all, I’m not a cycling beast anymore!
What about you? Are you a creature of habit who takes the same loop every time, or are you ready to join me in getting a little bit lost this April?
CW: discussion of paying people to lose weight, with an eye to showing its flaws, both medical and moral.
Saturday morning I was perusing my email and ran across the most recent Ethicist column in the NY Times. I enjoy and respect philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah’s thoughtful answers to sometimes thorny, sometimes appalling social and moral questions. We don’t always agree, but then again, what two philosophers are always on the same page? We even manage to make a living (if not a very handsome one) disagreeing.
Articles, books and comics, all honoring philosophers disagreeing. It’s a thing.
Back to the issue at hand. The Ethicist was called to weigh in on the following question:
Can we ask our son to go on weight-loss drugs in exchange for a house?
If you’re in a hurry, here’s the answer: no.
For those of you who prefer pictures to words:
No. Absolutely not. Thanks, Debby Urken for this colorful NO.
Before I get into what I think is wrong with paying people to lose weight, let’s hear from Appiah. He was his usual measured self, but he came down strongly on NO. Here’s a bit of the question:
Several years ago, my husband and I purchased a house for our son, with an agreement that he would pay us back. He remodeled it from scratch and has been making his payments to us fairly regularly, though he misses occasionally when other priorities arise. We both agree that we would like to gift him the remaining balance on the house...
Our son, however, is morbidly obese, and my husband wants to condition the gift on his getting on a GLP-1 program, which would mean using about half his monthly savings to pay for the medication. I feel that a gift is a gift and you should not extort a grown man, even when it is in his best interests. Your thoughts? —
Basically they’re asking if it’s okay to withhold giving the house to their son (which they had already planned to do) until he starts taking a GLP-1 weight-loss drug for weight loss.
What does The Ethicist say in response? Here’s an excerpt:
It’s not always wrong to attach conditions to a gift. Sometimes the conditions are intrinsic to what’s being given. There’s nothing coercive about a college fund that requires enrollment…
By contrast, your son is fully capable of judging the evidence and deciding what to do with his own body. His choice not to pursue treatment may be misguided, but it’s his to make, and the condition is unrelated to the gift. What your husband is considering isn’t extortion; withholding a benefit isn’t the same as imposing a penalty. But it’s disrespectful.
…not only does your husband’s plan treat your son like a child, it also may not be effective in the long run.
So consider another gift, the kind where the condition is intrinsic to what’s being given: Offer to defray the costs of his treatment. You have the means, and this way you’d be giving him something without saying anything about how much you trust his judgment. He may still decline. If he does, you’ll need to make your peace with the fact that it’s his body and his life.
Okay, I think that is an okay, if overly mild-mannered answer.
Here’s my non-mild answer, which is in three parts, in increasing levels of non-mildness.
Part one: Paying people to lose weight isn’t effective long-term.
There are loads of studies examining the effectiveness of financial incentives for weight loss (as well as smoking cessation and other health-related behaviors). What’s the upshot? Some people respond in the short-term (that is, during the period of the study or cash payments). In this 16-week study, participants were put into three groups: 1) playing a lottery in which they won money if they hit target weight; 2) depositing their own money and receiving funds if they complied with protocols and also hit target weight; 3) control group.
What happened? After four months weight loss in experimental groups was higher (13–14lbs) than in the control group (3.9lbs). But at the seven-month follow-up, differences were not statistically significant. And few of the participants opted to continue the financial incentive study.
There are loads of such studies, along with systematic reviews, and they generally show the same outcome: maybe a little weight loss to start, but 1) it’s a small amount; and 2) participants regain weight after the study ends. Which is demonstrably bad for health– yo-yo dieting leads to lots of bad health outcomes.
Part two: paying people to lose weight is coercive, showing disrespect for them as autonomous persons.
In the studies I looked at, the participants tend to report lower incomes, and the financial rewards are typically in the $300–500 range. This amount may convince someone who needs the money to participate, but it preys on their economic insecurity rather than appealing to whatever motivations they have about any health-directed behavior change. We see this pattern in other global health care ethics issues, in particular around surrogacy tourism, where vulnerable populations have been targeted for coercive financial arrangements. Read more here about surrogacy tourism in India.
Am I saying that paying people to lose weight is ethically just like paying them for surrogacy, or for their organs? No. But, once money is in the mix, exploitation, coercion and abuse have quickly followed, and this is well-documented.
What Appiah suggests instead is that the parents offer to cover the costs for GLP-1 meds IF their son wishes to take it. That’s the mild-mannered approach I mentioned above.
Here I part ways with him. Is offering to pay for another person’s GLP-1 meds a sketchy move? Yes. Why? Making such an offer is implicitly making a negative judgment about another person’s weight (namely, that it should be lower), conveying that judgment to them, and forcing a confrontation/discussion about the person’s own weight and health values and goals, which are nobody else’s damn business.
To be sure, we commonly negotiate uncomfortable and personal discussions with people we are close with, especially about health-directed behaviors. Sometimes those discussions are useful, resulting in extra support that is appreciated.
However, in the case of body weight, I argue that silence about it is always golden. We are all aware of what our bodies are like, and are reminded constantly of the ways they may fail to conform to unrealistic media standards. In short, the son knows what his body size is like, and is doubtless well-versed in general population concerns about body weight ideals. Which leads me to part three:
Part three: making an unsolicited offer to pay for another person’s GLP-1 meds reinforces the culture of weight stigmatization and discrimination, and burdens the other person with a vivid reminder of it in the face of someone they care about.
Yeah, pretty much that. The son is getting a clear message that his parents think his body is unhealthy, too big and needs to be smaller. And they are considering leveraging his need and desire for a HOME against their desire for him to change his body size. Ew.
And even Appiah’s soft-soap approach still conveys the parents’ thoughts and judgments, even if it doesn’t implicitly threaten him (yes, they are making a positive claim– giving the him a house– but there’s a negative one underneath–making him continue house payments).
Just as the son certainly knows what the parents think about his body weight, he also probably knows that they will help him if he asks. IF HE ASKS.
So, my advice is saying nothing until and unless he asks for financial help in paying for GLP-1 meds.
This baby says be quiet, hold up, say nothing. Thanks, baby.
My dear readers, you may agree with me, or you may disagree. As a philosopher, I welcome all comments. So tell me what you think…
Shipping delays meant the new mattress and frame were delivered 10 days ago. Already Michel and I are used to the new bed. Here’s our early review.
Change takes time
The first night I tossed and turned. The mattress did not feel like my “home”. I felt too high. I got less sleep. The second night I slept better than I had in ages.
Size matters!
Our dog, Lucy, sleeps with us. The three of us on a queen size bed was too crowded. Now we each have lots of room in our split king. This has meant fewer wake ups as well as less tossing and turning.
Cooling
The new mattress, mattress cover and sheets are all about airflow. I have roughly 3 hot flashes a night. I’m not as sweaty and I’m able to fall back to sleep faster. Michel is a sweaty sleeper too and has noticed a big change in being able to regulate his temperature at night.
Goodbye back pain
We have set the adjustable frame for a slight lift on our calves and a bit of lift for our heads. This has given our lower backs more support.
The hybrid mattress is firmer than our old foam one. It is also considerably less lumpy! This means I’m not waking up in the morning with a stiff or sore back.
Staggering price point
I was shocked how much a hybrid split king with adjustable frame was. All in, we invested around $10,000 Canadian. WOWSERS.
That’s a shocking amount. We had spent $1,800 on our foam mattress and frame 7 years ago.
Buyers regret?
Absolutely not. Michel and I had both been struggling to get to sleep, stay asleep and get up pain free. Since we use the bed every night the cost per night over the next ten years is $2.74. Worth. Every. Penny.
I’m grateful we could afford a new bed and thrilled we are sleeping better.
A hand on a bed that promises lots of wonderful sleep.
April starts on Wednesday, which means one thing in cycling circles: it’s time for #30DaysOfBiking.
The premise is simple and it’s a challenge that makes me smile — ride your bike every day in April, any distance, any destination, and share your adventures online. #30daysofbiking There’s no minimum. Around the block counts. So does a 100km ride. If you miss a day, just pick up where you left off — this is supposed to be joyful, not punishing. My plan is to ride on my trainer for 20 min on the days when I don’t commute by bike. 30daysofbiking
We’ve written about this challenge before — our post from 2022 is below — and the spirit of it holds up perfectly. If you’re just getting back on the bike after winter, this is a lovely low-pressure way to make it a habit. If you’ve been riding all along, it’s a good excuse to bring friends along.
And as they say on the 30daysofbiking website, “April 1–30, 2026 — April’s gonna be pure joy, baby.”
This year’s challenge runs April 1–30, 2026. Make your pledge at 30daysofbiking.com and tag your rides #30daysofbiking.
It’s the last few days of March, which means southern Ontario is doing its thing: one day it’s practically summer, the next there’s freezing rain and you’re back in your winter coat wondering what you were thinking. We’ve been here before. Every year.
I wasn’t sure what to wear yesterday when I was heading into Toronto for the awarding of the Middlebrook Prize for Young Canadian Curators. (Congrats Casper Sutton-Fosman!) Thursday’s high was 13, and it was very rainy. But the overnight low was -11 with possible snow. I ended up opting for my raincoat and having Sarah bring along my wool winter coat, hat, boots, scarf and mitts in the car. It’s a lot!
This post from 2022 captures that particular late-March feeling perfectly. I’m hoping to ride my road bike this weekend and take the snow tires off my commuting bike, that is if it doesn’t snow again.
We don’t have a regular blogger posting today so it felt worth bringing this older post back this week, when we’re all hovering between winter and spring, waiting for the season to make up its mind.
