I love getting out for a run or a bike ride or a hike with the dogs on Christmas day. I especially love the absence of cars on the road. One year it was above ten degrees celsius on Christmas day and we took our good bikes out for a spin. Beautiful.
It makes you realize how nice it would be if there were fewer cars on the road all the time.
This morning I ran with my son, the teen athlete, at my speed, because it’s Christmas. Aww. We just ran about 4 km around neighborhood mid morning. He gave me some tips on running faster and I tried them out for the last few hundred metres.
It’s amazing too how many of the gifts we exchange have a sporty flavour. Under the tree this year there were running gloves, and a neck warmer, basketball socks and sleeves, compression tights, running shirts, water bottles, and bike jerseys and bike socks. More fun active times ahead.
When we were in Australia on sabbatical at Christmas time, it seemed odd to have a warm Christmas day. We played backyard cricket. Friends said it was a sure sign we’d settled in. Our sons were arguing about the rules, each preferring different versions.
The family we rented the house from in Canberra had an annual Christmas day hike as part of their holiday tradition. They would hike up Mt Majura to Mt Ainslie coordinating with another family, each leaving cars at opposite ends and swapping keys in the middle. And they’d meet up for coffee and car exchange after. Nice!
In New Zealand for Christmas two years ago (hard believe it was that long ago, feels like yesterday) we spent Boxing Day exploring a local beach.
Here at home in cold snowy Canada it can be a bit more challenging. It’s all weather dependent. But you can count on some dog walking! That’s not optional. In past years we’ve gone tubing or tobogganing. This year Christmas morning will start late, 11 am, so early rising teen and I might go for a run. And there’s talk of snow shoeing on Boxing Day. If I lived in Ottawa I’d definitely go outdoor ice skating.
What’s your favorite active thing to do over the holidays? Do you and your family have any active holiday traditions?
For years, magazines and movie screens have idolized women with perfect, impossible bodies. We know them well—tall, lean women with a soft six-pack, no hips, and full, flowing hair. I remember listening to women idolize tiny waists and toned calves, and for as long as I’ve been aware, my mom has never not been on a diet.
I grew up hating my body because it wasn’t Victoria’s Secret perfect—my thighs were thick, my nose was big, and no matter what I did to my hair it was never full or flowing. I started dieting at the ripe old age of 10, and spent every glance in the mirror wishing something (anything) would change. I can recall countless evenings spent eavesdropping on my mom and my grandma, who would sit in the kitchen and gossip late into the evening about everything and nothing. Inevitably, the issue of weight would come up, and they would discuss how much they wanted to lose and which family member had gained the most. I would take mental notes, and promise myself that I’d never be the one that they talked about with such distaste.
I battled and abused my body for years. I wanted to be that perfect combination of fit and tiny (I would have killed for the thigh-gap)—and it was a hard (impossible) battle. I didn’t feel like I could talk to anybody about my struggles because I felt it was expected that I should suffer for my body. Most of what I had read in magazines or seen on TV allowed starlets to detail how hard their diet/exercise routine was—why should I be the exception?
During a particularly rough battle with myself (my nasal anxieties rise again!) I experienced a single, awe-inspiring moment. I was talking to my best friend about my laundry list of flaws when she looked at me and said, “You’re beautiful. Why would you ever want to be somebody else when nobody in the world can be you?” From this single moment I derived two of the most important life lessons of my life.
1) I think that it is our duty as women to support each other in a new way. When my friends used to share their insecurities (I hate my feet/stomach/arms) I would counter with more negativity (Oh your arms are perfect—but my teeth are terrible!). Instead of doing this, we should offer support and open communication. If somebody is self-hating, consider asking them why they feel that way, lend an ear (and then truly listen!). Don’t add fuel the self-hate by being negative about yourself; instead, offer to be an outlet of support and positivity. Women so often put themselves under a microscope, straining to be somebody else’s definition of perfect. We need to take pride in ourselves and our individual traits that make us who we are.
2) In light of being an individual, we need to encourage ourselves to be our best. We need to be healthy—not harmful. Look at Venus and Serena Williams—their bodies are killer! They have tailored their bodies to be instruments that facilitate the success of their careers—and they are not aspiring to be anything other than their best. Or consider Jennifer Lawrence, who blatantly refuses to conform to Hollywood’s definition of “skinny” and instead embraces and defends her body. She surfs, shoots archery, and loves to eat—her body is at its best for her.
The pressure that we put on ourselves to be somebody else can be suffocating. Instead, we should embrace ourselves and support each other. We should focus on letting our bodies be healthy in whatever capacity that is—whether you can run an ultra-marathon or run around the yard chasing your kids. If we can be confident enough to take care of ourselves, we will have the “perfect” body because it will be ours, and it will be the best it can be.
Julia Randall is obsessed with fantasy football, any good Merlot, and the most recent season of American Horror Story. When she’s not singing (really well) you can find her writing for DraftStreet.
Photos were removed in 2025 but they can be found at the links below:
I loved this when it appeared in my Facebook newsfeed yesterday. I’ve got a timer running until spring.
86 days now and counting!
Most of us have lots of energy and enthusiasm for our spring racing goals and we’re ready to pounce once the December holidays are over.
But there’s a downside in going too hard and building too much fitness too soon.
Here’s an argument for pacing yourself:
“Right now though, with your motivation sky high, all you want to do is head into the basement get on the trainer and pound out some killer workouts to get that fitness up. Go time!
But hold on there, killer. Take a look at your objectives for the coming season. They are probably a good three, four or even five months away. Why do you want to be super fit now?
I often hear athletes telling me about all the awesome off-season training they are doing on the turbo trainer: “I’m on the trainer for hours, smashing it!” And where are they when we get to May, which is really the start of the competitive season for us in Canada? Burned out. No doubt about it: no matter how motivated you are, riding on the turbo is mentally taxing. Be careful not to burn up all that motivation in the off-season.
Plan out your season and use the winter to maintain your fitness and work on some weaknesses. Don’t use it as a time to tire yourself out. Bottle some of that motivation, store it up, and when that summer slump comes, remember how excited you were for the upcoming season. Your objectives are around the corner and now it really is go time!””
Racing season is ahead of us, rather than behind, and people can twitchy and competitive. Cyclists can be extra frisky and groups will have a huge range of fitness levels, from people who’ve been riding all winter to people haven’t touched their bikes in months.
Those who can go fast are wanting to speed ahead, and those who are struggling to keep up might not be in the best moods.
Winter can be a great time to focus on skill development rather than just brute fitness. Many cyclists also use the winter season for cross training and for building strength.
I’m going to cross country ski and run and snow shoe.
Enjoy the winter. Don’t rush it. And spring will soon be here!
For a more recent account of the PN experience, see Tracy’s 2014 review here.
Since January 2013, I’ve been enrolled in the Lean Eating for women program run by Precision Nutrition. Many people have asked how it’s going and whether I’d recommend the program.
I’ve had a lot of email about this aspect of the “fittest by fifty” challenge. More than anything else, actually. Since this is feedback I’m sharing with the people at Precision Nutrition I’m happy to share it here too and not just to the people who reach out and ask.
That’s one life lesson from teaching. If three or four people ask me something, I know dozens more want to know too but are too shy to ask. I also try, as a professor, to be fair. Some people ask for what they want, extensions, usually, but I try not to privilege the bold and brave.
It actually fascinates me the extent to which posts about weight, body image issues, and dieting out perform posts on fitness and athletic performance here on the blog. That says something, I think.
Would I recommend Lean Eating? That depends on your goals and your background, I think. Read on and decide for yourself.
We’ve helped thousands of women get in the best shape of their lives; scroll down to view some of the photos and read their stories. Most were so focused on caring for others that they stopped taking time to care for themselves. And that’s where we come in. Our coaches are part nutritionist, part scientist, part caring friend. With a little personal trainer and personal concierge built in. Together, we find what works for you, and then hold you accountable and help you be consistent. You work with a coach for 12 months, entirely online, and we ensure you get healthier, fitter and happier with your body than you ever thought possible.
I knew going in that the program wasn’t a perfect fit. I take my athletic performance goals more seriously than body composition goals. I do want to get leaner (see Fat, fit, and why I want to be leaner anyway) even though I’m not focused on my appearance. By and large, I’m happy with the way I look now. (See Loving the body you’ve got: Body positivity and queer community.) I care much more about getting to the right weight for the race wheels on my road bike (under 170 lbs, for what it’s worth) and not getting dropped on hills than I care about fitting into the latest fashions (die skinny jeans, die) or about looking good in a bikini, according to standards I explicitly reject. I know this makes me not your typical candidate for a fat loss program.
My reaction to my first set of bikini photos, front, back, and side view? (Lean Eating has you take monthly photos.) Wow, I look pretty good in a two piece bathing suit for a nearly fifty year old professor with 3 kids! I’m smiling in the first set and smiling in the last and frankly, I don’t look that different. Yes, I have thick thighs (no thigh gap here, never was, never will be) and solid calves and yes, I have belly rolls and stretch marks. But I tend to see my history written on my body through those marks and scars and think about my wonderful kids and my years spent riding a bike and feel good even about what others see as imperfections. That fits in with my general life view, the glass is always half full.
I look like me, and I like me, so it’s all good.
I do look different in the photos a professional photographer took, but hey, she’s a pro. And she’s not using my smart phone propped up on a bookshelf in timer mode. Besides the pricey real camera, she’s also got on her side: make up, talent, good lighting, flattering poses and postures, and a great attitude. See Nat’s take on our experience, On boudoir photos and plastic guitars (Guest post). So much fun. I highly recommend it as a body affirming experience. Don’t wait til you’re thin. (In fact, don’t ever put things off til you’re thin. You might never be thin, so what? Is that so scary? Go now.)
1. It’s online. I’m an online kinda person, as you might have guessed. I’m introverted and quiet in person but I’m pretty free and open on the internet. Make of that what you will, this aspect of the program worked well for me. It’s no great effort for me to check in with the website everyday and keep up with forums and the unofficial Facebook group. It’s just part of what I do. I’m comfortable meeting people this way and I can point them to various resources (like this blog!) to get to know me better. For example, want to hear my experience with Weight Watchers? Read I hate you Weight Watchers.
2. The coaches. Super timely one on one interaction when that’s required and lots of engagement. I felt I was understood by my coach and that I didn’t have to keep explaining things. Now, I like coaching and I respond well to it and I knew that going in. Not everyone does. I know that the experience of nutrition counseling differs. Your mileage may vary, YMMV, as they say. (See my pro nutrition counseling post here and Tracy’s post on why sports nutrition counseling isn’t for her here.) I’ve done nutrition counseling before and I can’t tell you the number of times I’d have to repeat that I don’t drink alcohol, don’t eat meat and don’t eat fast food. This coach remembered. Now she might have the info in front of her and outsourced that memory to a computer but that’s fine by me. I also felt like my history and my values made sense to her. I’m a teacher too and I notice when I make connections with students, and coach Krista and I connected.
3. Facebook group: The group of women in my cohort in the same coaching group, Team Switch, who were active on Facebook started a Facebook group. That group more than anything felt like my peer group in this experience. We were geographically separate, some in the US, in Canada, in the UK, in Germany….but I loved the interaction. We shared photos of food, recipes, sought advice from one another, and generally had a good time. I even met my lean eating buddy from Germany when she visited Ontario and we bonded over what we’d learned. Unlike the forums, this worked well on my phone and so while the forums are the official PN communication tool, the Facebook group worked better for me.
4. Supported my goal of slow sustainable weight loss: I didn’t want to lose weight fast. Been there, done that. I was much more interested in slow, sustainable changes and I got lots of support for that goal. There was lots of reassurance that baby steps were still steps in the right direction. I didn’t feel pushed at all. (Read Why slow and steady wns the weight loss race at Livestrong.) I lost about 12 lbs over the course of the year but I also have gained a bunch of new muscle so I’m pretty sure my fat/lean ratio looks better than it did. I’ll measure that in the bod pod sometime soon to confirm.
5. The materials. The daily readings were helpful, informative with just the right amount of research and footnotes and things to think about. I loved the emphasis on habits, rather than outcomes. I talk about Lean Eating’s habit based approach here and another blogger talks about Precision Nutrition’s five habits for eating here.
6. Strong emphasis on internal change: There was a lot of emphasis on changing your mind, and as much focus on your attitudes as there was a changing your body. This is kind of an exercise in meeting in the middle. Change attitudes to food and the way you look, change your body a bit, and that’s the transformation. You hear this in the words of the coaches when they praise lean eating clients for increased self confidence and getting to know and love their true selves. Pictures are praised not just for outcomes in terms of size and shape but also for the new attitude they portray. So there are few movie star bodies at the end of lean eating, mostly modest changes, but there’s lots of counseling about body acceptance and loving the body you have. And it’s true that many of the women seem like very different people the inside and out.
Is this bait and switch? Advertise weight and fat loss and offer up a program that’s big on not judging? I’ve thought lots about this and I think that change and acceptance go together.
Here’s six things I could do without:
1. For a program, that’s all online I was surprised there wasn’t a smart phone app for the lean eating forums. I’m on the run lots of the day and I often wanted to check in but needed to wait until I got back to a full size grown up computer, but that’s when I work for real. I have a habit of saving the real computers for actual work, research and writing, and using my phone for Facebook etc and normally I’d slot LE into the latter but without a phone app, it had to compete for work time. Sometimes that meant I was disciplined about work and skipped a day and I kept thinking, since I’ve got lots of down time with my smart phone, waiting for kids, that it didn’t have to be that way.
2. The price. Advance registration is $99 to register and then $99 a month thereafter. That’s a lot out of my personal wellness budget! It’s more if you don’t get on the pre-sale list.
3. Weekly weigh ins and measurements, and monthly photos. Again, there’s lots of counseling around weighing and measuring (“you are more than just a number”) but still, it felt a bit much. Personally I would have done better without all the weighing and measuring.
4. I signed up for the nutrition counseling but there were also planned workouts. Instead, I stuck with the physical activities I love. I wasn’t going. to swap rowing, riding, Aikido, CrossFit for workouts on my own. The fitness stuff was not useful to me and as a result I felt that I was paying for stuff I didn’t use. It also meant I couldn’t connect with others about the workouts. I knew that going in but it bothered me more than i thought it would.
5. Very mixed crowd. Different places, different goals. The idea was one habit at a time but some people were already on pretty restrictive diet plans, following rules that weren’t lean eating habits. Others were second or third time through the lean eating program and they were still following all the advanced habits while reconnecting with the beginning ones. And still others had disordered eating habits from years ago. Some were new to exercise, others were aspiring fitness models.
6. Competition at the end. I don’t like before and after pics and judging the best transformation. Some people came to enjoy it but I’m really not a fan of thinking of life in terms of “before” and “after.” See here for this year’s contest finalists.
Oh a bonus beef, the lean eating materials aren’t searchable. Some people printed up each day’s reading and assignment and put them in binders. That’s not my usual thing but I wish I’d done that too. The only option is manually scrolling back through a day at a time on the calendar.
And I missed the big precision nutrition get together. By the time the dates were announced I was committed to an academic conference that conflicted. That’s my life.
I’d also love it if they had an alumni program for graduates
Where am I now?
I’m keen to try continuing the habits without the coaching. But I’d like a book, or an electronic version of the materials, to help me along. Given that I could have printed up the materials at the time it seems a reasonable request. I understand that they have proprietary interests in the coaching materials but the program wasn’t inexpensive and I could been organized and saved them as I went, if I’d known. (If you’re a LE alumni who was organized, and did save them, let me know!)
Other people in my group are going to continue on to a second year. Some people are going it alone and staying active in our Facebook group.
I emerged from the woods, intending to follow a secluded laneway to the next trail, when I noticed a white van parked about 100m behind me on the laneway. There was a man in the driver’s seat. I paused imperceptibly, then walked in the opposite direction. As I trudged through the deep snow beside the lane, I could hear the van’s motor running behind me. The van was slowing driving closer. The hairs raised on the back of my neck. Without moving my head, I eyed my surroundings. There were no other hikers nearby, this time of day. After all, I liked to hike in solitude. There was plenty of open space if I needed to run, and I was about 800m away from some buildings that should have people in them. My heart started beating rapidly, and I stiffened as the van passed me. It drove on down the lane, around a bend to a parking lot out of sight. As soon as it disappeared, I ducked back into the woods, striding quickly in the opposite direction, down a steep incline towards the pond. I made sure I couldn’t be easily tracked if I were followed, and I only stopped when I was certain any danger was past.
As much as I enjoy hiking in the woods alone, there’s one aspect that makes me incredibly nervous: the fear of being assaulted. If I dwell on it too much, I start to get righteously pissed off that I’m a woman who has to worry about such things. But I do worry. The scenario above? It actually happened, just a few weeks ago. The man in the van was probably harmless, but when I’m alone in a semi-secluded area, every man is a possible threat.
I’m a survivor of childhood sexual abuse from a distant male relative, and I suffer from mild PTSD related to my experiences. In the past I’ve also had a couple of close calls that have kept me from walking alone for months. The first happened when I was a young teenager. I’d decided to walk in my suburban neighbourhood early one summer morning before dawn. An older man in his 50s passed me on a bicycle, then circled back, quietly catcalling to me. I immediately ran to the nearest house and pounded on the front door, waking the inhabitants and scaring the man off. Then, in my late 20s, I was walking alone by the university on a weekend morning, and a man exposed himself to me near the river.
A quick online search on the subject of running safety (the closest thing to hiking safety that I could find) turned up repeated admonitions never to run alone. This frustrates me to no end, because I don’t want to have to depend on someone else’s schedule to get my exercise. Besides which, I enjoy exploring the natural world at my own pace, stopping often to take photographs. In my experience, this doesn’t make me a great hiking partner. More importantly, I feel less free when I have to curtail my activities because of the implied vulnerability of my gender. This is not cool.
So I compromise. I may go alone, but I try to be as conscious as I can of any possible threats to my safety. I try not to be predictable. I vary my locations, as well as times and days of the week. I “check in” my location on Facebook when I arrive. (My mom once asked why I always identified my location on Facebook when I went for a hike. “Um, so you know where to start looking if I disappear, Mom.”) I watch for other hikers – or other people, period. I plan escape routes. I don’t listen to music while I hike. I stay aware of my surroundings – I’m alert to every twig cracking, every leaf rustling. And if I get a bad feeling about a secluded area before I enter it, I immediately turn around and go somewhere else.
I still make poor judgements, though. Like the time I went hiking alone at the Sifton Bog early one morning. I had never been there before, and didn’t know what to expect. There were signs posted in the parking lot, warning of a local thief who was repeatedly breaking into parked cars. That should have given me pause. The trail map showed long trails circling the bog, and a single trail going right in to its centre. I chose the latter, because I wanted to see the bog itself. The landscape was amazing; the boardwalk made me claustrophobic. At the end of the trail I quickly snapped a few pictures and then turned around to leave. I was startled by another woman walking towards me with a large dog.
“I didn’t know if this was a good idea,” she said. “I’ve never walked here alone here, this time of day.” I admitted that I’d felt uneasy, too. Our hushed, embarrassed laughter revealed our unspoken fears. I made a decision: I wouldn’t be taking that particular trail alone again. And maybe I should finally look into those Aikido classes that Sam is always recommending. This article suggests that learning even a basic martial arts fighting stance could deter a potential attacker:
“A woman’s immediate reaction is going to determine her fate…If I’m an attacker and I run towards a woman and she steps back and gets into a martial arts fighting stance I’m going to say ‘This woman is crazy or knows what she is doing and I’m going to find someone else to mess with.'”
I so want to be someone who an attacker wouldn’t dare mess with.
[Author update, July 2016: I started studying the martial art of aikido in early 2014, and am currently about half-way to achieving my black belt. I was also diagnosed with breast cancer in the summer of 2015, and both aikido and cancer have shifted my perspective on fear. Aikido taught me to “enter” when I’m being attacked, and cancer proved to me that I could fight. Martial arts may not be the answer for every survivor of abuse or trauma, but I would highly recommend aikido to anyone. MLG]
If you’re in London, Ontario, and meet the demographics please consider taking part. Shawn is someone whose research project I was involved with in its early stages–we had a fun chat about ‘healthism’–and I’m happy to help him out. Londoners, please share this with your networks. I love that someone is paying attention interested in fitness is considering the views of women.
Women’s Perceived Facilitators and Barriers of Membership in a Commercial Fitness Facility
Researchers at Western University will be conducting research to understand the perceived benefits, facilitators and barriers of membership to a commercial fitness facility amongst middle-aged women. This study will take place at Western University and involve being a participant in a focus group discussion. The focus group session will be 90 minutes and facilitated by a moderator to guide the group’s discussion relevant to the participant’s personal experiences in the commercial fitness facility setting. Compensation will be provided for your time.
If you are interested in participating in this research and can answer YES to the following 4 questions, the research team would like to hear from you.
Are you female age 35 – 55?
Do you speak English fluently?
Do you have transportation to Western University?
Are you presently or have you been a member of a commercial fitness facility in the past?
For more information or to express your interest please contact the researcher below.
Shawn Slade
Health & Rehabilitation Sciences – Health Promotion
While I was away working on the book with Tracy, I occasionally turned on the television in my room. It’s a bit of a novelty. I don’t have one at home.
I have a flat box with a screen in my house you see, but it’s not set up to get TV, hasn’t been since the kids were little and we set ourselves free. (I’m an abstainer, not a moderator, by temperament. See Moderation Versus All or Nothing.) We do watch DVDs and Netflix but I never really see ads except when traveling.
And while watching I saw an ad that surprised me. It was by Cheerios and it featured happy little girls and the last line, that’s what caught my ear, was “Because she will never diet.” I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but no. It was just fine.
“In an effort to create a dialogue with diet-fatigued women, General Mills Canada has launched a multimedia campaign for its cereal brand that it hopes will encourage women share their experiences and feelings about dieting via an online hub.
The ultimate objective, according to General Mills Canada vice-president of marketing Dale Storey , is for the brand will help foster a “movement” that believes “healthy, balanced living is a much more effective way to managing one’s weight and health than the yo-yo of deprivation dieting.”
A national TV commercial kicked off the effort last week. The 30-second spot, developed by Cossette – General Mills’ creative agency – shows young girls having fun and fusing those scenes with copy that uses dieting terms. For example, “She will never stress over yo-yoing.” The last line of the spot is “Because she will never diet.”
The awareness campaign is meant to make adults more mindful of their impact on young girls’ perceptions of dieting.
“We want this generation of women to be the last to diet,” said Jason Doolan, General Mills director of marketing, cereal, in a release.
To help further spread the word, Multi-Grain Cheerios has partnered with Big Brothers Big Sisters to back its Go Girls! mentoring program, which educates girls 12-14 about living healthy and is one of the organization’s fastest-growing mentoring programs.”
Here’s the Cheerio’s Go Girls website. I think it’s pretty well done. What do you think? And I’m curious, as someone who doesn’t watch regular TV with ads, if this is playing in the US.
Image: Pink sky, view from our balcony in Dunedin, New Zealand one morning
It’s December 21, the day of winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. “Days are getting longer and the sun is getting stronger,” I say that a lot these days to remind myself that in terms of daylight, we’re on the home stretch. The worst of the winter dark is behind us.
If you care about snow and cold, and you’re in the northern hemisphere, bad news, the worst is yet to come.
But the good news is that the earliest sunset is past and we’re on the home stretch to longer brighter days with more time for outdoor fun and adventure.
I’ve had an ongoing argument with my partner, Jeff, for years about January, February, and March (the worst months of the year, on my view). His worst is November. Why? Less light and it’s heading into the dark. Now we’re on our way out of the dark. Things are looking up.
My winter dislike has always been cold and snow and I’ve trundled along through the autumn quite happily, and then holidays. What’s not to like?
But I’m going to try out his view and focus on the daylight and he’s right, from that point of view, we’re on the home stretch.
I loved the Midwinter Festival in Dunedin, New Zealand. I was there in June 2012. No Christmas holidays to break up the dark, of course, so they do this instead.
“On the longest night of the year, the lights will be dimmed in the heart of Dunedin city for a magical procession of giant lanterns and spectacular performers. The iconic Dunedin Midwinter Carnival returns in 2012 with ‘A Frosty Night’, New Zealand’s very own winter fairytale. The Octagon’s Victorian streetscape will be brought to life, with fireworks, stilt walkers, musicians and dancers, who will orbit the Octagon, joined by hundreds of hand-made lanterns carried by local children. Juliet Novena Sorrel, the carnival’s Artistic Director describes this year’s event as an “evocative and magical evening” for all to enjoy.|”
Today we are profiling a colleague of ours from Western, Savita Dhanvantari. Love this picture!
I’m a scientist, swimmer and lover of the great outdoors. This is a selfie after a terrific swim this summer at Gibbons Park pool in London, Ont. I belong to a Master’s swim club, the London Silver Dolphins, and our motto is “fun, fit and fast”. Fun comes first! Swimming is an inclusive sport: people of all ages, body types and physical abilities can do it. On our team, there are ex-Olympians, Para-Olympians, Special Olympians, and age groups 20-87, all swimming together, pushing and motivating each other, and having a blast.
My other ways of staying active, in order of “fun”: cross-country skiing, canoeing the magnificent lakes and rivers of southern Ontario, hiking in the woods. My workouts at the gym include free weights and machines, treadmill, spin class or stationary bike. I started following this blog a few months ago, and am really enjoying the conversations and issues around fitness and feminism. I, too, am “almost 50”; 2015 is my year!
If you’d like to be profiled in “Look at You!” please send a photo of yourself in action and a 75-150 word bio focusing on what you do to stay active. You can send your submissions to fitfeminist50@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
