Month: April 2014

body image · fitness · Guest Post

Three Reasons Why My Dogs Are My Fitness Heroes (Guest Post)

Audrey4 Comments

two dogs on a rock overlooking a lake

I’ve mostly written posts on this blog about martial arts, one of the great influences in my life. So now I’m going to write about one of the other great influences in my life, namely my dogs. I currently live with a border collie, an Australian shepherd, and a boxer/doberman mix. And to indulge my additional love of lists, let me give you three reasons why these dogs are my fitness heroes.

3) They are motivated every day.

When you live with three healthy and active adult dogs, some form of outdoor physical activity is a non-negotiable part of the day. Taking a walk is just part of what you do. It’s admittedly not so fun when you’re sick or when the weather’s bad, and was pretty tricky when I was on crutches for a couple of months. But I really don’t often regret getting some fresh air and neither do they.

2) They exercise because they love it.

Sam has already blogged about dogs being intuitive exercisers. The reason why I love the way my dogs exercise is because they really don’t care about how many calories they’re burning, or which muscle groups they’re working. They exercise because they love to run around in the woods and play and chase things. And that matches my personal feelings about exercise, which is that it should ideally just be a consequence of doing things that you enjoy. I love kicking things, climbing rocks, and riding my bike to work, and I’m lucky that those things also help me stay in decent shape.

Another consequence of dogs’ exercising for the joy of it, is that they don’t feel as though they always need to work themselves to exhaustion to be satisfied. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever really tired out my border collie. (Though I’m also not sure whether it’s actually possible to tire out a border collie.) Regardless, he can still be happy and satisfied with a good hike even though he would surely be willing and able to do the entire thing all over again. Because they exercise for the joy of it, they don’t feel guilty (or even think) about whether they’ve worked hard enough.

1) They are unambiguously body-positive.

I came up with the idea for this post this morning when I was getting dressed and (as usual) poking at various parts of my body and inspecting them in the mirror to evaluate just how dissatisfied I ought to be with them. This part of my morning routine was (as usual) interrupted by my border collie nosing me in the leg, partly because he wanted me to hurry up and partly because he thought I should pet him instead. Both of these being eminently reasonable requests, I petted him, then hurried up. But it also occurred to me just how puzzled he must be by the fact that I delay our walk more or less every day by doing the same pointless thing.

I don’t know if you’ve had a dog. But if so, you know they love you no matter what you weigh or where you carry (or don’t carry) your body fat. Or how your hair, nose, or any other features look. In fact, I’m pretty sure they don’t even have a concept of human beauty ideals, much less the capacity to care about them. So really, dogs are more body-positive than pretty much any of us. But what we can at least take away from them is a concept of body-positivity that goes beyond “every body is beautiful.” This is a nice message, but sometimes I just want us to let go of this valuing of beauty altogether. That means instead of saying that we’re all beautiful, saying beauty doesn’t really matter. And some days I’d really like that. Instead of trying to come to terms with myself and convince myself I actually am beautiful, some days I’d rather just forget that the whole thing is even an issue. And that’s what I get when I hang out with my dogs.

So I’ll end this post with the message that I think my border collie was trying to send me this morning.

Wouldn’t you be happier if you took all that time you spend dwelling on your imperfections and just petted a dog instead?

Yeah. I thought so.

 

Audrey and a dog walking on a path

Uncategorized

Too Skinny to Go to Yale?

Tracy I10 Comments

yale1-1384341473Can a university really threaten suspension because of how much (or how little) someone weighs?  If they’re an IV league school like Yale, apparently the answer is “yes.”  The school told student Frances Chan she had to gain weight if she wanted to stay, says this report.  She tells her own story in a Huffington Post article entitled, “Yale University Thinks I Have an Eating Disorder.”

Frances Chan comes from a long line of naturally thin people.  The 5’2″ student weighed 92 pounds when medical professionals at Yale put her on notice.  She was subjected to regular weigh-ins to monitor her weight.  This drove her to do everything she could to gain. She says in the Huff Post piece:

Finally, I decided to start a weight-gain diet. If I only had to gain two pounds, it was worth a shot to stop the trouble. I asked my health-conscious friends what they do to remain slim and did the exact opposite. In addition to loading up on carbs for each meal, I’ve eaten 3-4 scoops of ice cream twice a day with chocolate, cookies, or Cheetos at bedtime. I take elevators instead of stairs wherever possible.

We’ve blogged before about the way fit and fat can come apart.  We’ve also talked about why thin-shaming is as unacceptable as fat-shaming.  It’s not that eating disorders aren’t something we should care about. But not everyone who is thin necessarily has an eating disorder. And in any case, eating disorders are not grounds for suspension from university!

It’s not even clear that people can be forced to address their eating disorders without compromising their autonomy. See my post “Ana, Mia, and the Health Imperative: Do We Have to Eat for Our Health?”  The approach they took was intrusive and in violation of Chan’s right to bodily autonomy.  Imagine if they’d gone after her for being overweight?  For all we know, Yale does that, too.

The problem, claims Chan, is not that Yale is concerned about students with eating disorders. Rather, it’s that they use BMI as their primary diagnostic tool. BMI is not a good measure of individual health.  In fact, as Sam outlines in “Fit, Fat, and What’s Wrong with BMI,” it was designed as a way of measuring health across populations.

The good news story (because remember, I have made a commitment to blog about happy and empowering things this month)?   Chan used it as an opportunity to tell her story to a wider audience and to raise awareness about eating disorders. The  Huffington Post article ends with this notice:

If you are struggling with an eating disorder, call the National Eating Disorder Association hotline at 1-800-931-2237.

And in an epilogue to the story, Chan reports on her Facebook page that Yale has backed down and one of the medical staff apologized:

“Positive updates from Yale Health 🙂 “Just visited Yale Health with my parents and met with a new doctor. She apologized repeatedly for the ‘months of anguish’ I went through and admitted that BMI is not the end all be all. She also looked at my medical records since freshman year (which the previous clinician had not done) and noted that she saw that my weight had remained around the same. So she trusts that I do not have an eating disorder and admitted that ‘we made a mistake.’ She also does not want me to feel uncomfortable coming to Yale Health if I get a flu or something. I do still have to see them, but at most once a semester. And I’ll be away for the coming year, so….LET TIME BE A MIGHTY RIVER!!!”

Crossfit · sports nutrition

Thinking beyond exercise as punishment and food as fuel

Sam B9 Comments

 

I never think of exercise as punishment for what I eat. I love the physical things that I do even though I rarely think of it as exercise. (See Is it time to ditch exercise?)

I remember when I started to think about food as fuel instead. Cycling certainly requires that perspective. You can’t go for long, fast bike rides without planning what you’ll eat and when. My friend David sets an alarm to remind himself to eat on the bike.

Let’s rewrite the text on the above image. How about instead you think, “French fries fuel a lot of burpees! ” While I don’t generally eat french fries, I do find myself thinking that I need to eat before I work out. That’s totally different than thinking I need to work out because I ate. It’s what happens when you start thinking in terms of sports nutrition. “What would best fuel my workout?” is a different question than “What do I have to do to burn off those french fries?”

But the next step is realizing that food is fuel but it’s also importantly more than fuel.

Fuel is one of the role food plays but it’s not the only one.

“…. food also includes micronutrients, phytochemicals, zoochemicals, water, and more. Think of these as character actors in a movie. They may not be the “stars” of the show. They don’t really provide “energy” (or fuel) at all. Yet their dynamic interactions create the spark. They’re absolutely critical for energy, performance, mood, and optimal long-term health. In other words, without them, the show won’t go on. Unfortunately, the “food as fuel” story almost completely ignores these important characters,” writes Precision Nutrition’s John Beradi.  Read the rest of “Food is NOT Fuel” here.

eating

Falling in Love with Kale, One Recipe at a Time

Tracy I7 Comments

kale-benefits-1We’ve all read about leafy greens and how great they are for us. Those of us from a certain era know all about canned spinach as the source of Popeye’s bulging biceps!

But we’ve come along way since then. Kale is the new superfood. A dark green leafy vegetable with a slightly bitter taste, a sturdy spine up the centre line of each leaf, and all sorts of ways to prepare it. If you don’t like one way, try another. And if all else fails, there is the miracle known as ‘kale chips.’

I’ve fallen head over heels in love with kale over the past couple of months. It was not love at first sight by any means. I’m pretty partial to spinach actually (though I know full well it’s not enough for Popeye-esque biceps). But I kept reading about kale.  I was challenged recently to try some new things from the produce section of my grocery store, and since there’s not much that’s new to me, it seemed a good time to introduce myself to kale.

So what’s the big deal about kale?  Is it really a superfood? Superfoods are nutrient dense and have lots of health benefits.  According to this article, it’s an under-appreciated superfood, a real “nutritional powerhouse.”  The health benefits of kale include: high fiber and low fat; high in vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin K (potassium) and iron); rich in anti-oxidents; anti-inflammatory; high in calcium.

My experiment began with a recipe for Balsamic Glazed Carrots and Kale from the cookbook, Vegan Planet.  It’s a simple and tasty recipe that makes a great side dish. I even enjoyed it at room temperature the next day as part of my lunch. One downside about cooked kale (perhaps there’s a trick that I’m not aware of) is that it loses its vibrant green color and goes kind of dark and dreary.  And like spinach, it shrinks a lot. You need to cook way way more than you think you do.

The next thing I discovered was a Sweet Kale and Vegetable Salad kit.  It’s a kind of shredded mix that includes all sorts of things, including kale. It is AMAZING. I add my own dressing (since the poppy seed dressing it comes with isn’t vegan) and usually give it a protein boost with some chickpeas. Sometimes I use it to add crunch to a more traditional mixed greens salad.

But more often these days I’m eating it as its own salad (with the chickpeas) as a mid afternoon snack.  It’s so easy to toss a bit in a container and take to work. Granted, kale is not the only thing in this mix. It’s also got broccoli, brussels sprouts, chicory, cabbage, and some dried cranberries and roasted pumpkin seeds.  Those who tell you kale is too bitter to eat raw are just wrong. It’s excellent in a salad.If you’re just getting your toes wet with kale, it’s a good way to go.

GreenDetoxSmoothie-300Having experimented with cooked kale and raw kale in salads, my next move was to toss it into my morning smoothie.  Most mornings I mix up a smoothie with a banana, frozen strawberries, a handful or two of spinach and/or kale, a cup of almond or soy milk, a cup of juice, a few scoops of protein powder and some flax oil. This makes enough for me and Renald for breakfast, and a snack later on for myself and I love it.

If you’re going to use kale in the smoothie, don’t include the hard spine (though if you have a Vitamix blender it can probably handle it).  Spinach adds pretty much no flavor to the smoothie. Kale is similar in this respect, as long as you have a lot of other flavorful ingredients. Here’s a website devoted to smoothies with kale. And here’s a simple kale smoothie recipe from the Canadian Living website.

But it’s the kale chip that cemented my relationship with kale.  I confess to being skeptical about the idea of kale chips. As a potato chip fan, many imposter chips have disappointed me over the years.  But the kale chip is not trying to be a potato chip at all. It’s its own special thing.

I discovered this at an event in the fall where the reception table included kale chips brought in from (I think I’m remembering correctly) a Buddhist monastery (or meditation centre?) nearby.  These light and airy delicacies had some sort of coating on them that seemed almost cheesy. But they were totally vegan.  Nutritional yeast, as it turns out.

This weekend I experimented with kale chips.  A friend (the same one who ordered the kale chips from the Buddhists for her event) sent me a recipe that had an oven version and a dehydrator version.  It’s not a low fat recipe, but it sure beats out potato chips for nutrition, relatively lower fat, and flavour.

The recipe is for Spicy Tahini Kale Chips from the Savory Simple blog.  I have to say, this is the one. It’s a simple concoction of  tahini, lime juice, nutritional yeast, olive oil, and dried red chilies tossed (with bare hands) into bite sized pieces of washed kale.  I did half in the oven and half in the dehydrator.  I thought the dehydrator would produce markedly superior kale chips, but the oven worked just fine (and I had my chips in an hour; the dehydrator took eight hours).  It’s a simple recipe and the outcome was a bowl of delectable, delicate kale chips bursting with flavor.

kale-chips_4223

Honestly, it’s one of those recipes that make me think, “wow, I can make these at home!”  More coming up later this week.  Between the smoothies and the chips and that ready-made salad, I’m a kale convert!

I am a mom bike jersey, back view I am someone’s mom and I ride a bike
cycling

I am someone’s mom and I ride a bike

Sam B21 Comments

A friend just posted a picture of her new bike jersey. Love it. I’m also a mum and a cyclist and I want one too. Both parenting and cycling are big parts of my identity.

I also want drivers to know that cyclists are regular people, with families and loved ones. The lycra clothes and carbon bikes don’t give us super powers.

The company that makes the jerseys, Carytown Bicycles says,
“Moms ride too. Drivers need to recognize that there is a family somewhere that needs its mother to make it home safe and sound. Don’t mess with moms!”

But I confess that at some level I have a mixed feelings about the “mom” jersey. What if I’d decided not to have children? It would still be wrong to run me off the road, right?

Now there is a “dad” version too. And a “daughter,” and “son,” version too.

Maybe I’ve been thinking too much about families and the many shapes which they come. I just gave a talk at the Rochester Institute of Technology part of which was about extending the scope of morally significant family relationships beyond parent and child.

But even those isolated from their families or who voluntarily live alone need to be treated with respect on the road.

But there’s also a special worry about “mom” language. It’s hard get respect for women as persons. See I Am Not Your Wife, Sister or Daughter. I Am A Person. It’s about appeals to family relationships in the case of sexual assault.

“The truth is that I am someone’s wife. I am also someone’s mother. I am someone’s daughter, and someone’s sister. But those are not the things that define me, or make me valuable in this world. Those are not the reasons that I should be able to live a life free from rape, sexual assault or any kind of violent crime.

I have value because I am a person. Full stop. End of argument. This isn’t even a discussion that we should be having.”

Maybe I’m overthinking things. Surprise! Philosophers do that.

Maybe it’s as simple as saying that anything that results in fewer cyclists dying on our roads is a good thing.

I had similar reservations about research that shows that drivers consistently give women riders more room on road. See Implicit bias, women riders, and helmet pigtails.

“Want to get more room on the road while riding your bike? Here’s one way. Have drivers judge that you’re female.
Study after study shows that drivers give more room when passing female cyclists. They also give more room to riders without helmets but that’s another issue.”

Maybe in the end what matters is getting better treatment and more room on the road. Wear helmet pigtails whatever your gender. Wear the “mom” jersey whether or not you have kids. If “baby on board” stickers mean other drivers behave better around your car, go for it.

Carytown also sells this t-shirt which I love.

image

aging · fitness · Guest Post · health · injury · training

Stretch or bust! (Guest post)

cdaigle

One other important thing I have learned working with personal trainers (see my post Rediscovering my Body: Personal Training) is the importance of stretching. I used to never stretch. Unless you count stretching for 30 seconds overall proper stretching. I used to go straight from doing nothing to exercise, and from exercise to shower. Heck, I am a busy girl and who has time for stretching, right?

Sometimes I feel like a Formula 1 but this is not because I feel high performance. Rather, I feel like I need a whole pit crew to keep me going and take care of my frailty (yes, Formula 1 cars are very fragile). I have a crew of massage therapist, chiropractor, and osteopath to keep the vehicle going and fix it when it needs it. But I have been forgetting the role of the driver in taking care of her vehicle. Stretching!!!

When I was a little girl, I used to really enjoy my grandparents’ yearly visits. Every summer, they came to stay with us for two weeks. For those two weeks, every morning I would do my exercises with my grandfather. He would turn on the TV to some American channel where women wearing leotards and their best smile would make us do various stretching and other light exercises for 30 minutes. Grandpa and I would do them together. Once we were done, grandma would bring us breakfast (an orange, a toast and a cheddar cheese sun for me) and we would watch The Price is Right.

My grandfather’s morning stretching routine was not only a vacation one. He did that every morning of his life. He was right. Stretching is good for you. Getting into a relaxed state and moving every limb gently, waking them up for the day to come is the best thing one could do for oneself. If one trains or engages in more strenuous physical activity more seriously than he did, daily stretching becomes an imperative as is the pre and post workout stretching.

For years I have disregarded stretching. I am very flexible. Who needs to stretch when one can touch their knees with their nose, right? Wrong. Or so my aching body has been telling me. When I picked up running again with my personal trainers in January, my right knee started bothering me again. I mentioned that to my massage therapist (pit crew member, see above) and she offered to work on my legs rather than my back. What she uncovered was a real mess, a situation which, as she said, has been building up for a long, long time. I suspect all the bike rides I have done over the years, ranging from 30 to 120 km, without stretching either before or after, are to blame. Also to blame are all the gym workouts, elliptical, stepper and other devices used without stretching whatsoever (or just a little, once in the shower). Other culprits: the jogging sessions wrapped up with mere walking, no stretching. All of that has generated issues for me that I could easily have avoided if I had stretched properly.

I have learned many things with my personal trainers. A very important thing I have learned is to start and end every workout with stretching. Dynamic stretching to start, static stretching to end. Just get those limbs ready for the effort, you will be better at it and then relax your muscles when you are done, you will feel better after it. In short: stretch or bust!

aging

What does 50 mean to me? Some first thoughts

Sam B12 Comments

As the summer of 50 approaches, I’ve got lots of friends and family asking how I feel. The answer is, aside from coming out of the worst winter of my life which was a horrible combination of polar vortex and personal sadness, I’m feeling pretty darned good. (See Rough times, tough choices if you missed hearing about my very sad year.)

I’m by nature a relentless, unreasonable optimist. It’s just genetic luck of the draw. I know that. I don’t take any pride in it. I have friends and family who struggle with depression and I don’t think I’m any more virtuous than them. I’ve just inherited my mother’s sunny disposition. Though we have our bad days, we’re glass half full types.

So when I read this, it made me smile.

 

There’s something right I think about the idea that you can feel younger at 50 than you do at 40. At 40 you’re busy comparing yourself, if comparing is your thing, to 20 and 30 somethings. At 50, the idea is, you look at the 60 and 70 somethings and feel young. For example, 50 is a bunch of new firsts. First seniors discount, for example! Though I confess I’m always shocked when I see that.

At 50 you’re also on the upwards trajectory in terms of well-being and happiness.

Academic researchers who work on well-being refer to the U shaped pattern of well-being. The idea is, that on average, we hit a low our mid-to-late forties and after that things int better and better. See Is Well-being U-Shaped over the Life Cycle? by David G. Blanchflower, Andrew Oswald.

Recent research has argued that psychological well-being is U-shaped through the life cycle. The difficulty with such a claim is that there are likely to be omitted cohort effects (earlier generations may have been born in, say, particularly good or bad times). Hence the apparent U may be an artifact. Using data on approximately 500,000 Americans and Europeans, this paper designs a test that makes it possible to allow for different birth-cohorts. A robust U-shape of happiness in age is found. Ceteris paribus, well-being reaches a minimum, on both sides of the Atlantic, in people’s mid to late 40s.

Why are older people happier? Good question. See Why are older people happier? for some details.

Researchers, including the authors, have found that older people shown pictures of faces or situations tend to focus on and remember the happier ones more and the negative ones less. Other studies have discovered that as people age, they seek out situations that will lift their moods — for instance, pruning social circles of friends or acquaintances who might bring them down. Still other work finds that older adults learn to let go of loss and disappointment over unachieved goals, and hew their goals toward greater wellbeing.

What makes older people happy? Everyday experiences, it turns out. Read What Makes Older People Happy  in the New York Times.

 

When we’re young and believe we have a long future ahead, the authors found, we prefer extraordinary experiences outside the realm of our day-to-day routines. But when we’re older and believe that our time is limited, we put more value on ordinary experiences, the stuff of which our daily lives are made.

Why? For young people trying to figure out who they want to become, extraordinary experiences help establish personal identities and are therefore prized, said Amit Bhattacharjee, the lead author of the study and a visiting assistant professor of marketing at Dartmouth College. As people become more settled, ordinary experiences become central to a sense of self and therefore more valued.

In my case I think it helps that I’ve also always liked older people. Even in my late teens and early twenties I thought older people seemed more balanced, less self-absorbed, more interesting than people my own age. My partner feels the same way. I once said I didn’t worry about getting older because he’d always liked older women. He laughed but teased that maybe he just liked women a different age than his own. Harumph.

Now, let me clarify. I’m not one of those people who feels older. I didn’t feel 30 when I was 18 or 50 when I was 25. I often feel 14 or 16. I have friends who have always seemed old and just grew into their personas. That seems to happen often to bearded, tweeded, pipe smoking male academics who look 50 from the time they’re 25. That’s not me.

I’m also excited at turning 50 because I feel like I am entering a new stage of my career. I became an Assistant Professor at 28, all going well, I think I’ll retire around 68 and so I’m just entering the second half of my working and writing life. I’m through being Department Chair and I’m back to a full time teaching and research career and I’m enjoying both lots. I have exciting new projects underway. See Feminist Philosophy Quarterly: coming soon! Exciting times ahead.

I’m an expert juggler. My daughter was born while I was in grad school and both boys pre-tenure. (This makes me unusual among women academics who mostly wait til after tenure to have kids.) The bonus is I have more free time and the prospect, for the first time, of a professional life mostly without the day to day demands of parenting. It’s not that teenagers don’t take time. They do. But they’re also now, but for one, legally adults. I can travel more and sometimes they don’t even notice.

I recently got a text message, “Hey, can you spot me a drive home from the Y?”

Me: “Um, I’m in California. I’ve been here for 3 days.”

Teen: “Guess, I’ll take the bus then. Oops.”

This beats the first email I ever received from a child when I was away at a conference. “Mum, Dad may say everything is fine but we’ve had pizza three nights in a row and the hamster died.”

The comic below and the Louis CK skit are my favourite “turning 40” funnies. There aren’t as many jokes about 50, I’m finding. Too serious. If you have a favourite, let me know.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzEhoyXpqzQ

 

Forty is the old age of youth; fifty the youth of old age.

Victor Hugo

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/v/victorhugo103906.html#9qVW2gSzXqJ72pZI.99

Guest Post

Ten Canadian Woman Health and Sports Pioneers You Should Know (Guest Post)

savita14 Comments

Some time ago, Sam posted a link to Ms. Fit Magazine’s “Ten Women’s Sport and Health Pioneers You Should Know”. While very informative, I commented that the list was very US-centric, and there are many Canadian women that followers of this blog should know. So I was invited to write a post about it! Here are my picks, and hopefully this will encourage others to seek out other Canadian women who have led the way in the arenas of health and physical activity.

Emily Howard Stowe, Physician. With no Canadian institution allowing women to study medicine, she studied in the United States and, in 1848, became the first Canadian woman to practice medicine in Canada. She was a founder of what is now Women’s College Hospital in Toronto in 1883. She was also founder and first president of the Dominion Women’s Enfranchisement Association in 1889.

Maud Leonora Menten, Biochemist. A dedicated and outstanding medical scientist, she was among the first Canadian women to receive a Doctor of Medicine degree at the University of Toronto, in 1911. She and colleague Leonora Michaelis developed the Michaelis-Menten equation, a concept that revolutionized how biochemical reactions are quantified. She also developed the alkaline phosphatase reaction still used in histochemistry, and performed the first electrophoretic separation of proteins. She also made several discoveries relating to regulation of blood sugar, the properties of hemoglobin and kidney functions. She authored over 100 scientific articles and was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 1998.

Jessie Catherine Gray, Surgeon. A distinguished and internationally recognized surgeon, lecturer and researcher, Dr. Gray has so many “firsts” that “The Canadian Encyclopedia” calls her Canada’s First Lady of Surgery. From 1941 until retirement in 1965 she worked with the Women’s College Hospital in Toronto, as associate and as surgeon-in-chief. Here is the list of firsts: 1934, first woman gold medalist in medicine at the University of Toronto; 1939 first woman to hold a master of surgery degree; 1941 first woman resident surgeon a the Toronto General Hospital; 1941 first Canadian woman to become a “fellow” in the Royal College of Surgeons; first woman member of the Central Surgical Society of North America; 1966 first woman elected to the Science Council of Canada.

Ethlyn Trapp, Cancer researcher. She was BC’s first radiotherapist, and helped establish the BC Cancer Institute, and served as its Director from 1939-1944. She was the 1st woman president of the B.C. Medical Association in 1946/7 and in 1952 she was the 1st woman president of the National Cancer Institute of Canada. She was also president of the Federation of Canadian Medical Women. In 1963 she was awarded a citation from the Canadian Medical Association for her pioneering research in radiotherapy of cancer. She was inducted into the Order of Canada in 1968. The story of her family is detailed in “A Life Not Chosen: The Story of Ethlyn Trapp and Her Father.”

Sylvia Olga Fedoruk, Medical physicist. In the 1950s, she pioneered the development and use of Cobalt-60 for the curative treatment of cancer, and was instrumental in the development of a scanning device that could detect cancer using radioactive nuclides. She was the 1st woman trustee of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and in 1973 she was the 1st woman appointed to the Atomic Energy Control Board of Canada. She was also the 1st woman named to the position of Chancellor at the University of Saskatchewan, and 1st woman Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan. She was also an elite athlete, and is a member of Canada’s Curling Hall of Fame. She was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1986.

Barbara Ann Scott, Figure Skater. Scott is the first and only Canadian woman to win Olympic gold for singles figure skating, at the 1948 Winter Games. She is the only Canadian to have won the world, North American and European championships in one year, and the first to hold consecutive World championships. After retiring from figure skating, she became a distinguished horse trainer and equestrian rider, and founded and became chancellor of the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Toronto. Scott has been inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame, Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, Skate Canada Hall of Fame and the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. She won the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s Top Athlete in 1945, 1947 and 1948, and is an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Angela James, Hockey player. Dubbed the “Wayne Gretzky of women’s hockey”, Angela led Team Canada to 4 Women’s World Cup gold medals. In 2005, Hockey Canada honoured Angela with the Female Breakthrough Award, given for making significant contributions to the promotion and/or development of hockey for girls and women in Canada. Angela was inducted into both the Black Hockey and Sports Halls of Fame and the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) Hall of Fame in 2006. In 2008, she was one of three women inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Hall of Fame, the first in the Federation’s history, joined by Cammi Granato and Geraldine Heaney. Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame inducted James in 2009. In 2010, Angela James and Cammi Granto (USA) were the first women to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Nancy Greene, Alpine Skier. Nancy Greene was Canada’s top ski racer through the 1960’s, winning gold and silver medals at the 1968 Grenoble Olympics and overall World Cup titles in 1967 and 68. She won 17 Canadian Championship titles in all disciplines, and her 13 World Cup victories is still a Canadian record. In 1999, Nancy was named Canada’s Female Athlete of the Century. She has continued to contribute to the sport she loves through the establishment of the Nancy Greene Ski League, a grassroots program of Alpine Canada Alpin, which promotes ski racing for young Canadians.

Silken Laumann, Rower. Winner of 3 Olympic Medals and 1 World Championship in single sculls. In May 1992, just 10 weeks before the Barcelona Summer Olympic Games, Silken was injured in a brutal rowing accident that left her right leg shattered and useless. Twenty-seven days later, Silken was back rowing, and made the most remarkable comeback in Canadian sports history by winning the bronze medal for Canada in the Olympics. She has several awards that recognize her impact on women’s sport: BC’s Top 100 Women of Influence, the Canadian Association for Advancement for Women in Sport (CAAWS) “Most Influential Women in Sport”, and the Globe and Mail list of Most Influential Women in Canada. She is on the International Board for Right To Play, the Kid’s Champion for GoodLife Kids Foundation, and best-selling author of Child’s Play, all of which showcase her dedication and advocacy of children’s physical activity.

Clara Hughes, Cyclist/Speed Skater. Winner of 2 Olympic medals in cycling and 4 medals in speed skating. Clara is the only person, male or female, ever to have won multiple medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. Hughes was the first Canadian woman to win a medal in road cycling at the Olympics, winning two in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and is tied with Cindy Klassen in being Canada’s most decorated Olympian. Her list of awards include: Female Athlete of the Year by Speed Skating Canada in 2004; the International Olympic Committee‘s Sport and Community Trophy; and the 2006 List of Most Influential Women in Sport and Physical Activity by CAAWS. In 2010, she was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. She is also the National Spokesperson for the Bell Let’s Talk Mental Health initiative, and has started annual bike rides across Canada in order to raise awareness about mental health.

savita

Savita is a scientist and professor in London, Ontario. When she’s not in the lab investigating the causes of diabetes, she’s in the pool trying to keep up with her Masters swim teammates, or in a nice downtown restaurant enjoying local food and craft beer.

meditation · training

More about Mindfulness

Tracy I10 Comments

mindfulness-StonesMindfulness is a practice people usually associate with meditation.  One of my favourite mindfulness teachers and practioners, Bodhipaksa, has an article in which he defines mindfulness like this: “the gentle effort to be continuously present with experience.”

What’s so reassuring and comforting about this idea, for me, is the “gentle effort.”  It’s not as if we apply no effort at all.  But we don’t go into urgent and tense effort either.  It’s just a gentle, consistent effort to stay aware of what’s happening right now.  Maybe even bringing a sense of acceptance to it, whatever the present moment may bring.

Jon Kabat Zinn, another teacher, adds another element to mindfulness. He says, ““Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; On purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.”

The added idea of paying attention “on purpose” takes it beyond simple awareness.  As Bodhipaksa explains in his article,

In order to be mindful I have to be purposefully aware of myself, not just vaguely and habitually aware. Knowing that you are eating is not the same as eating mindfully.

Let’s take that example of eating and look at it a bit further. When we are purposefully aware of eating, we are consciously being aware of the process of eating. We’re deliberately noticing the sensations and our responses to those sensations. We’re noticing the mind wandering, and when it does wander we purposefully bring our attention back.

When we’re eating unmindfully we may in theory be aware of what we’re doing, but we’re probably thinking about a hundred and one other things at the same time, and we may also be watching TV, talking, or reading — or even all three! So a very small part of our awareness is absorbed with eating, and we may be only barely aware of the physical sensations and even less aware of our thoughts and emotions.

Because we’re only dimly aware of our thoughts, they wander in an unrestricted way. There’s no conscious attempt to bring our attention back to our eating. There’s no purposefulness.

It’s not just “on purpose,” it’s also non-judgmental. So if we purposefully (and with gentle effort) focus in a non-judgmental way on our present moment experience, we are practicing mindfulness.

I’ve blogged before about the way activities like swimming and running feel meditative to me. See my post Om…fitness practice as meditation. I’m not unique in this respect. Lots of people talk about their activities in this way.

We can experience lots of benefits by taking mindfulness into our sport practice.  I have three approaches to running. The first way is to try to be as mindless as possible. I play music, daydream, and try to forget what I’m doing in the hope that the time will pass as quickly as possible. The second way is a variation on this same theme — running with people.  As we run and chat, it quite literally takes my mind off of what we’re actually doing.  The third way is mindfully. When I do this, I pay attention to my footfalls, their sound and feel, the position of my foot as a it strikes the ground, my posture and alignment and how that feels, the air on my cheeks, the sound of my breath, the colour of the sky.

In this state I become hyper aware and present.  It’s by far the most profound of the three approaches, but not always easy for me to sustain. It’s not that any of these is necessarily more enjoyable than any other. It really depends on my mood. But sometimes, the mindful run is exactly what I need.

Swimming is another thing that in my world anyway lends itself to this mindfulness. Our coach nudges us in a mindful direction when we do drills that focus on one tiny part of the stroke. She’ll tell us to pay attention for 50m to the roll of our shoulders or our hips, or ask us to count our strokes, or to focus on the natural alignment of our head in the water.

If you think that mindfulness is just a neat practice, think again. It has a positive impact on our attitude and even on our brain structure.  On attitude, this post on running mindfully says:

This “secondary elaborative processing” that psychologists refer to is the negative self-talk and classic downward spiral that I often see in ultramarathon events when pain and/or fatigue and nausea start to take a strong hold, or a runner is falling behind the goals they’d set. We’ve had a lot of social conditioning to “tough it out” and to “steel” ourselves in these settings. The mindfulness approach, however, is counter-intuitive to this conditioning – it encourages acceptance and surrender.

Total Immersion Swimming founder Terry McLaughlin, in his article “Mindful Swimming Transforms the Brain,” reports on a study at Mass General Hospital. It

documents  that 8 weeks practice of mindfulness meditation produces lasting changes in brain structure.

Participants spent about 30 minutes a day practicing mindfulness exercises, and had their brains studied before-and after by MRI.

Researchers found increased ‘grey-matter’ density in the hippocampus, a center of learning and memory, and in areas associated with self-awareness, compassion and introspection. Participants reported reductions in anxiety and stress.

The significance of this study is that — like others before — it documents that changes produced by meditation are deep and lasting, not transitory. I.E. Mindfulness practice changes brain traits, not just brain states.

Lessons for swimmers:

1) Focal Points, Stroke Counts and Tempo Trainer beeps are, in fact, mantras — the essential tools of meditation.

2) Moving Meditation, by merging thought and action, is even more powerful at effecting lasting change in brain structure. This is because (i) aerobic activity increases the supply of oxygen and glycogen, which fuels muscle and brain cells; (ii) physical activity increases secretion of a protein that is the building block of ‘grey matter’; and (iii) as I posted on Dec 3 while passive meditation creates  Theta state brainwaves(4-7 cycles/second), moving meditation puts the brain in the “superlearning” Alpha state (8-12 cycles/second).

3) Every time you push off a wall, do so with a targeted thought or intention — a task that will require your full attention. (Once more, the reason I plan every practice and set to produce Arduous Experience and Cognitive Difficulty.)

Simple exertion — no matter how long or hard — may be good for physical fitness but neglects brain fitness.

Mindful Swimming optimizes both brain and body.

Mindfulness in our fitness activities doesn’t need to be an all or nothing thing. It can be something that we practice sometimes, as a way of switching things up.  For some, it can really have a positive impact on their approach to sport and even to life.

To read more about mindfulness, fitness, and health, here are some suggestions:

Running Mindfully

Mindful Swimming Transforms the Brain

Mindful Swimming

Mental Skill of Mindful Training

Yoga, Meditation, and Mindfulness: “Trends” that could change everything

The Principles of Mindful Eating

cycling

Back on our bikes! Six thoughts on spring riding and training

Sam B5 Comments

1. Take it easy. I know, I know. It’s bright and sunny and warm and you’re back on your bike again. Exciting as that is, take it easy. Old school racers all talk about base miles and spending hundreds/thousands of kilometers in the small chain ring. They’re just spinning, getting their fast cadence back, putting in the base training, before the push for speed. No hill training, no sprinting, they just spin.

You might not be a racer but I think there is a lesson here for the beginning cyclist. The first few weeks of spring aren’t the time to worry about how fast you are. Just ride and smile and soak up the sun. Ease into it.

And if anyone comments on your speed, just say “base miles” with a serious look on your face.

See The Case for Base Training.

(And yes, I know there is a debate about whether the ultra-conservative training approach favoured in cycling, based on years of experience on the mountains of Europe, and more recently challenged in the sports science labs of the new world and found lacking, is anything more than tradition. My point here is you can take it easy and look all knowing.)

2. Speaking of speed, now is also definitely not the time to compare yourself to other riders. Come spring some big differences emerge. This year has been the longest I’ve ever gone without riding a bike. Snow started in November and just stopped recently. It feels weird to me to be sore after the first spring rides but I am. This year, thanks to sad family circumstances, I also did nothing to keep up cycling. No regular spinning, no track cycling, no regular roller sessions, zip, zilch, nothing. (For what I’ve done in years past see Seven winter cycling options (I’ve tried them all!)

I often advise beginning cyclists to try group riding in the fall. (See Reasons to start riding in the fall.) That’s because in the spring people are frisky and come back to the group with different levels of fitness. Some have been track riding all winter and others have gone south for training, and then there’s the people like me. It will all come out in the wash in a few months but for now, don’t compare.

3. Be patient with drivers. It’s a shock to their systems to see us out there. They’ve forgotten about bikes and need to get used to us all over again. I try to put some goodwill in the bank by being extra smiley and waving lots in these first few weeks. I go for ultra high visibility at intersections and aim for eye contact.

4. Check your bike over carefully. If you care for your own bike, it’s time to do that. If you are a “get routine seasonal maintenance done by the shop” person that’s okay too. Just do it. And get in long before you want to ride. The first few beautiful weeks are often very busy.

5. While you’re not working hard, just spinning, see above, you can pick a skill to work on. You might work on not coasting. That fits in well with spinning. Or you could work on balance or on cornering. Pick a technical, rather than a strength/speed thing, and work on it for a few weeks.

6. Keep your eyes open for new potholes. This spring is the worst I’ve seen our roads. Giant bike sized pot holes. Look for cars and signal before you swerve to avoid them And signal to others you’re riding with that they’re there. Don’t ever swerve around an obstacle without signalling leaving the bike behind you heading directly into or over it.

Pothole or Hazard. A simple point to the road hazard will be enough to signal to the other riders.  Do this well before the hazard is near and predictably move over so you don’t roll past too close to it. From The Beauty of Cycling