When social media quizzes ask for “unexpected facts about you” or “10 things about me that would surprise my Facebook friends” one fact I’m often tempted to supply is that I don’t swear.

I mean, on a very rare occasion it does happen that I swear, when something really bad happens, yes. Then I can and do swear.

For example, on a certain evening in November 2016 things looked they weren’t going very well for the Democrat’s candidate for President. I thought it was just a blip. I needed to get some rest. So I said to Jeff, “Just wake me when Hilary’s won.” He didn’t wake me. My alarm went off in the morning at the usual time. I woke up and looked at my phone and the news of Trump’s election greeted me. I swore then.

That gives you some idea. Things need to be “Trump election bad” before I swear.

Why don’t I swear? There’s some background here, of course. I was taught by nuns, educated in Catholic school. My father didn’t think swearing was ladylike. I’m from England. (An aside: A younger me was once cut off from drinking in a pub in my home town in Northern England for swearing. The bartender said, “What did you say, young lady?” I genuinely thought he didn’t hear me so I repeated it loudly. “It’s f**king cold in here.” Also, it was.)

And I know people who share a lot of these traits and who swear up a storm so it’s not a complete explanation. But it’s a start.

There was a brief swear-y time of life. I also had an 80’s punk haircut and tried to scowl. It didn’t take though. I’m an inveterate smiler and I don’t swear.

 

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I even have a philosopher’s explanation about why. One day the CBC radio show DNTO (Definitely Not The Opera) called the philosophy department looking for someone willing to go on air to talk about what, if anything, makes swearing wrong. I couldn’t think of answer and so passed but I kept thinking and came up with an answer.

My answer is connected to the problem tenants in my house at that time. We had just bought a side-by-side duplex with plans to take over the whole thing but it had tenants in one half. They were a group of young women who all worked for the phone company and who liked to have parties on the weekend. I didn’t mind them but I did mind their boyfriends. In particular what I minded was the drinking on our front lawn that involved yelling and swearing.

So what makes swearing wrong? It signals to people that you’ve crossed a line. You’re outside the norms of polite discourse. What’s next? Threats? Actual violence?

If you have a background where you associate swearing with alcohol and loosened attachments to rules and norms, swearing might make you flinch.

It signals a willingness to break rules of polite interaction.

I’m still thinking about this. If you’re a male professor reading this and you think swearing in the classroom makes you seem young and hip and rule break-y keep in mind that not all of your students hear it the same way.

So that’s my history and a brief bit of ethics.

 

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Next up: Why does a fitness blog care?

This story:  Could swearing make you stronger at the gym? Maybe.

See also Swear More To Boost Muscle Power In The Gym, Study Suggests.

And  Swearing makes you stronger so stop f***ing around and start lifting.

You get the idea. Dozens of blog readers and Facebook page followers and friends sent it to me.

Here’s the study:

Psychologists at Keele University conducted a series of experiments, including putting two groups of participants on exercise bikes. One group cycled for 30 seconds while yelling out all kinds of profanities while the others were only allowed to let out neutral words.

And they found that the swearers’ peak power rose by 24 watts on average.

The next task they got everyone to perform was a single hand-grip test.

Again, those who muttered obscenities throughout upped their strength by the equivalent of 2.1kg.

‘In the short period of time we looked at there are benefits from swearing,’ said Richard Stephens – one of the psychologists from Keele.

Swearing has also been found to lessen pain.

I’ve looked for detail of the study. Most of the stories tell us that the participants are volunteers and they are at a university. They are said to be 21 years old.  I assumed they were male. And I worried about that as a weakness of the study.

But no, there were roughly equal number of men and women in these studies.  And you got to choose your favourite swear word. Nice!

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Oh and then there’s the “smart people swear more” stories that friends love to share.  See Intelligent People Use More Swear Words, According To Study.  And stories about women swearing more than men, Women use the F-word more than men, according to new survey.

So I’ve been curious about whether I can get over my aversion to swearing. My teenagers occasionally try and they love to laugh at my efforts.

Recently, spending time with Sarah in Toronto, I’ve noticed that she often says, of traffic, of other peoples’ parking, of contractors who don’t follow through, “that’s bulls**t.” It turns out that’s one I can manage. The other day I was describing the traffic on a stretch of road on a bike rally training route where cars were whizzing by too fast, too close and I said it was “bullsh**t.” Since then Sarah’s been prompting me. “What would you say about the lack of vegetarian food in this restaurant?” Turns out that there are many of these opportunities.

Also, Cate and I agree: Gaining 8 lbs over the winter while working out lots and eating the same as usual. That’s bulls**t!

So, progress?

I’m pretty sure it won’t help my cycling or my lifting but maybe I should try it the next time I go in for fitness testing on the bike.

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How about you? Do you swear? Do you swear when you’re racing or lifting or trying to do physically hard things? Does it help?

 

 

 

 

A friend tagged me the other day to draw my attention to a post about the alkaline content of different kinds of bottled water. There are loads of reasons to be skeptical about bottled water (like the environment and the amount of landfill space the bottles take up if they even make it to landfill, the availability of perfectly good tap water in lots of places, the commodification of a resource that is a basic necessity for humans to live). But alkaline content was a new one for me. This may mean I’ve been inattentive to something that really matters. I don’t know. But it’s news to me that some water has more alkaline than other water, that low alkaline water is acidic, and that (here’s the assumption I didn’t know what to do with) acidic water isn’t good for you.

This was the video in question (from September 2016, which was a time in the history of the world that many people were preoccupied with other things):

What I noticed most about this video was that though they talked a lot about the lower alkaline water being acidic, they didn’t give a lot of info about what’s wrong with that. So I did some reading.

In “Is Alkaline Water Extra Healthy or a Hoax?” Jess Baron outlines the purported health benefits:

Many alternative health experts say that alkaline water — whether purchased in bottles or created from your own tap with a pricey do-it-yourself ionizing purifier — is an extra-healthy type of water to drink, with claims that it slows the aging process, increases energy, helps people with fertility issues, regulates your body’s pH level and prevents chronic diseases like cancer.

I know many people are into the views of “alternative health” experts and have found solutions for their various ailments by following their advice. If that’s their experience, fine. I’m a bit more science-based where my health is concerned, and it seems to me that these are big claims that need to be supported by evidence.

I’m a big believer in the health benefits of water. I drink my share of it, usually from the tap because I am fortunate to live somewhere where clean drinking water reliably flows. I’m all for staying hydrated and drinking the recommended 6-8 8oz. glasses of water per day.

The first question I had about the recommendation of alkaline water was: “what is the reasoning?”

In “Alkaline Water: Beneficial or Bogus,” John Berardi explains the thinking (before he subsequently subjects it to critical scrutiny):

The concept with alkaline water is this: Tap water contains different dissolved elements that influence its pH level. Pure water has a pH level close to 7. Alkaline water has a pH above 7. So the idea is that to create a more alkaline balance in your body, you should drink water with a higher pH.

Baron quotes the Budwig Centre, an alternative cancer treatment facility in Spain:

Alternative medicine proponents such as the Budwig Center, an alternative cancer treatment clinic based in Spain, believe that our bodies need to be strictly maintained at 7.4 pH in order to achieve and maintain optimal health and to fight cancer. “If you have ever maintained a swimming pool, you will have had to verify the pH of the water on a regular basis and have had to add different chemicals to keep it at pH neutral,” it says on the Center’s website. “Our bodies are in effect like a swimming pool, as we are 80% water and our pH needs to be kept at 7.4 neutral to be healthy.”

Berardi says that there are a few problems with the basic reasoning behind the strategy of drinking higher alkaline water to increase the body’s ph level:

First of all, each organ system has a unique pH range, and our bodies naturally do a fantastic job of maintaining blood pH within each respective range.

Secondly if your pH is out of balance, it’s important to get to the underlying cause. Without knowing the cause, you can’t determine whether alkaline water will really help you.

What’s more, focusing on the pH level of our water is sort of besides the point. Because if alkaline water is helpful, that might be due to the minerals it contains rather than its pH level, per se.

Also, keep in mind that overall body alkalinity isn’t always a good thing. For example, if you have a kidney condition, or you’re taking a medication that alters kidney function, some of the minerals in alkaline water could start to accumulate in your body. In this case, high alkalinity might lead to negative side effects.

My skepticism kicked into high gear when I read (in Baron’s article):

While anecdotal evidence suggests that alkaline water might be beneficial to health, so far, it’s important to note that there’s not a lot of solid data.

So far there are no peer-reviewed studies demonstrating that consuming alkaline water can reduce a person’s cancer risk or help them to better fight cancer. Additionally, the American Cancer Society does NOT make a recommendation for consumption of alkaline water.

While its cancer-prevention and anti-aging properties are in question, some researchers suggest that higher alkaline water can protect your gut from dangerous micro-organisms and reduce acid reflux.

There is also some suggestion that it could benefit endurance athletes:

Drinking alkaline water might enhance the body’s buffering capacity and temper the acidity, thus improving our performance.

Note that mineral supplements (calcium, magnesium, potassium) decrease cardio-respiratory stress and blood lactate responses, while improving power output in endurance athletes. That’s why long-distance runners sometimes supplement with sodium bicarbonate. Alkaline water may work similarly.

Until there is more information, I’m putting alkaline water in the same category as detoxes and clean eating, two other fads that have their devotees who swear by them because of personal experience with feeling better. Maybe. I’m not one to discourage people from doing things that they enjoy.

When it comes to food choices, I’m all about moderation and the basics. Trendy fads don’t draw me in. Alkaline water strikes me as a trendy fad (at this point — I would welcome and consider more research) whose proponents are making ambitious claims that are not supported by any hard evidence.

Do you drink alkaline water? If not, would you? If so, why?

 

 

“FOMO” means “fear of missing out.” I hate missing stuff. Even stuff I don’t particularly love but others are excited about. And so: I have signed on for another summer of step counting in the Virgin Pulse Global Challenge (known last year as the Global Corporate Challenge but it has since, obviously, found a new corporate sponsor).

Last summer I went from excited (see for yourself) to uncertain (see the beginning of the downward spiral) to “never again” (okay lesson learned: never say never). In fact, in the Freudian slip of the year, I accidentally flushed my tracker down the toilet at my doctor’s office about a week prior to the end of the challenge.

One of the things I disliked most was the tracking element, considering my unchanging views about tracking and the panopticon. I also found limitations in the over-focus on step-counting (there is more to fitness than hitting your step target!).  But one of the things that made it hardest to stay motivated was that over time, it became clear that some of my team mates just weren’t into it.

As I said in my re-cap post, being on a team only works if the whole team is into it. My whole team wasn’t into it. The organizers really promote the team thing. And here’s where my FOMO kicked in this year: Maybe, just maybe, if I had a team that was into it, it could be fun!

I like group things. This is an evolution since the early days of the blog when I was more of a solo type. Now I enjoy the camaraderie of being part of a team or a group. It feels good to be a part of something that others are also invested in. It feels good to join with others in something that has benefit for the individuals and the group. And it feels awful to be on the outside looking in when everyone else is excited and a part of a thing that you’re not (FOMO).

So not only am I doing the Challenge again this year, but I’m the captain of a team. We came up with our team name last week: Oh, the Humanities! One of our members is a roller derby-er who is assigning derby names to anyone who wishes to have one. I’m Associate Dean Smackademic (though it was a toss up between that and Too Fast Tofurious, which literally lost in a coin toss).

I’ve got my new tracker. I’ve downloaded the new app. I’ve already sent a rah-rah email to my team. And I’m moderately geared up to exceed last year’s average of 16,000 steps a day.

I’m trying to go in with an attitude of “this is fun!” rather than being hyper competitive and feeling the weight of obligation. I’m going to use it to motivate myself and, I hope, lightly motivate others, to walk instead of drive, run a bit further instead of cutting it short, or have walk-and-talk meetings with those who are able. I have no illusions that Oh, the Humanities! will be able to rival our Faculty’s “curated” team, which I’m not on and which was carefully constructed out of high-achieving athletes, built to be competitive. Sam’s on that team. I think it would just stress me out.

Here’s hoping my FOMO hasn’t led me into something I’m going to regret.

Has FOMO ever got you to do something that you quickly regretted having committed to?

 

 

 

As you know, I have mixed feelings about dresses for sports. But last week I did the TD 5 Boro Bike Tour and they had a bike expo before the ride where they were selling all the things.

All the things was an incredibly diverse collection of bike clothing, including plus sized stuff and lots of clothes by and for women.

There was this dress. I loved the colour and the cut. So I bought it.

 

I also liked this one, from a Canadian company, KSL.

But they didn’t have my size at the Bike Expo.

What makes them bike dresses? Athletic fabric, rear zip pockets, and they’re the right length. The pink one I bought has an adjustable length. You still need bike shorts. You just wear them underneath.

I like mine. I do. But I still have some reservations about riding in dresses. They’re some of the worries I had about running skirts. I own one of those too now but I just use it for running errands, not actual running. See Running skirts and sexism.

I started riding in dresses a couple of years ago, when commuting to work. See Riding bikes in skirts and dresses. And I’m not judging anyone else’s clothing choices. This is all about me. I’m almost, in all things, a fan of  you do you.

Here’s me at the Tweed Ride in 2015, riding pretty comfortably in a dress, bike shorts, and my SPD sandals:

Okay so what’s my worry? I wore my new cycling dress one day last week and the next I just put on regular cycling shorts–you know the figure hugging, black, sports fabric kind I wear all the time–and a t-shirt. I looked at myself in the mirror and for a few brief seconds the thought flashed in front of my mind, should I be going looking like this? I didn’t feel fat. It’s not that. It wasn’t a body image thing. It was more that the bike shorts showed too much, were too tight, that they weren’t okay for a ride in public.

(But where else do we ever ride but in public?)

Maybe I need another cycling dress! But no..

It was fast and then it passed. But for a moment I got a taste of what lots of women think and feel about wearing sports specific fitted clothing. We’ve written here about athletic clothing as a barrier to women’s participation in sports. See No way am I wearing that! Whether it’s bike shorts, or the uni-suit required in rowing or tight race swimsuits there are issues for women athletes about clothing. There’s a tension between what we think we are supposed to wear and how we are supposed to look and what sports require us to wear.

I could see how if I started wearing cycling dresses all the time, that would become the new normal and the bike shorts would start to feel too skimpy, too tight, too much. And that’s not what I want.  See Fit and Feminist’s defense of skimpy running clothing,

So I love my new cycling dress and when I’m commuting I’ll sometimes ride in dresses but I want to leave lots of room for riding in fitted performance oriented cycling clothes too.

Here’s me in my new cycling kit from Sweet Ride Cycles in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. (Thanks Sarah!)

And here’s the the rear view of me on the 5 boro ride:

And here’s me on the Leslie Street Spit: