Month: June 2018

gear · walking · yoga

Summer Victory! Christine troubleshoots her outdoor fitness

Christine Hennebury4 Comments

I’m my own superhero this week – gleefully removing obstacles that prevent me from going outside to play.

 

How did I do that you may ask?  I bought a mat and a new pair of sneakers.

 

I know, it doesn’t sound heroic at all, blah de blah, Christine bought things, but I had to do a ridiculous amount of thinking to figure that those were the things I needed.

 

I’m sure I have told you before how my ADD makes it hard to break a problem into pieces, I usually refer to it as a reverse ‘forest for the trees’ problem – it’s not that I can’t see the forest for the trees, it’s that I can’t see that the forest is made of trees. So, when I meet some resistance to things I am trying to do, I often can’t see what the solvable issue is – I just see the whole situation as difficult.

 

So, given that it is (finally) getting summer(ish) here in Newfoundland*, I want to do more things outdoors, especially exercise. I love to go for walks and I love to do yoga in the sunshine in my yard.

 

But, last summer and fall, I found myself a bit reluctant to go out walking. I liked the process of being on a walk but it was hard to get myself to put on my sneakers.

 

And, also last summer, I really liked the times that I did yoga in the yard but I didn’t do it as often as I meant to.

 

I know that some of the more fitness-driven readers might be thinking – oh, just do it and stop whining about it. You’re right, of course, that’s a lot of the issue. I ‘just’ need to get over myself but there was more to it, and this week,for some reason, I managed to zero in on the issues with both activities.

 

First, the walking… 

 

My old sneakers had holes in the sole. I don’t mean that I had worn a hole in them, I mean that the design was such that there were a series of spaces in the sole of the shoe. That may not seem like a big deal until you realize that the holes are big enough to pick up rocks. So, every time I wear them, I have to stop and pry rocks out over and over. It’s annoying but apparently the task had sunk at least part way into my subconscious, so I didn’t really realize what a hassle it had become.

The bottom of a right sneaker. The sole is grey and green and the design of the surface includes ridges and a line of large holes. The sneaker is resting on a brown linoleum floor.
See what I mean? Imagine the rocks that could fit in there and click while you walk.

 

It was only this week, when I was putting the sneakers on to walk my son to school for an exam and I suggested a less rocky route, that I realized they were such an impediment. And the sneakers are several years old so I don’t even feel guilty about replacing a pair of ‘perfectly good sneakers’ because they aren’t perfectly good in other ways either.

 

So, now I have a pair of brand new sneakers and I have already taken the long way to get several places just to get a bit more of a walk in.

The author's feet in her new grey and pink sneakers. She is standing on black asphalt.

 

 

Next – yard yoga!

 

The grass in my backyard is bumpy. I’m sure that there are plenty of rocks getting in my way under the surface out there, as well. Perhaps the sod is not laid well, I don’t know, and I am not about to do the kind of landscaping that would fix it. If I put my yoga mat directly on the grass, I am all uneven, I’m on a slant, and I can’t do any poses requiring balance.

 

My back deck is old and the ‘floor’ is made of fairly widely spaced slats. If I put my yoga mat directly on that, I can feel the spaces under my feet or back or knee, and one of my fingers always ends up pushing my yoga mat into the space.

Three weathered brown deck boards. There are finger-width spaces between each one.
Look at those finger-trapping spaces. Ignore how badly the deck needs painting, we’ve only had about nice days so far, so painting will have to wait.

 

Last summer, I countered the problem by dragging a piece of plywood from behind the shed and placing it on the grass before putting my yoga mat down. It worked but it added one more task to the process of doing yoga and that was enough hassle to stop me sometimes.

 

After I bought my sneakers on Wednesday, my next errand was the grocery store.

 

Since I was in problem solving mode, I guess my brain decided it was a good time to kick up the memory of the patio mats I had seen at that store a couple of weeks before. Previous to that, I didn’t know patio mats existed.

 

This time, I put two and two together and, to quote my dad, ‘got something approximating four’ and realized that the patio mat would instantly remove the obstacle to putting my yoga mat on the deck.

 

A green yoga mat with flowers printed on it in yellow rests on a larger beige patio mat that has circular patters on it.
Yoga mat + deck mat = more yoga It’s mathematical!

 

I’ve already done two outdoor yoga sessions and it had only been a few days.

 

So, yeah, I’m my own obstacle-removing superhero this week. I don’t have a clever name yet though, and my costume will have to wait until I get back from a walk.

 

*My province is called Newfoundland and Labrador but I live on the island portion and I can’t speak for what the weather is like in Labrador.

accessibility · body image · fitness · gender policing · inclusiveness · swimming

Being Naked in Public, pt 2: languages of instruction

Kim Solga3 Comments

Back in December I wrote a post about being naked in public, three ways: in new “universal” change rooms in pools in my city of Hamilton, Ontario; in the same kinds of spaces (with WAY more cubicles and tight corners) in London, England; and in a public spa and thermal bath complex in Konstanz, Germany (few cubicles; lots of comfy nudity).

My questions in that post revolved around etiquette, protocol, expectation, and the cultural labour these spaces appear to be doing towards supporting inclusive, body-positive community (whether or not they are actually doing that labour).

Today, for the first time in a while, I returned to one of the facilities here in Hamilton that have converted to M/F/U change spaces; I was overbooked and had to skip my usual Friday swim (which happens at an older facility not yet renovated to include a gender-neutral room).

To my surprise, when I swanned toward the universal change room entryway, I found this:

fullsizeoutput_1046

(A sign, posted on a green cinder-block wall, that reads: “Change in dressing cubicle only; clothing or bathing suit myst be worn at all times outside dressing cubicle.” The images on the sign include a green circle around a woman’s body clad in a one-piece swim suit and a man’s body clad in swim shorts; and a red circle with a strike-through against the images of the same bodies, with one-piece and shorts off to the side. Note: I snapped this photo from the change-room threshold, which is barrier-free and opens onto the lobby. I made sure no bodies were nearby in order to respect the “no photography in change rooms” rule.)

I stopped for a minute, a bit gobsmacked. New sign; aggressive sign.

NO NUDITY! DO NOT EXIT THE CUBICLES NUDE! THIS IS A GENDER NEUTRAL SPACE!

OK, so that’s not exactly what the sign said. But it might as well have.

locker-room-etiquette-sign-s2-1269

I googled “gender-neutral change room etiquette” and this list of do’s and don’ts turned up. It is haranguing: be neat, tidy, and for god’s sake cover up your freaking horrific human of a body; don’t be lazy, slow, or glowery. Get the fuck out ASAP. Sounds familiar.)

I’m trained as a literature scholar and a scholar of theatre and performance; that means I read cultural texts for their nuances, for a living, and try to make sense of what they aim to accomplish amongst actual, human lives.

My pool’s universal change-room sign said the following to me.

The bright blue that backgrounds “Change in dressing cubicle ONLY” sets that text off in sharp relief. All-caps for ONLY is scolding typography, as though to say: DO NOT DARE LEAVE YOUR CUBICLE NAKED! It is fairly patronizing and deeply shaming.

The images are workmanlike and designed to be read across languages and cultural contexts (more or less; only North American Christianity could, if you ask me, dream up such a blatantly unsexy way to render human nudity). The communication is meant to cross language barriers because there are lots of immigrants in our community (I witnessed one Chinese-language speaker interacting with a lifeguard this afternoon, for example), and the sign is obviously in part, if not primarily, targeted at them.

So tick the xenophobia box too, please.

The sign makes no mention of the showers – my personal favourite part of locker-room-sanctioned nudity – but we can guess the implied protocol.

What to make of this?

Well, on a purely pragmatic level, I’ll tell you what I made of it in the split second it took me to decide what to do with my body upon encountering this sign.

I realized I could be my nude and joyous post-swimming self only in the women’s change room, so I went there.

And here’s the rub, the sad bit, the loss: I had to choose between body-positive feelings, and the gender-neutral change room.

Some neutrality; some body positivity!

gnr

(Another image that popped up in my google search. It reads, in a plain, sans-serif font: “A gender-neutral restroom designation means this restroom is safe for transgender, gender non-conforming, genderqueer people, as well as people of all gender identities and expressions. If you choose to use this restroom, you are aware that it is a safe space. Please refrain from gender policing… If you are uncomfortable using a gender-neutral restroom, please use any of the other restrooms, as this is your privilege.” NOW THIS SIGN I CAN SUPER GET BEHIND.)

I thought a lot about the change-room sign incident after I left the pool. I thought, too, about the several FFI community members who fed back about my original post and noted they would not be super comfortable nude in mixed spaces.

I realized that my biggest problem with the sign wasn’t the message it was (sort of, maybe, clumsily?) trying to communicate.

The problem was with language, and its intention.

The sign is trying, I think, to say this: DO NOT GET NAKED IN FRONT OF PEOPLE WHO DO NOT WANT TO SEE YOU NAKED. ALSO: DO NOT GET NAKED AGGRESSIVELY.

This is, totally, a worthy goal.

But the language also, therefore, assumes predation, assumes a lack of tact and generosity on the part of body-positive users; it assumes that all bodies in the space share a sense of nudity-as-shame, nudity-as-aggression. Which isn’t true.

So in the car on the way to my next gig, I started thinking about how I might phrase some similar caution in a more welcoming, dare I say body-positive-positive, way.

I came up with this:

This change room is a gender-neutral, body-positive space that welcomes people of all identifications.

Please use the space in a way that respects the privacy and comfort level of others around you.

Thank you!

(I’m not sure about imagery. I’d love suggestions!)

The language I’m proposing states what I hope are the deep intentions behind the creation of the space: it’s for everyone, care-fully. I think that’s the idea behind gender-neutral spaces in Hamilton-area pools; I’m not sure, though. (My sense from the sign I encountered today is that they might be souped-up “family” change rooms. Sigh.)

It also places the responsibility for fair use on a community of users, acting together in everyone’s best interests. (This is called democracy, btw. At least to me.)

Are you alone in the space? Go nuts! You do you! Get naked, sing ABBA. Rock on.

Is someone in the space with you who seems more modest, shy? Perhaps calibrate your ostentation to remember that they also share this space, and that your ostentation might be taking up more than its fair share of that space, for them.

Is someone in the space with you who might be nervous about your presence? That’s ok – they are here because they have trust and faith. Be you, but not aggressively. Instead, assert your good will toward that person.

Is someone in the space with you who might think you are unnerved by them? That’s ok – it’s part of the process of becoming a community. Be you, welcomingly.

This is just one shot – my shot – at a better way to say what needs to be made clear in gender-neutral spaces: some protocol for what to do once you’re inside, but not in a way that assumes a normative sense of embodiment, nor that assumes body-as-shame.

Do you have examples of, or suggestions for, gender-neutral change-room etiquette? I’d love to hear!

Yours swimmingly,

Kim

fitness · running

Where to start? Start small and go from there…

Tracy I
close up shot of plant on soil
Image description: Small plant sprouting up from the soil. Photo by Ron Lach on Pexels.com

Starting anything new can feel totally overwhelming. Anecdotally, besides all the reasons we give for why we don’t have time, “where do I start?” is probably one of the biggest deterrents.

It’s also the question that is easy to answer with one of my absolute favourite suggestions we make, in many different ways, on the blog: start small. When I began running, somewhat reluctantly, when I was days away from my 48th birthday, I ran around the block. Then I ran around the block twice. Then I ventured away from the block and added in a few walk breaks between run intervals. Then the run intervals became longer than the walk breaks. Then I started stringing more walk-run intervals together. And so on and so on.  I celebrated the day I ran 20 minutes in a row with a blog post announcing that significant breakthrough in my running “career.”

Now, with 5K, 10K, half marathons, 30K, and even a full marathon behind me, I’ve come a long way, all because I started small and increased in small increments.

Tonight I was chatting with a friend who is about to embark on a new fitness plan. I said the first time I tried running I hated it. Why? Because back then, in my early twenties, I went out of the gate way too fast. I didn’t ease into it at all. No. I thought I should immediately be able to run 5 miles. It hurt. My body wasn’t used to it. After a few months (I think it was months), my hips started to hurt. And that was the end of that. I didn’t run again for almost 25 years.

But this time, it feels so much better. If you let your body adapt to each increase before pushing a little bit further or harder (emphasis on “a little bit”), amazing things start to happen.

You may not know how to start small. If we’re talking about running, try finding a local running clinic with “learn to run” sessions. That way you can meet other people, learn proper technique from the get-go, ease into it, and learn about shoes and clothing and nutrition in the pre-run talks. I got a lot out of all the clinics I did. I did a clinic to train up to each new distance (other than the marathon, but I had trained for the Around the Bay 30K). In the process I learned a ton about all sorts of things, from run safety to hydration and nutrition, to how to manage in cold weather and in hot weather. I also developed some lasting friendships through the run clubs and clinics I’ve done.

Another way of starting small is to use an app. Even though I did eventually do a “learn to run” clinic, I actually started with the “ease into 5K” app, which has a “start small” training plan built right into it. I really liked it and it served me well in the very early days when I thought I was the slowest runner in the world and couldn’t possibly ever run with other people because they would feel annoyed with me.

All activities have equivalent strategies for starting small and easing into it. That’s why they have “give it a tri” or “try a tri” triathlon events. And beginners yoga classes. And different lanes in the pool for training.

Great things come from small beginnings (did someone say that already? It sounds like a famous line…).

Do you have a “small start” fitness story?

fitness

Sam likes being called “stronger and wiser”

Sam B

Thanks to Paul Forrest (Media Design Producer) and Sandra Sabatini (Manager, Research and Communications) who made this great video for the College of Arts at Guelph. I like its title!

“Dr. Samantha Brennan’s latest book, co-authored with Tracy Isaacs, makes the case for a feminist approach to fitness. Called “Fit at Midlife: A Feminist Journey,” it offers a new approach to fitness―one that champions strength, health, and personal accomplishment over weight loss and aesthetics. They share their own experiences of getting active later in life and explore the many challenges, questions, and issues women face when seeking fitness in their forties, fifties, and beyond. Drawing from the latest research and their popular blog Fit Is a Feminist Issue, they deliver concrete advice on everything from how to keep bones strong to what types of fitness activities give the biggest returns.Taking a feminist perspective, the authors also challenge society’s default whats, whys, and hows of every aspect of getting fit to show how women can best take charge of their health―no matter what their shape, size, age, or ability.”

fitness · running · training

Don’t forget to hydrate properly on a long hot run (and some tips for how)

Tracy I4 Comments

Image description: Head shot of Tracy, short blond hair, sunglasses, earbuds, sweating, leaning up against a white brick wall. Not smiling.
Image description: Head shot of Tracy, short blond hair, sunglasses, earbuds, sweating, leaning up against a white brick wall. Not smiling.

This is going to be a totally practical post where I talk about a badly planned very hot run and how I (and you!) can avoid doing that again.

I went for a really long hot and humid run on Sunday and it just about undid me. I came back feeling worse than I can ever remember feeling after a run. It’s a rare day that I feel worse for running. I had a splitting headache for the rest of the day and even had to nap, which I’ve not experienced from running since I first started to add distance six years ago. I can’t say I regret having gone out on Sunday, but I definitely could have done it better.

What went wrong? First, we had a heat warning that was well-publicized for days leading up to Sunday. Mid-30s (Celsius) with a humidex reading of 40C (that’s the “feels like” temperature). For those who work in F, that’s super hot–“feels like” 112F. My original plan had been to go out at 7 a.m.  because obviously it’s more bearable earlier when the sun isn’t high in the sky. But that didn’t materialize and I found myself heading out at 8:30 instead.

My second mistake was to bring only a small bottle of water, the kind that snaps into my fuel belt. It holds three, but I really don’t like when it’s full and I was only going out for 8K and I rarely need much water on 8K. One small bottle seemed like enough. And for ordinary conditions it may have been. But Sunday wasn’t ordinary.

Add to the late start and the inadequate water supply that I read my training plan wrong. After a 15 minute easy run I was supposed to 5x 1 minute intervals at my 10K pace with 1:30 easy in between. But instead I read it as 5x 1K intervals at my 10K pace with 1:30 minutes easy in between. That’s a big difference. By the third one they were kicking my butt.

I’ve been trying for continuous running and haven’t done too badly, but I absolutely had to take walk breaks on Sunday because I was DYING! I do an out and back into Springbank Park from where I live downtown. I don’t mind the out and back aspect of it because it’s a pleasant route along the river. And though there is one especially relentless bit with no shade (we like to call it Death Valley), there are lots of trees along most of the way.

Anyway, I decided to do a little bit extra before turning around because there is a misting thing on the path (they call it a “cooling station”). That was a bad decision because much to my dismay when I got there, it was all bolted up. No mist.  And now I had actually added some distance to my 8K, and it had become more like 9K. And my water was running low.

So as much for my own sake as anyone else’s, I’m going to crib from a great article I found that gives the pros and cons of various ways you can stay hydrated during a long run. 

The article promises five but actually only talks about four. You can click on the link to see their pros and cons. I’ve added my own two cents to the suggestions on their list:

  1. single handheld bottle–if you’re doing this go with one that is ergonomically designed to fit comfortably in your hand. I’ve got a couple of these and they’re okay for short runs but liquid weighs a lot, and it can feel heavy after awhile. A small bottle if you’re on a route where you can refill it might be fine if you don’t find it too hard on your body. Switching it between hands is a good idea.
  2. multiple bottle belt–I have two different belts. One holds three small bottles and the other holds two slightly larger bottles. They’re okay, but you do feel the weight of the bottles around your waist, and they bounce a bit (with the belt) when they’re full. That’s why even though my belt holds three bottles, I rarely ever take more than two, and on the fateful Sunday I’m talking about here, I took only one. I do like the belts though. And both of the ones I have also have a zippered section where you can stuff some nutrition.
  3. hydration pack or vest–I’ve seen people with these but never used one myself. The article speaks of them as a comfortable and effective no-bounce way to carry a lot of water with you when you won’t have a chance for refills. Weight can be an issue of course, because liquid weighs a lot. But if the water is on your back that’s not the worst place for it as long as the pack doesn’t bounce.
  4. DIY aid station–I’ve had something like this when I used to train with a run club. When we did our half marathon training one of the group leaders set up a van at the half way point of long runs filled with water, electrolyte drinks, fruit, gummies, and I can’t remember what all else (maybe band-aids and sunscreen). It was a great solution for the very long runs when it would have been a hassle to pack all that we needed.

I would add my own fifth, which is to choose a route that has water fountains along the way. Despite that the misting thing wasn’t working, if I had gone still further before turning around I would have hit an actual drinking fountain, and then another not too much further than that. And I could have grabbed more from each of these on my way back. Had a planned for 12K instead of 8K, that would have been ideal AND I could have filled up my one belt bottle before the last stretch that had so very little water.

It’s only June, which means there are a few more hot days ahead of me, where even if I get out at 7 a.m. it’ll be humid and I’ll need to do better than I did on Sunday if I want to feel good, not awful, when I get home.

What’s your go-to hydration system for hot summer training?

Book Reviews · fitness

Please review our book!

Sam B
I feel a bit like a broken record these days asking people to rank and rate our book. But the thing is reviews matter. Books that have more reviews, good reviews, are more likely to appear as recommended titles for people who use the biggest of the online book retailers, Amazon. So, please do us a big favour and review our book. See Why reviews matter.
Even if you didn’t purchase your book from Amazon, your review will help ensure others find out about Fit at Mid-Life
How to review Fit at Mid-Life:
  • Click https://www.amazon.com/Fit-Mid-Life-Feminist-Fitness-Journey/dp/1771641673
  • Scroll down to the Customer Reviews Section
  • Take a look at the existing reviews, and click on “Helpful” below any positive reviews you find helpful
  • Click on “Write a Customer Review“
  • Select your star rating
  • Write a few words on what you liked (or loved) about Fit at Mid-Life

You can also review our book at GoodReads. We have more reviews here and they’re fun to read I think. I especially like the review that described us as having “that peculiarly Canadian style of being earnest, educated, judgmental, ideological, and yet both endearing and inspiring.”

A black and white photo of Sam and Tracy’s book on a window ledge. The window is stained glass.

fitness

Sam and Tracy are Guests on 40+ Fitness Podcast:

Sam B

40+ Fitness logo
40+ Fitness logo

“An approach to fitness that does not require you to focus on your looks but more on the quality that being fit adds to your life….”

We had a good chat with Allan, the host.

Go have a listen here.

 

cycling

Girls and bikes together again?

Sam B2 Comments

Last week I was a speaker at an event all about celebrating women cyclists. We were talking about how to get more women on the road on two wheels. Better cycling infrastructure obviously. Safer roads for everyday cyclists.

One of the questions I asked was where in the pipeline do we lose women as cyclists. While there are twice as many men as women riding bikes in Canada, the gap between men and women starts when we’re young.

Outside magazine asks Why Aren’t More Girls Riding Bikes?

Partly it’s that children in general are riding less.

“According to the federal program Safe Routes to School, the number of kids commuting on bike or foot to school has plummeted from 48 percent in 1969 to 13 percent in 2009. In the CDC-funded survey, parents cited distance to school, traffic-related risks, and weather as the biggest barriers to biking and walking. Factor in distracted drivers and kids’ increasingly busy after-school schedules, and it’s no wonder that biking is such a tough sell.”

But as we know around here it’s also gendered. Girls’ participation drops off more than boys’. There’s such a thing as the play gap.

One explanation for kids moving less is the ‘protection paradox.” Parents and teachers worry about kids getting hurt and so encourage less risky play. Activities like biking and walking to school are seen as dangerous. It’s a paradox because the kids are less well off overall as a result of moving less. But the “protection paradox” is also gendered. Parents and teachers worry more about girls than boys. And that maps the result.

More from Outside: “New research presented last year shows that girls’ participation in riding drops off noticeably in adolescence. The study’s author, Jennifer Dill, an urban studies and planning professor at Portland State University, surveyed 300 families in Portland to find out how their attitudes and behavior toward bicycling changed over the course of two years. Dill found that the girls between 11 and 16 who lost interest in biking shared common concerns: They felt less safe riding in traffic (even in areas with designated bike lanes), they were uncomfortable riding alone and reported having trouble finding friends to join them, they believed cars were safer than bikes, and they thought biking took too much time.”

At the panel, my daughter talked about learning to ride as a child. She talked about riding with a bike club in Australia that taught kids to ride and race on a track. Her favourite drill was learning to ride side by side with another cyclist holding on the other rider’s shoulder. She also liked learning look back and shoulder check while continuing ahead in a straight line. These are skills that help with cycling safety and give beginning riders confidence. It’s great to teach them to kids at an age when they aren’t so afraid of falling and they’re not so self-conscious about getting things wrong.

I think this kind of skill development is especially important for girls.

I love girls on bikes. Like Ruby Isaac.

advertising · body image · diets · men · motivation

Men, don’t change much but women, you’re doing everything wrong!

Sam B

We’ve all heard the message of small changes, Make small changes to improve your health and fitness

And for Canadian Men’s Health week that’s the message, Don’t Change Much.

I love the motto, “Half fries, half salad, once in awhile” in this radio spot,

 

There are lots of reasons to start small. Tracy, here on the blog, has been a big advocate of doing less.  I’ve written about aiming for a 2/3 vegan diet because a fully vegan diet seems too much and it’s better overall, if it’s sustainable, to just eat fewer animal products.

In general, lots of public health agencies push a moderate message because it’s more likely to be motivational.

But I worry it’s gendered. We send men the moderate message, while women strive for perfection. We tell men that the “dad bod” is hot but there’s no such equivalent as the “mom bod.”

I love this Southern Comfort ad but can’t imagine a women’s version.

Instead, the message I hear that’s aimed at women is “OMG women, eat less, move more, sleep more, spend more time with your families, advance your careers, GO GO GO!”

It’s hard to imagine the “don’t change much” campaign aimed at women. What might it look like?

 

 

The author, plunging into a swimming pool head first. What I’ve learned from 200 blog posts for Fit is a Feminist Issue
fitness

What I’ve learned from 200 blog posts for Fit is a Feminist Issue

catherine w2 Comments

Hey y’all– it’s my blog post bicentennial! As I was idly poking around the Fit is a Feminist Issue site, I saw that I am reaching 200 posts as of today Woo-hoo!

Fireworks at night, saying 200!
Fireworks at night, saying 200!

I started blogging in August 2014. I wrote here about a long group ride I took in western Massachusetts– my pre-ride fears, my during-ride experiences, and after-ride glow and satisfaction. Since mid-2015, I’ve been blogging every Sunday and occasionally mid-week. Looking back, here are some things I’ve learned:

1. Even though I love physical activity, it provokes a bunch of fears and anxieties in me. I’ve written about them in great detail; here are a few:

2. I’ve learned that I am most definitely not alone in having these feelings. You, dear readers, have responded generously and frankly, sharing your own experiences, reassuring me that it gets better, and encouraging me to keep doing what I love on my own terms because that is just fine. Thank you so much for the solidarity and support.

3. I’ve found through writing and reading this blog that there are a lot of fun ways to move on land, sea, and air. There are a lot of fun ways to develop, maintain, increase and preserve strength, stamina, flexibility, endurance, and grace. Here are some activities I’ve tried and written about in the course of blogging here:

Update: I love ropes yoga and still do it when I can. I’ve downscaled my sea kayaking ambitions to paddling in calmer waters for now, but the ocean horizon still beckons. Scuba is expensive and logistically complicated, so it won’t be a regular part of my life, although I hope to continue it when I’m in parts of the world with turquoise warm water and brightly colored fishes. I’m glad I saw the Great Barrier Reef when I had the chance. Skate skiing is also probably not in the offing– I hope to use my regular xc skis in future (although who knows what weather will be like in the next few years).

Re the sit-rise test: the less said about it, the better. Can’t do it. At all. Hoping it doesn’t mean I’ll die very very soon… 🙂

4. Through reading other bloggers’ stories, writing my own, and hearing from readers, I’ve learned a lot about what my values and priorities are with respect to physical activity. I want to:

  • cycle for the rest of my life (yes, I’ll go recumbent if need be; we’ll see)
  • keep doing yoga, not worrying about taking beginner classes forever
  • find some ways to swim more– I love the water and feel great moving in it
  • accept that I like walking in nature but not up (or down) super-steep slopes
  • dance more (yeah, that pretty much says it)
  • do wacky semi-active things like mini golf and bowling more often (don’t mock– they are fun fun fun in groups)
  • try axe throwing

I’ll be adding to the list as time goes on.

5. Not all my experiences have been sunny and positive. For instance, I still don’t know whether eggs are good for us or bad for us.

Fake egg news? More on the eggs-good/eggs-bad controversy

The new US dietary guidelines, or: just tell me—are eggs good or bad this year?

6. One thing I do know: Food is neither good nor evil– this we’ve got covered at Fit is a Feminist Issue.

7. Another thing I know: I love this group of bloggers, readers, commenters. You are a source of great and deep joy to me. Thank you, and see you next week for blog post 201.

Me on my cross bike, dressed as a banana, before the Orchard cross costume ride.
Me on my cross bike, dressed as a banana, before the Orchard cross costume ride.