I’m wildly happy to be back at the gym. I remembered my locker number and my combination. I loved the 50% capacity, though I know it won’t last. And the students in group fitness classes with me talked, and talked, and talked, and I loved that too.
Usually the lunch hour classes draw some staff too but staff aren’t all back on campus just yet so this week it was just me and the students. It’s odd now that they’re mostly younger now than my youngest child. He’s 23 and in 4th year.
I did the TRX and rip trainer circuit class on Thursday and Yin Yoga on Friday. Unlike the Before Times, I had to sign up in advance and received numerous text message reminders. You can only sign up for one group fitness class per day. That’s fine. I’m going to spend some time in the weight room too.
So now I am wondering how to fit all the things in.
Here’s my late winter weekly fitness plan:
Monday: Lunch hour weights at the gym, evening bike race or course ride over with teammates for Tuesday’s race
Tuesday: Lunch hour group fitness class, TRX likely, and Zwift racing at night, with TFC Dynamite in the ZRL series.
Wednesday: Day off from the gym, Zwift recovery ride in the evening
Thursday: Lunch hour TRX class and TTT racing on Zwift at night with TFC Phantom
Friday: Restorative Yoga at lunch (feels perfect for Fridays) and social Zwift riding at night.
Saturday and Sunday: A mix of outdoor things like walking Cheddar and fat biking, some Yoga with Adriene, maybe some indoor rowing, and some social riding on Zwift.
I easily default to just Zwift and dog walks so I feel I’m doing better these days, adding in some strength training and some yoga. The upside of that is when I’m on the floor anyway I’m more likely to do my knee physio.
To be clear we are talking about MOVE, Adriene’s 2022 30 Days of Yoga Practice.
Christine recently blogged about being moved by Move even though it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. (Reader, it wasn’t Susan’s.)
Lots of us here on the blog are fans of Yoga with Adriene and many of enjoy kicking off the new year with her 30 days of yoga. I thought a group check in might be good and I posed these questions to the bloggers’ group:
Did you do all 30 days in a row? What did like about daily yoga or MOVE in particular? What didn’t you like about MOVE? Which were your favourite days?
Here are our responses:
Sam
I got stuck at 22 but I’ll keep working away at it and eventually see it through. That’s my usual 30 days of yoga approach. It ends up being more like 30 days out of 45 and that’s just fine with me. My favourite thing this year was doing Yoga with Adriene with my weightlifting son. It was something we often did together at the very end of the day and we now have two yoga mats laid out on the living room floor with room for Cheddar in the middle. My faves were Mobility, Snuggle, and Ritual, all of which I’ll do again.
Tracy
I started and finished “on time” but missed a couple of days here and there that I made up over the next day or two. I appreciated it this time but I somehow didn’t feel quite as enthusiastic about it as I have the two years prior. I think that has much to do with where my head is these days — my word of the year (FOCUS) has not been working for me and I felt distracted and stressed much of January. The MOVE practices all kind of blur together and I don’t think I had a favourite, but my least favourite is the silent practice that we ended with. If I want to do a silent yoga practice for half an hour without being led, I can do that whenever I like. With 22 years of consistent yoga practice under my belt, that’s really accessible to me. I do YWA so that I can follow along. But if I want to follow along I need to keep looking at Adriene, which distracts me from what I’m doing, which has the opposite effect of the internal connection. So in the end I did let go of Adriene for that one, and just did my thing mostly, and that’s fine and all, but I can do that anytime.
Bettina
I’ve only done a few of them so far. I started late and everyday yoga just isn’t on the cards for me right now – it’s more like twice a week. But I have to say I really like them this year! I know some people found it too pilates-y, but I’m actually rather enjoying these elements. I’m still working on improving my core again after having kiddo, so I’m finding that these sequences really suit me.
Catherine
I didn’t get past day 1. These days I have 1) a membership at my local yoga studio, which offers online classes; 2) a new membership to the Underbelly, Jessamyn Stanley’s most excellent yoga video site; 3) yet another membership to something called Body Groove, which has yoga, pilates/strength workouts, as well as goofy and cheesy and fun dance workout videos; 4) everything else on the internet. In short, I’ve been distracted by this embarrassment of riches, and sometimes paralyzed by too much choice. Clearly, this calls for some kind of action or decision-making or commitment to, uh, something or other. But as of yet I know not what…
Nicole
I appreciate YWA for what she offers and love the shorter length. But I prefer my traditional yoga teachers over all. If I could combine my favourite yoga teacher Lisa V. shorter offerings I’d be happy.
There were parts of Move I enjoyed. I did it all, as I did last year. This tells me there was enough of it bringing me back each day. I think I enjoyed last year’s a bit more. I appreciate the short length of each offering. Overall, I am glad I did it and am grateful to her for sharing it the way she does. I find her direction a bit scattered sometimes. I really, really, dislike the last one she does every year where you decide what to do. I want to be guided (but not by myself)!
Cate
This is the first year I haven’t tried to do it every day, just because my head wasn’t there. I’m just over halfway through, and ironically, I like this year’s offering better than any of the previous years. It’s short and sharp and fits where I am right now — needing focused bursts to remind myself I’m mobile and, as Adriene encourages us to whisper, I am strong.
Image description: photo of a dark-haired woman (Adriene) doing a reclining yoga pose on a mat on a hardwood floor, with a dog sleeping beside her (Benji), and a large window, trees and a portion of a handrail through the window.
Tracy writes that it’s not too late to start. And that’s still true. You can pick any 30 days you choose. Or like me, any 45 or so. Enjoy!
And if you did MOVE, what did you think? What’s next for you?
I buy a lot of books. I plan to read them, but work and laundry and friends and phone get in my way. Which is to say that I get in my own way. I’ve got several piles of bought-but-not-read-yet books near my nightstand, and I thought I’d share some with you. This selection may be of interest to FIFI readers, but also readers in general.
In no particular order, here’s a small selection of books I’ve bought that I mean to read or re-read this year:
Lands of Lost Borders: a Journey on the Silk Road, by Kate Harris. It’s a bike travel story, which I love. In this one she and a friend bike in remote parts of China. I’m extra-interested in reading this because I’ve mountain biked with her (she’s a friend of friends). She’s Canadian, just FYI for my friends north of the border…
Flash Count Diary: Menopause and the Vindication of Natural Life, by Darcey Steinke. This memoir and commentary on menopause offers another way to think about changes in our lives, which I’m paying a lot of attention to these days. Also, all this blogging has put me on a path to do more creative non-fiction writing, so I’m reading more memoir and personal essays. Maybe we all are– there’s so much to learn from getting a glimpse at the inside of someone else’s life. Blogging scratches the surface of that, and I’m interested in what’s in the layers below.
Fearing the Black Body: the Racial Origins of Fat Phobia, by Sabrina Strings. If you decide to read one book on this list, read this one. I’ve started it, and will spend some dedicated time with to this book. Its main message is this: the ideal of slenderness is, at its very core, racialized and racist.
I had bought this book a while back, but got distracted by other things and other books. Then, I listened to an interview with her by Roxane Gay and Tressie McMillan Cottom on the podcast Hear to Slay (which is now the Roxane Gay Agenda, worth subscribing to on Luminary). I’m sold, and I bet you will be, too.
Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer, by Lynne Cox. In addition to being in the International Swimming Hall of Fame and the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame, Lynne has an asteroid named after her: asteroid 37588 Lynnecox. I don’t think I know anyone who has their own asteroid namesake. Sam and maybe other of our bloggers have read this, and the reviews are good.
Pelvic Liberation: using yoga, self-inquiry, and breath awareness for pelvic health, by Leslie Howard. Even though Leslie doesn’t (as far as I know) have her own asteroid, she’s done a lot of work developing and teaching yoga practices aimed at improving pelvic floor health. NOTE: I’m not claiming that yoga will cure whatever ails us in our pelvic regions. There are lots of health care professionals out there, and I’m not one of them. What I like is that the book contains loads of illustrated yoga poses, many of them supportive, along with explanations about benefits and how to incorporate them into my regular yoga practice.
Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women, by Kate Manne. In this book, Kate reveals how misogyny and toxic masculinity enroll all of us through comprehensive socialization. She also offers ways to identify and shift our modes of thinking about who’s entitled to what to expand girls’ and women’s power. This book was written after her brilliant Down Girl, a philosophical analysis of misogyny. I’ve read Down Girl but not yet gotten to Entitled. Now’s the time.
I also heard about this book on the Hear to Slay podcast interview with Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (maybe you’re getting the idea that this is a good source of new and interesting ideas…) It’s an anthology of short pieces by 60 women at the forefront of the climate movement. The work is divided into sections called Root, Advocate, Reframe, Reshape, Persist, Feel, Nourish, and Rise. We meet familiar names and new voices that honor and mourn losses, but also call us to save places around us, both big and small.
I could go on, but this is good as a start (both for me and for y’all).
Readers, have you read any of these books already? Have you bought them but not read them? Do you have any books you recommend for us to read this year? Please do let us know. I’m always up for book recommendations.
I wrote this post two and a half years ago, in the before times. Now, in February 2022, we see that a lot of people have both adopted dogs and regretted adopting dogs. I’m glad I didn’t succumb to the pandemic puppy craze.
And yet. I’ve been more involved with my friends’ and family’s dogs (posting copiously about it). My dog friend Dixie is booked for a 2-day visit this week while her person is busy with lots of after-work activity. I love my friends’ and family’s dogs.
And yet. I’m starting to realize that the relationship between me and a dog that’s my dog, for whom I’m their person, is one that’s really different from being a dog auntie. I think I want to pursue such a relationship.
So stay tuned, and I hope you enjoy this piece from 2019.
My partner is walking away from the camera in a toque, aviator style wool shearling jacket and boots. Our dog Lucy trails behind on her leash giving the camera her patent pending side eye. Her look of derision sums up how I’ve been feeling lately.
It’s February! I usually joke February is Latin for “shit” as I don’t usually love winter and, wowsers, is it ever winter now eh? This year though winter isn’t bumming me out. It’s everything else. I had a mild case of COVID 19 over Christmas but the symptoms lasted roughly 4 weeks. It really drained me at a time when the holidays super charge me.
I love food, friends and having a good time. This year though even my most modest plans were canceled. Nothing tasted good. I was tired. BORING. Totally thankful everyone in my household recovered and life is back to normal. But I’ve noticed lately my usual self care and mental health strategies were not enough.
I get to lead people in my paid work. One piece about leadership that has stayed with me since my military days is “don’t tell people what to do, show them”. So I talk about what I do to be well both for staying effective at work AND to enjoy all that other life stuff that work funds.
I do a lot of things to fill my emotional and creative tanks. But lately even my self-care decathlon isn’t enough. I decided I needed to kick things up a notch. A big notch.
So I’ve jumped on my partner’s Peloton. He was awarded it last November for his performance at work. He loves it. We have very different rhythms when it comes to working out but after seeing his joy for 3 months I was starting to think about joining him.
It wasn’t until our friends, who are our neighbours too, shared what they were enjoying about their Peloton that I moved from thinking about it to trying it. Thank you Nina & Al!
The first ride, Ouaf, so humbling. It’s been more than 2 years since I’ve done any cycling of note. I’ve been focusing on walking as the logistics of anything else was really doing my head in. So I picked a 20 minute beginner ride with Ally Love. It was a great class to understand the features of the bike and how the classes are structured.
I cried a lot though while spinning. I didn’t have the fit dialed in quite right and I was so uncomfortable. It was hard to truly be a beginner again. I did find Ally’s instruction helpful and distracting. The class flew by.
The next day I tried a warm up spin with Ben and a beginner whole body strength class with Chase. The whole body strength class reminded me of CXworks so felt familiar and accessible. Chase provided clear instructions and just the right amount of direction.
Day 3 I joined a 20 minute beginner spin class with Tunde. It was challenging without being overwhelming. I really enjoyed her instruction, which balanced technique and encouragement perfectly. I had the bike fit dialed in and I started to feel more at home in the saddle.
Day 4 was a Sunday so I took the time to stack 4 workouts. Stacking allows you to build a workout in advance combining different classes to get to the length you want.
I chose a beginner whole body strength training with Adrian. He has a 10 minute warm up, a 20 minute class, and a 10 minute stretching class. All were challenging and the moves were achieve-able for me. I ended with a 10 minute guided meditation with Aditi focusing on breath.
I was pleasantly surprised that planks were not only available to me but pretty easy. That’s a big change for me and I credit my daily dog walks for my newfound core strength.
Day 5 I stacked Christine’s 5 minute spinning warm up with a 20 minute beginner class followed by a 5 minute cool down. I really like her straightforward delivery.
Day 6 was a repeat of strength training with Adrian. Day 7 a revisit of Tunde’s beginner spin. I’m balancing trying different instructors with keeping some familiarity.
I was SO SKEPTICAL of the entertainment aspect of online classes. I tend to grim, grunt and bare it exercises. The music and the strengths based approach really works for me. No one is more surprised than me!
I’m so thankful my folks gifted us dumbbell sets for Christmas. That I had clipless shoes, cycling shorts, water bottles, yoga mats and belts. It really removed all the barriers for me to get over my embarrassment of not restarting my workouts sooner.
A Peloton bike is a very expensive bit of kit. It’s not something I would have sprung for of my own accord. I’m so surprised how much I enjoy it. I hope you are finding joy in your workouts too!
Nat and Michel are looking happy in snow covered grey toques. They are bundled up for the chilly weather and it’s snowing quite a bit. Behind them is a red brick 2 story house covered in snow.
I’ve not tracked my activity for two weeks now. I broke my Fitbit strap and there was no easy way to keep the tracker on my person while I waited for a replacement.
My new strap arrived today and after retrieving the Fitbit from the charger, I put it together and promptly put it on. It was like welcoming an old friend. It’s true: you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.
Image shows a fitness tracker against a bright purple blackground. Photo by Nikita Kostrykin on Unsplash
I missed counting steps, checking my heart rate, responding to my stretch reminders, looking at my sleep records. As I work at my desk for a large part of my day, I like ensuring I have a minimum number of steps. Not having my Fitbit available had left me somewhat adrift.
Tracking simple things for me is a habit that works to keep focused. It’s easier than I like with the ebbs and flows of public health restrictions to lose my attention on intentional movement. I have felt the absence of my Fitbit these past two weeks; I’ve been lost without its little vibrating nudges of my pre-set reminders. I can’t prove it, but I know my activity has been less and I know my sleep hasn’t been great.
So I’ve refreshed my data, double checked the charge, and I’m excited about counting my steps again. It’s the small things that make a difference. What are the little things that keep you going on your fitness journey? Tell us in the comments!
The article tells the story of cyclists who’ve been advised by coaches and cycling friends, if you want to get better, get faster drop some weight.
“For many cyclists, this attitude—and the belief that achieving a certain weight is the key to performance—is not only unhealthy but can also cause lifelong mental and physical damage. As more evidence shows that weight is not a reliable indicator of health and that a focus on body weight is harmful, it’s clear that we in the bike community need to change the conversation on weight, performance, and well-being.”
The issue also goes on to profile some larger bodied cyclists, such as Lulu Carter, below.
Go buy the magazine and read the whole thing. It’s worth it!
(Many of us at the FIFI blog participate in the “222 in 2022” type workout challenges. At the beginning of the year, newbies tend to agonize about “what counts.” My answer is always “it counts if it felt like movement to you.” I looked back through some of the things people in my groups wrote about “what counts,” and made a “found poem” out of people’s comments — which illustrates the beautiful singularity we have trying to move through our days. (The poem is first; after that, I’m sharing the more detailed comments, with the words I turned into the poem in bold).
I’m counting
I am tired from climbing
trying to be kinder to myself
getting off the couch. putting down.
it was cold and I was tired
it was cold and my hair was wet
Will count
I was sweating a lot.
It feels wrong
with Covid I shouldn’t be
hopping stomping running
I was sweating! I showed up!
But today was a hard day
curl up. stare. tai chi. sex.
cosmically balance
I’m counting
Lugging bags digging holes
I’m sore. I’m in a slump
I’m counting
Himalayan sound bowl
meditation
still
not counting
I don’t think all my dog walks are going to count, but I am tired from climbing yesterday, and this felt like a good amount of intentional movement and therefore spiritually right to count as a workout.
I count sessions, not days. 331 in 2021.
Trying to be kinder to myself this year, I’m going to count either individual, intentional workouts of ten or more minutes; *or* an active day like today where I was on my feet, walking around, and closed my Apple Watch rings.
I count days doing something instead of individual activities because I’ve always just been congratulating myself for getting off the couch/putting down the phone and doing something!
I am increasing my walk-counts-as-workout time in 2022 from 30 minutes to 45, in part to make this more of a challenge again, now that my activity habit has been established.
Short walk from the dentist. Counting cause it was cold and I was tired.
Walking to and from swim practice. It was only about 35 minutes total but I am counting it because I normally take the car so I can do groceries on the way home, plus it was cold and my hair was wet on the way back. Also, my swim bag is heavy!
Snowy walk to work (I usually drive. Will count walk home as part of #8–9K round trip)
Shovelling snow for 10 mins. I wasn’t going to count this since it was under 20 mins but I was sweating a lot afterwards so the bar for a cardiovascular challenge is low right now.
#slwfmsmh. It feels wrong to count it in one way because it was shorter than my self-imposed threshold for activity. On the other hand, yesterday was a very long work day where I barely left my chair for 16 hours (aside for a 45 minute break for some pruning in the garden) and my first meeting started just 8 hours later.
Having Covid and an injury, I cannot be following my training schedule, but a couple of days I’ve done the fatgirlrunning 5 “get ups”. I don’t count them as a workout. (And of course with Covid I shouldn’t be working out).
Don’t laugh, but I’m totally counting my toddler’s soccer class. I spent 30 minutes hopping across a gym like a bunny, stomping like a dinosaur, running like a cheetah, then chasing endless balls as they were kicked in random directions.
YWA 21 and 22. I wasn’t going to count YWA 21 because it was only 12 mins long, but the core work was intense and I was sweating! So it counts.
YWA Move Day 19 (did 18 yesterday but it wasn’t something I felt like counting but I showed up!)
Normally, I wouldn’t count this as a workout. But today was a hard day in this province, and I’m proud of myself for managing a few squats before bed when what I really wanted to do was curl up in a blanket and stare at the wall.
Do my tai chi classes count? Honestly they feel too easy to count.
Does anyone here count sex as exercise?
Somehow the high-activity days must cosmically balance out the lower ones?
An hour or so shovelling the driveway. Was a pretty light job, but it’s the closest thing I’ve had to exercise since coming down with covid so I’m counting it.
Some intensive gardening today. Lugging bags of mulch and digging holes for new trees. A lot of weeding which should count as squats and lunges.
A whole heck of a lot of work at the cottage. I’m sore everywhere so definitely counting.
Enough yard work that my Fitbit tracked it and since I’m in a slump I’m counting it
Each day also had more planting but less physical so I’m not counting as a separate activity.
A full day of house reorganizing and tidying yesterday. Don’t normally count this stuff but a full day, I’m counting it. 27 flights of steps says my watch.
We also did a Himalayan sound bowl meditation this evening, but sat still the whole time, so not counting it.
Fieldpoppy is Cate Creede, who has lost her meticulous counting from the past five years because of a tech snafu with f-book.
Some mornings I wake up with a buzz of desire fluttering around my nerve endings. When our enthusiasm matches up and time allows, my partner and I indulge our pleasure. Inevitably though, there are mornings when that is just not possible. Until very recently, my response would be to shelve the buzz in corner, so that I could focus on the practical to-do list for the day.
Or, less productively, I’d be grumpy.
Until three weeks ago. That’s when I started taking an online course on the history and practices of tantric sexuality from the Centre Summum. I’ve been intrigued by tantra practices for more than a decade, but could never work up the courage to actually sign up for anything.
A brief and necessarily incomplete description is that tantra is a spiritual practice (across many traditions) of gathering and harmonizing our feminine and masculine energy. So, yes, tantra is about so much more than sex. And, it’s about sex.
Thanks to the pandemic, the class about sex is online. Thank you zoom for the ability to enroll in classes that would be logistically complicated or psychologically daunting, if they were in person. How much easier is it to show up from home? No one can really see when I blush, nor are there those awkward moments before and after class where we talk about … our sex lives?
We get homework. The first and second week (the third class is tonight, after this piece posts) one of our assignments was to notice those buzzy moments that I mentioned earlier (the class is in French and I love the French word for the buzz—frissons). Instead of setting the frissons aside, as I used to do, we learned to pause and simply savor the sensation of our life force energy. That’s what tantrism calls our sexual energy—our life force, the root flame of our vitality. Well, that was fun homework. Enlivening.
neon sign reading “and breathe” against leafy background, .by Valeriia Bugaiova on Unsplash
Another delightful assignment is practicing Kumbhaka breathing to cultivate our vital energy. Breath practices are key in tantra. As explained in the class, Kumbhaka breath is to cultivate our life force energy. It goes like this:
Ideally (but not necessarily!) done in seated meditation position. Take a deep breath in, moving the breath down from your heart into your pelvic floor. Hold the in-breath for a moment and then breathe out, moving the breath through your root chakra at the base of your spine. Allow the out-breath to continue up your spine, flow over the crown of your head and back down to rejoin the in-breath at your heart. Hold your breath at empty until you feel the urge to breathe. Repeat the breath pattern. Repeat again. You may set yourself a breath count or an amount of time, or you may just do it until your vitality is buzzing.
An online search yields a variety of slightly different descriptions, with prescriptive advice on when and how long to do the breathing. Our teacher, Stéphane, has a permissive spirit, much more about flow than structure. My personal approach is to try out different ways of doing the breath and feel into what works for me. In that spirit, I have a visualization that manifested with the practice. The in-breath is to anchor my life force (my power). The out-breath straightens my spine and as the breath flows over my head and past my face, I imagine putting on a warrior’s helmet. That’s my courage. Finally, as the breath reaches my heart, I tap into love. I’ve been doing Kumbhaka during my meditation, where it feels energizing and helps me focus (not on sex, but on what I need to focus on for the day).
Where I’ve really noticed a difference is when I do the breathing in bed, as I’m waking up on those buzzy mornings when I have to get up and start the day, no time for dalliance. When I go for my workout, which is cross-country skiing these days, I feel extra strong. The first time I felt this abundant energy during my ski, I just chalked it up to feeling happy. After all, spending a few extra moments to breathe into the frissons is happiness-inducing. The second and third times I felt the kick of vitality on my skis, I thought—hey, there’s a pattern. First, I searched around online to see if there was anything specific about my experience. While there is lots about tantric yoga and about other breathing practices and sports performance, there wasn’t anything specific about the particular connection I am experiencing. So, I asked Stéphane, if I was imagining the connection or if the Special K-effect (as I think of it, a reference to the breakfast cereal, not the drug) was a known result? He wrote me back (oh, right; because I did not have the courage to ask the question in class, live on zoom, I waited to ask in writing!): “Yes, whenever we channel our sexual energy there will be a tendency to increase all of our internal energies. It (*our sexual energy) is the source of all our strength.”
Yes! I’ll have what she’s having. Oh wait, I’m the she who is already having. That sentence may have been nonsense, but you get the picture. I’m grooving to this class, even on my skis.
Interestingly, at the risk of over-sharing, but hey, I’m already in pretty deep here: when I actually have sex in the morning, that does not make me feel stronger for my workout. The more likely result is that I am more at ease with however the workout goes. That’s an equally great outcome, since I can get caught up in performance-busting narratives in my head.
And, in case it isn’t super obvious, these practices are intended for all people with sexual energy, whether or not you are in a relationship or solo and whatever gender creates the sparks.
There’s more personal, anecdotal research to be done on this front. I plan to be very diligent about my homework. And if you’ve been wanting a new kick of energy to supplement your morning coffee, check out the Special K-effect for yourself. You can’t fake the deliciousness.
