Month: April 2024

Managing My Climate Anxiety
climate change · fitness

Managing My Climate Anxiety

Diane Harper1 Comment

Belated happy Earth Day. I wish I were actually happier about it. Instead, I have come to realize that I am a bundle of climate anxiety.

I used to love to travel and all my bucket list items included exotic locations. Now, I struggle to convince myself it’s okay to drive to the cottage property I own.

I am looking at e-bike options that have the battery power to get me there, and solar panel set-ups so I can recharge batteries to get home again. Right now I’m torn between the Tern GSD (cute and very useful in the city but shorter range) and the Tern Orox (designed for camping adventures, but still requiring a battery boost to get home, and maybe too big to fit into my storage area with all the other bikes).

On top, a Blue Tern GD e-cargo bike with a passenger seat on the back. Below two adults ride Tern Orox e-bikes through the woods. One is loaded with gear, while the other has a child on the back.

I have even debated whether I could use my acoustic bike to get there. 95 km and steep hills strongly suggests “no”.

Once I arrive at the property, will I be able to cook, or will we be under a burn ban or at wildfire smoke advisory again? I have a small camp stove for emergencies, but normally I cook over an open fire, so I’m weighing the merits of various solar cookers.

If I spend a lot of time at the cottage, who will take care of my gardens? I have two small community garden plots, plus my front yard which is mostly given over to herbs, plants that attract pollinators and whatever I can grow in large planters on the walkway, and some fruit bushes and a small bed with asparagus and onions in the back yard.

Gardening and eating local is partly how I manage my anxiety. I’m forced to eat seasonal foods and almost nothing comes wrapped in plastic. I’m not quite full-on vegetarian yet, but I’m getting there because I hate buying plastic-wrapped meat in plastic trays, and because of the greenhouse gas impacts of meat vs beans.

Fortunately, almost everything survives heat and drought fairly well. Unfortunately, I’m not a very good gardener, so aside from green beans and garlic, there is no way I could feed myself for more than a few meals each year.

Other ways to cope? Buying less, buying used, plogging, using the 2Good2Go app and volunteering with Hidden Harvest Ottawa to rescue food that would otherwise go to waste. And volunteering with Bike Ottawa to advocate for safe active transit infrastructure. Somehow that has morphed into supporting denser, walkable mixed-use communities and improved public transit, as well. All those things will help reduce carbon emissions x eventually.

Will it be enough? Not on its own, but at least it keeps me busy and keeps the climate anxiety from morphing into full-on existential dread. I hope.

Diane and other volunteers at the Bike Ottawa display for an Earth Day event in Ottawa.
fitness

Off to be a model…

Christine Hennebury

For a couple of hours anyway.

Occasionally, I do some (clothed!) modelling for a local art group.

I’m always a bit nervous beforehand because I want to give them good poses to draw but once I get there, I have a great time.

There’s something so focusing and relaxing about having nothing else to do but stay still.

I’m the rest of my life, I usually have to make a conscious decision to stay still so my brain will stop prompting me to do stuff and stop wondering why I am lazing around.

And I guess in this case I have made the decision as well but it feels different because moving is the wrong thing to do.

Moving would ruin things.

So it’s not just a choice, it’s important to just sit and be.

And I like it.

Christine’s Experiment – reframed
ADHD · fitness · walking

Christine’s Experiment – reframed

Christine Hennebury

I was going to start this post by saying that I picked a poor week for an experiment but I don’t think that’s entirely true.

I think I got ahead of myself with my experiment and started at the wrong question. And my hectic week made that very obvious, very quickly.

A photo of two people’s hands holding lab glassware with green liquid in it.
My experiment had nothing to do with test tubes and beakers (flasks?) of green liquid but this image just struck me funny. Image description: a photo of two people’s hands holding lab glassware that has green liquid in it. They are both wearing white tyvec suits. One person’s hand is holding a beaker (flask?) aloft and they are gesturing to it with their other hand as if to say ‘See what I mean?’ And the other person’s hand is holding a test tube with the same liquid in it near the base of the beaker.

To recap, last week I planned to do a 5 minute warm-up before I took the dog for a walk, just to see if getting my heart rate up before I left would help me work a bit harder on my walk.

I thought it was a good-sized experiment, reasonable and not overly ambitious, so I thought it would be easy.

Then last week looked at my plans and laughed.

My days got incredibly jumbled making it both hard to remember that I was going to warm up first AND making it hard to find the extra five minutes before our walk. (Usually on hectic days I take a walk on the spur of the moment but the warmup plan complicated that.)

Khalee somehow immediately connected my warmup with our walk and either tightly circled around me or jumped on me for the whole time I tried to get moving.

A photo of a dog sitting on a bed
Khalee doesn’t get why I’m making a big deal of all of this. Can’t I just amble along sniffing the ground like a normal person? (Evidence suggests that Khalee thinks she’s people, so she would obviously consider herself a normal person.) image description: a slightly, side-on view of Khalee stretched out on my bed with her head raised (sort of a Sphinx kind of pose) She is looking over to the right rather than directly into the camera.

I was sick for three days and while I could manage a walk on two of those three days, I just couldn’t make myself do a warmup too.

So, yeah, it wasn’t a great week and I didn’t get the information I needed.

Except, I kind of did.

For starters, an experiment that fails is still useful because I know what doesn’t work.

But, also, it showed me that my initial question was wrong – I had started in the wrong spot.

Before I can test if a warmup helps me increase my heart rate during a walk, I need to ask myself “How can I make it easy to do a 5 minute warmup before walking Khalee?”

So, that’s the question I’m testing this week and I think the first thing I’ll try is to pick a specific walk time each day and include a 5 minute window for a warmup.

Tune in next week for another exciting update in the ongoing saga of ‘Christine and the 5 minute warmup.’

*****

By the way, while I tend to default to reframing anyway, this particular reframing was inspired in part by this great post on Instagram from Divergent Coach Kelly who was reminding those of us with ADHD that aiming for consistency might be a source of frustration so we can pick other things to aim for – like getting really good at starting over.

fitness · functional fitness

The changing of seasons and functional fitness

Sam B

It’s spring and Catherine is right, that does mean spring flowers.

However, in my fitness world it also means the seasonal changing of tires and moving of clothes.

Out of season tires live beside the house, in a semi-covered area along with canoes and the snowblower and lawn furniture.

Out of season clothes live in the basement in bins and need carrying up two flights of stairs, emptying, refilling and carrying back down.

There aren’t a lot of household chores that feel like fitness activities to me, but these do.

When I carry the tires from beside the house (carry and not roll because it’s less awkward and because I can and I feel badass doing it) to the car and drive them to the tire changing place, and then empty the car of the out of season tires and stack those, I think, “This is why I go to the gym.”

When you search for images of tires you see lots of pics of people using tires in the gym for fitness but I would feel a bit odd paying for tire-centric fitness activities in the gym and then not moving my own tires around at home.

A woman flipping a tire in the gym. Photo by  Maksim Chernyshev  on  Scopio.

I know lots of people who not only have someone else change their tires, they also have someone else store their tires, but I’m not there yet. Never say never. But not now.

To be clear, Sarah is the arranger of tires. She’s the Scandinavian architect of tires and their arranging.   I’m the meth raccoon.

So far, we’re through the tires. Next up, spring and summer clothes.

(We’ve had this discussion a few times, the debate between those of us on the blog who swap out clothes seasonally and those who don’t. Mostly it comes down to living alone or living in a house full of people and/or storing their stuff.)

Blue and white boat on heap of tires. Photo by  Aleksander Des  on  Scopio
And yes we have dogs and boats and tires, but not that many tires, and they’re stacked neatly.

How about you? Do you have chores that feel more like fitness activities?

A field of multi-colored tulips, by Yoksel Zok, for Unsplash. In search of May flowers
fitness · season transitions · spring

In search of May flowers

catherine w3 Comments

It’s been a rainy April this year, which is in keeping both with New England weather and proverb wisdom. Which means, according to both the proverb and local patterns, that May flowers are on their way.

I wish this yay! sign were on my street. Thanks, Samuel Regan Asante for the pic (from Unsplash).
I wish this yay! sign were on my street. Thanks, Samuel Regan Asante for the pic (from Unsplash).

So, I’ve made some flower plans. One of my favorite spring/summer activities is visiting botanical gardens at various times of spring-summer-early fall.

As a warm-up (as it were), the Massachusetts Horticultural Society is hosting Tulip Mania, which is predicted to reach maximum frenzy this week. I’m planning on going before the weekend tulip crowd hits.

You can look, but you can’t pick. However, they’ll sell you some cut tulips, which I will certainly be doing.

Once May is properly in place, it’s time for a trip to the Blithewold gardens in Bristol, Rhode Island. There’s a big house there, too, but I’m all about the gorgeous flowers, green plants and artistic landscaping, complete with huuuuge pottery vessels made by this guy. You can see what I mean below:

A garden path at Blithewold with a 5-foot-tall pottery vessel standing alongside.
A garden path at Blithewold with a 5-foot-tall pottery vessel standing alongside.

If you’re interested either in more details about this garden or Procter’s pottery in situ, look here at this New York Times article.

I’ve been to Garden in the Woods, not far from my house, in late summer, but never in May. So it’s time to remedy that situation and go. It features native New England plants in 45 acres of woodland. If you can’t make it in person, here’s where to go for a virtual tour. And here’s a sample of what I’ll be experiencing in person.

Azaleas in bloom on a stony and green path in the woods.

While doing some low-key sleuthing for this post, I discovered that there’s such a thing as garden tourism. There’s even a guidebook on it for those headed to New England. Who knew?

According to these sources, the mothership of botanical gardens is Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. It is vast and complex and beautiful and exerts its own garden-gravitational force on all who venture near it. I’m planning on venturing there while on my way to South Carolina to visit family in June. I hope I don’t disappear into their rich and multicolored abundance of flora. If you don’t hear from me, at least you’ll know where to look.

Readers, are any of you botanical garden fans? What are some of your favorites? I’d love to put some of them on my to-visit list. And in return, I’ll post pictures from my various flowery visits this spring and summer.

fitness

Tonight, we’re celebrating the life of the fit, fabulous feminist,  Catherine Hundleby

Sam B

In Guelph tonight,  at the Bullring, we’ll be gathering to honour the late great Cate Hundleby, feminist philosopher and occasional FIFI blogger,  as well as her father,  who died in the first year of the pandemic,  with our stories, music, and dancing. It’s a Ceilidh and Dance Wake.

The Hundleby Ceilidh and Dance Wake

Hug your friends. Tell them you love them.  Life is shorter than you think.

Rest in power fit feminist, friend, philosopher, fashionista, fellow dog walker, and yogi Cate Hundleby

April is Adult Learn to Swim Month
fitness

April is Adult Learn to Swim Month

Diane Harper

US Masters Swimming celebrates this month as a way to encourage certified learn-to-swim instructors and Masters Clubs to offer lessons. They do this to make swimming more accessible for the one in three adults in the USA who can’t swim the length of a pool. I think that’s pretty cool.

The percentage of Canadian-born non-swimmers is much smaller at 4%, but among new Canadians the percentage is almost five times as high, at 19%. However, new Canadians want to swim: a study by the Lifesaving Society showed that almost 80% of new Canadians plan to be in and around the water in summer, and most feel it is important to be able to swim because Canada has so much water.

Even though Canada doesn’t have a formal Learn To Swim Month, I’m doing my bit.

I have completed all my qualifications to apply for a part-time job as a lifeguard and swim instructor with the City of Ottawa, and I’m applying to local pools that offer adult classes. I live in a community with lots of new Canadians, so it’s perfect.

I firmly believe that everyone needs to be safe around the water. Adults who swim are more likely to ensure their kids know how to swim. Plus, swimming is a great low-impact activity for people of any age.

Image: four women of various ages are smiling as they stand in a a swimming pool, holding flutter boards. Source: blog.myswimpro.com

If you came to swimming as an adult, what worked for you to learn? If you still don’t swim, what’s holding you back? Please let me know in the comments.

Lessons from the first time out
cycling · fitness · planning

Lessons from the first time out

elan.paulson5 Comments

In my previous post I described that I’ve Joined a rec cycling club for the first time. At the kick-off welcome meeting, club leaders gave us helpful tips and explained that the annual membership gives riders access to club routes in the app Ride with GPS.

I dutifully followed advice to get my bike tuned up early in the season at a friendly bike place. Then I bought cycling gear. So, at the first sunny day I had no excuse but to try it all out.

From the app I chose the shortest all- pavement route: 26.5 km and a mere 95 m of elevation. It seemed like a manageable trip for me as a novice cycler before my first club ride.

What I Did Not Do Right

  • Ignoring the repeated reminders from the club leader during the kick off meeting, I failed to bring energy snacks. (I imagined the trip would be so short I would be fine without.)
  • Thinking it would be too chilly, I did not wear my padded bike shorts (or consider the even smarter option of wearing bike shorts under pants).
  • Because I bought a repair kit, I removed loose Allen keys from my handle bar bag. Then I inexplicably left the bike repair kit at home, so I had no way to adjust my seat height.
  • I did not think to review the route to note where there may be road closures (so of course I encountered was one that totally blocked the planned route).
  • Not anticipating how quickly the GPS app would deplete my phone battery, I didn’t bother to charge my phone (so ran out of power before the ride end).
Road closure almost exactly halfway through the planned 26.5 km route.

What worked out okay

Thanks to the tune up, the bike was in great shape to ride. I had gear: a new phone holder for navigation, a water bottle for hydration, and a streamed audio book to keep me from grumping about how darn windy it was (until the lphone died, of course). Also, I was nervous about road cycling, but there wasn’t much traffic and the route had a shoulder for much of the way.

When I got back to my start point I noticed a chip wagon had opened, so I hungrily ate delicious chips and vinegar while I recharged my phone in the car. (No picture available: chips devoured too quickly).

Lessons for next time

While I am sure that many of these things can happen to seasoned riders, my rookie mistakes made the trip feel longer than it was. My first lesson from this first time out is to prepare for every cycling ride like it will be a long one, even when it might not appear to be. Next time I will more carefully mind my supplies, especially when I go out on my own: it’s better to carry what I didn’t need than to need what I didn’t carry.

My second lesson is that I need snack suggestions from the FIFI community. What snacks do you prefer to take with you when you are out exercising?

A cycling route app screenshot with distance, speed, duration, and time. The phone battery power (at 1%) is circled.
Lego robots doing tasks,. BMI charts or AI assistants for weight management? Uh, neither, please.
fitness · technology

BMI charts or AI assistants for weight management? Uh, neither, please.

catherine w

CW: Discussion of weight and weight loss.

AI is the new watchword (well, acronym) in public discussions of pretty much everything from education to finance and now, to health. It’s both lauded and feared for its potential power to replace many of our jobs. But will it live up to that potential? What will be the effects on our work and creative lives?

At the moment, I’ve no idea. But I do have some thoughts about a recent editorial on the “Transformative Role of Artificial Intelligence” in weight management.

Drawing of Woman doing Baby sign language for "WHAT?"
Baby sign language for “WHAT?”

Yeah, I’m with you on this. But let’s hear what the authors have to say here. They start out with acknowledging some of the limitations of the use of BMI (the body mass index chart) for classifying weight. They argue that we need a more “reliable approach to understanding [body weight] and health”. Okay. I’m grudgingly not disagreeing. Yet.

Now enter AI: the solution to all the weight management problems that we probably never really had. AI can, according to the authors, do everything for us. It can:

  • create personalized treatment plans (presumably to reduce weight, based on AI’s view of what we should weigh)
  • develop tailored and more effective intervention strategies (again, for weight loss)
  • predict risk of weight-related medication complications for “a new era of early intervention and preventive healthcare”

Oh really? Color me a bit skeptical here. Somehow, analysis of large data sets of patient biometric information is going to yield revolutionary changes in precision medicine about managing body weight? We haven’t even figured out how to use AI analysis of large data sets to manage resumes and hiring in accurate and non-biased ways, which is a much easier problem.

But wait, the authors have another proposed solution, and it is: AI-driven virtual assistants,

… to provide continuous support and guidance to individuals on their weight-loss journey. These assistants can answer questions, offer motivation, and provide reminders for medication or exercise, enhancing overall patient engagement.

Hmm. Do I want some AI-bot, gobbling up my personal data, sharing/selling it to everyone in sight, telling me what to do and eat and not eat and generally cheering me on to “just do it”?

Gosh, thanks ever so much. But no.

The authors admit that there are some kinks to be worked out in the system, like “ethical considerations, data privacy, and potential biases in algorithms.”

In lieu of an extended rant, I’ll leave it at that. Except to say this: the weight-loss and weight-management industrial complex is currently working itself into a dramatic crescendo of fancy technological and pharmacological approaches to control body weight in the name of health. We have loads of evidence that BMI is a poor tool for classifying and guiding healthcare practitioners in advising and treating patients for better health. We have loads of evidence that AI-driven data analysis for complex decision-making is riven with problems, both methodological and ethical. There’s reason to think we can improve on these methods, but we’re not even close to there yet.

So, in the meantime, keep your AI virtual assistants away from me. Okay?

Kthanksbye

p.s. In the authors’ acknowledgements, they add that they used ChatGPT (GPT-4) in preparing this article. I’ll leave conclusions about that to you, dear readers… Oh, and this blog post? I wrote it all by myself.

blog · fitness

Search and you will find. Maybe?

Sam B

I’m occasionally amused by the search terms which lead people to the blog. Where do I find them? WordPress tracks them for us.

I’m not shocked at what people search for. I am sometimes shocked that they click through to a blog with “feminist” in the title. Below are search terms in bold and below my best guess at which blog post their search term pulled up.

Here’s this month’s list:

fat woman weightlifting

Big women and strength

are luna bars for your period

Luna Bars: “Nutrition” for Women

rowing unisuits what to wear to hide the fat

No way am I wearing that! Body conscious clothing as a barrier to entry to women’s sports

hunter mcgrady hottest

Is *anything* having to do with the SI swimsuit issue a “breath of fresh air”?

speedos fat guy commercial

Another happy fat guy in a speedo, this time dancing!

female sport nipple

Padded sports bras and nipple phobia

dead bug exercise

Christine and the Dead Bug Plan

chubby guy in speedos music video

Whatever’s Comfortable: What would a version of this ad look like with a woman?

brie larson anorexia

The Unbearable Lightness of Brie Larson

female sports crotch

Crotch shots, upskirts, sports reporting, and the objectification of female athletes’ bodies

just forgot to eat

Forgetting to eat? Who are these people?
orange safety ring on man shoulder near body of water
Stock photo courtesy of WordPress, search term “search.”
Photo by Oleksandr P on Pexels.com