Various bloggers have written about intuitive eating in the past, and the concept has been floating around in my brain ever since.
Another concept that has intrigued is the idea that lack of sleep can affect the production of appetite-regulating hormones. Google it for yourself. I’m not going to share links, not even those from reputable websites.
My normal eating pattern when I worked full time was a hearty breakfast, a mid-morning snack with some protein, a solid lunch, and then dinner. I ate healthy foods and didn’t have a lot of sweets, but I definitely made sure I wouldn’t go hungry should lunch or dinner be delayed due to work commitments (which they often were).
Lately I have been thinking a lot about how these two things might go together because my sleep patterns have been horrible. Then every once in a while I have a long night of amazing sleep.
I have noticed that when I have a great sleep, I don’t usually wake up hungry. Sometimes I am content with little snacks through the day; other times I have only a couple of meals.
I’m not a fully intuitive eater yet, but the habit is starting to build, at least on the days when I am sufficiently rested.
Now I need to start working on some sleep hygiene: get myself into bed on time, do my Duolingo earlier in the day, and read physical books or magazines instead of a screen. Wish me luck!
A woman with dark hair sleeps while surrounded by fresh fruits and veggies. Image from https://www.telegraph.co.uk
I turned 50 a couple weeks ago. I started practicing saying I was 50 when I turned 48 – it just seemed easier, but now it’s officially official. I’ve spent the summer thinking about the previous 10 years and what sort of goals I wanted to set for the upcoming decade. The year I turned 40 is when I jumped in to triathlon with no experience or significant training. The fast-moving open water swim in that first sprint almost took me out, literally and figuratively.
In the spirit of learning from my own mistakes, I’d like to embrace the next decade by welcoming new experiences but also preparing for those experiences, at least a little bit. I’ve been bit (again) by the travel bug, so I’m spending a lot of time researching new (to me) places to visit and thinking about the types of experiences that would be enjoyable in each place. I’ve never been on a “big boat” cruise ship (I’ve spent a few nights on a windjammer sailboat in Maine), been in a helicopter (not sure that’s really on my bucket list), or swam in an ocean that wasn’t the Atlantic.
How am I going to resist some sort of long-distance cycling adventure? I sent this article to my partner to make a joke about how we’ve already conquered one of these trails (the Minuteman is very close to home) and he responded with a link to a 300+ mile route from Pittsburgh, PA to Washington DC! I guess I just added some cycling vacations to my ever-growing bucket list.
I’m still adding to that bucket list, but I know I’ll keep strength training for functional fitness and bone density. And while I wouldn’t say it’s a bucket list item, I expect I’ll be in line for at least one replacement knee before the next -0 birthday, which will come with a lot of pre-hab and rehab. I’d like to go on more adventures with friends, continue to expand my sewing skills, and develop a stronger contemplative practice.
I’m sure I’ll continue to add to the list as the months turn into years. I’ve had too many loved ones not make it out of their 50s to watch the time pass without adding more adventures. And I’m happy to have the FIFI bloggers and readers to regularly inspire me to check out new and interesting opportunities.
Amy Smith is a professor of Media & Communication and a communication consultant who lives north of Boston. Her research interests include gender communication and community building. Amy spends her movement time riding the basement bicycle to nowhere, walking her two dogs, and waiting for it to get warm enough for outdoor swimming in New England.
The Molly Galbraith tweet came across my social media newsfeed the other day and made me smile.
We’ve written a bit about everyday strength and parenting here on the blog, and I thought I’d share them again for people who missed them the first time around.
It’s now the lull in between the closing ceremonies of the 2024 Olympics and the opening festivities of the 2024 Paralympic Games (which start Aug 28). Looking back, here are just a few of the many bright moments I enjoyed. Let me know what you most enjoyed in the comments.
In no particular order:
USA’s Kristen Faulkner pulling away from favorites Marianne Vos of the Netherlands and Lotte Kopecky of Belgium to win the Olympic women’s road cycling race
Weightlifter Li Wenwen of China showing us grace and strength, then jumping for joy on the podium after she wins gold. Her colleagues from South Korea and Great Britain beam happily, enjoying the moment.
So many Olympians— so many Muppets to congratulate them! If you want to see more Muppet coverage of the Olympics, check it out here.
Katie Ledecky with her gold medal and a cookie one.Fencers Scruggs and Kiefer show Cookie Monster how it’s done, baguette-style. Abby poses with her new (and very fast) friend, bronze medalist Melissa Jefferson.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, winning back-to-back gold medals breaking her own world record, being the first track athlete to break four world records in the same event, and bearing down hard on the 50-second mark in the 400-meter hurdles.
Two words: Simone Biles.
I’m also looking forward to the Paralympic Games at the end of August. More athletes, more records, more great stories. Who could ask for anything more?
If you’re like me, you may not have realized (but will be happy to learn!) that lifeguards have to recertify every two years. Their recertification tests require them to meet specific standards in a variety of water safety and rescue tasks so they are capable and ready to respond as needed when they are on duty.
Back in June, Mallory Brennan recertified for one of their Lifeguarding courses and in the process had a personal victory that we wanted to celebrate here on the blog.
I interviewed Mallory via Zoom a few weeks ago but it took me a while to get to it. Sorry for the delay, Mallory!
Mallory’s comments are in italics and I’ve added some context and information in ordinary text.
“So this recertification was for National Lifeguard Waterfront – recertifying basically amounts to kind of demonstrating that you can still do the skills, you still meet the physical standards, and you still have the judgment for making decisions.”
There are four different Lifeguard courses, each specializing in different areas/types of water, and Mallory is certified in three of them, something that comes in handy in their work in summer camps and before/after school programs.
“So the one that most people take is National Lifeguard or NL Pool, but the other ones are Waterfront, Waterpark, and Surf. I have three out of the four, I do not have surf, mainly because I’m in Ontario and we do not have surf here.
So I’ve taken, and have, current certifications in the other three.”
image description: a view of the waterfront course location taken from under a marquee-style tent on a cloudy day. Some of the course participants can be seen at a distance, standing in the water/on the beach.
Mallory has been certified as a lifeguard in Canada for the past fifteen years but has always been frustrated by one element of the recertification process – the endurance swim.
“I’ve never been a fast swimmer even as a teenager, I was 16/17 years old during the first time. My fastest time ever as a teenager was like 9:15.
I also teach these courses, and I have seen some 16 year olds, like some super fit, like swim team, 16 year olds, do it in six or seven minutes.
I’ve never been one of those people and I never will be.”
The endurance swim can be a good measure of overall physical fitness but some people feel that it is not particularly applicable to someone’s actual abilities as a lifeguard.
“So, this is one of the things that gets debated because realistically, in most lifeguarding situations, you’re not going to have to swim nearly as far as the endurance swim.
So it’s, it’s a measure of physical fitness, basically – Are you physically fit enough to do a 400 meter swim. Your standard pool is 25 meters, so it’s 16 lengths or eight laps, depending on how you count it. Some people count there and back as one, some people count that as two.
And the time limit for that is 10 minutes.
For the past two years, I’ve consistently kind of been right around the 9:45 to 10 minute mark, kind of sitting on it, which meets the standard but barely. You know, there was a period of one year where I didn’t swim at all and I came back at like 10:30.”
This time, though, Mallory was determined to do the endurance test with more ease.
“The endurance was one part of, in this case, a 25 hour course. And I wanted to be able to do it with much faster recovery time. If you’re doing it as part of your one hour exercise program that’s all well and good. but if you’re doing it and then continuing to demonstrate skills and do rescues and stuff over the course of, you know, two days, you have to have a faster recovery time. I just wanted to make it easier.“
So, they decided to do some extra training, practicing the 400 meter swim and the more strength-based aspects of the test, on a regular basis.
“It was mostly just swimming to be honest, Getting in and doing the 400 meter regularly. I’ve done some weight training in the pool – we have the fun 20 pound bricks that we use for training.
I love the brick, it’s one of my favorites but most people hate it.
I am always better at the strength-based things – the brick, treading water, carrying people, all of that stuff. I’m stronger in that field than I am at the sprints, the endurance swims – the cardio type things.”
These strengths serve Mallory well in practical life-guarding situations, particularly at the pool.
“In a pool setting, you’re never gonna have to swim for 100 meters.
No, we’re gonna run around the pool and even in a 50 meter pool, the most you would have to swim would be like 10 or 15 meters to get someone. So, you know, from a practical standpoint, I would argue that the kind of strength-based stuff is more useful.”
The cardio aspects are more useful at a waterfront but Mallory still feels the 400 meter length isn’t even particularly applicable there.
“When you get to like waterfront settings, then there’s more of a use for the endurance, because you might be going 50 or 75 or 100 meters from shore. So we’re coming close to that.
But even then you’re not doing a full 400 meters, because most people can’t see 200 meters from shore to see that someone’s in trouble. And if you’re going that far, you’re taking a boat.”
Over the course of their extra training, Mallory’s times for the 400m endurance reached a consistent level – around 9m 30s or 9m 45s for the swim with a good recovery time afterwards – and they felt confident in their skills for the recertification.
She, along with two of her friends, both of whom have been lifeguarding for the past few years, took their Waterfront recertification in some less-than-ideal June weather.
Mallory (wearing the blue jacket with red sleeves) and their two friends Cal and Mikah before going in the water. Image description: a ‘selfie’ of three people standing outside and smiling, the person closest to the camera is giving a thumbs up. There are trees and grass in the background and they are dressed for slightly chilly weather.
“It was a two and a half day course in very cold water. That’s the other challenge with this course – we were in the lake for 10 hours on both Saturday and Sunday, the outside temperature was about 15 or 16 degrees, the water temperature was about 18 degrees, and it was raining.“
She knew that her training would pay off and she was definitely prepared for the endurance swim but, in the moment, she decided to add some extra challenge by pushing herself to keep up with one of her friends.
“Usually he beats me by about one length, so he finishes his 16th right as I’m kind of starting my 16th. That means he’s ahead by up to 25 or 30 meters.
This time, I was stubborn and made it my goal not to let him get ahead of me. I finished just about two seconds behind him at 9 minutes and 17 seconds.”
I just love the fact that Mallory’s hard work paid off by increasing their comfort with the endurance test in the recertification process and that her stubbornness helped her shave some time off her results.
Congratulations on your hard work and on your recertification, Mallory!
*****
Personally, I love that despite finding the endurance test frustrating, Mallory didn’t let it become a sticking point for their recertification and, in fact, turned it into inspiration for working harder in a way that was useful for them as a whole.
Lots of us (myself included!) might just endure the endurance test as a necessary evil in an otherwise good experience and just grit our teeth to get through it.
Mallory’s choice to view the test in the context of the whole weekend and train so the endurance part didn’t make everything else harder, is admirable and has inspired me to consider where some extra training might serve the same purpose for me.
The fact that they also choose to use their stubbornness to keep up with their friend is a relatable kind of fun for me and makes me wonder where I can put my own stubbornness to better use in my fitness plans.
Still, it’s the Olympics and there are a lot of very strong women in the news and under every video or picture, there are dozens of ignorant, hateful comments about their size.
Part of me just wants to scream that in some cases these are strength competitions–not body building competitions–and it just is the case that larger athletes have an advantage. That’s why there are weight divisions. Strongest and largest just go together.
But why is that?
Strength athletes eat a lot to gain muscle. Yes, they’ll also gain fat. They’re not trying to grow the most muscle with the least fat. There’s no in-sport award for leanness. It’s all about performance.
“Even though the workouts typically don’t involve much—if any—dedicated cardio time, lifting weights can burn hundreds or even thousands of calories. The body needs a surplus of calories to build muscle, so eating is part of the routine. High-level competitors like World’s Strongest Man champions Brian Shaw or Eddie Hall typically refer to their eating as “force feedings. The result of heavy training and heavier eating is more muscle mass, which competitors use to create more leverage against the bar or whatever other apparatus they may be trying to manipulate.”
“Bigger people tend to be stronger than thin people, according to research, making them better at strength exercises such as weight lifting. That’s because, in addition to having more fat tissue, they have more muscle mass, too. This is true for fat people of all ages, from youth to old age. “
Remember when you were a kid and you had to decide whether to tell your Mom that you had an argument with a friend? Because, you learned, early on, that if you told her, and you and your friend made up,, it would be hard to tell her so.
I recently broke up with my long term gym and I told my Mom why and now I can’t change my mind (not that I want to and this is a good thing).
I have been going to the same gym for years. I went because of the great workout/space/community. Over the years, it became clear that I didn’t go because of the owner, who had terrible business-running skills and it became more and more obvious that she didn’t treat her staff great. I was able to continue going to the gym because of the other benefits and because she was rarely around.
Recently, I have been made aware of more disturbing events between the gym owner and staff and I couldn’t ignore them anymore. I have been trying out different gyms and looking for that certain je ne sais quoi that is not easy to find for my steady gym. Maybe I’ll write about that search soon.
In the meantime, I explained to my Mom recently why I couldn’t look the other way anymore. The next day, my Mom said, unprompted, “You can’t support her anymore.”
It doesn’t matter if you are 13 or 52, once you tell your Mom, the choice becomes clear with these things. So, even if I am, occasionally, longing for the familiarity of my old gym (for the workout vibe and community), my choice is clear and onward I go!
How many of you out there used to do cartwheels when you were kids? I certainly did (with varying degrees of success but unvarying degrees of fun). Maybe some of you are still occasionally flying across space, arms and legs akimbo, in which case, yay for you!
As we have discussed at great length on this blog, physical activities often feel more comfortable with the right gear and clothing. For playing around outside, jumping and leaping, cartwheeling and handstanding, reason and experience dictate shorts, sweats, or leggings along with tops, preferably not too baggy (so as not to interfere with movement or vision). Makes sense, right?
Not according to a public charter school in North Carolina whose dress code required female students to wear skirts to school and prohibited them from wearing pants or shorts.
Yes, the school authorities really did say their dress code was designed to promote chivalry and traditional values. Am linking to definition, as most of our readers are not medieval knights.
Oh, I forgot to add that the actual quote by the charter school founder (reported by one of the plaintiff’s mothers) was “Well, to promote chivalry, because every girl is a fragile vessel.”
Hmmm. Just to confirm that I’m not the only person stupefied by this anwer, I googled “fragile vessel” to see what he could’ve been referring to.
A small boat on dry land.Structure in NYC called The Vessel.Pottery vase, cracked and worn.
Google clearly has no more idea than I do. None of the images offered up were of girls, either in pants or skirts.
Seriously, though: the messages that dress codes send can have a profound effect on our identity and our behavior, says ACLU Women’s Rights Project Director Ria Tabacco Mar. In an interview with my favorite comedian/activist/dad of three girls, W. Kamau Bell, she says:
Dress codes, unfortunately, can often be the site where we are teaching students what it means to be appropriate, what it means to be a girl, what it means to be a boy, that those things, those parts of ourselves are relevant to how we learn.
And what do our children learn when they are subjected to extreme sexist and racist dress codes? Here’s Tabacco Mar’s answer:
Our children are listening. This is what kills me. We’re talking about young children. With our skirts case, when we started, our youngest client was going into kindergarten. She was five years old. She’s in high school now. She wears pants. Spoiler, they all wear pants. We won. That’s the good news. But even at five, she knew. She picked up on the message. So nobody was using the word “chivalry” to a five-year-old. Probably she didn’t know what that word meant. But she knew that the message was that boys and girls are different. The boys are better. The boys can move freely in the classroom. The boys can sit crisscross applesauce and girls have to sit with their legs to the side. The boys can do cartwheels at recess and girls have to stand on the sideline chatting.
…People often said, “What’s the big deal about skirts? Did you really have to sue them over it?” Well, if the skirts are not a big deal, then why didn’t they change the dress code when we asked them to? Because it is a big deal. It’s communicating really important messages about what it means to be a student — what it means to be a boy, what it means to be a girl — and it’s teaching us that those things are relevant in ways that they, frankly, should not be.
Bell’s interview with Tabacco Mar includes discussion of other dress code cases, many of which send racist, sexist, anti-trans, homophobic and xenophobic messages. You can read or listen to it here. There’s a lot to digest, and the issues they discuss reveal a bigger picture of injustice.
To focus back on a small part of that picture: the main message I want to send kids is that it can be GREAT to be one. One of the big advantages of being a kid is the license to explore the world using the abilities and senses their bodies have. Not all of us do cartwheels. But denying kids the chance to flip around because they’re stuck wearing a dress is, well, just silly.
Speaking of silly (this time in a good way): if you would like a tutorial on assisted cartwheels, and in fact a double cartwheel, look no further than below.
Readers, I wish you comfortable clothing and some leisure time to explore the world, your bodies, and fun with both. Let us know if you have cartwheel or other fun movement stories to share.
“We’re messaging you because we think you’d be fun to do the “all the Great Lakes in one day” challenge and we’re confident we can stand being in a car with you for that long ”
Thus began a message from a friend asking me to be part of their adventure to swim all five Great Lakes in a day.
Now apparently this is a thing! And my friends on the swim team wanted to do this challenge. And yes, I accepted. We had a planning session over dinner. We’d drive from London to Sault Ste. Marie, MI the day before (a 6 ½ hour drive). So we booked a hotel, planned which beaches to go to, and we were set!
This is a map of the Great Lakes, highlighting our driving route and where we swam in each lake. It was a looooong drive from northern Michigan to Hamilton (see the time stamps on the photos) and we just made it to Lake Erie just after sunset!
The Olympics swimming events were still happening so we streamed it all during the trip, along with a bunch of other sports we only watch every 4 years….We also compiled a Great Lakes playlist! Here are some of the songs:
Lake Superior: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Gordon Lightfoot
Lake Michigan: Lake Michigan, Rogue Wave
Lake Huron: any song by Lord Huron
Lake Ontario: Hasn’t Hit Me Yet, Blue Rodeo
Lake Erie: Lake Erie, Wild Pink. Also Erie Canal, Bruce Springsteen
It was a wild and fun road trip with my swimming friends. Maybe next time (!) I’d choose some nicer beaches that we could actually swim in (the beach at Lake Superior was too shallow, Lakes Michigan and Huron beaches were too rocky, Lake Ontario was just gross and it was too dark to swim in Lake Erie). But it was tons of fun. Enjoy my slideshow! And check out my reel: https://www.facebook.com/reel/284661034217761
“A new episode of thinking bodies, on Iris Marion Young’s “Throwing Like a Girl,” is live! In this episode, Kristin and Anna listen to voice clips from Megan Dean, Grayson Hunt, and Jane Dryden.
Listen wherever you get your podcasts, and to contribute or make suggestions, as well as for transcripts, Kristin’s concept map, and resources, head to thinkingbodiespod.com“
READ
Let me recommend a blog post from this week, here on the Fit is a Feminist Issue blog. Former regular blogger, now occasional guest, Susan Tarshis writes about the mind body relationship and her journey to a Plum Village retreat in France.
How about the Simone Biles documentary on Netflix? Simone Biles Rising, “Follow gymnast Simone Biles as she balances her personal life, mental health journey and training ahead of a highly anticipated return to the Olympics.”
Or Olivia Reeves’ Sensational Climb to Paris 2024. Olivia Reeves is favorite to win Olympic gold for the USA in the women’s U71kg category. She lifts at 1:30PM EST today! Here’s a short video documentary on her incredible climb to the top:
Or a fun interview with cyclist Alison Jackson. She answers in English and it’s subtitled in French. Enjoy!
