Feminist reflections on fitness, sport, and health
In my part of the world, there’s some cold and snow.
As a professor, the university term is coming to an end.
And here on the blog posts about January, weight loss, and resolutions start showing up in our stats.
The not my resolution; thoughts on January weight loss from a cheerful chubster blog post by guest Carly is our fifth most read post today.
If you haven’t read it yet, enjoy!
not my resolution; thoughts on January weight loss from a cheerful chubster (guest post)
Earlier this year, Amy Appelhans Gubser achieved what many considered impossible: swimming nearly 30 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Farallon Islands—a feat that no man or woman had ever completed before.
Amy faced unimaginable challenges: freezing 43-degree water, shark-infested depths, and hours upon hours of relentless swimming without a wetsuit.
We have written about her here and here. At the time, Sam was outraged by the lazy journalism that focused on her weight and family status, and didn’t even mention her name. I was interested to see how experienced swimmers reported on her feat, and and noted her many swimming achievements before this swim.
Now you can listen to Amy herself, in this podcast where she is interviewed about her swim.
I still think Amy is pretty darned cool. And I appreciate that the written intro to the podcast made no reference to her weight or her status as a grandmother. It even mentions her name!
Welcome to Saturday, Space Makers!
I hope that today brings you a little more space than you were expecting and I hope that you can enjoy that space thoroughly in the way that feels best for you.
Since I am working on managing expectations this week – especially the subconscious expectations I don’t even realize I have (a.k.a. the worst kind) – I have a note-to-self that might be useful for you, too.
Dear Christine (and anyone playing along at home),
Please focus on key elements, not the add-ons.
Remember last night when you and your family were decorating the tree? When you moved the couch so you could reach the side of the tree more easily and you realized that no one had gotten around to vacuuming under there yet?
You had a flash of frustration because you wanted that done *before* the tree went up but you had all forgotten about it and now you were already in the middle of decorating. Your oldest offered to grab the vacuum right then but you said, “No, thanks. Decorating the tree is way more important than getting the vacuuming done.”
Gold star – ⭐. Excellent work.
Please apply that logic to other tasks and events during the next two weeks.
Bring those subconscious expectations to the surface by asking: What is the important part here? What is necessary? Does that other task actually matter?* What are the key elements? What are the add-ons? What can I let go of?
This is going to change depending on the context but if you can keep your eye on the difference between what you need/want to get done and the things that might be nice to have done (but that don’t actually affect the overall event one way or the other) you will feel a lot better.
Wishing us all ease,
Christine
So, with our expectation managing practice in place, let’s consider some possible movement and mindfulness practices for today:
Here’s our movement practice for today – a Light Cardio and Stretch Cool Down Workout – Relaxing Stretches for Flexibility from Fitness Blender This is technically a cool down but maybe we can consider it a cool down after our week rather than a cool down after a workout. Of course, if this is a workout day for you feel free to add this to your routine to help you cool down from that!
Our mindfulness practice for today is this 10 Minute Guided Meditation for Clarity from Declutter the Mind. I chose a longer video for today because I am hoping that your Saturday is a little more flexible than the rest of your week. If not, feel free to just do part of this practice. Remember, you are the boss of you!
*Note: For some people, the lack of vacuuming would have been very distressing. In that case, grabbing the vacuum would be a key element of decorating the tree. There’s no moral lesson here just the hope that we can minimize our stress and keep do what makes the most sense for our peace of mind in the moment.
So Sam posted earlier about her progress on meeting the 24 goals she had set for 2024. I took some ideas from that, but instead of going through my entire list, I’ll highlight some of my favourite things….
2. Strength training.
I had set a goal to lift twice a week and seriously build. While I didn’t quite do that, I did compare my lifting frequency to what I’d done from 2012-2016, when I was lifting regularly at the gym (things got a little weird after that). And it looks like I’m on track to do more workouts in 2024 than in each of those years. Now I aim to lift as much in my 60th year as I did in my 50th year. And I think that’s awesome.
3. Reading.
My goal was to read 2 books a month, and again, I came close…I’m on my 17th book this year, with an 18thone planned for over the holidays. This goal has been very rewarding, as it’s reduced my social media doomscrolling and has me reading all sorts of books: fiction, science, philosophy, biographies. I’d forgotten what joy reading brings to me, and how immersing myself in another world is one of my happiest places.
4. Fun stuff!
Got a tattoo! Coloured my hair purple (and will do another colour soon!) Had a 59th birthday party with a cowboy theme! Cold plunges and saunas! And my husband and I are planning a trip to northern Labrador for our 60th birthdays!
I don’t think I’ll have a list of 25 things to do for 2025, but that’s OK. This list has instilled some good habits that I will carry into 2025 (reading, swimming, more fun stuff). Thanks for the challenge!
Have any readers here accomplished any goals they had set for the year (or came close or modified a goal and achieved it, or got inspired to do, or think about doing, one thing)?
Hello Space Makers!
I hope this Friday finds you with at least a little space for yourself and with some room for fun on the weekend.
Since my plan for this week was to talk about managing expectations, I was thinking about how I can get caught up in my vision of how I hope things will go.
It’s not that I am trying for perfection really, it’s that I want to have fun and I want to feel good and I want things to be straightforward. In my vision, everything goes according to plan and I don’t feel stressed or hassled or off-kilter.
This morning, I was thinking about my vision for the next few weeks and I realized that I have a fixable flaw in my process.
Slight tangent incoming. Please bear with me.
Years ago, I was often the ‘sacrifice’ at local Story Slam events.
Story Slams are storytelling contests in which individuals tell stories on a given theme and they are judged by a panel of audience members.
The role of the ‘sacrifice’ is to warm up the judges by telling a story that is going to be judged but is not eligible for the contest. The sacrifice’s story is evaluated in comparison with the judges’ imagined perfect story and is often marked fairly harshly.*
After the sacrifice has warmed up the judges and the crowd, the actual competitors have a much more even judging process. This is because their stories are being judged in comparison to that first story – not a perfect story, an actual story told by an actual human, and a story that has already gotten low marks so, obviously, the others stories are going to be better! 😉
What does this have to do with my plans in December?
Well, I need to stop using the ideal, the imagined, in order to create my vision because that means I will always fall short and feel hectic and stressed.
If I use my memories from previous years to construct a vision or a plan (maybe with some adjustments), I will have a more realistic sense of a what a good party/meal/celebration/meeting could look like and I will decrease my chances of judging myself harshly (and getting stressed out) as things unfold this year.
Maybe you would like to join me in warming up your internal judges by offering them last year’s events as ‘sacrifices’?
Anyway, now that we are back from the tangent and we have worked a little on managing expectations, here are our suggested videos for today.
I wish you ease and self-kindness as you make space for yourself today.
Our movement practice for today is this 10 Minute Chair Cardio Workout (Seated Total Body!) from Caroline Jordan
Our mindfulness practice today is this 5-Minute Meditation You Can Do Anywhere from Goodful.
PS – For some additional Space Making inspiration, check out this IG post from Kate Bowler which really speaks to releasing some of the pressure we put on ourselves. The post is Christmas/Christian in nature but the message can be applied to anything you are doing this December.
*If you know me, you are probably thinking that this sounds like something I would hate doing – agreeing to be judged when things are obviously unfair. And under normal circumstances, this would be difficult for me. However, in this case, I was unfazed because I knew what was happening in advance AND I wasn’t actually competing.
I had a hard time getting out of bed Monday morning. Winter weather. Less light. Cold room. Early hour. Big work week ahead. Feeling kind of stiff.
And one great reason to stay in bed: Warm blankets.
I put off rising by scrolling through a few photos from the weekend when my friend, Kimi (who recently travelled to Turkey), made us a great Turkish-style brunch with simple but fresh and delicious foods: simit (a sesame crusted bagel), menemen (an egg and tomato dish), clotted cream and honey, tahini and molasses, cheeses, fruits, Nutella, crusty bread, and Turkish tea. Easy to make, eat with your hands, and enjoy many cute little ramekin dishes! After our feast, she gave me some of our leftovers.
In my bed nest, looking at the photos, I thought: I could make breakfast today. But I almost never make breakfast during the week, even when I work from home.
So that is what I decided to do. Instead of heading straight to my desk with a cup of black coffee sloshing in one hand and store-bought granola in another, I made myself leftover Turkish-style breakfast and a half carafe of tea. A decadent breakfast by my weekday standards.
As I munched, I mused over how I have periodically tried to motivate myself to rise early with exercise: stretching, YouTube dancing, around the block walking. This time last year I was training for a Ho Ho Ho holiday run. But I haven’t loved AM exercise enough to stick with it; plus, for me PM exercise feels good for unwinding from the day.
While I have had many noble starts with early morning exercise, I could not remember the last time I got up early on a weekday intending to eat a great breakfast. But Turkish-style breakfast was awesome: I was fuelled all day (sustained by the caffeine infusion of clove tea).
I share this story as an idea and as permission: if you wake up and you don’t feel motivated by what usually gets you out of bed…try making yourself an awesome and unexpected breakfast.
Toothbrushing, morning stretches, reaching out to a loved one, pet care, awesome breakfast: what gets you jumping out of bed in the morning to face the day?
Hey Space Makers,
I’m feeling rather scattered today.
I’ve had two migraines this week so I had to adjust my plans accordingly and now I have ended up with a day full of loose tasks, open loops, and a lot of waiting on bits of information so I can complete some of those tasks and close some of those loops.
This is not a fun feeling for anyone, I’m sure. For someone with ADHD, this kind of day can feel really out of control and bring up all kinds of bad feelings from before I knew why I had to work differently.
In the first few posts for this week, I was referring to managing expectations of future events but today, I am going to give myself what I need (in post form) and remind myself (and you) that it is a good idea to manage expectations in the moment (or at least in the short term), too.
What does that mean for me today?
It means acknowledging that my day is kind of a game of pick-up-sticks but that I don’t have to win the game, I just have to play it.
It means accepting that my plans for the day may shift around and some sticks may fall.
It means I may have to be strategic about which sticks I pick up – either going for the easy ones at the edges or being really careful with the ones that are worth the most points.
It means that I may have to lift up all the sticks and drop them again to get a different layout.
It means that each stick I can move matters, even if I can’t pick them all up.
And to step away from the analogy a little, it means that I have to add some extra fun elements into my day, I have to take lots of short breaks, and I have to pay attention to my progress* rather than focusing on finishing anything in particular.
Perhaps your day is less brain-scattering than mine but it is still a good idea to be kind to yourself about your expectations of yourself today.
Make whatever allowances and accommodations you need to in order to do the tasks that are most important to you and to your well-being.
And no matter what metaphorical game you are playing today, I wish you ease and peace of mind.
With that said, let’s have a look at today’s suggested videos:
Today’s movement practice is a 7 Minute Feel Good Workout at Home – Full Body Low Cardio Boost Energy video from Lucy Wyndham-Read. In this video, she’s adding a fun VR style element that shows her doing all the movements in virtual natural spaces. It’s a bit of a ‘real person in a cartoon world’ type of thing but very enjoyable.
Our mindfulness practice for today is a 3 Minute Breathing Meditation from Medistate Mind – I especially liked watching the (animated, I presume?) water in this one.
*On days like this I usually find a way to create a visual record of my progress in addition to crossing things off my list. Usually I draw a series of circles (or stars!) on my notebook and colour in one circle/star for every work session I complete. I use an app called Repeat Timer that lets me set a recurring cycle of 13 minutes work and 2 minutes rest for set periods of time. I like 13 minute sessions because 10 mins is too short and 15 is too long and because 13 has always been a lucky number for me.
By Alison Conway
You can run, but you can’t hide—at least, not forever. Those demons that are chasing you? They will catch you eventually. One morning, injured or simply exhausted, you will wake up to find them sitting on your chest. Or, in the middle of a race, you may feel them jumping on your back, happy to catch a ride.
I’m talking, of course, about the demons of anxiety and depression or whatever other monsters might lurk in the deep recesses of your mind. Last week, Alex Hutchinson wrote a column in the Globe and Mail in which he reviewed findings about the links between exercise and mental wellness (12/2/24). It’s not news to those of us who feel lousy when we miss a run that a regular boost of dopamine is a good idea. But what happens when we look at the issue through the other end of the telescope? That is, what happens when we play the tape–that sport is therapy–to the end?
Jill Colangelo answers this question in a recent episode of Running Explained (Season 2, Episode 40). In her discussion of overtraining syndrome, she looks at the relationship that endurance athletes develop with their training programs and how increases in training volume correlate with higher, rather than lower, rates of mental illness. Is it cause or effect? Someone who is looking to cope with troubling thoughts may seek the solace of the runner’s high, or she may start to experience dread or anxiety about performance. Warning signs will begin to manifest in the body, and without an acceptance that sport is hurting, rather than helping, and that a recovery program, including therapy, may be in order, the athlete can find herself confronted with a full-blown breakdown. In this scenario, cortisol, not dopamine, is the drug coursing through the body.
Colangelo advocates for a deepened respect for the body and the signals it sends. Recently, I learned this lesson the hard way when I found myself in trouble 17 km into a marathon—not even half way! In the weeks leading up to the race, there were red flags. I had a summer injury that meant my build began a month late. I didn’t have enough long runs under my belt and not nearly enough hills for the gruelling course. More significantly, I had been dealing with stress all fall and it had given my body a beating. Sleepless nights made for lousy morning runs. My physio suggested that a weekend of back spasms was stress induced. The week of the marathon, I had stabbing chest pain. It wasn’t on my left side, so I assumed I wasn’t having a heart attack. But I was having a something. (It felt like a cracked rib. Later, when I told this to my doctor, he said, “Please, don’t run a marathon with chest pain without medical clearance!” I record his remark here as a PSA.)
November 3rd dawned bright, sunny, and cool. It was a perfect day for a marathon. The pain in my chest was there, but isolated to one spot. And so, I set out to race that course. What was I thinking? I was thinking, “The marathon is my happy place!” I was thinking, “My spring training will compensate for my crappy build!” I was thinking, “That half marathon six weeks ago felt great!” The marathon answered, “I take no prisoners.”
And so, I suffered. All the voices in my head formed a chorus of negative self-talk to make the final hour of that marathon perhaps the most hellish sixty minutes I’ve experienced as a runner. Somehow, I got myself to the finish line. When I finally found my people, I burst into tears of rage, pain, and disappointment.
And now? Now, I’ve had a chance to get over myself and remember that plenty of folks find themselves having a crap marathon for any number of reasons. I have also learned that when the body tells me it’s struggling, as I train, I had better listen closely and adjust my expectations.
Most immediately, it’s time to turn and face those demons.
Alison Conway lives and works in Kelowna, British Columbia, on the traditional and unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan people.
Remember my 24 in 2024 didn’t go so well.
And by that I don’t just mean that my score wasn’t very high, though it wasn’t. What I mean is that it didn’t really serve a useful purpose. I didn’t check in on it. It wasn’t a list of fun opportunities either. I got too busy, life got in the way, and this wasn’t really a good reminder to make room for fun in my life.
Also, some of the goals weren’t very specific so it was hard to tell if I’d attained them. Eat more veggies? Sure. But how many? More than what?
Also, 25 is a lot and so they can’t all be Big Important Things.
So here is a more specific list and they’re not all so big.
Wish me luck!
What’s your 25 in 2025?
Hey Everyone!
I hope you are doing ok with your space making activities and that you have time to pause for a few deep breaths today – maybe you could try consciously breathing into all four sides of your ribcage and see if that feels spacious for you. (it always helps me!)
Today, I’m inviting you to consider your future self again.
Please think about some event that you have coming up in the next few weeks and consider something that you could do now to make things easier for yourself on that day.
If you always forget to pick up ice, could you pick up some today or tomorrow and pop it into your freezer?
If you need sticky notes for that planning session, could you look for them now and make a note of their location in your calendar?
If you always feel a bit stressed before heading out with a crowd, could you explore some ideas to help you feel more relaxed on that day?
No matter what you choose, doing a little pre-work like this can really help take away some of the challenges and/or frustrations from these future events long before they even start.
And yes, I think I planned to talk about managing expectations this week and that invitations doesn’t exactly fit but I’m rolling with it. I mean, if you are expecting to be more stressed or expecting to forget something and you make a change now to help reduce that then you are sort of managing an expectation, right? 😉
Anyway, I hope that your space-making efforts are helping you overall and here are our suggested videos for today.
Remember, I am NOT the boss of you. YOU are the boss of you and you can choose how and when to create the space you need today.
Wishing you ease, my space-making friends!
I don’t know about you but my knees have been a bit cranky with me lately so I thought we could try this 5 Min Yoga for Knee Strengthening * Stop Knee Pain! from Yoga with Joelle for our movement practice today.
And, for our mindfulness practice, let’s give this 5 min Guided Mediation for Acceptance from SarahBethYoga a whirl.
