These are not big life altering injuries friends but they are enough to keep me out of the gym. Frustrating.
My right knee had responded to physiotherapy last fall but started acting up again recently.
There is a muscle that runs down my thigh and attaches at the knee. It just decides it’s not firing anymore. Then my knee drifts. I’m back to wall sits with a small ball between my knees to cajole it back into action. Again. This is just an exercise I get to do…forever.
My left elbow tendinitis is responding well to weight training, ultrasound and massage. I’m avoiding knitting but also realized that gardening is not helping. To take pressure off my right knee I’ve been leaning on my left hand. Uh. Owie. The elbow tendons are quite cross with me. GAH!
I’ve a crick in my neck and right shoulder blade from sleeping funny in the car last weekend. Not serious! VERY ANNOYING.
Oh and my Achilles tendons are snap, crackle and popping. Time to replace my walking shoes and dial in my commuter bike fit. And stretch. And do calf raises. And roll my feet.
I’m stretching. I’m doing light dumbbell exercises. I’m waking 5km a day. I’m doing little bicycle jaunts. But. Ow. It’s a bit annoying that there are these moments of sometimes quite intense pain. Mostly it’s dull, nagging aches. I’m working on being patient. It’s not my forte.
Lucy, my red Texas Heeler, stares out our window watching and being patient.
It’s very common to have injuries when using your body. All my active friends have some kind of injury they are recovering from. We are middle aged. We are doing things and our bodies have some feedback to share.
I am committed to staying active and look forward to a summer of cycling, walking and living generally pain free.
I have a few boxes now of small tokens my cherished people have given to me over the years. Anyone else might see junk, but to me they are precious. As someone with a distracted mind and a poor memory, I take great pleasure of the vivid memories they evoke of my family and friends, past and present. You don’t know it, but you may be in my token box!
Cate
For years, I kept the running shoes I ran my first 10K in, because they represented a shift from being a person who didn’t really move my body to one who gloried in it. But after carting them on many moves, I finally took a photo of them and let them go. I have been doing that with many of my previously “cherished” possessions (e.g., books, art), as well as a lot of less-cherished ones. Cleaning out my mother’s home after her death really made me a proponent of the whole “swedish death cleaning” approach to my personal space — my mother was very tidy and organized but she had *everything*, including her paystubs from the 1960s. My natural instinct is to keep things, especially things that have connections to the people I love — but sorting through a lifetime of things one by one made me realize how few things I really need. And then I accidentally donated or threw away some of the few things I *did* want to keep (including jewellery that belonged to my mother and grandmother) — and dealing with the grief and guilt of losing those things created openings to let go of almost anything that I’m not actively using. Bikes, though, I have a hard time letting go of,lol.
All of this said, I have a shocking propensity to lose things I AM using, like the GLASSES RIGHT OFF MY FACE. I wish I could have more of those things more readily to hand and fewer of the books I randomly bought on a whim that I will never ever read.
Diane
Family photos, maybe. I have lots of stuff, including treasures picked up while traveling. But if I had to abandon it all, my priorities would be the cat cages to get cats into, and a photo album or two if there was time. Nothing else really matters.
Sam
Bikes (obviously), photos that aren’t digitized, some jewelry, some mementos from special people, my first day of school report card!
have my mom’s wedding and anniversary rings, my father’s silver ring, and my own wedding anniversary rings. I would grab those instantly. Since my great-grandmother’s bracelet is there too, I’d grab that also. The jewellery reminds me of promises made and kept, of my ancestors near and far, and my cultural traditions in the new and old worlds. I have some books that mean a lot but I am slowly culling others. I have a few mementos — my wedding dress, my mother’s wedding dress, my christening dress that Nick used, and a hot pink velvet pantsuit my MIL gave me years ago that is ornately trimmed with gold. I have a lot of sentimental paper — a few favorite books, some letters, a few cards. I have collections that I will give up eventually but I will likely hang onto my ceramic collections by Spanish and English china makers. As I have packed up two parental homes, I am conscious of what I own and what I will choose to keep. This year will be a great opportunity to review, to curate, and to release. I know they are just things but I like reminders of the beauty, grace, love and joy I have been given and created. They are both anchors to my history and wings to my future.
Christine
I am one of those people who surrounds themselves with items that represent people and memories that I hold dear but to name a few:
My wedding ring that belonged to my Grandmother Hennebury, my Dad’s wallet (that my cousin helped me make from a Tandy leather kit over 40 years ago), artwork from my sisters (both feature stars, of course), a tea cup from my Nan Reid, a quilt from my Mom, a comic that my kids drew for me many years ago, books and tarot cards from my husband, and…you get the idea!
My workspace is filled with all kinds of things that spark stories and ideas and that bring my very closest people to mind.
I’m not sure about what I “hold most dear,” but one thing I can’t part with is a gorgeous china tea set that was my maternal grandmother’s. I never met her and no one ever used the tea service. It came with us when we moved from South Africa. Still no one used it. Now I use it and I cherish it, even though I am scared to break it and it’s totally impractical because the cups are so tiny. I’d rather break it under frequent use than have it sit untouched for another few decades.
Following up on my post about swim shorts, I wore my new suit to work. I haven’t tried swimming in it. Already, I have discovered some good and bad things about my two-piece bathing suit.
The disadvantages are well-known but some to the advantages are new to me. My goal is to learn to ignore the disadvantages (aka get over my own body image hangups), and learn to embrace the advantages. I may need to buy more suits to help with my continuing quest for excellent swim gear.
Advantages:
It is possible to buy tops and bottoms in the size you need. This is probably self-evident to most people, but I only figured it out when my most recent suit arrived and I realized I might have gotten away with a bottom that is one size smaller;
I can mix and match suits, at least in theory. My matchy matchy brain is still trying to wrap my brain around that one, but I admire people like my daughter, who does it all the time.;
When I’m lifeguarding, I don’t need to strip out of my lifeguard pinny and take off a one-piece to go to the bathroom;
If I forget my underwear, I can wear the top as a sports bra. Going commando to go home is usually just fine, but I hate going out in public without some sort of breast support.
Disadvantages:
That “sports bra” is wet. I often do errands on the way home so my shirt ends up wet. If I go straight home, then I have to take off a wet sports bra. Wet sports bra removal should be an Olympic sport;
I have yet to find a bathing suit top that doesn’t give me uniboob. Every promising one I have looked at so far has an underwire and that’s a hard no for me. I don’t mind being squashed while in the water because it helps me be streamlined. But it’s hot and sweaty out of the water;
If the top doesn’t give me underboob it’s because it has ruffles, ruching, bow tie, baggy matching bottoms, or some other thing that adds drag when I’m trying to swim.
I’m still coming to terms with exposing my less-than-perfect belly.
I still dream of finding a great two-piece training suit that fits my slightly-larger-than average body but I’m beginning to think it’s a unicorn. In fact, it’s so rare I couldn’t find a good image of a unicorn wearing a bathing suit so you will need to settle for this unicorn on a bathing suit.
Image is a bathing suit decorated with The Unicorn in Captivity, one of the Unicorn Tapestries. The suit is for sale on Etsy.
I wrote a short commentary on Kate Manne’s book that reads like a blog post so I’m sharing it here. It’s called “What I Love about Unshrinking, Why Unshrinking Makes Me Sad, and Six Things I’d Like to Talk about with Kate Manne.” Very bloggy title.
I think I was drawn to the blog post style because it’s about some subjects we’ve talked lots about here at Fit is a Feminist Issue. It’s my go-to style I guess for writing about bodies, fatness, and fat phobia.
What’s the book about? Catherine wrote a preview of it for the blog awhile back.
Here’s the Table of Contents of that issue of the APA Studies in Feminism and Philosophy which includes other commentaries by great feminist philosophers.
“I love Kate Manne’s Unshrinking. It’s a great book about an important topic; I’m very happy she wrote it. The book’s central thesis is that contrary to what many of us think, we don’t have a problem with there being too many fat people. Instead, we have a major social issue, which is fatphobia. Many of the problems thought to be caused by widespread fatness are, in fact, caused by widespread fatphobia, argues Manne. Connecting fatphobia to its roots in classism, racism, and misogyny, Manne systematically tears apart the myths around larger bodies. I love Manne’s thorough and exacting work. It’s pretty much exactly the book I would hand someone if I thought I needed to correct their views about size and health. I confess to feeling a little bit professionally jealous. I wish I’d written this book! But I didn’t, and so I’m glad Manne did. Unshrinking is a work of careful research, precise analysis, and argument, yet it’s also Manne’s personal story. The two aspects of the book blend very well. Manne is a terrific writer, and I applaud her for including her story.
She writes, “Where did I learn to hate my fat body?” and talks about her own experiences with fad diets and near-starvation weight loss techniques. The book’s impact on me cannot be overstated. Months after reading Unshrinking, I still find myself haunted by Manne’s personal experiences with fatphobia and her account of her extreme dieting. Her opening story, in which she confesses to feeling “too fat to be feminist in public,” left me speechless. Manne writes that she “flinched from the prospect” of doing the usual book tour appearances because of her size. She notes that she didn’t do book tours because she was scared of what people would think about her appearance because of her weight. How could such a bright, accomplished woman care so much about what other people think about her looks? I know I might be the outlier here, not Manne, but I do fnd myself thinking that once you’ve got a PhD from MIT and a job at Cornell and some pretty amazing books, does it really matter what others think of your size? The tone in the personal sections is pretty sad, and I guess I wanted, for Manne—given the strength of her arguments against fatphobia—a little less sadness and a little more anger at living in such a fatphobic world.”
Anyway, the rest of the commentary is available at the link above.
And while you’re at it, you should buy Manne’s book.
Well, it’s here again– May 21, and with it whooshes in World Meditation Day. I came to awareness of this day a couple of years ago, so had to blog about it. I’ve posted them below.
This morning, I did one of my favorite first-thing-in-the-morning meditations, a gratitude one. It’s basically a three-step meditation.
One: notice what is going well in your body and in your awareness at this moment; no need to reach for anything grand or cosmic. I often feel gratitude for wiggling my fingers and toes while still in bed, for example.
Two: reflect on what you have to be grateful for in the next hour. It could be morning coffee or tea or cereal, or people or creatures you wake up to. For me, it always includes the light in my apartment, which makes my plants very happy.
Three: broadening a bit, notice what in your life you are generally grateful for. This could be a job, a home, community, health, creativity, or even your meditation practice. For me, this varies, but I don’t sweat it coming up with a list. I just let my mind float and alight on whatever it wants. Then I’m done and ready to start my day.
Here are a couple of blog posts I’ve written about World Meditation Day. Feel free to check them out, it you’re not already busy celebrating with your own plans.
Yes, we all know this– sitting is bad bad bad for us. At least that is what we are told over and over again, in loads of studies. Not just sitting, but reclining, lying down, chilling out, taking a load off. All bad. How bad? Well, here’s a partial list of health outcomes that have been found to be associated with what’s called sedentary behavior:
heart disease
high blood pressure
high cholesterol
stroke
metabolic syndrome
type 2 diabetes
some cancers
vascular problems
musculoskeletal pain
osteoporosis
depression, anxiety
cognitive decline
dementia
And now, according to this study, we can add to that list “shrunken brain”. Here are the deets:
A team of researchers examined the relationship between sedentary behavior and neurodegeneration among 404 adults age 50 and older.
Study participants wore a watch that measured their activity continuously over the span of a week. Their sedentary time was then related to their cognitive performance and brain scans captured over a seven-year follow-up period.
Participants who spent more time sedentary were more likely to experience cognitive decline and neurodegenerative changes [shrunken hippocampus] regardless of how much they exercised.
“Reducing your risk for Alzheimer’s disease is not just about working out once a day,” said Gogniat. “Minimizing the time spent sitting, even if you do exercise daily, reduces the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease.”
Great. I guess I might as well accept that this is my future:
Is this what awaits me? I certainly hope not.
In case you’re wondering why and how being sedentary is killing us, I looked it up: human metabolism in all its functions gets gummed up when we are still too long and too often. From carbohydrate and lipid (fat) metabolic dysfunction, to inflammation, to decreased cardiac output to activation of the sympathetic nervous system (and much much more), sedentary behaviors give rise to these adverse processes, while even light physical activity (e.g. washing dishes) doesn’t trigger them (or something– human metabolic science is complicated and I’m not an expert on this). The take-home message here is clearly illustrated in this fancy medical overview article:
Four things that are bad for us: playing video games, watching TV, computer use, and reading a book (while lying down). Two things that are good for us: riding a bike, and running.
Yes, we all knew that. And the dozens of medical studies measuring all those adverse effects from the time we spend being inactive all offer suggestions to counteract those effects:
Move. Move more. Move more often. Move more vigorously when you can. Keep it moving, folks. You got to move it move it. (Warning: I linked to one of my favorite youtube videos– that song from Madagascar, “I like to move it move it”. I never get tired of it.)
Right. But the researchers in this most recent study pointed out that even for folks who exercise regularly and those who meet the CDC guidelines for 150 minutes a week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (plus strength training), they still need to up their at-home game by sitting less in the course of their day. How is that supposed to happen? What else are we supposed to do?
One idea is to change the environment: use standing desks, treadmill desks, or move things you normally use so they are further away (e.g. one site suggests putting your wastebasket far away from your desk). Other sorts of suggestions include setting timers to stand up regularly, and incorporate standing or pacing or walking into activities like talking on the phone, attending work meetings, etc. I do frequently park far away from places I’m going so I’ll get more steps in. So yes, some people manage to use some of these strategies sometimes.
But let’s be honest– it’s hard to change our habits in such basic physical ways. Personally, I’ve never been able to read a book while riding a spin bike or even walking on a treadmill. Walking while having a work meeting seems very distracting and also impractical– how can I walk, talk, and also take notes on my laptop at the same time?
If everyone lived in communities near friends, families, jobs, schools, recreation and religious and art facilities and local shops, and had systems in place to make moving between these places easy for everyone throughout our life trajectories, we would on balance be much less sedentary during our waking and non-exercising hours. But we don’t all live in such communities. Very few of us do.
And, our governments don’t generally prioritize this kind of living with overall public health and well-being in mind. But they could. Researchers across disciplines have studied so-called “Blue Zones”, where demographers have found that residents live longer, are more healthy and report significant well-being. How does it work? Working with a combination of factors ranging from urban planning and transportation to food production and distribution to health care to local diet customs. There are dozens of ways we can work with others to make our micro-environments more movement and interaction-friendly. We will also need help and coordination at the local, state and national levels.
So, how to become less sedentary? We can certainly look for opportunities to move our bodies in the varied ways they can during our day. But I think it’s even more important to take a stand for changing how our communities and nations operate to make them more accessible and friendly to everyone, not just those who can manage to read a book and walk on a treadmill at the same time.
How I multitask on my treadmill!! I typically walk 3-4 miles a day on this thing and it has made me feel SO good. Honestly, the best part is that it feels EASY because I do things I love WHILE getting my steps in! Makes the time fly. Especially being pregnant, this has been key for me
What did you get up to this long weekend? (American readers, this past weekend was Victoria Day weekend here in Canada.)
In the 225 workouts in 2025 group, I logged my long dog hike (3.5 km is long with an elderly dog, long for him anyway, I’ll be blogging about that later) and my 30 km bike ride with Sarah and David.
But in a weird way that was the least of it.
When I turned up at the gym this morning, I complained about my sore lower back and what feels like an out-of-place rib. I felt like I’d been beaten up. Don’t worry we took it easy-ish at the gym. But it got me thinking about all the random, weird physical tasks I did this weekend.
Sarah did more so I feel sheepish even blogging about this! Also, my mother who is on the plus side of 80 did a ton. We’re a powerful team!
When I got to work after the gym though, half the staff were complaining. They were also talking about aches and pains from weekends of binge spring cleaning and yard work. I am not alone, it seems.
Here is some of what I did outside the house:
🌳 Lift bag of sand from upper shed and carry it to the downstairs yard.
🌳 Aerate the back lawn with a manual aerator with two holes. (And yes, we could have rented a machine, but that was $78 for 4 hours, and we’d have to find a way to get it to our house. The hand aerator was $50 to buy.) We have tough soil so that involves a lot of stomping.
🌳 Move two cloth planters full of dirt from the front of the house to the side of the house. Each planter was a two person lift.
🌳 With Sarah and a visiting friend, carry a heavy planter from the side of the house to the front of the house.
🌳 Shovel soil from giant bag of soil into the wheelbarrow.
🌳 This is a weird one and it might have been the toughest–unscrew the pipe connecting the gas tank to the BBQ. I think it had frozen/rusted in place. I had to get into a weird position to get any force on it and that was the task that hurt my ribs.
And then there’s inside the house:
🏠 Carry all the dirty laundry downstairs and all the clean laundry upstairs.
🏠 With Sarah, lift the huge wall-mounted TV (the old-fashioned heavy kind) off the wall and carry it into another room.
🏠 Re-organize the basement room to store all of my winter clothes under the stairs. Much lifting and shoving of bags and bins.
I do sometimes log this stuff in the 225 workouts in 2025 group. Workout 142 was “A morning and afternoon of emptying and reloading the upstairs and downstairs sheds with Sarah. So many bins. All the Christmas stuff is now at the back and the sailing, camping, and biking stuff is ready for easy access. A lot of lifting. Way more than I ever do in the gym.)
I’m sure I’m missing things, and we’re not done yet! Wish us luck!
I don’t know about you but lately I have been getting too caught up in all the things I can’t do and the things that aren’t quite going right.
And, oddly enough, paying so much attention to the downside of things is not making me feel great.
Soooooo, for your sake and mine, let’s do a quick check-in on the things that are working right now.
I’ll go first:
My neck/shoulder/back muscles are responding well to treatment and I am doing well with adjusting my movements to improve my sitting and working positions.
My journaling and relaxation practices are going well.
I’m drinking enough water.
Sure, I’m not doing any of those things ‘perfectly’ but I’m being pretty consistent and I’m happy with how they are working.
So, that’s pretty good, hey?
Three whole areas of success, right off the top of my head!
So, how about you?
What’s working well in your exercise/fitness/mindfulness/relaxation/well-being/self-care practice right now?
And, Team, don’t even try to get away with pretending that you aren’t doing anything right at the moment.
I know you are doing what you can with the resources you have and that means that you are making something work somewhere.
Maybe you got out for a walk a couple of days last week.
Maybe rolling put your yoga mat the night before is helping you get to your yoga in the morning.
Maybe leaving your journal on top of your night stand is helping you write.
Maybe setting a midafternoon alarm is reminding you to move a bit more.
Maybe you are remembering to take deep breaths an extra few times each day.
I know that your hard work matters and that something is working right now and I hope you can take a minute to celebrate that.*
And, as always, here is your gold star for your efforts.
Be kind to yourselves, Team. 💚
Image description: A small drawing of a shiny gold star with a happy face against a background of small black dots. The edges of the star and the paper are outlined in black. The drawing is resting on a blue surface.
*Bonus points if you can stop yourself from spending too long on the ‘but I’m not doing…’ negative stuff that often gets churned up when we start focusing on what we are doing well.
🚲 Bike commuting: Friday was Bike to Work day but I’ve been biking to work all week.
🚲 I could walk to work but I love having my bike in order to run errands. This week that was a doctor’s appointment and blood donation, also two after work dinners out.
🏋️ Personal training happens on Tuesdays.
🐶 Dog walking: Cheddar is 10 years old and a little overweight. He often doesn’t want to go for longer walks so the vet recommends more frequent short walks. We’re on it!
🌸 There was also a lot of gardening this long weekend. Victoria Day weekend is traditionally the first weekend you can plant things outside without fear of frost. So we did a lot of gardening. Mostly Sarah. But I helped.
🚵♂️ It’s also the start of the season of biking with friends. Sunday we went riding with David.
(I’m also back in my role as Dean. That’s another Big thing altogether.)
The Fit is a Feminist Issue blog team has a group page on Facebook where we share blog ideas, #blogfodder. When people ask how we manage to post every day, that’s part of the story. Team + #blogfodder. But not all the #blogfodder gets blogged about and so here are this week’s stories that didn’t make it into the blog as their own individual posts.
🏃♀️Are athletes’ injuries connected to their menstrual cycle?
CBC Sports examines how hormonal changes can lead to potentially career-altering injuries.
I share news on our Facebook page, as well as here, but the fact-checking part of that is getting tiresome. Here’s a good news story that’s been making the rounds since November. It’s the kind of story I love to share. The only problem is that it’s not true. You can’t find anything about Margaret Johnson, other than this story.
“They are called skorts – a portmanteau of shorts and skirts – and the Irish camogie players who are obliged to wear them have had enough.
Players from Dublin and Kilkenny instead wore forbidden shorts before a provincial game on Saturday, in a coordinated protest that has won support from politicians and commentators who say the dress rules for the female-only sport are archaic.
The players say skorts are uncomfortable and deter girls and women from taking up camogie, a female version of the Gaelic game of hurling, but the sport’s ruling body insists upon the garment, which is considered more feminine than shorts.”
🚴🏿♀️Canadian newcomer to cycling smashes world record
“Five and a half days, 2,700km, brutal headwinds, tough hills, sleep deprivation, a copious supply of Mars Bars, and (bizarrely) a Highlands-traumatising pole dance from a cameraman later – and Dr Sarah Ruggins has done it. The Canadian, a relative newcomer to cycling who first started riding a bike just three years ago after losing her ability to walk as a teenager due to a debilitating illness, has smashed the outright world record for cycling the length of Britain and back, beating James MacDonald’s previous benchmark for the epic 2,700km ride.”
