Month: July 2025

fitness

Fit is a Feminist Issue’s Top Twelve Posts in July 2025

Sam BLeave a comment

Posts by Nat, Nicole, Alison, Sam, Mina, Catherine and Diane!

  1. Nat shares a cycling moment that did not feel safe

2. Nicole writes Gen X is 45-60 years olds, who look 30-40 years old, but mentally are still teenagers

3. Alison writes Five Things I Love About Menopause

4. Rock and Root Therapy for Being Here Now by Mina

photography of stones
Photo by Scott Webb on Pexels.com

5. Diane wrote about Goths at the Beach

6. Sam is a Fan Girl of the Fat Nutritionist 

7. Sam blogged about Biking and boating along the St Lawrence Seaway (Bikes and Boats, the 2025 edition)

8. Nat blogged about her life on a teeter-totter.

woman in black clothes sitting among crosses
Photo by Alireza Najaf on Pexels.com

9. Research roundup on weight stigma in medicine: it’s still out there, but we are learning more about how it works by Catherine (of course!)

10. Nat advocated for a change and it worked!

11. Six (Seven? Eight? I don’t care enough to count) things Catherine does not care about

12. Happy Bikini Day! from Diane

orange pink white stripe bikini near shell on sand beach
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

fitness · goals · motivation · trackers

Sam hits 225 in 2025, now what next?: Opting for reasonable goals over big,  stretch goals

Sam BLeave a comment

Like many of the Fit is a Feminist Issue bloggers I track my workouts in a Facebook group called 225 workouts in 2025! (Fit Feminist edition). There’s also the original group, 225 Workouts in 2025.

And this week, I hit the group goal for the year. Yay!

Each year if I hit the group goal early, I set a new goal for the year. Back when I was doing lots of very deliberate knee physio, that goal was 400. But these days physio has lightened up. Last year I didn’t make the 400 goal.

Let’s do some math.

There are 156 remaining days in 2025 and to make it to 400, I’d need to work out 175 more times. To put it differently, I’d have not to miss a day and work out twice on 19 days. That is not going to happen. Given the university fall and the Christmas holidays, I’d say nope.

text on chalkboard
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

How about 350? That’s 125 more workouts over 156 days. That seems more doable.

350 it is then.

These days I’m all about reasonable, achievable goals.

See Sam is thinking about setting goals and being reasonable.

Here’s Alison’s post that inspired me in her reasonable ways, Once More Round the Sun: on resetting year-end goals, motivation, and delight.

inspiring achieve text on pink background
Photo by Ann H on Pexels.com

How about you? Are you motivated by big stretch goals or more modest reasonable goals?

stretching white cat
Photo by Tamba Budiarsana on Pexels.com

Two small white cards with quotes on them Christine and the ‘just right’ loop
ADHD · motivation · planning

Christine and the ‘just right’ loop

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

For the record, I am not Goldilocks and I don’t know any bear families but I did have oatmeal for breakfast so there’s that.

This is not so much a post as a bunch of slightly under-baked thoughts but I wanted to put this out there in case it is helpful to someone else who gets stuck in these kinds of loops. 

*****

So, I often find myself kind of stuck because I want to get things just right but I don’t know what ‘just right’ looks like.

It’s not that I am a perfectionist, per se, because the idea of doing things perfectly hardly ever comes into it. 

The problem is that I am always sure that there is a better way to be doing things or that I don’t have all the information I need or that I will be wasting my time if I proceed without being 100% certain that I am doing things in the best way.

Do I know that this is largely nonsense?  Definitely. 

Do I know that starting is often the best way to get started? Totally.

Do I know that I can change things as I go? Of course.

Do I still get stuck in an unconscious loop of ‘not yet’? Way too often. 

Am I trying to redirect that loop? Glerg. I am, I swear I am…once I recognize that I am in it, of course.

This kind of looping thinking happens to me in all kinds of areas of my life but, as I am sure I have talked about before,  I think I loop through it the most when it comes to exercise. 

I keep thinking I need the right plan. 

I keep thinking I need more time. 

I keep thinking that I’ll waste my time if I start without all of the information.*

I keep thinking that there’s no point in getting started if I am going to have to just start over once I get more information. 

See, again with the nonsense. 

Unless I have VERY specific goals with VERY specific outcomes, I probably don’t need a very specific plan. 

And as long as I pay attention to my form and I don’t overdo things right away, the details of my workouts and exercise sessions are less important than the fact that I fit more movement into my schedule.

So if I walked longer yesterday and then I use my rowing machine today and do some bodyweight exercises on Wednesday and swim on Thursday, it all gets me closer to being someone who has more energy, who moves with more ease, who is more up for the routine physical challenges of her days. 

And once I am that person (again), perhaps I will be looking for some specific plans and exercises to help me develop my skills or abilities in certain areas but for now I can just go with what works for me at a given moment.

In lieu of a specific plan, I can make things easier for myself by:

  • making a list of possibilities for myself so I can minimize the pressure of thinking of something to do when it’s time to exercise. 
  • make sure I have exercise clothes ready for when I want to get moving. 
  • put ‘exercise’ on my to do list and consider when it will best fit into my activities for that day.
  • make a few notes about how each exercise session made me feel so I have the information/encouragement my future self needs.
  • Being kind to myself about the nature of this whole process – there will be stops and starts, I will need to make adjustments here and there, and all of that is totally ok.

This would be a great spot for a satisfactory conclusion but since this is a bunch of under-baked thoughts, I’m going to leave any conclusions for later. 

PS – If you ALSO get stuck in these kinds of loops now would be a great time to let me know.

*All what information? Oh, I don’t know! It’s not a LOGICAL loop, it’s just a loop.

functional fitness · Horseback riding

Farming is a Physical and Mental Workout

Diane Harper1 Comment

I board my elderly horse Fancy in a rural part of Ottawa. She lives outdoors and someone else feeds her daily so I don’t get out there very often these days. The exception is haying season, when it’s all hands on deck to get enough hay stored to keep the horses who live inside fed through the winter.

Farm math: over 30 percent of farm workers in Canada are women. The real number may be higher as many women may still be taking on informal roles alongside male operators. But the number is increasing and being documented as more women get operations and bank loans in their own names.

The place where Fancy boards is almost entirely women-run. Ingrid owns the operation. Jen is the manager. It’s a co-op where almost all the boarders are women, so they pitch in every day to do chores.

More farm math: on Saturday we stored the last of the small bales of hay for the season. Ingrid and Jen had to figure out how much to order to keep all the indoor horses fed until next year. They got just shy of 3,600 bales, or six big trailer loads worth. Then they had to figure out the odds it can be cut, baled, delivered and stored before it rains, coordinate all that with the farmers growing hay, and with the people who were going to put it away.

Once it was delivered the team needed to figure out the geometry to get it stacked with no collapses, how many people we needed to get hay off the trailer, up the elevator and into the barn, and how many doing the stacking with minimal waiting around.

Diane in a pink shirt with part of a trailer full of hay to her right. In the background, you can see the elevator leading to the barn. There is a single bale of hay at the top. She looks very hot and is grateful to have a break while the trailer is moved into place for unloading.

I’m glad I only had to do a couple of hours of grunt work. Even if it was hot, sweaty, dusty grunt work.

Saturday’s delivery was two trailers full of hay, so probably a little under 1,200 bales. Each of those bales weight 40-60 pounds. It took 11 of us (8 women and three men) a little under 2 hours to unload both trailers, move it up to the top of the barn using the elevator, then stack it.

I couldn’t lift the bales much higher than my waist. I am in awe of the people who were able to toss them to people working up higher.

A backlit view of team barn after the last bale was in place. If you look closely, you can see just how sweaty the two people in the front are: their shirts are soaked. Photo by Mel Donskov.

In case anyone is wondering, the outdoor horses get those giant round bales that need to be moved by tractor. How many bales, and the cost of a tractor, is a whole other set of farm math.

A kid swimming in blue water near a pebbled beach. by Ellena McGuinness for Unsplash. Planning for an active August
fitness · swimming · vacation

Planning for an active August

catherine wLeave a comment

It’s so good that summer is three whole months long. And it’s also so sad that summer is only three months long. There’s so much we all want to do, including enjoying the fruits (in the benefit way as well as the watermelon way) of the season.

I spent some of my early summer traveling for family events and conferences, and July was more local, less organized, but pretty social.

August is looking active. In a good way. Here’s what’s on my agenda:

Continuing the physical therapy I started a week or so ago for hip and glute sciatica. It’s coming along. I like the place where I get PT (except for when Doug selects the playlist), and the therapists are friendly and know what they’re doing. I trust them and am doing my exercises faithfully.

More swimming. I went to Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester with friends Nina and Norah, and we are planning another jaunt in late August (and maybe I’ll squeeze in a trip in September). I’m also joining my friend Gal again at her apartment complex pool– yes, I was invited (although I’m not above self-inviting in this case). I must confess I haven’t been to Walden this summer. This situation will be rectified in August.

A group kayak jaunt in Hingham with friends. We did this a couple of years ago and had a fabulous time. It’s flat salt water with several places to explore and also to beach the boats for lunch or a quick dip.

A possible beginner sailing outing with the MIT sailing club. This is tentative pending an ok by the physical therapist. The MIT Club of Boston is sponsoring a sailing afternoon for people of all levels. I’m at the lowest level, which means I’d go out with an experienced person, learning a bit about sailing. Will report back if it works out– fingers crossed.

Canadian vacation! I’m in Ontario for a week in August, hanging out at my friend Norah’s cottage in Goderich (with more swimming in Lake Huron), and visiting Sam and Sarah in Guelph (with more quarry swimming if schedules and weather cooperate).

There may be other activities, but this looks pretty good to me. Readers, what are your plans for the most sweet and ripe month of the summer?

fitness · Sat with Nat

It’s MS Bike Tour Day 1!

natalieh (she/her)2 Comments

If all is going according to plan, I’m already rolling South-east from Grand Bend to London while you read this.

I got up at 4:30, Michel and I plunked our bikes on the back of The Natmobile and popped over to pick up Tracy & Tyler.

It’s an hours drive so a Tim Horton’s stop is “deriguer” before we coast into the motorplex, park and get ready to roll.

I love the nervous and excited energy of riders and volunteers as everyone schleps gear and runs to the bathroom a dozen times.

I’m feeling so good this year. My cycling volume is 3 to 4 times what is was the past 2 years. My legs are strong from my tiny but frequent commutes. My balance is much better thanks to physiotherapy. My fundraising is ON FIRE! So positive on so many fronts.

This year’s emotional component is much more poignant. A dear friend lost their parent to MS in the spring. Another friend is newly diagnosed has started treatment. They told me the treatment didn’t even exist 3 years ago. Wow. Talk about a concrete reason to fundraise.

My strategy for getting donations has often focused on my efforts to train up and good natured competition of who can raise the most money. I do that because it can feel icky to share other peoples’ stories and then ask for money.

Those stories are why we ride. I’ve cried a lot on rides. Tears of empathy, compassion, gratitude, frustration. All the tears.

I do get verklempt when I see the “I ride because I have MS” jerseys.

So. Rain or shine I’m riding even if the weather cancels one of the days.

It’s 80 km each day. Michel and I broughtsupplies for a self supported ride.

And if you would like to donate, there’s still time!

Help Michel get a jersey by hitting $1,000

https://msspbike.donordrive.com/participants/60113?language=en&referrer=mf%3A60113%3Aparticipant-copy

We would look super cute in matching jerseys.

Nat models the men’s triple extra large 2025 cycling jersey.
Who’s in front when road trip cycling
cycling · fitness · holiday fitness · holidays

Who’s in front when road trip cycling

elan.paulsonLeave a comment

My partner and I took our bicycles on a short holiday road trip across part of Ontario, Canada to visit family and friends. It wasn’t a cycling holiday, but it was a holiday that involved some cycling. Road trip cycling was a new experience for us recent owners of a road bike (me) and an e-bike (my partner). Among visits, dinners, and museum trips, we managed to get out 3 times in 6 days.

Road trip cycling gives you a new way to explore new places. On ours, the weather was beautiful and the locations were scenic. After a few times, we got bike and gear extraction and repacking with the SUB down to a science. But it wasn’t issue-free.

A relatively new road cyclist training with a club, I was excited to explore longer paths mapped by other cyclists using my Ride GPS app. But I mistakenly assumed I would be leading the rides. I didn’t recognize it right away, but it turns out my partner had their own ideas about which way and for how long we should ride, decisions made more by feeling and impulse.

Our differences of opinion led to some frustration. The GPS-marked paths I chose sometimes had some longer-than-comfortable gravel stretches or were busy with “walkers.” The random paths my partner chose led to dead ends or us dodging traffic to cross busy roads. One time we each doggedly took what we thought was the best route … and lost sight of each other (phone call, waiting). Another time we got different advice from hotel staff on how to best get our bikes out of the underground parking lot, so we each stubbornly took our own ways up topside.

When cycling alone or with a club, I have learned, there is generally a single and shared vision of the ride. When cycling casually with a partner in new places, the path, duration, and speed must all be negotiated. You’d think we could have just laugh it off at the time, but when one of us had felt really uncomfortable based on a choice the other had made it wasn’t always easy to find levity.

Next time I will still plan our rides with maps, but I will also try to go with the flow, communicate more, and keep upbeat when something unexpected happens. Maybe we agree to alternate who lead the rides. Maybe we each get one “turnaround” audible per ride if things feel bad for one of us. Holiday road trip cycling is not only enjoyable; it can also be an interesting test of a partnership!

Who leads when you ride casually with a partner, family member, or a friend? How do you negotiate differences?

A map of Belleville with a red line marking the path ridden
A map of Belleville with a red line marking the path ridden
A map of Wolfe’s island with a red line marking the path ridden
A map of Wolf’s Island with a red line marking the path ridden
A map of Ottawa with a red line marking the path ridden
A map of Ottawa with a red line marking the path ridden
Melani Sanders in a We Do Not Care instagram post. Six (Seven? Eight? I don’t care enough to count) things Catherine does not care about
fitness · menopause

Six (Seven? Eight? I don’t care enough to count) things Catherine does not care about

catherine wLeave a comment

As always, late to the party, I’m really enjoying the We Do Not Care Club. Yes, it’s been around for a while now, although it came across my radar when the New York Times did an article on Melani Sanders, the genius behind and president of the We Do Not Care Club, for women everywhere going through menopause and perimenopause. She’s all over social media (in a good way), with 1.3 million followers on Instagram and three bizillion on TikTok.

I’m sure you’ve seen some of these (if not, welcome to the party!), but if not, here’s a snippet from youtube:

I think everyone on the planet loves this. I’ve been seeing celebrities releasing their “we do not care” lists with unabashed glee. I get it– it’s liberating to speak out loud about letting go of expectations around living a seamless and pristine life of home-cooked meals, freshly starched clothing, a brilliant social calendar and amazing productivity at work. Let’s all practice saying it together:

WE DO NOT CARE….

See, didn’t that feel good?

Honestly, there’s no way I can improve on Melani’s We Do Not Care daily announcements. But guess what? That’s another thing I don’t have to care about! See how great this plan is? Okay, here goes my list:

  • I do not care if I wear capri pants with an elastic waist every day from May to October. They’re comfortable, and in a pinch, I can/will sleep in them.
  • I do not care if you are my very best friend in the whole world– you are not borrowing either my best craft scissors or my second best craft scissors. Don’t jeopardize our relationship by bringing it up.
  • I do not care if I have a house full of books to be read; buying books is soothing and makes my world a better place, even right by my bed where I already have piles of to-be-read books.
  • I do not care if you have heard my story about seeing Tom Petty or Big Papi or Bill Clinton at the airport ten times already; you should think of it like holiday decoration– the cheery gift that keeps on giving.
  • I do not care if you don’t like really cold beverages– you better have ice in your house when I come to visit, or else give me notice so I can bring a cooler with me. This includes the winter months.
  • I do not care if you just read some article about how coffee is actually bad for us; keep it to yourself.
  • I do not care if I’ve asked you twice in the last hour to call my phone. It’s disappeared again, so call me.
  • I do not care if you have complained to me every day about your ex-partner or crabby boss or ungrateful children or demanding relatives or uncomfortable clothing; if you got stuff on your mind, bring it to me, sister!

Hey readers, what do you not care about? Hit me, and I’ll completely agree with you.

fitness · swimming

Drowning Prevention Week

Diane HarperLeave a comment

The Lifesaving Society’s National Drowning Prevention Week is July 20-26, 202.

It has been a bad year for drownings and water rescues in my part of Ontario: ten drownings so far, and I have lost count of the rescues that were sufficiently dramatic to make the news.

According to The Lifesaving Society, older adults are at highest risk of drowning, and that is the only group where numbers are increasing. Men and boys make up nearly 80% of the drowning victims. Indigenous peoples are at much higher risk, and drowning rates in the territories are about eight times higher than in the provinces.

What can we do? Lifesaving organizations have divided responsibilities to focus on different priorities: The Red Cross runs learn-to-swim programs on northern and Indigenous communities, while the Lifesaving Society teaches in the provinces.

Individually, we can wear lifejackets. Always when on a boat or SUP, and if you are not comfortable in the water. This one deserves its own paragraph!

We can support friends and family to ensure they take lessons (whether as cheerleaders, helping them navigate city programs to find suitable lessons, or assisting low-income people financially).

Recently, I bought a swim float for a friend who was feeling uncomfortable in open water but had resisted buying one. She now uses it every day, and her confidence (and endurance) is improving.

I also volunteered as a swim angel, swimming along with a participant at Bring on the Bay, a huge open water event in Ottawa. I have done it three times now and I love it!

Top: my friends and I at swim angel training, with our swim floats. Bottom: me with the three people I have been an angel for (Penny, Sarah and Irene)

World Drowning Prevention Day takes place on July 25. In honour of this global event, I’ll be wearing blue, using #DrowningPrevention on social media, and tagging the Lifesaving Society on social media.

Stay safe, everyone!

a photo of a deck/patio featuring colourful potted flowers, a chair, a yoga mat, and the view of a green lawn and an orange lawn chair beyond Lesson Learned: Christine and the Yard Work
fitness · stretching

Lesson Learned: Christine and the Yard Work

Christine Hennebury2 Comments

Given that we’ve been having a stretch of good weather lately, I’ve been trying to do a bit of extra work in our yard.

I’ve tidied up a few slightly-neglected areas, I’ve dragged some stuff to the garbage, I’ve replanted a few things, and we’ve been scrubbing our deck and our siding a little bit at a time.

Basically, I’ve been sitting/standing/moving/bending/turning in all kinds of unfamiliar ways and I don’t really notice all the different muscles I’m using until much later in the evening.

I’ve been doing a few stretches here and there but I’m still a bit twitchy as I sit down to read or draw at night and my muscles are not thrilled with me when I lie down to sleep.

Obviously, I need to do more dedicated stretching than I’ve been doing and perhaps I may even need to do a bit of a warm-up before I get started on my next project in the yard.

I find it really hard to remember to do either/both because I just want to get to the task at hand.

Do you do warm-ups and stretches before yardwork?

How about a cool-down and stretches afterwards?

I can’t be the only one who forgets all about it until much later, can I?

Anyway, here are a few videos I’m going to use throughout the summer but if you have any suggestions, I’d like to hear them. 🙂

This YouTube Short from a channel called Garden Fit is called ‘Are You Experiencing Common Gardening Aches and Pains? Try These Stretches!’ and the still image shows a woman with short white hair, wearing jeans and a green tank top, standing in front of some large outdoor plants.
This video from Sunnybrook Hospital is called ‘How to avoid pain while gardening | stretches & warm-ups’ and the still image shows a gardening trowel with a green handle lying on some soil.
This video from the Osteo & Physio channel is called ‘Full body stretch routine for gardeners to prevent injury | 12 minute routine’ and the still image features the title on the right hand side, a circle with an image of a woman in a sweater doing a neck stretch, and in the background is someone from the elbows down who is standing in a garden with a long-handled tool in their hands.