Thanks for hanging out with me for the Making Space 2025 posts.
Over the last few years, writing these posts has helped my December days to feel more spacious. The process of planning and writing not only gives me a fixed point to work around but it also gives me a feeling of having gotten something tangible done day after day, no matter how hectic the rest of the day might feel.
And, of course, I love the idea that my posts might be helping someone else – even if it is just that seeing the title serves as a reminder to give yourself a little kindness and grace on a given day.
I chose December for these daily posts because the ambient stress of holidays and the end of the year tends to make our time feel tight and crowded but those feelings can show up at any time of year.
On this last day of Making Space 2025, I’m inviting you to make a short list of things that have helped (or could help!) you to create some space so you can refer to it when you are feeling jammed into the corners of your own life.
You could keep the list on your phone, in a notebook, on your computer, or stuck to the fridge – the key is to keep it handy when you need it.
You might even make a recurring event on your calendar each month so you can check in with yourself from time to time to make sure you are making space for yourself on the regular.
But whether you make that list, whether you try my suggested activities for today, or whether you do something else entirely, I wish you ease, fun, rest, and joy as we move into 2026.
See you tomorrow for the first Go Team post for 2026.
Here’s our final movement practice suggestion for 2025. I decided to go with a video that mixed a lot of things together – you can do as little or as much of it as you wish.
In the still image for this Get Moving! All-In-One Workout from Yes2Next, the left side of the image is purple with white text overlaid. The text reads “20 Minutes Balance, Cardio, Strength” with the last three words in bullet points and then says “All-In-One Workout.” On the right side of the image we see two women, one middle aged and one senior, in exercise clothes. They are both lifting their right arm in the air and balancing on their right leg while lifting their left foot off of the floor.
In the still image for this video, the instructor, a light-skinned woman with shoulder length wavy blonde hair, who is wearing leggings and a sweatshirt, is standing on a blue yoga mat on a wooden floor. She has one hand on her belly and the the other on her upper chest, and she looks like she is breathing in, calmly. There is a purple stripe across the screen that has white text overlaid on it and the text reads “Your nervous system likes this.” On either side of the mat are various plants in pots and in wicker baskets and there is a multi-coloured bolster cushion propped up against the wall behind her on her left.
And here is our final mindfulness practice suggestion for 2025:
The still image for this ‘A Sense of Spaciousness Guided Contemplation/Meditation’ video from Stream Yoga Meditation shows us a view of the sky from the perspective of someone looking up from below, perhaps through sunglasses. The sky is a deep blue, there are ragged clouds on the bottom left, and a bright splash of sun with long rays extending in each direction is near the middle of the image.
The practice of identifying and trying to follow through on X things in 202X has become my favourite New Year’s resolution thingy. I first tried it in 2024. And again last year.
I came nowhere near completing all the things either time, but that’s just fine. The lists helped me build some habits and identify where I wanted to make changes. Here is what I’m thinking for 2026.
1. Camp more at the cottage. Last year I figured out contracting, plumber and electricity, but I won’t have running water or heat until the electrical actually gets connected to the grid, hopefully by the end of 2026.
2. Get the canoe into the water and explore the lake. This will require at least temporary stairs to the water, and I hope to hire someone to build permanent stairs during the summer.
3. Hike some of the trails around the cottage area. This is a repeat because I never got up to the property often enough to explore. Maybe I can count tromping around on snowshoes this year? I have been keen to do that.
4. Bike at least 1,000 km, including a ride to Gatineau Park for a swim. This number decreases every year, thanks to an overuse injury and fears around longer rides thanks to the heart murmur discovered early in 2025. My e-bike being out of commission for much of the year didn’t help; nor did the switch to a lot more trip chaining so I could combine local errands with elder care across the city. I’m going to remind myself that nearby Lac Leamy is actually part of Gatineau Park (just not the hilly, ambitious part).
5. Read one book a month. I exceeded this goal in 2025, partly because I renewed my library card and started reading fiction again. So the stash of “owned” books hasn’t decreased much and this one needs to stay. Besides, it forces me to rest and that’s a good thing.
6. Read one magazine a week. That’s 52 magazines. I read 41 in 2024, am at 41 so far in 2025, and I have enough for at least another year. I’m going to try and read one more today.
7. Cook one new recipe a week. This is an old habit, and cooking just for myself and sometimes for Mom worked after Dad died in May. This has been a way to explore vintage recipes I think she would enjoy but this year’s challenge will be to add more vegetarian dishes she would also enjoy since my sister is vegetarian.
8. I want to do more recipe redactions from medieval cookbooks. Let’s say one a month? That part of last year’s cooking challenge collapsed completely due to all the other things going on in 2025. But using my collection of medieval cookbooks and blogging about recipes I have tried gives me joy I have missed.
9. Weed and care for my gardens and hopefully harvest more food. This is a repeat and I hope the weather cooperates better than it did in 2025. I’m looking forward to riding my e-bike to the furthest garden again.
10. Swim. I completed exactly half my goal of 200 km a year. I probably won’t reach 200 km, but it’s going to remain as a stretch goal, especially if I can get some serious cottage time.
11. More crafting. I blew past the deadline for last year’s February project. But it still needs doing, along with a whole bag of other unfinished projects. I learned the basics of sprang this year and want to keep exploring that new skill.
12. Sew at least five outfits that have been lurking in my fabric stash and “to do” list for 5 years or more. This is one I could probably keep going for at least a decade. So much fabric stash….
13. Declutter the things in my Mom’s house without adding to my own clutter. I have discovered several great new places working with refugees and other marginalized communities; the real challenge is moving stuff along in a timely manner.
14. Couch surfing vacation to southern Ontario. No change from last year or 2024. I have three planned babysitting weekends with my grandson, and hopefully another invitation to Sam’s for the bloggers’ barbecue, so I’m looking forward to building on those as a way to visit friends.
15. Volunteer less. This is a complete reversal from last year. I realized I don’t love leading harvests (but I do enjoy helping with them), and I’m almost done my terms on various boards. It’s time to let go and focus on me for a while.
16. Eat more fruit. I have a deeply ingrained habit of eating vegetables but not fruit, so my aim is two servings a day. I won’t be able to manage 6 prunes a day on top of that, but they can certainly be an option as my main fruit.
17. Spend more time with Mom. Elder care is going to continue being a big part of my life.
18. Stretch and modest strength training. Physio, yoga, some of the videos from Movement Union, and on-line Pilates, which I started in December and really love.
19. Shop from my pantry. I’m really good at preserving food, not so good at using it up. This is an ongoing challenge but I did make a little headway last year.
20. Meet up with friends. I hang out with way too many introverts. We love getting together, but it rarely happens. I’ll aim to meet up with one of them each month for coffee or a meal or something. This is a repeat because it didn’t happen nearly often enough but needs to happen. Those visits with friends were precious time to me.
21. Do something artistic. Will I finish that oil painting that has been sitting around for years? Work on my calligraphy and illumination? Take a watercolour class? Or just take my sketchbooks to the cottage and put them to use? My art supplies were trapped with the sewing machine for most of the year so this is a repeat.
22. Keep on top of my health issues. Notice and take action when things feel off, rather than trying to power through or refuse to acknowledge in the first place that what I’m feeling is not normal.
23. Relax. Deliberately spend time staring at trees, or lounging in the sun, meditating, or whatever. More specifically, hammock time. Use the one in my back yard and set up one between a couple of trees at the cottage. Another repeat, but so necessary!
24. Set up my bike for indoor rides and watch some movies while I cycle. I have never tried using my Garmin to track indoor cycling, so that could be a test this year. If it doesn’t work, I’ll just guesstimate distances by my average speed 14 km/hour) times the length of the show I watch.
25. Requalify as a lifeguard and swim instructor. This is something I have to do every two years and shouldn’t be a big deal, but it always makes me anxious.
26. I have no idea! This is a placeholder for whatever adventures might come my way, or new things I want to explore. This may have been my favourite last year. Maybe it will morph into this great resolution from a friend:
(To be clear , these aren’t the most-read posts in 2025. They’re the posts from 2025 that were read the most. For all time most read in 2025, check out this post!)
Today, I met one friend for tea in the morning and as this post goes live, I’ll be meeting another friend for a writing hangout in the afternoon and somehow my day feels marvelously spacious.
That doesn’t quite add up, does it?
On paper, adding two separate events to my schedule at two different locations, with enough time between them that I’ll be going home and heading out again, seems like it should make time feel tight, it should make me feel busier.
But, of course, because both of those events are FUN and because time spent with each of those friends is relaxing and restorative.
So even though I am adding things to my day, it doesn’t feel like more to do.
Instead, it feels like I am creating two pockets of time where I can step out of my schedule and my to-do list and spend time doing something easy and fun.
And I’m wondering if you can choose to do something similar today or tomorrow (or sometime soon.)
It doesn’t have to involve meeting friends (although I highly recommend that if your schedule and commitments will allow), it could be drawing or dancing or reading or taking a walk or cooking something new, or literally anything that lets you choose yourself and your own interests instead of just staying focused on checking off more tasks.*
Taking that time for yourself and your own interests may mean that that you will have to choose not to do some of the tasks on your big list but that could be for the best, really.
You deserve to take up space in your own life and it is unlikely that someone is going to come along and point out the best time for you to take that space – I think you are going to have to decide to just take it.
Choosing to spend time doing something you enjoy – even if it takes a bit of energy to orchestrate – will be totally worth it.
Whether you find a way to step out of your schedule, you try one of the practices below, or you find some other shenanigans to get up to, I wish you ease and I wish you space.
Be kind to yourself, pretty please!
Here’s our movement practice for today:
In the still image for this ‘5 Minute Morning Stretch: Wake Up Your Body’ video fromYoga with Joelle, the instructor, a woman with light skin and long dark hair in leggings and a tank top, is standing in the center of the image facing to the left so we can only see her right side. She has her upper arms raised to shoulder height and her forearms at a 90 degree angle so her hands are towards to the ceiling. She is leaning back a little and her arms are slightly behind her. The floors are wooden and the wall at the back is aqua. Text on the left reads ‘Wake Up Your Body’ and text on the bottom right reads ‘5 Minute Stretch.’
And here’s our mindfulness practice for the day:
In the left side of the still image for Guided Meditation: 7 Minutes of Stillness in Yellowstone, with Dora from Headspace, the instructor, a person with long dark hair and brown skin wearing a winter hat, jacket, and scarf, is leaning against a tree. On the right side is white text that reads “Riverside Meditation at Yellowstone” with a background of trees that have been slightly blurred.
*There’s a time and a place for checking off tasks, of course, but if that’s your whole approach to life it is gonna get old real fast.
One of my favourite fit feminist humans recently suggested I try the two-week trial membership for Lost Cycle, a Toronto-based woman-owned fitness company that expanded to my city in 2019. She thought I would like it because, as she said, it was “cycling in the dark to really loud rap music.”
I am already a fan of doing stuff to music in the dark, as I did with (Remote) Dark Dancing during the COVID pandemic. Also, the timing seemed good to counter any winter break inactivity. So, in spite of reduced holiday hours and some poor weather outside, I made it to four classes, two at each location.
My black car parked in the empty Lost Cycle lot on a cold, wet, sleet-filled winter break morning.
The Lost Cycle studio ambiance is what might be described as “boutique warehouse,” with minimal windows and the company logo spraypainted on walls but also gratis cold towels and individual shower rooms with complimentary products. The fitness areas have quality equipment: ON the bike classes include clip-in shoes and earplugs, while OFF the bike rooms have infrared heat panels and Lululemon yoga mats. The class leaders were all chatty and friendly on their mics, many showing plenty of body tattoos.
The spin class leader‘s station on an elevated platform, close to a podium to adjust sound and light during class.
And, as mentioned, the classes are held in the dark, with just enough artificial and real candle light to see the mirrors and other people.
Dark spin class, with bikes lined up and towels on them. The photo doesn’t capture the ambiance created by the range of electronic dance music and occasional throwbacks.
In class I tried my best to keep up, but made modifications when my knees ached a little. The low lighting and loud music worked to lessen my self-consciousness (being new and only an occasional group fitnesser), though I needed to place myself close to the front to be able to follow instructions. On the mic, leaders were genuinely supportive, reflecting the vibe of the post-it notes on the studio walls: you are enough, you showed up today, you can do this. Other people I have discussed spin with describe being called out during classes. Here, there was none of that.
Dark group fitness with mats, towels, bands, and handweights placed closely together in a heated room. OFF the bike was a blend of HIIT calisthenics, strength training, and yoga stretches.
Near the end of both ON and OFF the bike classes, there is time to really get “lost”: the lights go off and the music goes up and you just have about 3 to 4 minutes to yourself.
And, during the “lost” times while cycling away or lying on my mat, I found myself in tears or near tears. Now, I am in a particularly vulnerable place right now, due to my recent job loss. While I didn’t check if other participants had felt the same thing, in every class I experienced in the dark a kind of emotional release I didn’t know I needed.
Lost Cycle has tapped into different elements of cycle studio / gym ambiance that makes it feel like fun, luxury, and intensity, all the ingredients for something slightly cultish. Though I was on my way to becoming an initiate, I’m not in a $$ position to keep the membership. At least I am taking the lesson home from Lost Cycle: turn off the lights, pump my mid-life music, and make time for both strength and vulnerability.
So, as you probably know, I will be starting a new round of Go Team posts on January 1 – Go Team 2026!- but this is my very last Go Team post for 2025 and I have a very important message for you:
I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!
I am proud of your efforts.
I am proud of the way you keep picking yourself up.
I’m proud of the way you keep trying.
I’m proud of the things you decided to do.
I’m proud of the the things you decided NOT to do.
I’m proud of the way you poured your energy into certain things and chose NOT to pour it into others.
I’m proud of every time you spoke to yourself kindly or took kind action for yourself.
I’m proud of the times that you noticed when you were being hard on yourself instead of just assuming those harsh messages were the truth. Even if you haven’t been able to adjust your messaging yet, you are on your way!
I’m proud of the times you chose consistency, routine, place-holding, or even phoning-it-in over relentless perfection.
I’m proud of your hard work.
I’m proud of your rest.
I’m proud of everything you accomplished, everything you tried, and even every time things didn’t work out.
Your effort matters.
You matter.
And you are doing the very best you can with the resources you have and that is something to be proud of.
Especially since those resources can vary from day to day.
I’m hoping you will join me in being proud of you but if you can’t quite wrap your mind around that yet, it’s totally ok.
I’m proud enough for both of us.
I see you. I see your efforts – even the effort it takes to let yourself rest – and I am cheering you on.
I’m cheering us all on.
GO TEAM US!
2025 is almost over.
You did what you could this year and you gathered information and experience to prepare for your next steps.
And that’s all that you can ask of yourself.
Here’s the final gold star for 2025 and I offer it to you, beaming with pride at your efforts:
A small drawing of a shiny, metallic gold star with rounded edges and trimmed in black. The drawing is on part of an index card so the background is white and I have made a frame of small black dots around the edge. The card is resting against my dark green mousepad that I have propped up on my white desk.
Sam says lots of people are visiting the this site right now. I’m guessing it’s a year-end, preparing for the new year thing. Maybe folks are looking for inspiration? I hope you stick around because this can be a fun place, full of deep thoughts and some silly fun.
The best part is that we love moving our bodies and know it’s never too late to start. I’m a prime example of that. My friends and I use the expression “do the thing” whenever we want to push ourselves outside our comfort zone.
Although I took swimming and skating lessons, and ran cross-country for a couple of years, I was far from athletic as a kid. I didn’t really start getting active until I took up ballet in my 40s in an attempt to be a good role model for my kids. That was so much fun that the next year I added in regular swimming. Things kept getting added in: belly dance, cycling, skiing (cross-country and even a bit of downhill), skating…. They didn’t all stick, but the joy of trying new things certainly did.
Now I’m retired from my career, and am a part-time lifeguard and swim instructor. I qualified for the job just before my 64th birthday. I take weekly ballet and jazz classes, and cycle year-round. I’ll never manage a really long ride, but I can easily put in upwards of 30 km a day just doing errands around the city.
I still love trying fun things. Most recently, it was a massive aquafit class and fundraiser for the local food bank. We had 370 participants and collected over 2,000 pounds of food.
Me in my Santa hat and green swim cap, taking a selfie in front of Santa, a couple of participants and some of the decorations at the world’s largest aquafit class (pending official ratification).
All that to say, welcome to Fit Is A Feminist Issue. No matter your age or level of fitness, we’re glad you stopped by and hope you’ll return often. Or even better, subscribe to the blog so you never miss an update.
And whatever it is you love or are curious about – do the thing!
I mentioned a few days ago that we would reach a point when I would recommend reviewing the things that didn’t get done this December.
I usually hate doing that kind of thing because I don’t like how it feels (yes, I know it can be beneficial but I still don’t like it!) but I think it can be very useful from a Making Space perspective.
In fact, it can be useful for making space this year (freeing yourself from feeling badly about tasks you didn’t get to) and for next year (identifying tasks that can be done at other times, by other people, or in a different way AND tasks that you don’t want to include in future lists.)
For starters, if we look at those tasks in the context of what *did* get done, then we can immediately see that, for various reasons, we probably didn’t actually have a lot of space to fit those tasks in.
And we can see if there are any tasks on there that seemed like a good idea at the beginning but that we weren’t actually all that interested in doing. If we want, we can spend a little time thinking about why we felt the need to put them on the list in the first place but we can also feel free to put them on a ‘don’t bother with these’ list for next year.
We can also see if there are any tasks or projects that would have been fun but that we didn’t have the time, capacity, or resources to do in December. For those, we may be able to choose another time of year to start those tasks or to gather resources to do them next December.
And if there are projects or tasks that could be done by other people, we may want to take some time now to make some notes so the people we ask to take on those tasks will have the resources they need to complete them without getting on our nerves too much. (ha!)
Finally, while we are in note-making mode, we can also jot down some info for ourselves about how we did certain things, anything we would like to do in a different way or at a different time, things we forgot this year that we’d like to remember next year, basically anything that would make December 2026 easier on ourselves.
When I make notes for my future self, I either 1) put them in a Google Doc, invite myself to edit it, and then snooze it to a good date when the invite arrives in my email or 2) create an event in my online calendar for a specific future date and then put the notes directly in the notes section or 3) put a note on a specific future date on my digital or analog calendar that tells me where the notes are.
Yes, this is another set of tasks for our current selves but organizing information in this way often helps me to create brain space right now – I assume it is because I am giving the information a container rather than letting it float around.
Also, I’m pretty sure that thinking this through will help our future selves have more brain space AND to make more space in their schedules for the things they want to do because some of the thinking will already be done for them.
But, as the same time, I recognize that everyone has their own way of doing things so if this process isn’t something that appeals to you or if it doesn’t seem useful, please ditch it entirely and do something else that feels spacious and good.
And I am wishing you ease today and always.
Here’s today’s suggested movement practice:
In this still image for No-Mat Pilates for Small Spaces/ Full Body Workout from Joyga, the instructor, a light-skinned person with dark hair in a dark tank top and capri leggins, is standing in an small rectangular space with white walls and wooden floors that appears to be at the end of a larger room. They are facing to the camera’s left, extending their arms forward and overhead while leaning slightly forward. Their weight is mostly on their right foot and they are extending their left leg behind them. On the right side you can see part of a door and on the left you can see part of a window and a heater.
And here’s our suggested mindfulness practice:
In the still image from this 4-Minute Guided Meditation: Mindful Coffee Walk from Headspace, there is a cartoon style drawing on the right hand side that shows a top-down view of a take-out coffee cup, someone’s left hand and left leg and sneaker. The drawing is done from the perspective of the person holding the cup so you only see the top of the white cup, part of their orange hand, the top part of their yellow pant leg, and the toe of their grey sneaker. The background of the still image is dark green and their is an orange rectangle with rounded corners on the upper left side that has the word Meditation in white inside it and there is white text reading Mindful Coffee Walk on the middle of the left side and the name of the channel Headspace is on the bottom left.
I was excited to make it to Week 7 of a Zwift streak. It hasn’t been the best fall for me in terms of fitness. I am committed to making Zone 2 rides a regular thing, but it’s hard to stay motivated in Zwift without the tough workouts, which I enjoy, or the team racing. I miss them both.
My fitness week starts with the Herd’s Monday Morning Coffee Crew ride. It’s an early start, 5:55 am, but it’s a short ride, just 45 minutes. I also try to ride Wednesday and Friday mornings with the Herd at 7 am, if my schedule allows. On the weekends, there’s the Thundering Turtles, my favourite group ride on Zwift, also put on by the Herd. The Herd is fast becoming my Zwift community of choice.
I’ve been happy to make it to a 7 week streak. But now it’s the holidays, and I’m away the week between Christmas and New Years. I’m going to lose my streak. BAH!
“Zwift knows that riders may be unable to ride for a week or more, though, due to vacation, injury, or other factors. So in April 2025 they introduced Streak Savers to the game. These are automatically used to extend your streak if you have a week with no qualifying activities.”
Woohoo!
So maybe my streak is safe after all?
Sadly no. You only get the streak extender after your streak is 12 weeks long. No streak extenders for a mere 7 week streak.
Fine, I’ll start again in the new year. A new year, a new Zwift streak!
Oh and the article helped solve a mystery for me. I’ve been wondering why some riders in Zwift have squirrels in their back jersey pockets. I want a squirrel in my back pocket too. I mean, I’ve got the flame socks now. Why can’t I get a squirrel?
Turns out I can. I just need to have a 24 week streak.
The squirrels are streak flair.
So now I have another goal. First, I want a 12 week streak so I can get a streak extender. Second, I want a 24 week streak so I can have my own Pocket Scotty. Wish me luck!
Here’s Pocket Scotty. Good news–he’s weightless. Pocket Scotty won’t slow you down going up hill.
