How many posts? May ends as one of the blog’s biggest months so far in 2026 — 35+ posts across five weeks.
Who blogged? Sam, Catherine, Christine, Nat, Diane, Nicole, Elan, Martha, Mina, and our newest blogger, and long-time commentator, Winnie.
Some of the May themes:
Diane’s recovery arc continued. April ended with Diane writing from the hospital. May picked up right there. Walking Walking Walking documented her cardiac rehab journey — routes mapped around the neighbourhood, a trip to the tulip festival with Florence, and the grumpy energy of walking because it’s what’s permitted. By mid-month she’d turned a corner: Go Sports Ball! found her on her way to an Ottawa-Montreal PWHL playoff game, writing about women’s professional hockey having a moment.
Nat enters retirement. Nat is now a month into retirement and still figuring out where the time goes. Little and Often, the SAG post for the Flèche, and the Victoria Day gardening blitz (13,000 steps without meaning to) all tracked the early weeks. Then this week, Nat ponders the unpaid time economy — a reflection on how retirement reveals all the invisible labour women do: logistics of longevity, care for family, community fundraising, and the simple question of where “free” time actually goes.
Elan from the Azores. Scouts and Sweeps in Group Fun told the story of an e-bike adventure on the volcanic island of Faial — fog, battery anxiety, 330 metres of elevation — and became a meditation on the invisible labour of the people who hold a group together.
Christine on momentum and hips. Moving more makes Christine want to move more and the hip mobility experiment — trying six different YouTube videos to see which ones her hips actually like — practical, honest, and non-prescriptive. That’s Christine’s way.
Feminist pushback on fitness culture. Sam unpacked the viral “fits in a bandeau” meme in What “Fits Into a Bandeau” Actually Means. Nicole took aim at boutique gyms requiring membership applications as a new form of fitness gatekeeping in A Gym as Private Club? No Thank You. Sam’s Two Things That Made Me Go Grrr at the Gym This Morning (gendered equipment labeling and motivational signage) and Who Are You Working Out For? continued that thread.
The research thread. Both Catherine and Sam brought fit, feminist takes on current research — engaging with the evidence critically rather than just amplifying headlines.
Catherine, a public health ethicist by training, put that expertise to work in Bad News/Good News About the Hantavirus Outbreak — an explainer on the Andes virus outbreak that traced through what the science actually showed, who was genuinely at risk, and where the media coverage was getting ahead of itself. Sam dove into two new meta-analyses in Exercise Snacks: What the Latest Research Actually Shows — following up after the studies kept floating across her fitness-heavy social media feed. The post broke down what the evidence actually supports (improved cardiorespiratory fitness for inactive adults; real short-term blood flow benefits from breaking up sitting time) versus what it doesn’t, and closed with the line “I trust research that tells me what it doesn’t know, not just what it does.”
Month-in-review posts are assembled by Claude with prompts from Sam and edited by Sam. If you spot any errors, let us know.
