Every December as the end of the old year approaches and the new year is about to begin, there’s a huge focus on resolutions.

They range from the simple – I will be a kinder person and volunteer more – to the complex – I will change a negative behaviour like quitting smoking/drinking or take on a positive behaviour like eating better or exercising more.

The reality is that by the end of January, many of those good intentions fall by the wayside. Sometimes it is from your own doing: maybe you didn’t plan, maybe your resolution was too big, or perhaps you lost your momentum.

Sometimes it comes from others: they aren’t supportive or they don’t believe in you. I’m looking at you long-time gym members who make snide comments about the January newbies.

However, my main problem is that resolutions often feel rooted in believing there is something wrong with you. I recently came across a New Yorker cartoon with a fluffy cat admiring itself in a mirror saying to its reflection: “New Year’s resolution – stay this good-looking.” 

I like that approach of assuming you are already a good human and you want to find ways of maintaining your goodness.  And really, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to improve – the Japanese have a great approach called kaizen that focuses on improvement by making good things better, applying efficiency, removing waste, and implementing standardization.

Sometimes it feels like changing stuff at work is easier than changing ourselves. However we can change our mindset about how we want to approach making changes in our lives when it comes to activity. Some of us will schedule the time in our calendar and protecting that time so other priorities don’t take it over. In fact, I wrote about using that approach to make fitness a priority in my schedule here back in December 2019.

That worked well for me, but I wanted to do more. How to make physical activity stick and incorporate it as a daily thing and not just a workout in the gym thing? Well, a year later I took on BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits approach to attach activity to an already established habit. I wrote about Fogg’s key principles here.

For example, I need to strengthen my leg muscles to manage my grumpy knee. How to remember to do that every morning? I “attached” a specific exercise to my morning toothbrushing. I always brush my teeth and by associating the step exercise with that habit, I remember to do it.

Practice makes perfect my teachers said. I remember a pottery teacher telling us we had to make a 100 of anything before we could master a form. It’s true that my tenth plate was better than my first, and my 100^th was stellar compared to the tenth, fiftieth or even ninetieth.

The same with fitness. The Running Room’s learn to run program, for example, works on the increasing running time and decreasing walking time. When I first started powerlifting, I didn’t rush to the rack and start flinging weights around.

In fact, I didn’t even start with weights but practiced a series of exercises with repetitions that built strength before I even looked at plates. As it was, my first squats and deadlifts weren’t great, but over time, I increased the amount of weight I could squat or lift and my form steadily improved.

I wrote about the impact of small changes contributing to gains here. Looking back on all these posts, I can see that in the last four years, I have not just maintained a fitness practice, I have started thinking strategically about what I do, how I do it, when I do it, and why. The practice of fitness is not just about acquiring skill and competence (something that is critical to injury prevention) it’s about cultivating the habit of discipline.

If you are embarking on a fitness journey as part of making changes in this new year, tbink about building in and valuing the small steps you make to be an even nicer version of yourself.

Here are some of the things I have learned in the ten years since I first decided I needed to make changes in my life.

1. Be realistic about the goals you want to achieve. Not sure what’s feasible? Talk to a trainer or expert in the activity you want to take on. I like yoga, but I know there are some moves I need to do differently and consistently before I can try others. Not being realistic about how bendy I am would have let me at risk for injury.
2. Become a creature of habit when it comes to making space for fitness every day. Pick a spot for your gear (really, do this) so you can find and get ready without fuss or panic.
3. Keep an eye on your attitude. Avoid procrastinating. Like the ad says, just do it. If you don’t want to go for your hour long walk, then go for 30 minutes. Go even just for five minutes.
4. Be positive. A friend tells herself the following every time she goes for a run: I am. I can. I will. I do. Erase negative self talk and replace it with something that fosters confidence in yourself. And if you can’t do that, remember there’s a little potato that believes in you.  
5. Celebrate your successes, even the tiny ones. Stuff happens. Don’t beat yourself up about it. Give yourself a high five for making it through. Only got five workouts instead of the seven – yay you! That’s five more than doing none for the week. Reach an important target? Reward yourself. Because you are freaking awesome!

Happy New year everyone!

— MarthaFitat55 is embracing all the challenges and exploring all the ideas.

As winter storm season begins on mainland Canada in the northern hemisphere, I thought it would be a good idea to remind you of the fitness benefits and safety issues arising from snow removal.

Last January I looked at the dearth of research on women and snow removal. Check out the full post or if you woke up to a metric tonne of snow, here are a few tips for you:

1. As you would with any other strenuous exercise, warm up your muscles before you start.
2. Dress appropriately. Dress in layers as you will sweat. Wear a hat to keep heat in.
3. Assess any potential danger (piles of snow on the roof of your porch, your car, or trees). Also look at where you plan to throw your snow. Be kind to your neighbours.
4. Use a shovel that works with your height and use one that is not too heavy to start with.
5. Take frequent breaks, stretch, and hydrate.
6. Remember to watch your back: Bend your knees and engage your abs when you’re lifting that shovel full of snow!

I am a contradictory person. I love absolute quiet while I am writing but I cannot clean or tidy without blasting some fun music. I also like working out to what I call happy boppy music, and every Friday I make sure I play a few of my favorites to get ready for the weekend.

Monday past, Christine shared a great video using Love Shack (B-52s) in her Day Five Making Space post. I had a great idea as a result.

If you had to build a playlist focused on movement and joy, what would you include? Please share in the comments. To get you started, here’s my Top Ten Have-To-Drop-Everything-And-Dance-Now hits:

1. Buffy Sainte-Marie and Tanya Tagaq get your blood racing with You Got To Run (Spirit of the Wind).
2. K’Naan’s Wavin’ Flag, the unofficial anthem for the 2010 FIFA World Cup is perfect for getting you stomping.
3. Arcade Fire’s Rebellion (Lies) is a great way to warm up.
4. I heard this remix in one of the more surreal episodes of Ted Lasso. I had to go look it up and I always start my Friday rocking it out to Martin Solveig and Dragonette’s Hello.
5. Great Big Sea has a ton of excellent dancing songs but this one never fails to get me going. Ordinary Day makes a fit break extraordinary.
6. Alice Merton has a lovely edgy vibe in No Roots.
7. Who can resist Joan Armatrading? I can’t. Drop the Pilot must be on a half dozen of my playlists.
8. Sometimes when you are in a stomping mood, only Patti Smith’s People Have the Power will do.
9. I was lucky enough to see Iggy Pop in concert years ago and while this version of Lust for Life doesn’t compare to seeing him perform live, it still gets me up out of my chair.
10. Finally, when you need that extra boost to your whole mood, listen and watch this fabulous video by Bomba Estero (So Yo — I’m Me) featuring a delightfully defiant and confident young female person.

MarthaFitat55 is always looking for an opportunity to dance her feet off.

In the last couple of weeks, Sam and Catherine have written about the no-buy project they started July 1. I joined in, because why not? I have been working on being a more aware consumer, looking at limiting my carbon footprint, and reducing waste, recyling more, and repurposing what and where I can.

I have so far stuck to my goal and made only two unplanned purchases. After I rolled my ankle pretty badly in August, I was advised to wear shoes with proper support for my active days. I ended up buying a pair of heavy duty walking shoes and a decent pair of workshop shoes. I was assured this was an acceptable exception.

Truth be told, the no-buy challenge has meant I haven’t bought shoes. Sure I bought two pairs as a result of my rolled ankle, but they were serviceable, not pretty. I really love shoes. It hasn’t escaped me while I am stuck with size limits when it comes to fashionable clothing, footwear doesn’t really discriminate against anyone. There’s no plus-size shoe section with dull colours. No one says you can’t wear a slingback if you are a size 18; no one has pronounced an edict against Lizzo for her fantastic heels.

My other unplanned purchase came on holiday. A friend took my mother and me shopping. I bought a top and my mom bought one for my birthday. I had a pang when I realized I had broken my no-buy pact but the fact is where I live it’s hard to buy nice clothes for the curvy body I have been blessed with and I was really happy to find something lovely that made me feel good when I wore it and didn’t cost me my first-born. I realized that often I buy clothing because it fits, it’s reasonable, and is available not because I feel good in it.

So when Sam shared this article about progress vis-a-vis curvy models and plus-size clothing, I was intrigued and puzzled. Apparently, there’s been a resurgence in fashion houses focusing on very sleek, lithe, very flat bodies with prominent ribs and pronounced abs. While there has been an increase in designer clothes offering plus sizes, they tend to stop at size 20, and the curvy models they have been showing on the catwalk are around size 12 or 14 (think Marilyn Monroe). Some chain stores like Old Navy have stopped carrying plus sizes in-store and online access has been challenging as well.

Haute couture has focused on how the fabric looks on the human body. It certainly can inspire and support innovation. However, we cannot ignore the fact that fashion’s extreme focus on thin, almost anorexic models has been a constant. What’s still most attractive, most acceptable, and most desirable are not rolls, folds, and soft bellies but sleek limbs with tight planes and angles.

We also know that in many spaces, training and fitness activities are not seen as a path to wellness but as the route to thinness. We may be seeing defined abs on the catwalk but with what effect? If only certain bodies can meet the criteria for what is fashionable, what does it mean for those bodies who do not? And by extension whose communities are represented and whose are ignored?

One of the things I really like about the article is that it recognizes the complexity of the issue. We need more conversations on what this means for fitness, body image, consumerism, and representation. We need more choices we can consciously buy into on multiple levels.

MarthaFitat55 is enjoying all the things she’s learning.

A little over two years ago I wrote a post about how much water we should be drinking. You can find it here.

Recently NPR posted a myth-busting article about water myths and human bodies. The five myths they tackle include:

• Myth #1: You need to drink at least eight glasses of water a day.
• Myth #2: Caffeine makes you dehydrated.
• Myth #3: We need sports drinks to replace salt and other electrolytes.
• Myth #4: Drinking water can help you lose weight.
• Myth #5: Dark-colored pee means you’re dehydrated.

I knew about the first one and the third, and had held suspicions about the second. The rest however surprised me. In fact, I thought I had heard all the tropes about weight loss but drinking water to lose weight was one I had not heard of.

The article does a nice job explaining some of the latest research findings and evidence to debunk the myths, always a useful approach given the misinformation we can encounter in health, fitness, wellness, and nutrition.

MarhaFitat55 is always interested in reliable health information we can use.

We are moving steadily into fall in the Northern Hemisphere. Soon we will roll back the clocks and it will be dark by the end of the average workday. Factor in rain, sleet and snow, and both mornings and evenings will be darker earlier and longer.

This isn’t a post about depression and managing SAD, although there is way more written about it now than when I first learnt about it 30 years ago. No, this post is about safety and outdoor fitness.

I used to be a runner. My favourite time to run was early in the morning around 6 ish. But when I first learned to run, it was in the evening and in a group. Nonetheless, one of my running classmates gave me a safety vest to wear after the first week as I had nothing reflective. Even in a group, safety and visibility was paramount.

A few years after, when my knees said enough, my running days converted to trail walking. Other family members took up walking or biking to get to work or school. I could walk mid day but other family members encountered less than stellar conditions before nine am and after 4 pm in the fall and winter.

One evening I was leaving the supermarket and encountered a group of runners wearing a variety of neon tubes that changed colour. I was entranced. The runners were lit up like Christmas trees and there was no overlooking their presence.

I rolled down the window and asked where such wondrous items could be found. On the Internet of course. Thus informed, I went home, searched, purchased, and duly waited for its arrival.

There’s any number of styles and sources available now. Mine is easy to put on and easy to use. Not only do I get a choice of colour, I can also set the lights to flash intermittently.

Now I am fully aware that I cannot rely on my light-up vest to be 100% responsible for my safety. Like any person who identifies and lives as female, personal safety is second nature when engaging in the activities of daily life including fitness. Individuals who identify and live as men have only visibility to worry about for the most part.

For example, if you are a runner, you may think about changing your route or letting someone know your route and the usual time it takes for you to complete it. You may decide to rearrange your work schedule so you can work out at mid-day instead of the early evening or morning. Perhaps you plan your workouts to coincide with the best bus schedule or maybe you have been eyeballing the new safety alarms that screech louder than a toddler thwarted on the playground.

We worry about safety when we take on new fitness activities. Have you got someone to spot you with weights? Have you learned how to use the machines properly? Do you understand how to adjust for modifications in yoga or Pilates? But how many of us engage in safety practices without consciously thinking about them?

My decision to purchase a light-up vest was a conscious safety decision. My need to be visible and safe was not just rooted in wanting to avoid being hit by a car, but it was linked to all things I do to be personally safe, many without consciously realizing why I was doing them.

I’m curious: what are some of the things you do to be safer when the seasons change? Let us know in the comments.

MarthaFitat55 lives and works in St. John’s, NL.

Last summer we heard about Olympic athletes who faced obstacles to their need to breastfeed their children while participating in the games. Spanish athlete Ona Carbonell described the rules imposed by Japanese officials as dangerous and impractical. Because it is World Breastfeeding Week, a yearly event promoting breastfeeding and its important role in food security and infant nutrition, I thought I would highlight some of the things you can do while breastfeeding, including physical exercise and other fitness-type activities.

If you’ve had a baby and are breastfeeding, either through direct nursing or pumping, you may have wondered about the impact of exercise. LaLeche League offers peer support worldwide to nursing parents. The organization says regular exercise offers physical and mental benefits and notes even moderately vigorous exercise won’t affect milk supply. They offer these helpful guidelines:

• 1. Wait until your baby is at least 6 weeks old or more. (Give yourself time to recover physically!)
• 2. If you had a cesarean section you can usually start exercising 6-8 weeks after birth. However, you should talk to your healthcare provider before beginning any type of exercise program.
• 3. Start slowly and gradually. (Perhaps you had a pretty active lifestyle before baby; however, even if you are very fit, don’t start where you left off.)
• 4. Be sure to consume liquids to replace those lost by sweating. (Be sure you drink a glass of water every time your baby feeds regardless of your activity before or after.)
• 5. You may wish to wear a supportive, or sports, bra for your own comfort. (I second this. Extra support is essential.)
• 6. Some kinds of exercise, such as walking, can be done with your baby.
• 7. You may also find post-natal exercise classes in your area that allow you to bring your baby with you. (I attended some baby and me classes at my local Y which was great for getting back into physical activity and also connecting with other new parents and their babies.)
• 8. Walking briskly, mild aerobic exercises and water exercises are ideal in the beginning.
• 9. Monitor how you feel during and after exercise and let this be your guide for how much to do. Some moms find they can regain their fitness and stamina levels quickly after birth, and others take longer.

This article from Today’s Parent also offers some useful firsthand advice if your fitness level is beyond beginnner. I was on maternity leave post recovery from birth in early spring and summer which also made the temps ideal for working my way back into regular exercise. I also found walking with my baby in a carriage or stroller to be easier than babywearing and it was a great way to spend time with my partner and family. If you are pregnant and planning to breastfeed, I hope this post offers some insight into how you can maintain your fitness too.

MarthaFitat55 enjoyed her breastfeeding experience and was very grateful for all the support she received to make it possible.

We talk a lot in fitness about rest days, or recovery stages. If you’ve trained hard for an extensive period of time, you are encouraged to taper or rest so your body can increase its capacity.

I like how fitness programs alternate days for working different parts of the body and I really like how recovery is not only supported by rest, but also by a change in action (or inaction, if you refer).

Perhaps it’s because I am a post-menopausal woman, and my sleep rhythms are all disturbed (hello 3 am wake-up call) but I have now embraced active rest, or napping as people often call it, as a useful and restorative part of my daily life.

SamB turned me on to the Nap Ministry, founded by Tricia Hersey, who believes strongly, fiercely, that napping is more than a means to catch up on sleep, it’s a form of resistance.

We need to rest, and not by passively catching a few winks on the train ride home, but by actively choosing to hit the pause button on our day. In the same way I schedule my training sessions in my weekly calendar, I have now added a 20-minute power nap. I’ve found it better than meditation as a means of recharging my brain cells.

Hersey writes: “Rest must be central to our reimagining of everything in our daily existence, including our work.” If we can take a coffee break or lunch break, why not a nap break?

So how about it: can you find a 20-minute window in your day to choose rest? What might be keeping you from napping? What do you like best about napping? Let us know in the comments.

MarthaFitat55 is a nap convert and considers it an integral part of her fitness routine.

On August 4, 2022 women were finally allowed to race the full course at the Regatta. Known previously as the men’s course, the long course is 2.45 kilometers compared to the short course of 1.225 kilometres.

The Regatta started in 1816, and 40 years later women were allowed to race for the first time, but only the short course. Historically, there’s been no reason available for women not to be allowed to race the long course. except for sexism.

The recommendation to eliminate gender-based distances came in January after the race committee elected its first female president and vice president. While the short and long course races will have segregated teams for now, the gender markers for distance are no more. The committee confirmed its decision to include women in long-course competition after a trial run in June.

There were four women’s teams signed up to race the long course while no men’s teams signed up to race the short course. The winning team in the women’s long course race set a time of 10:28.70, still better than the fifth place finisher (10:43:31) in the men’s long course championship race.

I rowed for two years in the Regatta. It’s a great sport and I learned a lot. While women have been dominating the sport for a while, even in the early 2000s, I heard lots of snide comments that women participated only because it was a social event or a way to get fit. One sports writer even went so far as to say the only serious races were the morning ones and the championship races; the rest were social rowers.

The short course is a hard and fast row, averaging between five and six minutes, compared to the long course. It makes sense that different strengths, different training approaches, and different racing strategies are required. None of that is gender-based. It would be like saying only men can run a full marathon and only women can run a half. Both lengths have their own merits and records and any gender can run either.

There’s a saying that children learn what they see, and at the boathouse, children, especially girls, the message learned was that endurance was a men’s skill. That’s simply not the case. In training, women, elite and amateur, rowed the long course to develop strength. Yes, it could be a slog, depending on pond conditions, but we weren’t ready for our fainting couches at the end of it either.

Yesterday’s long course race for women proved once again that gender does not limit ability.

MarthaFitat55 believes gender is not a reason to not try anything.

CW: diets, body image

Wednesday past I had just finished reading Catherine W’s lovely post about loving our bodies when SamB shared a news article on the increase of children dieting in the UK.

Briefly, the article reported that dieting behaviours among young children were up significantly: more than one in four children were dieting in fact. And coincidentally, the spike occurred following the launch of an obesity awareness program for children and youth.

Without a shadow of a blush, the paper also reported that there might be a problem with the messaging since the number of kids within healthy weight ranges were dieting too.

You think?

Kids are surrounded by images of purported perfect bodies. They learn how to manipulate photos and follow influencers. What could possibly go wrong with the messaging from a weight-based health program?

Context is everything. Even if weight-based concerns are motivated by a sincere wish for health, we know singling kids out for attention that is focused on their bodies is bound to go sideways.

There’s lots wrong with the sugar and fat-loaded foods that are marketed to kids. There’s lots to be worried about when it comes to kids gaining extra weight, or younger kids developing type 2 diabetes.

We are also moving less and eating more. There is also more poverty, and the lack of money influences food buying decisions, so poor diets are not necessarily driven by free choice.

I think we should be focusing on encouraging kids to be proud of their accomplishments, especially those that aren’t weight or image-based. Catherine’s post reminded me how often we are told to improve ourselves, as if we aren’t already good enough as we are.

Children learn what they see, and they aren’t seeing people who are happy with who they are, celebrating all the wonderful things our bodies can do. Instead of focusing on the numbers the scale shows, we need to focus on what self care and self love can do.

MarthaFitat55 lives in the east of Canada. She spent a number of years teaching media literacy to children and youth in the pre-internet era.