Feminist reflections on fitness, sport, and health
Author: Sam B
Philosopher, feminist, parent, and cyclist! Co-founder of Fit Is a Feminist Issue, co-author of Fit at Mid-Life: A Feminist Fitness Journey, published by Greystone Books.
Thanks everyone who sponsored the Tour de Guelph Gryphons and helped us reach our $1000 team fundraising goal.
We were a small but mighty crew in the end, with Sarah and Amy both having to drop out, but Graham, Abby and I had a fun day on our 50 km rides. It was Abby’s 50 km. Go Abby! She rode the multi-surface route with her sister and a friend. Graham and I rode the 50 km road route.
I was nervous about the hills since the route took us downhill, past the 401, on Watson and back up into Guelph on Victoria. Graham gets points for patiently waiting at the top and not asking, “What’s wrong?” and I get points for not walking my bike up any of the hills.
There were lots of people riding, more than 800 across all the different distances.
Want to donate to support our team and to help the Guelph General Hospital? There’s still time. Click here.
We have big plans for next year–training rides, Gryphon jerseys, more people and more fun. Hope you can join us!
What about the 30-30-30 thing? You know 30 minutes of movement and 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up. I should have realized that wouldn’t work so well for me. I take medication that I need to have on an empty stomach, and then I can’t eat for an hour after. There goes the 30-minute bit. I am pretty good at getting 30 g of protein when I do eat breakfast, and I usually walk the dog, bike to work, or go to the gym most mornings, so there’s the movement covered.
How about the after-dinner digestive walk? Don’t worry. Cheddar is on it.
“It’s kind of a miracle I haven’t just passed out.” That’s how Lael Wilcox described the heat exhaustion that ended her bid to break Mark Beaumont’s around-the-world cycling record this week. A European heat wave did what training and grit couldn’t. Reading her words, I felt the particular dread that’s become familiar lately — the recognition that the conditions we plan our riding around are no longer the conditions we actually get.
The increasing summer heat is terrifying, and people are dying. Probably, when there are health warnings against outdoor exercise, it’s not the best time to try to break a world cycling record. I know the loss of summer riding is a small thing compared to all the horrible effects of our warming world.
Me, I’m planning my long-distance rides for the fall. I’m switching it up and moving some of my exercise indoors in the summer. That feels strange and awful, but it’s where we are.
Maybe you’ll recall that’s basically the 30-30-30 thing, the nine morning movements, and an after-dinner walk.
I’m happy to report that I’ve done some combination of these most days — the morning movements, 30g of protein at breakfast, 30 minutes of morning cardio, and an after-dinner walk.
All the walking is pretty familiar. I’ve got a dog, after all, and Cheddar loves an after-dinner walk. The morning cardio is also part of my usual routine, since I usually bike to work or go to the gym.
Thirty grams of protein has made me more mindful of breakfast choices. Lots of my usual go-tos fall short and so this has been a good reminder.
The most surprising thing is how good the morning movement routine feels. It’s energizing. I’m ignoring the woo talk that comes attached to all of it.
But the upshot is that my feed is now full of morning movement routines — and the number of movements keeps climbing. This one’s 16! (Ignore the weight loss messaging, please.)
On Saturday Sarah and I set out for our usual morning ride. Another beautiful June day, another beautiful ride. Once again, so many people out there.
I decided to wear my new Herd bike kit.
Who are the Herd?
“The Herd is one of the largest and most popular virtual cycling communities on Zwift, known for its welcoming, inclusive, and highly social environment. Founded as a grassroots group, it focuses on compassion, encouraging riders of all fitness levels, and its members frequently shout “MOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” in the in-game chat.”
2. Cheddar likes the after dinner digestive walls. No issues. Done all three days.
Cheddar!
3. I’m not so sure about the 30-30-30 thing. That’s 30 minutes of exercise and 30 grams of protein 30 minutes after waking.
West’s the wrinkle? I take medication that I need to take first thing in the morning and not eat for an hour. So 30 grams of protein in the first 30 minutes isn’t happening. I do have 30 grams of protein when I do eat though.
The 30 minutes of exercise is also hit or miss. It’s easy on Mondays when I ride my bike on Zwift. Tuesday is personal training very early. But I missed Wednesday because I had to travel to Toronto on a very early GO train.
Sarah and I had a super road ride on Saturday. It wasn’t much by the usual metrics. Just 35 km. We did an extended version of our usual Hume loop.
But on the pleasure metric, we had sunshine, it was warm out but not hot, and we stopped for iced coffee on the way home. Lots of cyclists out there, and there were an awful lot of smiles and waves.
You know what was really striking though? It was our first time this year we’ve had our road bikes out. I think this is the latest in the year this has happened. It’s been a tough, cold spring and work and family have both been really demanding.
Getting ready was a thing. We spent a lot of time getting ready: finding bike water bottles, charging lights, electronic gear shifting, and Garmins. Then there’s the sunscreen, gels, and chamois cream. And inflating bike tires. Don’t get me started on the heart rate monitor straps. I found mine finally, but then couldn’t get my new Garmin to recognize it. I gave up on that.
I had to keep reminding myself that next week will be easier getting out the door. And also that while I love all sorts of bike riding, riding my go-fast road bike on perfect days like this makes me smile the most.
I have a complicated relationship with viral wellness trends. And thanks to my role as the blog’s cofounder and ongoing coordinator, my social media newsfeeds are full of them.
I’m deeply suspicious of anything that promises to optimize me before 7 a.m., especially when the optimizing arrives wrapped in hustle-culture packaging. Optimize your life! Morningmaxxing, or something like that.
So here’s my plan: for the next two weeks, I’m going to stop scrolling past the daily challenge content the algorithm keeps serving me and actually try some of them.
I’ll report back at the end with a full how-it-went post. Consider this post the before picture.
Here’s what I’ve signed myself up for.
Challenge 1: The 9 enlivening movements. A short sequence of gentle movements done first thing in the morning — the idea being that you coax your body awake with a bit of mobility before the day gets its hands on you. The idea sounds easy, 9 movements in 9 minutes.
Here’s the list:
Hops/Bouncing: Light, bouncing movement to wake up the nervous system. Body Waves: Rolling the spine to improve flexibility and breathing. Arm Swings: Loosening the shoulders to restore range of motion. Trunk Twists: Rotating the core to activate the spine. Dead Arms: Relaxed torso rotation to release tension. Golf Swings: Linking hips and torso to improve rotational strength. March Slaps: Marching while tapping the body to boost rhythm and lymphatic flow. Windmill or Side Lunge: Opening the hips and upper back. Plié Squats/Ballet Squats: Strengthening the hips and ankles
Challenge 2: The 30-30-30. This one blew up on TikTok thanks to biohacker Gary Brecka, though the idea traces back to Tim Ferriss’s The 4-Hour Body. The method is simple: eat 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up, then do 30 minutes of steady low-intensity cardio with your heart rate below 135 beats per minute. It’s pitched as a fat-loss and blood-sugar strategy, and I have Thoughts about that framing — which I’ll get into. Mostly for me, it’s going to be a way to get Cheddar out for a walk before the summer days heat up too much.
Challenge 3: The after-dinner walk. A short, leisurely stroll within half an hour or so of eating, said to help digestion and blunt the post-meal blood-sugar spike. The term went viral in early 2025 when Toronto cookbook author Mairlyn Smith shared her post-dinner walking routine and coined a rather more flatulent name for it, — a name I will not be using, because I have standards. I prefer just to call it the after-dinner walk, thank you.
Check back soon to see what survived contact with real life.
