Image description: Black and white photo of Tracy, short-hair, wearing wide jeans, sneakers, a black jacket and sunglasses, with a camera and a bag slung across her body, walking along a walled pier with a cargo ship in the background. Photo credit: Roben Bellamo
Back in January I wrote a post about how approaching 60 feels different from approaching 50. I breezed into 50 feeling strong, energetic, and at peace. On my 50th birthday, I wrote about beautiful September days where everything felt perfect and effortless. I had pushed myself into my 50s, with what, in retrospect, seems like a punishing training schedule to prepare me for two Olympic distance triathlons that season. But at the time it didn’t feel punishing. It felt invigorating and exhilarating. At that time of life, training hard clearly agreed with me.
Things have changed since then. Today it’s more about sustainable routines that can take me through the next decade(s) without injuries. I’m back to yoga, resistance training, walking, and some very light (read: slow) running. These are all things I still enjoy and that make me feel energized and strong. I almost never sign up for events anymore, though I do succumb to peer pressure once in awhile, especially if I like the t-shirt. Hence an 8K trail race next weekend (The Howling Ghost Trail Run) with my running group.
I’m not really in the mood to have a big decade birthday this year. It’s not that I object to turning 60. I just don’t feel like having a great big party to mark the occasion. And it’s not that I’m doing nothing at all — I have a couple of upcoming celebratory meals at my favourite restaurant. Today it’s lunch with Samantha and our friend Rob, for our annual get-together in honour of our birthdays, all in 1964 within the same 25-day span. Then on my actual birthday early next week I’m going back there to have dinner with a few friends. That day will include cake. Sometime this fall there will probably be a spa getaway to St. Anne’s with another longtime friend whose birthday falls within two weeks of mine.
We don’t get to plan when we’ll be in a mood for a big party and when we won’t. And if I’ve landed anywhere at almost-60, it’s at a place where I do what I want, not necessarily what’s expected. I’m feeling more confident about my choices these days, and deciding not to have a party despite this being a “special” birthday reflects that confidence.
When we first started blogging back in 2012, Sam started a thing where she would post “Six things” about whatever. I revived that on her recent 60th, and I’m going to end my own “60 is coming” post with six things I feel good about as I get really close to 60:
No longer experiencing the need to explain myself or my choices to people.
Physically, I can still push myself but I don’t push terribly hard anymore. I’m happy with my chosen activities and I take lots of rest that I don’t feel guilty about taking.
Instead of acquiring more stuff, I’ve turned my attention to getting rid of stuff.
Great relationships with family, partner, and friends. I’ve got excellent, supportive, loving people in my life and I feel incredibly fortunate about that.
My cats, daily meditation, photography, and my vegan blog.
The future looks bright as I look ahead to retiring in the not-too distant future and building a life in a new city with my partner. We are poised for the next adventure!
All this to say that though I’m not in a party mood, I’m quite chill about the upcoming BIG birthday.
A very large poplar got chewed by beavers and fell across the road at my cottage property, so clearing it became this week’s main fitness activity.
The tree lying across my road, before it got cut into pieces.
Friends with a chainsaw came over to cut up the tree, and then we moved the pieces next to my wood pile.
Many pieces of wood lying beside a tarp-covered woodpile. Each piece is about 16 inches high.
Wood is heavy, and rolling these pieces into place felt a bit like doing one of those sled push exercises at the gym. Not as much weight as this woman was pushing, obviously!
Very strong woman with long blonde hair pushes a sled with heavy weights on it. BOJAN89 //Getty Images
But then we realized the woodpile will need to be moved so that it is out of the way of the construction crews I’m expecting over the next few weeks. So we moved it again; this time up a little hill and tucked in behind some trees.
All the wood stacked in a safer location.
I love camping and historical re-enactment, and often think about how much we now do as “fitness activity” for fun or to keep ourselves mobile after working at a desk job all day. Then I spend a day like this and am grateful I don’t have to rely on my strength and farming/wood clearing skills to live (but also grateful I have the strength to do the work when I need to).
This was about two hours of work, with three of us and a chainsaw. I still need to split all that wood.
It’s spring and Catherine is right, that does mean spring flowers.
However, in my fitness world it also means the seasonal changing of tires and moving of clothes.
Out of season tires live beside the house, in a semi-covered area along with canoes and the snowblower and lawn furniture.
Out of season clothes live in the basement in bins and need carrying up two flights of stairs, emptying, refilling and carrying back down.
There aren’t a lot of household chores that feel like fitness activities to me, but these do.
When I carry the tires from beside the house (carry and not roll because it’s less awkward and because I can and I feel badass doing it) to the car and drive them to the tire changing place, and then empty the car of the out of season tires and stack those, I think, “This is why I go to the gym.”
When you search for images of tires you see lots of pics of people using tires in the gym for fitness but I would feel a bit odd paying for tire-centric fitness activities in the gym and then not moving my own tires around at home.
I know lots of people who not only have someone else change their tires, they also have someone else store their tires, but I’m not there yet. Never say never. But not now.
To be clear, Sarah is the arranger of tires. She’s the Scandinavian architect of tires and their arranging. I’m the meth raccoon.
So far, we’re through the tires. Next up, spring and summer clothes.
(We’ve had this discussion a few times, the debate between those of us on the blog who swap out clothes seasonally and those who don’t. Mostly it comes down to living alone or living in a house full of people and/or storing their stuff.)
Blue and white boat on heap of tires. Photo by Aleksander Des on Scopio And yes we have dogs and boats and tires, but not that many tires, and they’re stacked neatly.
How about you? Do you have chores that feel more like fitness activities?
In today’s post we are getting back to some basics – doing ground-level self care.
As is my new tradition, the chatty part is below the videos.
I chose both of these videos because they are direct, quick, and helpful. The first one is about functional fitness – just getting your body moving in a way that both feels good and will help you loosen up your muscles a little. The second is a breathing exercise – box breathing – that can be useful in all kinds of situations – including developing mindfulness.
The goal here was to think about the low-key things we can do to make our lives a bit easier – some movement now will help us feel a little better overall, a breathing exercise will help us feel calmer as we move through the day.
These are basic and incremental things that we can sometimes overlook as we think about big things we would like to change.
However, small things like this not only help us right now – which is inherently valuable – but, as a bonus, they can help us slowly create space for bigger things we want to do later.
And, if things get overwhelming, we can always return to basics like these.
This video from the naturallybeata YouTube channel is entitled “JUST5 (Tuesday) – 5 minute @home functional fitness” and the still image shows the instructor from the neck down, wearing flowered leggings and a black tank top that says ‘Faster’ on the front. They are standing in front of a couch in a living room.
A short video from The Pocket Mentor App YouTube channel entitled ‘ Box Breathing Technique Guided Mindfulness Meditation’ the still image features a green box with an almost complete darker green outline in the center of the screen, a pink cartoon-style brain in the bottom right hand corner, and text in the center that reads ‘Box Breathing 3 Minute Mindful Meditation.
The Chatty Part
Martha’s advice for this day in 2020 was Take Your Meds , a reminder to ensure your own wellbeing throughout this busy time by taking any medication you require.
That advice is great at any time of the year but it is especially helpful during this busy time when routines are disrupted and things can get overlooked.
A reminder to take your meds is a foundational thing that can make a huge difference in your day and it is worth reminding yourself about.
In an interesting coincidence, my Facebook memories from yesterday included a related reminder. (The relationship may only exist in my mind but let’s roll with it.)
From time to time, I write ‘Go Team’ style posts on my own Facebook profile so I can provide a little support to any friends who might need it at the moment.
In 2018, I was reminding us all that it is ok to make our lives easier by using reminders and support (say, like medications, for example.)
Here’s the text from that post:
These are my favourite mitts.
Description of image below: my right hand dangling a green mitten on a string over a pile of snow on the road.
I don’t wear them every day but they are superwarm and, you will notice, they are on a string.
So, when I do wear them, that string means that I can grab my winter coat to go out and I don’t have to look for my mitts. It means I can take off my mitt to unlock my door and I don’t have to tuck it under my arm and risk losing it.
That string on these mitts was amazingly useful when my kids were small and I always had a lot of things to keep track of.
I know that mittens on a string are kind of a little kid thing and as an adult, perhaps I “shouldn’t” need them but they are useful and they serve my purposes quite well.
We often get caught up in whether we ‘should’ need certain things – reminders, schedules, delivery services, help with everyday tasks – and because we feel we ‘shouldn’t’ need to use them, we don’t. Then we get frustrated because we can’t ‘get a grip’ on the tasks in question.
Today, I’m challenging you to accept the idea of mittens on a string – or at least the equivalent.
What’s something you can do to take one small hassle out of your life?
What can you do to make one routine task a little easier?
Even if you feel that you ‘shouldn’t’ need the help or the reminder, I dare you to use it anyway.
Go ahead and set a weekly reminder to call your mother.
Go on and establish a daily reminder to take your pills or to drink water.
Put a basket by the door for your purse or your keys.
Do the thing you need to do to make your life a little easier.
I dare you!
<- for your efforts today.
There, see what I mean?
Things like taking your meds definitely fall into the sort of self-care that we might experience a little push-back (internal or external) about needing.
I’d like it if we could all find our way past that pushback and be able to: take our meds, set a reminder to take our meds, use a shoehorn, keep a set of reading glasses in multiple places, get the large print book, create a cleaning schedule, get a friend to sit with us when we work…or whatever we need in order to do the thing. I want us to be free to find/give ourselves the accommodations and support that make sense without having to second-guess ourselves.
And this seems like a great season to give ourselves that gift.
Whether you are doing foundational fitness, breathing exercises, or enlisting help to clean your house/ wrap your presents/ finish that year-end report/get to that meeting, I wish you ease.
And I wish you peace of mind around giving yourself permission to get that support.
⭐💚
About Making Space
About Making Space 2022
In December 2020, Fit is a Feminist Issue blogger Martha created a tradition – a series of reminder posts to take good care of ourselves during this last month of the year when it is far too easy to get swept up in your to do list, no matter what you are celebrating or not celebrating. Last year, it was my turn and after an introductory Go Team post called Give Yourself Some Space, I created a series of reminders called ‘Making Space‘ that offered a suggested short exercise video and a suggested meditation in case you needed an easy way to find space for yourself in your schedule.
For 2022, I’ll be doing the same thing but I’ll also be including a link to Martha’s post from the same date in 2020 and I’ll offer a few extra ideas for relaxation, creativity, and self-kindness here and there.
These posts are not about insisting that you do more, more, more during this busy season. Instead, I want to encourage you to remember that there IS a *YOU* who is doing all of the things and you are worth taking good care of.
Perhaps the things I suggest aren’t what you need in the moment. That’s totally ok. Perhaps you can use something else to create some space, something that will help you feel more relaxed or more in charge of your day.
It’s been 13 years since I have last moved. I was more than a bit nervous I’d injure myself. Am I tired? Heck yes! Sore? Most definitely! But definitely just fatigue. I’m so grateful.
What were the keys to getting through an epic move without getting hurt?
Team work
My partner, adult children, my sister and brother-in-law pitched in. Many hands meant no one person had to push themselves too hard.
Michel, my partner, is standing in a bathroom with a grey tile floor and a tub in the background. He is smiling at the camera. My whole family helped clean our new house. It was awesome!
Outsourcing
I was able to pay a painter and order take-out. Outsourcing two key tasks meant I could focus on packing and moving.
Weight Training
I’ve been back at the gym twice a week for a few weeks. Getting a full range of motion and engaging muscles helped me be aware of when I could or could not lift something.
The right equipment
My sister Anj ensured we used a dolly to good effect on the heaviest items. She knew to use grippy gloves and how to work smart. I’m so grateful for her expertise!
A multiphase, multi day approach
Our house closed on Nov 16 and our rental was paid until Nov 30. We took full advantage of the two weeks to get things done. Moving some boxes each day meant the “big move” day was focused on furniture.
All the feelings, all the time!
Despite all that there were many challenging moments on the big day. Oh. And I definitely got my period so was not feeling great. I definitely cried a few times in frustration and because of anxiety.
Post move chiropractic care
I had our regular appointments set for the Monday after our moving day. It allowed me to check in with my body and I was surprised I didn’t have any injuries. Not bad for functional fitness at 48!
I’m making a silly, smiling face next to Michel. We are in our car that is full of boxes and loose items. We did it!
<- for your efforts today.
