Category: Happy New Year!

Nat’s fitness secrets to success in 2026
advice · Happy New Year! · new year's resolutions · Sat with Nat

Nat’s fitness secrets to success in 2026

natalieh (she/her)1 Comment

A new year often brings a sense of renewal. I’m not one to make resolutions in January. It is a good time to check in on goals and make adjustments. Steady as she goes!

I’m stacking the deck in my favour for a good 2026 by ensuring each day has movement in it. Daily dog walks, cycling commutes, strength and flexibility. I’m set up for success and have fully ditched “all or nothing” thinking.

Resilience

I’m bracing for bad stuff too. Experience has taught me along with all the great things comes a healthy dose of hard stuff, horrors even.

It’s the complicated gift of middle age, being pulled in many directions without falling apart.

Going through tough stuff has taught me I’m a good hugger. Olympic level hug giver right here. Happy to demonstrate at any moment.

I hold hands at hospital bedsides very well. I stay careful and kind now, even when I’m really upset.

I’m more resilient thanks to my fitness adventures.

So my wisdom to share on this year’s fitness goals is here for you if you need it.

It all counts

Watch didn’t record? Garmin dump your ride? It’s ok if it didn’t end up on Strava. Your body knows you did it. Data is only one measure. You were there. You did it. Go you!

Say it again, it all counts

Barely got to the workout? Had to wrap up early? Needed to lighten the resistance? Take a lighter weight?

AMAZING! You showed up for yourself and invested in your wellbeing. Well done!

You don’t have to like it

There will be days it sucks and you don’t enjoy the workout. You will always feel a sense of accomplishment regardless of how it went.

If a given activity is really chapping your ass switch it up. Ditch the weights and do a cardio dance class. Yoga pissing you off? Take up a martial art. You don’t always have to like it. Way to go!

Confidence comes from trusting yourself

You know when you are sick and need to rest.

You know when you need down time.

You know when you need help staying motivated.

You know who to go to for help.

You know a lot!

Trust yourself!

Plans rarely survive encounters with reality

The beautiful plan will fall apart. That’s ok because you knew it would happen and made flexibility part of the plan. Please, please, please break up with perfection.

My MVP (minimum viable plan) is 60 minutes of movement. Walking, cycling, stretching, dancing in my underwear. It’s adaptable.

Weather is sweet? I’m on my bike.

Back getting tight? Add another walk and do some yoga.

Bike out of commission? Grab some dumbbells.

You get the idea.

Messy is good

Challenge yourself to be a bit of a wreck. Not all moments are instagram moments.

Exploring the edges of your capacity is exciting and helps you grow. It’s not necessary every day but totally required to keep monotony at bay.

Team up to survive

It’s a fitness wasteland out here. Team up in person or virtually with workout partners. You will get more workouts in more often. Harness the power of positive peer pressure.

HAVE FUN

I’m serious. Play disc golf, beach volleyball, snorkel with manatees, whatever makes this year different than last year. Be silly and do stuff. That’s part of fitness too.

That’s it

Thank you for reading this far. I hope you gleaned some gems that you can keep for 2026.

Spoiler, this is the advice I need so I wrote it down. Hopefully I don’t forget!

LETS GO 2026!

Nat is cozy in winter clothes. Michel, forever photographed just behind her and off to the side is looking lovely. They are in front of a brick house with lots of snow on the ground.
Two glasses of herbal tea, sitting on wood blocks. By Askilesh Sharma for Unsplash. New year, time to detox? Read what the professionals say
challenge · fitness · Happy New Year! · research

New year, time to detox? Read what the professionals say

catherine w

It seems to me that January is turning into a varied and tricky obstacle course, with new twists and turns each year. What kinds of new challenges lie in waiting for us? My favorite new silly challenge that I’m NOT doing is alphabet eating: starting with the letter A, eat only foods that day that begin with A. And so on.

Filling up on apples and asparagus one day, followed by bananas and broccoli the next seems harmless enough. But some other popular challenges not only fail to offer health benefits, they may be actually harmful to us.

Yes, I’m talking about the annual January Detox talk.

As you all know, I’m not an expert in medicine, nutrition or diet (which nonetheless fails to deter me from writing about them). So today I offer you advice from an expert– Megan Maisano, a Registered Dietician Nutritionist who (among other things) has her own Substack and also contributes to a Substack I read a lot– Your Local Epidemiologist.

Megan takes on myths about detoxing in this post, “How to (and not to) detox in the New Year”.

So, without further ado, I turn it over to Megan. By the way, she was sooo nice to 1) respond so quickly to my request to reblog her post; and 2) praise FIFI for the good work it does. Definitely go and check out her Substack here, subscribing if you’re so inclined.

Here is the link to the substack post:

https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/how-to-and-not-to-detox-in-the-new

Sam declares that January 6th is the real new year’s day
goals · habits · Happy New Year! · holidays · new year's resolutions

Sam declares that January 6th is the real new year’s day

Sam B1 Comment

I know some people start them earlier,  like December, or even October. I don’t think we’ve ever suggested November.  November is the worst month of the year,  in my books.  It doesn’t need any additional pressure.

And then there’s the very late start crowd who declare January to be a free trial month and skip straight to February 1.

I’ve also been enjoying and admiring Christine’s rebranding of January as Planuary, the month where you do all the work to set yourself up for success in the year ahead.

Of course any day of the year can work.  Just ask Catherine!

But still,  it’s true for most of us that the start of the new year looms large as the fresh page and a new beginning.  Yet there are also parties on January 1 and some of us haven’t returned to work yet. Betwixtmas lingers.

I think,  for me and let me recommend to you,  the new year actually begins the first Monday in January.

Why?

Monday is, in my books,  the best day of the week,  full of energy and possibility. The first Monday in January has all sorts of extra Monday energy.

Compare that to starting anew on Wednesday, when January 1 actually fell this year.  Wednesday? That blurry middle of the week humpday isn’t meant for fresh starts.

Also,  there are lots of parties on new year’s day.  The gym is open only for restricted hours and my gym had limited group fitness classes,  which were all full.

So for me and my resolutions which are really just a re-upping of my commitment to mostly ongoing goals and habits,  it’s January 6th when stuff gets real. Join me!

Or not.  You do you.  Whatever works. Use a tool if it’s handy.  If not put it back in the box.  That’s the spirit around here.

But for me, for a few years now it seems,  the first Monday after January 1, is the start of the new year.

The new year starts Monday. Resolution makers, you’ve got until tomorrow, Sam declares

January in Scrabble tiles
advice · goals · habits · Happy New Year! · motivation · self care

Go Team 2025: On Your Own Terms

Christine Hennebury

Hey Team,

I want to start today’s post by reminding you, as I often do, that when it comes to your plans/goals/ideas for the year ahead: you are the boss of you.

Yes, yes, there are extenuating circumstances and different pressures and various complications BUT when it comes down to deciding what you are going to take on, what you are going to release, and/or how you will expand/enhance your life, you get to decide the terms.

You can decide what feeling you are going for and what actions you are going to take to get there.

You can take on an audaciously big challenge or take one teensy step at a time.*

You can do detailed tracking or you can put an X on the calendar or you can just keep track in your head.

You can decide what ‘counts’ as done.

You can decide for yourself how and when to fit your plans and ideas into your life.

You can ignore those people who insist that there is only one time/place/approach/technique that works and, instead, you can find your own way towards your goal.

You can forge ahead on your plan for a little while, get sidetracked or take a break, and then come back to it.

You can start with one plan and adjust on the fly and/or you can start with a plan, take a few loopy turns and then adjust things to meet your current needs.

I could go on like this forever (just ask my friends!) but the long and the short of it is that you know yourself best and you are the only one living your life so you get to decide the terms by which you will work toward your goals.

You can start with a big plan or you can start by ambling in the general direction of your goal.

You can start whenever and however you want.

You get as many do-overs as you need and you can change your plans as often as you want.

The only thing that you MUST do is to be kind to yourself in the process.

And, to be fair, since being kind to ourselves is really hard and involves a lot of unlearning, you get lots of do-overs for that, too.

If you realize you are being hard on yourself, please don’t be hard on yourself about that too. Instead, just notice that it happened and try being just a smidge kinder to yourself in the moment. (Self-kindness is a practice, just like everything else.)

So, Team, for your efforts to set your own terms, to be kind to yourselves about them, and for your efforts towards your goals (yes, even if you are in the planning stages like me), here’s today’s gold star.

Go Team Us!

A photo of a small drawing of a gold star
Image description: a photo of small drawing of a gold star with black pinstripes in the background and black rounded trim on the edges. The drawing is propped on my computer mouse on my white desktop.

* Different approaches work for different plans, you can figure out which one you need for the situation at hand.

What the bloggers are keeping, jettisoning, and adding for 2025
challenge · fitness · habits · Happy New Year!

What the bloggers are keeping, jettisoning, and adding for 2025

catherine w

This year, I asked my fellow FIFI bloggers what habits they are keeping, jettisoning and adding for 2025. Here’s what they had to say.

Elan:

Keep: Cycling. Friend gifted me an indoor trainer for my hybrid bike. Need to try it before committing to something that costs like Zwift. Unless it is precisely the investment that is motivating?

Jettison: Women’s rec soccer has given me so much since I started playing 10 years ago. However, other factors have prevented me from enjoying it for some time now. How have others managed their FOMO leaving a team sport?

Add: I’ve never gone in for any real fitness challenges. Maybe someone could recommend one they’ve enjoyed?

Savita:

Keep: swimming! Without injury, and keep it feeling good. Maybe even keep the once per month lake swims.

Jetttison: the 25 in 2025 list. Also perhaps the monthly contribution to the blog. Sorry.

Add: nothing. More subtracting and focusing on things that are doable and enjoyable.

Diane:

Keep: my cooking, reading and most of my camping/cottage related activities.

Jettison: my unrealistic cycling goal from last year, in favour of something more manageable.

Add: a specific swimming goal (200 km).

Tracy:

Keep: resistance training and yoga for strength.

Jettison: (1) stuff so I can make an easy transition to moving and combining two households and (2) negative self-talk.

Add: regular speed work to my running (even if it means the treadmill) and add a more consistent bed time routine.

Natalie:

Keep: biking to work and walking 10k steps.

Jettison: my fixed mindset

Add: daily yoga and writing.

Amanda:

Keep: working on balancing career and professional opportunity vs personal time

Jettison: monthly commitments and eventually part time teaching. And worrying about disappointing people.

Add: yoga (and return to aquafit), performing music

Samantha:

Keep: my habits that I blogged about here, and also that you can see in this handy-dandy tracker:

Jettison: for the first four months of 2025, my dean job– I’m on research leave!

Add: a daily mobility routine that incorporates some of the knee physio moves.

Catherine:

Keep: daily meditation, fun physical activities with friends, family, and their dogs, yoga.

Jettison: complicated (to me) expectations for a wide variety of weekly activities rather than focusing on basics (walk, yoga, gym, cycle). Even though I love novelty, staying simpler is better for now.

Add: going to the gym 1–2 times a week. I got started over the holidays and am excited about doing more strength training!

A big pile of bikes and bike parts. By Eric Prouzet for Unsplash. Catherine’s decluttering plans for 2025
challenge · fitness · Happy New Year! · new year's resolutions

Catherine’s decluttering plans for 2025

catherine w1 Comment

My dear readers,

Remember when Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, came out?

Studious alligator doesn’t know.

Neither did I. Google does– it was 2011, and was released in the US in 2014. But it wasn’t until the January 2019 Netflix series that full-on Kondo-ing fever hit. All of a sudden, thrift shops and donation bins everywhere were overflowing with good stuff. We all wanted to get rid of whatever no longer brought us joy. And yes, I joined the throw-out brigade.

But that was six years ago. In the meantime, stuff has built back up. And not just stuff: the grime and residue and smudginess of habits and ruts and plans (even new pandemic-provoked ones) created too much complexity, too much mess. Some of us (by us I mean me) thought that by tweaking or shifting around or reconfiguring, we (I) could juggle all the things (physical and mental) to function efficiently and happily.

Yeah, no.

It’s now five years later, and I’m in need of a full Marie Kondo treatment– not just of my stuff, but of my life habits. Back in 2016, I wrote about Marie Kondo here, concluding that, for my workouts, more was still more. And during the pandemic, Sam was on Team More, doing more and more varied workouts. I was on Team Less can be More. Fast forward to now, I’m joining Team Less Life Clutter. How to do that? Here are some ideas I came up with:

 Fewer streaming services– I mean, how many spy suspense series and cooking shows can I actually watch while I have a job? I’m dropping Apple+ and Hulu. Keeping Netflix, Amazon Prime, and PBS (public tv app, which is awesome). We’ll see how long Amazon Prime stays around…

Fewer clothes– I’m going on a serious buy nothing* plan starting this January (*except basics that urgently need replacing and stuff from my favorite consignment shop, provided I bring things to consign, too).

Fewer books—ACK! *breathing* I have way too much books that I’ve already read or won’t read or don’t need. Plus, I have many books that I WANT to read, but they’re not organized or easily accessible. Imma organize them so I can see the vast selection I own, and put the brakes on buying for a while* (*except for book club books I can’t get from the library or something urgently needed for research).

Fewer and simpler physical activity plans—for the next two months, I’m cutting back my list of exercise activities to three: 1) one yoga class per week; 2) one trip to the gym per week; 3) ride my bike trainer once per week. Let’s see how that goes. If two weeks goes by and I don’t do all three, I’ll cut back to two, and so on until I do at least one of these every week for 4 weeks. Then I can build back up. I got so caught up in work and family stuff and social stuff that I lost consistent regular workouts. I want them back.

Less variety in my meditation– I’ve used the Happiness app (formerly Ten Percent Happiness) since 2020, and I’ve noticed that I gravitate towards the same 15–20 guided meditations and 5–6 teachers. I’m also doing more unguided meditation.

I used to think I should switch it up more and get exposed to more meditation teachers, more approaches, more variations on practice. But I’m really happy with the meditation practice I’ve embedded in my life. I do 10–20 minutes first thing in the morning, every morning. I *might* do another session in the afternoon if I’m feeling extra leisurely and contemplative. But honestly, the morning sesh fixes me up for the day.

Fewer classes to teach—I teach a four-course/semester load at my university (which is a LOT), and in addition, have been teaching at least one overload course per semester for extra money. This year, I’m getting rid of the extra course as soon as possible (maybe this spring, but definitely in the fall, and no summer school teaching!) I really enjoy teaching, but have noticed that I can’t really maintain the quality of focus I want and need when I teach so many courses. Luckily I have a little wiggle room to cut back.

Less gear: I’m selling my ultra-light speedy kayak that I bought myself as a 60th birthday gift. Here we are back in 2022.

Don’t we look happy together? Nothing bad happened, but the thrill is gone…

I was very excited to get my own boat, and loved how light it was (27 lbs/13kg). However, it just didn’t suit me in the end. So I’m letting it go. I may buy a used tandem recreational kayak if I can find a good deal. We shall see. I already have all the gear I need for it (except for one more paddle and PFD/life jacket). I’m also letting go of my old squash racket and tennis racket. I haven’t used them in a while, and they deserve good homes.

Looking at my decluttering list, I didn’t mention lots of things I really love– swimming, kayaking (in other boats), walking in nature, travel to nature places, fun outdoorsy adventures, possible new activities (full disclosure: I’m planning a bungie fitness class with my friend Martin sometime this winter, and want to take some parkour fitness again, too). BUT: I really need some decluttering before take on anything new. So, it’s time to let go. Less is less, but it’s not nothing!

Dear readers, do you have plans for decluttering any parts of your activity life this coming year? Are you adding to your schedule? Happy as you are? I’d love to hear from you.

A dark-skinned woman holding a chocolate sheet cake the the candles of 2 and 4, and about to eat a corner of it. It's funny! 24 things Catherine wants to do in 2024
challenge · fitness · habits · Happy New Year!

24 things Catherine wants to do in 2024

catherine w1 Comment

Recently Sam posted her list of 24 things she wants to do in 2024, inspired by Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project and asked what others planned to do. Diane posted Diane’s 24 things for 2024. So, here’s mine.

Pick a word of the year: Mine is COLLECTIVE.

Commit to writing for 2, 4, or 24 minutes a day: yes, I’m doing that. I took on a couple of writing challenges that are going pretty well (so far). I’m enjoying the prompts and into it.

Now comes the hard part: choose 24 things I want to do in 2024. Okay, here goes:

1. Learn how to and then use my insta-pot (Instant-Pot? Instant Pot?) for cooking in a way that makes my cooking life easier

2. Ditto for my Kitchen Aid stand mixer (both of these appliances were gifts, but so far have been unused, so they sit there, waiting on me)

3. And also my bread machine (remember those? I got it free from a buy-nothing group); I like fresh bread, and the directions look non-complicated

4. Learn to make more plant-based meals and make them for myself and friends

5. Make more progress on reducing my consumption of animals; I stopped eating pork last October, and am working this year on eliminating beef from my diet

6. go to the Chatauqua conference in upstate NY with my beloved aunt Cathy this July

7. go to western Massachusetts for biking, swimming, and museums with friends

8. go to Canada in August with my friend Norah and visit with Canadian friends, including as many of the bloggers as possible

9. celebrate my sister’s 60th birthday at a location of her choosing

10. go to the beach, preferably in South Carolina, for up to a week for swimming, beach meandering, kayaking, reading, napping

11. go to a meditation retreat at Kripalu, either for a weekend or a week

12. go to a couple of academic conferences this year (post-pandemic, I’m still easing back into this habit)

13. Continue my daily meditation practice, knowing that there will come a day where I get too busy or forget or something else gets in the way. That’s okay. I’ll just return to practice the next day. It’s how it works.

14. Ride a bike inside or outside once a week; I just set up my trainer in my now-sort-of-cleaned-out study, so that part is set

15. Set up a regular swimming routine, either at my gym (where it’s very hard to get reservations for lanes!) or at a local pond while it’s warm enough

16. Extend my regular swimming routine outside into the fall. Those cold-water swimming photos look invigorating, but I know they are other things, too (like really cold!) I know some folks who do this on the regular. Maybe I could consider joining some of them sometime

17. Attend an in-person yoga class once a week at my favorite studio Artemis, which is also nearby my house. I’m doing online yoga classes about once a week, but in-person feels nicer. I miss it

18. Do more book reading and less phone scrolling in bed before going to sleep

19. Read all the books for the rest of my book club meetings this year

20. Read books that are in my house; I have a lot of them that are as-yet unread!

21. Set aside dedicated time for drawing and for crafting; they are both extremely pleasurable and relaxing

22. Remember that stopping and focusing on gratitude is always good for what ails me

23. Prioritize writing more– set aside dedicated and non-rushed time for creative non-fiction writing, just for me

24. Say yes to more outings and adventures and then actually go on them with friends and family!

So, readers, do you have a list for 2024? Care to share any items with us? We’d love to hear from you.

You never know what adventures the open road holds. Thanks, Unsplash, for the photo. A view of the road from the
You never know what adventures the open road holds. Thanks, Unsplash, for the photo.
A mountain bike atop a steep butte with sheer dropoff. How to make 2024 less scary, or how to move forward anyway
challenge · fitness · Happy New Year!

How to make 2024 less scary, or how to move forward anyway

catherine w4 Comments

Why is it that 2024 seems so daunting already? Maybe it’s just me (actually I’m sure it’s not just me), but the combo of global awfulness blobbing over into this year, with more horrendousness headed our way is making me want to move somewhere quiet and get a job driving a bookmobile. Honestly, doesn’t that sound lovely?

Unsurprisingly, bookmobiles come in many different sizes and models. How nice.
Bookmobiles come in many different sizes and colors. How nice.

Big picture woes aside, I’m finding it hard to figure out my direction and goals for 2024. I got my word– COLLECTIVE– and am clear about committing to friends and family, prioritizing relationships and activities with the groups that sustain and constitute a big part of who I am. But, I feel both 1) the need to change what I’ve been doing (in particular, spend more time on physical activities and plain old exercise); and 2) that I’m finding it really hard to implement the changes that I think I want.

I’m not looking for solutions to this problem or advice here. We all know all the tricks:

  • find an exercise buddy!
  • find an exercise accountability buddy!
  • lay out exercise clothes the night before!
  • go for a ride/run/walk/swim first thing in the morning so it’ll be done and you can relax!
  • etc. etc. and so forth and so on.

Thinking about tricks, though, reminded me of Danny MacAskill, the legendary trials and downhill cyclist. You name a solid surface on the planet, he’s ridden it (and likely fallen off it; there’s no free lunch in this sport).

A few years ago, MacAskill rode a rocky downhill route on The Slabs on the Scottish Isle of Skye. Just watching the video immersed me in a range of emotions: fear, uncertainty, surprise, and also joy. I felt them in part because MacAskill conveyed that he was feeling them too, as he rode down that precarious, scary, thrilling, glorious mountain. You can read my original post from January 2021 here, but here’s my TL;DR list of how to navigate life when it gets gnarly, inspired by his ride:

  • Some experiences we embark on, or confront on our way, are going to be scary. Period.
  • Be ready to go slow. Plan the slow-downs, even.
  • Have really good brakes (e.g. listen to that inner voice or friend who says, “nah, give this one a miss”).
  • Draw on skills from different experiences and areas of training to get through. 
  • In that rare moment of beauty and grace, let yourself be with it.
  • But, what looks beautiful and effortless from the outside will often be staccato and exhausting from the inside. Notice this, too.
  • Sometimes, there’s no place to hide. Once you’ve committed, use your skills and experience to get you down the hill.
  • Life occasionally demands some serious body english from us, so be ready for some twists and turns.
  • Don’t forget to celebrate when you finish something.

Just rewatching the video made me realize that progress is possible and that progress is possible only with a lot of work. But progress IS possible. Let’s see if I can bump and screech and occasionally glide my way into a new activity routine in 2024. Leaving the trick and downhill riding to others, perhaps…

Here’s MacAskill’s Slabs ride. Enjoy.

a kid's hand moving near a jenga wood tower, by Sven Brandsma, for Unsplash. After six days of New Year’s challenges, Catherine reports in
challenge · fitness · Happy New Year! · new year's resolutions · winter

After six days of New Year’s challenges, Catherine reports in

catherine w1 Comment

I’ve been doing (or at least reading about) several New Year’s challenges this week:

As expected, I haven’t adhered strictly to all of the challenges. Here are some things that are definitely didn’t happen:

Vision board (Apartment Therapy): I am so not making a vision board (no offense to anyone here who is a fan). Maybe this is because a) sorting through hundreds of choices would get me bogged down, never to emerge from the vision-bog again; and b) I sort of have a vision already, which is my place– only rearranged, edited, repaired, and repainted (a set of tasks for spring/summer/uh, whenever). The hard part is the implementation of said vision. I am continuing forward, though: I emptied out a drawer, thew out (or rather put in a box to recycle, donate or throw out, as told by Apartment Therapy) and rearranged the remaining contents. Here’s my before and after:

bathroom vanity drawer before... filled with loads of tiny toiletries and glasses and other things.
bathroom vanity drawer before…
and after. Donating hotel-acquired tiny toiletries to local shelter.
and after. Donating hotel-acquired tiny toiletries to local shelter.

Exhaustive/exhausting fitness testing (Washingon Post Tuneup): Yes, I agree that knowledge (even about my own level of fitness, etc.) is power. But, I was totally not up for working to fatigue/exhaustion/despair just because the Washington Post said so. Also, I’m extremely unhappy with their category setup for the test.

Do not EVER describe my age group as Golden. My category--
Do not EVER describe my age group as Golden.

Then, after I pushed the cheery and demeaning “Golden” button, I was told to do the following with measurements of reps and time:

  • stand on one foot
  • sit and stand from a chair
  • run or walk a mile
  • hang from a pull-up bar
  • BURPEES!

Okay, these aren’t actually bad. I might try some of them. But starting off a 5-day challenge in this way is daunting. Not so the NY Times’ Day 3 (of their 6-day energy challenge). Their assignment was this:

Over the course of three minutes, you’ll imitate a boxer, a ballerina, a tennis player, a basketball player, a runner, and, to cool down, a yoga practitioner.

This was fun. I pretended to hit a home run from my living room to across the street, imaginarily breaking windows even. The article suggested ballet moves, boxing jabs and footwork, tennis serves and returns, and basketball dribbling and layups (which I never quite got in gym class, but it matters not). I enjoyed myself, and it was a satisfying little exercise amuse-bouche. Yes, exercise snacking is approved by all sorts of health writers on the internet, and there’s some scientific evidence in its favor. I’ll write more about exercise snacking in a future post, but if you need some info now, here’s a graphic explanation from this paper:

Graphic showing sedentary behavior, then cycling, running, etc. then cardiovascular fitness, blood glucose level drop and increased vascular fitness
I mean, who needs to read a journal article when you have this? Well, there are a few details undepicted…

And then there’s Flow: 30 Days of Yoga with Adriene. I did day 0, which involved listening. But I haven’t done any of days 1–5 yet.

I'm embarrassed. This isn't me, but some lovely photo by Dmitri Ratushny, whose picture is a perfect representation of my feelings about this. It shows a woman outside, with her mittin-covered hands
I’m embarrassed. Thanks Dmitri Ratushny, who perfectly illustrated my feelings here (Unsplash).

I don’t know why I never seem to get around to doing Yoga with Adriene. I like Adriene, I like yoga, and I like her dog Benji. But instead of making a commitment to it and setting aside time each day, I just sort of hoped I would spontaneously start doing yoga with Adriene. It doesn’t seem to work that way, though.

On the other hand, I didn’t have to think at all about making a commitment to the writing/art prompts for Suleika Jaouad’s Rumi New Year’s challenge. I’m one day behind, but am steadily plowing through them all. They are behind a series of paywalls, but here is a screen shot of them:

All of these prompts are the first lines from Rumi poetry, and we use them to write or draw something. I'm up to Jan 5 today (Sunday).
All of these prompts are the first lines from Rumi poetry, and we use them to write or draw something inspired by them.

My lack of art training doesn’t keep me from using my set of multicolored felt tip pens to doodle and noodle and swirl and dot and connect the dots and fill in to my heart’s content. It is so. much. fun. There’s no pressure to perform or attain any level of achievement. All I do is play and enjoy playing. Which, come to think of it, is what I enjoyed about pretending to be a baseball player or ballerina for 3 minutes. There are no expectations, no criteria, and no judging.

So, here’s my January challenge for you, dear readers: schedule in some pretend-activities, which are in fact activities in themselves. You can pretend to be a dancer, a dog, a great artist, an interior designer, a chef, a novelist, a musician, singer, neighborhood explorer, hot-tub swimmer, flower/house-plant arranger. No pressure. No before/after photos. No personal bests. Just fun.

You might take inspiration from this jaunty little yellow frog, who showed up in my search for “challenging”. Maybe it’s not easy being yellow, but it looks great on this little cutie. And January can look great on you, too.

Hey there, cutie-pie! And thanks, Jeffrey Hamilton for taking this pic (Unsplash). A lovely yellow frog on a dark green leaf.
Hey there, cutie-pie! And thanks, Jeffrey Hamilton, for taking this pic. (Unsplash)
challenge · eating · fitness · habits · Happy New Year! · motivation

Resolution, challenge, or adventure?

Sam B3 Comments

Happy New Year!

Did you make any resolutions, set yourself some new challenges, or plan some adventures?

What’s in a word? I’ve been thinking lots about adventures lately and how much the word, adventure, resonates with me. It’s my Word of the Year even.

But there’s also the contrast between the language of resolution, challenge, and adventure.

The pasta quest post above certainly hit a nerve with our fit feminist community on Facebook. I shared it there, and nearly 500 people liked it. Many reshared it. One of those people was my friend Todd Tyrtle.

On his own Facebook page Todd wrote, “Last week I listened to Lee Craigie and Jenny Graham talking on a podcast and they said something I really liked. They talked about the how calling something an “adventure” can have a totally different feel to calling it a “challenge”. A challenge implies investment in an outcome. A pushup challenge likely means a total number, or the ability to do so many at a time. People do weightloss challenges, writing challenges. And the thing about doing a challenge means there’s a chance of failure. You don’t do enough pushups, ride far enough, or finish a novel in November. An adventure is something different entirely. An adventure can be a long walk, a new recipe, a bicycle tour or learning a new language. You may or may not have the outcome you expect. Instead you’re expecting interesting things to happen.

My challenge to you in 2024…

Wait…

The *adventure* I suggest for you as we approach the new year is to consider taking on more adventures and fewer challenges and resolution. Like Pasta Quest!”

Here is the link to the podcast: https://www.spindrift-podcast.co.uk/episodes/adventure-syndicate-sourcetosea

At about 15:55 is where they start talking about adventures, and about 17:15 in is where they talk about the difference between an adventure and a challenge.

I find I’m often thinking in more adventure terms these days.

I like the idea of trying one new fitness thing a month for 2024. That resonates because during my knee surgery recovery I was so focused on physiotherapy and personal training, everything else dropped away. I feel ready to broaden my fitness horizons again.

Or taking Cheddar to a new park every week for a dog hike. The larger goal there is getting to know the surrounding area better.

A friend, maybe it was the blog’s Diane?, mentioned reading a book each month from a different country.

I also like food adventures. Maybe not pasta quest but something that would get me trying new fruits and vegetables. Perhaps trying a new fruit or veggie every time I get groceries. Or trying a recipe from a different country every week.

I’ve got a friend who has the goal of camping in all of Ontario’s provincial parks. That might be fun, too.

And then there are the people making art with Strava maps of their bike rides. I like this one.

Strava map of Santa

How about you? I’m curious to know if thinking in terms of challenges, resolutions, or adventures makes a difference in your mindset. I’m also curious if there are any adventures in your future. Let us know in the comments below.

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