FIFI readers may recall I’ve written before about ebike tourism – in PEI, Canada and in New Zealand. This time, I had a new ebike experience: my first ever ebike food tour.
My partner and I went during our recent holiday at my sister’s condo in Bucerias, where we also visited family who winter in nearby Puerto Vallarta. Our morning tour group of eleven buzzed slowly through town on pedal-assist bikes, stopping at locally owned spots for cafe de olla, birria, carnitas tacos, and crema dessert. Vegetarian accommodations were made for me without fuss. Our bilingual guide, Pepe, kept stories flowing, including tales of his own cycling tours throughout Mexico. When the annual chalk drawing festival took over the main strip, he adjusted our route without missing a beat.
We wait patiently behind our 11 bikes for enough seats to open up at this local taco cafe.
Bici Bucerias is owned by Canadian expats rather than Mexican nationals. At the same time, tours like the one we took still funnel money and visibility toward the Mexican‑owned cafés, taco stands, and dessert places that make the experience worthwhile. Some of the places we visited were quite small, or out of walking distance from where tourists stay, which meant we likely would never have chosen them otherwise.
One of my delicious meals: soup, tortilla, cheese, beans, and bread.
It was also my first time on a bike on cobblestone, and slow-rolling over the uneven ground with pedal assist felt surprisingly unsettling. I ended up turning off the assist on those stretches, feeling I had more control that way. I also spotted a few road cyclists out along the busy highway and marvelled at their nerve. It’s a good reminder of how much I take for granted the space and infrastructure that cyclists get in many parts of Canada.
Pepe reviews ebike technology and safety before the ride.
This week, I’m thinking about those who ride and own businesses that are shut down due to shelter-in-place ordinances following cartel-related property damage throughout Jalisco, Mexico. I hope Bici Bucieras can resume their tours soon to continue supporting authentic food culture and locally owned businesses in the area. As my sister who lived full time in Puerto Vallarta for 10 years says, Mexicans are resilient and good at recovering from challenges.
Thanks for hanging out with me for the Making Space 2025 posts.
Over the last few years, writing these posts has helped my December days to feel more spacious. The process of planning and writing not only gives me a fixed point to work around but it also gives me a feeling of having gotten something tangible done day after day, no matter how hectic the rest of the day might feel.
And, of course, I love the idea that my posts might be helping someone else – even if it is just that seeing the title serves as a reminder to give yourself a little kindness and grace on a given day.
I chose December for these daily posts because the ambient stress of holidays and the end of the year tends to make our time feel tight and crowded but those feelings can show up at any time of year.
On this last day of Making Space 2025, I’m inviting you to make a short list of things that have helped (or could help!) you to create some space so you can refer to it when you are feeling jammed into the corners of your own life.
You could keep the list on your phone, in a notebook, on your computer, or stuck to the fridge – the key is to keep it handy when you need it.
You might even make a recurring event on your calendar each month so you can check in with yourself from time to time to make sure you are making space for yourself on the regular.
But whether you make that list, whether you try my suggested activities for today, or whether you do something else entirely, I wish you ease, fun, rest, and joy as we move into 2026.
See you tomorrow for the first Go Team post for 2026.
Here’s our final movement practice suggestion for 2025. I decided to go with a video that mixed a lot of things together – you can do as little or as much of it as you wish.
In the still image for this Get Moving! All-In-One Workout from Yes2Next, the left side of the image is purple with white text overlaid. The text reads “20 Minutes Balance, Cardio, Strength” with the last three words in bullet points and then says “All-In-One Workout.” On the right side of the image we see two women, one middle aged and one senior, in exercise clothes. They are both lifting their right arm in the air and balancing on their right leg while lifting their left foot off of the floor.
In the still image for this video, the instructor, a light-skinned woman with shoulder length wavy blonde hair, who is wearing leggings and a sweatshirt, is standing on a blue yoga mat on a wooden floor. She has one hand on her belly and the the other on her upper chest, and she looks like she is breathing in, calmly. There is a purple stripe across the screen that has white text overlaid on it and the text reads “Your nervous system likes this.” On either side of the mat are various plants in pots and in wicker baskets and there is a multi-coloured bolster cushion propped up against the wall behind her on her left.
And here is our final mindfulness practice suggestion for 2025:
The still image for this ‘A Sense of Spaciousness Guided Contemplation/Meditation’ video from Stream Yoga Meditation shows us a view of the sky from the perspective of someone looking up from below, perhaps through sunglasses. The sky is a deep blue, there are ragged clouds on the bottom left, and a bright splash of sun with long rays extending in each direction is near the middle of the image.
Today, I met one friend for tea in the morning and as this post goes live, I’ll be meeting another friend for a writing hangout in the afternoon and somehow my day feels marvelously spacious.
That doesn’t quite add up, does it?
On paper, adding two separate events to my schedule at two different locations, with enough time between them that I’ll be going home and heading out again, seems like it should make time feel tight, it should make me feel busier.
But, of course, because both of those events are FUN and because time spent with each of those friends is relaxing and restorative.
So even though I am adding things to my day, it doesn’t feel like more to do.
Instead, it feels like I am creating two pockets of time where I can step out of my schedule and my to-do list and spend time doing something easy and fun.
And I’m wondering if you can choose to do something similar today or tomorrow (or sometime soon.)
It doesn’t have to involve meeting friends (although I highly recommend that if your schedule and commitments will allow), it could be drawing or dancing or reading or taking a walk or cooking something new, or literally anything that lets you choose yourself and your own interests instead of just staying focused on checking off more tasks.*
Taking that time for yourself and your own interests may mean that that you will have to choose not to do some of the tasks on your big list but that could be for the best, really.
You deserve to take up space in your own life and it is unlikely that someone is going to come along and point out the best time for you to take that space – I think you are going to have to decide to just take it.
Choosing to spend time doing something you enjoy – even if it takes a bit of energy to orchestrate – will be totally worth it.
Whether you find a way to step out of your schedule, you try one of the practices below, or you find some other shenanigans to get up to, I wish you ease and I wish you space.
Be kind to yourself, pretty please!
Here’s our movement practice for today:
In the still image for this ‘5 Minute Morning Stretch: Wake Up Your Body’ video fromYoga with Joelle, the instructor, a woman with light skin and long dark hair in leggings and a tank top, is standing in the center of the image facing to the left so we can only see her right side. She has her upper arms raised to shoulder height and her forearms at a 90 degree angle so her hands are towards to the ceiling. She is leaning back a little and her arms are slightly behind her. The floors are wooden and the wall at the back is aqua. Text on the left reads ‘Wake Up Your Body’ and text on the bottom right reads ‘5 Minute Stretch.’
And here’s our mindfulness practice for the day:
In the left side of the still image for Guided Meditation: 7 Minutes of Stillness in Yellowstone, with Dora from Headspace, the instructor, a person with long dark hair and brown skin wearing a winter hat, jacket, and scarf, is leaning against a tree. On the right side is white text that reads “Riverside Meditation at Yellowstone” with a background of trees that have been slightly blurred.
*There’s a time and a place for checking off tasks, of course, but if that’s your whole approach to life it is gonna get old real fast.
One of my favourite fit feminist humans recently suggested I try the two-week trial membership for Lost Cycle, a Toronto-based woman-owned fitness company that expanded to my city in 2019. She thought I would like it because, as she said, it was “cycling in the dark to really loud rap music.”
I am already a fan of doing stuff to music in the dark, as I did with (Remote) Dark Dancing during the COVID pandemic. Also, the timing seemed good to counter any winter break inactivity. So, in spite of reduced holiday hours and some poor weather outside, I made it to four classes, two at each location.
My black car parked in the empty Lost Cycle lot on a cold, wet, sleet-filled winter break morning.
The Lost Cycle studio ambiance is what might be described as “boutique warehouse,” with minimal windows and the company logo spraypainted on walls but also gratis cold towels and individual shower rooms with complimentary products. The fitness areas have quality equipment: ON the bike classes include clip-in shoes and earplugs, while OFF the bike rooms have infrared heat panels and Lululemon yoga mats. The class leaders were all chatty and friendly on their mics, many showing plenty of body tattoos.
The spin class leader‘s station on an elevated platform, close to a podium to adjust sound and light during class.
And, as mentioned, the classes are held in the dark, with just enough artificial and real candle light to see the mirrors and other people.
Dark spin class, with bikes lined up and towels on them. The photo doesn’t capture the ambiance created by the range of electronic dance music and occasional throwbacks.
In class I tried my best to keep up, but made modifications when my knees ached a little. The low lighting and loud music worked to lessen my self-consciousness (being new and only an occasional group fitnesser), though I needed to place myself close to the front to be able to follow instructions. On the mic, leaders were genuinely supportive, reflecting the vibe of the post-it notes on the studio walls: you are enough, you showed up today, you can do this. Other people I have discussed spin with describe being called out during classes. Here, there was none of that.
Dark group fitness with mats, towels, bands, and handweights placed closely together in a heated room. OFF the bike was a blend of HIIT calisthenics, strength training, and yoga stretches.
Near the end of both ON and OFF the bike classes, there is time to really get “lost”: the lights go off and the music goes up and you just have about 3 to 4 minutes to yourself.
And, during the “lost” times while cycling away or lying on my mat, I found myself in tears or near tears. Now, I am in a particularly vulnerable place right now, due to my recent job loss. While I didn’t check if other participants had felt the same thing, in every class I experienced in the dark a kind of emotional release I didn’t know I needed.
Lost Cycle has tapped into different elements of cycle studio / gym ambiance that makes it feel like fun, luxury, and intensity, all the ingredients for something slightly cultish. Though I was on my way to becoming an initiate, I’m not in a $$ position to keep the membership. At least I am taking the lesson home from Lost Cycle: turn off the lights, pump my mid-life music, and make time for both strength and vulnerability.
I mentioned a few days ago that we would reach a point when I would recommend reviewing the things that didn’t get done this December.
I usually hate doing that kind of thing because I don’t like how it feels (yes, I know it can be beneficial but I still don’t like it!) but I think it can be very useful from a Making Space perspective.
In fact, it can be useful for making space this year (freeing yourself from feeling badly about tasks you didn’t get to) and for next year (identifying tasks that can be done at other times, by other people, or in a different way AND tasks that you don’t want to include in future lists.)
For starters, if we look at those tasks in the context of what *did* get done, then we can immediately see that, for various reasons, we probably didn’t actually have a lot of space to fit those tasks in.
And we can see if there are any tasks on there that seemed like a good idea at the beginning but that we weren’t actually all that interested in doing. If we want, we can spend a little time thinking about why we felt the need to put them on the list in the first place but we can also feel free to put them on a ‘don’t bother with these’ list for next year.
We can also see if there are any tasks or projects that would have been fun but that we didn’t have the time, capacity, or resources to do in December. For those, we may be able to choose another time of year to start those tasks or to gather resources to do them next December.
And if there are projects or tasks that could be done by other people, we may want to take some time now to make some notes so the people we ask to take on those tasks will have the resources they need to complete them without getting on our nerves too much. (ha!)
Finally, while we are in note-making mode, we can also jot down some info for ourselves about how we did certain things, anything we would like to do in a different way or at a different time, things we forgot this year that we’d like to remember next year, basically anything that would make December 2026 easier on ourselves.
When I make notes for my future self, I either 1) put them in a Google Doc, invite myself to edit it, and then snooze it to a good date when the invite arrives in my email or 2) create an event in my online calendar for a specific future date and then put the notes directly in the notes section or 3) put a note on a specific future date on my digital or analog calendar that tells me where the notes are.
Yes, this is another set of tasks for our current selves but organizing information in this way often helps me to create brain space right now – I assume it is because I am giving the information a container rather than letting it float around.
Also, I’m pretty sure that thinking this through will help our future selves have more brain space AND to make more space in their schedules for the things they want to do because some of the thinking will already be done for them.
But, as the same time, I recognize that everyone has their own way of doing things so if this process isn’t something that appeals to you or if it doesn’t seem useful, please ditch it entirely and do something else that feels spacious and good.
And I am wishing you ease today and always.
Here’s today’s suggested movement practice:
In this still image for No-Mat Pilates for Small Spaces/ Full Body Workout from Joyga, the instructor, a light-skinned person with dark hair in a dark tank top and capri leggins, is standing in an small rectangular space with white walls and wooden floors that appears to be at the end of a larger room. They are facing to the camera’s left, extending their arms forward and overhead while leaning slightly forward. Their weight is mostly on their right foot and they are extending their left leg behind them. On the right side you can see part of a door and on the left you can see part of a window and a heater.
And here’s our suggested mindfulness practice:
In the still image from this 4-Minute Guided Meditation: Mindful Coffee Walk from Headspace, there is a cartoon style drawing on the right hand side that shows a top-down view of a take-out coffee cup, someone’s left hand and left leg and sneaker. The drawing is done from the perspective of the person holding the cup so you only see the top of the white cup, part of their orange hand, the top part of their yellow pant leg, and the toe of their grey sneaker. The background of the still image is dark green and their is an orange rectangle with rounded corners on the upper left side that has the word Meditation in white inside it and there is white text reading Mindful Coffee Walk on the middle of the left side and the name of the channel Headspace is on the bottom left.
I’ve already given similar advice several times this month but it still applies so I am going to remind myself (and you!) again.
If you have a list of stuff that you were trying to get done before the end of the year/the end of the holidays/the end of the month/the end of the week, then you probably have more tasks than time right now.
Sooooo, in the interests of creating space in your brain and in your schedule, it’s probably a good idea to review your plans and decide which things are actually important to you, which things you have time to do, and what you are going to do with the rest of the stuff on your list.
But before you get into that process, please promise me that you won’t be hard on yourself about anything that didn’t get done.
It’s really hard to judge how much time we will have in any given month, let alone in December when the air around us is essentially filled with possible tasks for us to take on.
(And it’s fine to be overly ambitious and hopeful about your capacity, as long as you aren’t mean to yourself when it doesn’t work out. Since I find it a challenge to prioritize my tasks and minimize my to do list, I often just pile AllOfTheThings on there and try not to put too much pressure on myself about stuff that doesn’t get done. I have varying success with this but it works ok overall)
Anyway, if you have your list on paper or screen, take a look through it and decide on a reasonable amount of things for you to do over the next few days. You can even schedule specific times for those tasks if it helps.
If you don’t have a list, just a vague sense of things needing to be done, then please, please, please, get those tasks on paper or on screen so they aren’t filling up your brain any more.
And just because the item is on your list doesn’t mean that you have to do now (or at all!) – don’t forget that items on your list can also be delayed, delegated, or deleted.
The idea here is to make space in your brain and in your calendar so you can spend the last few days of 2025 in ways that make the most sense for you and for your life instead of scrambling to get a bunch of unevaluated tasks done just for the sake of checking them off a list.
So, Team, I know we have varying degrees of freedom around choosing our tasks and our schedules, but I hope that doing a quick review right now helps you find a bit of space for yourself in there somewhere.
And, as always, I wish you ease and space – no matter how you go about making it.
Here’s today’s suggested movement practice:
The still image for this Chair Exercises for Seniors//10 Minute Ab & Core Seated Workout by Senior Shape Fitness shows the instructor, a light-skinned person with long brown hair, is sitting on a chair on a large blue mat with a tree in a white pot in the background. The instructor has their hands behind their head so her elbows stick out on each side.
And here’s our suggested meditation practice for today:
The still image of this 10 minute Guided Indoor Walking Meditation from Dr. Kelly Watkins shows the instructor sitting in a chair in the lower right corner. The title ‘Indoor Walking Meditation’ in white at the top against a peach background. The instructor is a light-skinned person with long brown hair curled in ringlets in a pink pantsuit with a white tshirt and they are smiling. They have a clipboard under their right hand and a pen hekd in their fingers.
I think today is a great time to take a minute to notice how much stuff you DID get gone this month.
Yes, I imagine most of us started the month with huge plans that we had to scale back quite a bit as we went along. And while it would be easy to get all caught up in our regrets and frustrations about the things we put aside, I think it would be waaaaaay more helpful to spend a little time congratulating ourselves on what we did instead of being annoyed about what we didn’t do. *
While we’re at it, let’s also celebrate doing all the tasks that we usually do without thinking about – work tasks, home tasks, family commitments – because this month we were doing them with extra pressure and less time.
(Truth be told, I think we could be celebrating that kind of work on the regular but since most of us don’t usually do that, let’s make a point of celebrating them now.)
All of that work, the regular stuff, and the extra December stuff, matters and it is really important that we notice our own efforts and congratulate ourselves for them.
Obviously, you can notice all of those things just by thinking about them but I can’t help but wonder if it might be useful to actually write down as many things as we can think of just so we can see the length and breadth of that list.
And, seriously, include everything you can think of, including things like washing your hair, getting snow tires on the car, and answering that phone call.
If you did it, it goes on the list!
I, of course, am celebrating you and cheering you on from over here.
And I am offering you this gold star for your efforts:
A VERY shiny star for your hard work, Team. Go Team Us!
Amidst the list-making and the celebrating, you may still need to make a little space for yourself so here are my suggestions for today:
Here is our movement practice for today:
In the still image for this Exercises for Relaxation – 10 Minute Stress Release Workout from Jessica Valant, the instructor, a woman with lightly tanned skin and long blonde hair, is doing a workout outdoors on a purple mat on a grassy lawn with scrubby trees in the background on a sunny day. She is wearing a dark pink tank top and dark pink leggings and is resting on her left hip with her left leg sort of folded in front of her and her right leg extended behind her. While her lower body is somewhat oriented towards the camera, her upper body is turned towards the right and leaning a little with her arms extended to support herself.
Here is our meditation practice for today:
In the still image for this 5 Min Meditation for Boundaries from Haven Inspired, the instructor, a black woman in a grey shirt with her curly hair pulled away from her face, is on the left side of the image facing towards the right so we can only see her in profile. She is wearing headphones, her eyes are closed, and she has her left hand resting just under her collarbones in what I think of as a self-comforting gesture. She looks peaceful and at ease. The background of the image is dark green at the top and light green at the bottom and there is a black bar with white text listing the title of the video that extends from the right side to just behind her head on the left but doesn’t go all the way to the left side of the image.
*There will be lots of time to use our regrets to help inform our future selves, we’ll get to that in a day or two. Today is about celebrating our victories!
I hope that today is a good day to find a little space for yourself with movement, meditation, or something else that makes you happy.
I don’t have a lot of advice today but I do have a question:
What kinds of small things can you do over the next few days to either feel more restful in the moment OR to help yourself start the new year with more ease?
Please don’t put a lot of pressure on yourself to figure this out!
But if you can think of a few things that will make life a bit easier for future you, please try to do them.
Anyway, Team, no matter what you are doing today or what you have planned for the next week, I wish you ease and peace of mind and as much space as you need.
And with that, let’s get into our suggested practices for today:
Since this is Boxing Day, I had decided to post a boxing workout and a box breathing meditation. Boxing Day has nothing to do with the sport of boxing (nor about breathing practices) but I do like a tangential theme!
Then, on a less tangential matter, I realized that today is also the first day of Kwanzaa so I wanted to post a meditation and movement practice related to that celebration as well.
(There are a lot of holidays and cultural events throughout December and I don’t mention them all because I don’t always have the time to do proper research and determine if it would be appropriate for me to reference them in this type of post. If you celebrate something in December that you think would be appropriate for Making Space 2026, please let me know in the comments and I will include it next year.)
Here’s one of our movement practices for today.
In the still image of this 10 Minute Kickboxing Quick HIIT Workout from BodyFit by Amy, the title of the video is on the left in black and the instructor, a person with light skin and freckles and their blond hair in a ponytail and cloth hairband, is demonstrating a punch with their right fist towards the camera and their left arm close to their body in a guarding position (upper arm close to the body, elbow down, forearm leaned slightly across their chest, fist near their chin. They are wearing a blue cropped tank top and you can see the black waistband of their pants (or shorts?)
Here’s our first meditation practice for today:
In still image for this Box Breathing Relaxation Exercise from Hands On Meditation, a variation of the video title ‘5 Minute Box Breathing Relaxation Exercise Beginner Pace’ is in the middle of the screen with the first two words in yellow, the rest in white. The first four words are in larger text than the last four. Behind the text is a silhouette of a square with thick lines for each side and the background is a sort of patterned blue that gives the impression of being underwater.In case you are interested, here’s a good explanation of the benefits of Box Breathing from Sunnybrook Hospital.
Here’s our second movement practice for today:
In the still image for this Kwanzaa Quick Workout video from Uhuru Dancers, Atlanta the instructor, a black person with curly hair pulled upwards away from their face with a yellow and brown patterned scarf, large hoop earrings, a black tshirt with the word LEGACY in white, a hip scarf in the same pattern, and red leggings, is standing on a white and red patterned rug with their hands on the back of their hips. They look calm and determined. In the background, next to a red wall, are several tall drums, and a wooden table. There are posters and other hangings on the wall.
And here’s a Kwanzaa meditation from a few years ago:
In this still image from Principles of Kwanzaa, 7 Day Meditation Challenge Day 1: Umoja – Unity from Manii Dot Calm, the instructor, a young black person with their hair covered in a brightly coloured scarf is sitting on a couch that is covered with yellow fabric and there are two windows with blinds closed behind them. They are wearing a white sleeveless blouse over a burgundy tank top, and they are wearing gold earing and bangles on both arms. Their eyes are closed and their arms are raised so their elbows are away from their body, their forearms are closer to the camera and their hands are palm inward at face height but maybe 6-8 inches away from their face.
If you are interested in more Kwanzaa meditations, her other videos are available at Manii Dot Calm but they are not in a separate playlist.
I love the gift of time over the holidays. No alarm. No paid work. No chores (we did them earlier this week). It’s lovely and relaxing.
Michel has returned to spinning on the regular indoors. We are taking time today to get our strength training back in our schedule.
It’s a common experience to have an ebb and flow to routines. Thankfully the breaks are getting shorter as we get older.
Being less fussed about a break makes it easier to pick it up again. Literally no one cares if I’m perfect at sticking to a routine. Everyone celebrates any workout I do get in. Yay!
I’m rewarded with more pain free days when I get strength training in and that is very motivating. Yay!
Plus all my silly little physiotherapy exercises have taught me there are infinite ways to challenge my body. No fear of being bored. Yay!
I hope you are getting time to do what you want today. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
There’s nothing dumb about dusting off my dumbbells!
Or, if you aren’t feeling any of those things, I wish you a perfectly acceptable day with no unpleasant surprises.
I have gotten myself a bit tangled trying to write this post because I was trying to say just the right thing to everyone.
But since that is impossible, I am just going to say this:
No matter how this day finds you, I wish you ease, I wish you space, I wish you peace.
May you have a little extra breathing room.
May you have a little more peace of mind.
May you have joy in your heart – even if it is just a flicker right now.
If you want it, may have company to help you celebrate or to help you carry what needs to be carried.
If you want it, may you have solitude so you can hear yourself think, so you can find ease, or so you can choose how to spend your time.
May you know how much you are loved.
Please be just as kind to yourself as you are to others, today and always.
Please know that I am thinking of you and sending you warmth and kindness and spaciousness.
On that note, I feel like it’s a good idea to put our meditation practice first today:
In the still image from this 5 Minute LovingKindness Meditation from Unearth Compassion, what I interpret as small green tendrils are poking up from frozen ground on a misty day.
And here’s our movement practice for today:
In the still image from this from Holly R Jahn, the instructor is wearing blue leggings and a grey shirt and trying on the floor on their back next to a large white pot for a houseplant. They are side-on to the camera and they have their arms outstretched and their right leg is crossed over their left. Their left is outstretched on the floor and their right foot is placed near their left knee.
If you would prefer more seasonally-themed choices, here are a few choices:
