So, apparently we’re starting April tomorrow which is bizarre because I am pretty sure we just started March.
Time is a mystery.
But seeing as the calendar is insisting that a new month is imminent, I thought it would be fun to look at some of the fitness and wellness related days that have been assigned to April.
April is…
Move More Month – that seems pretty promising and it could be pretty easy, if the weather cooperates even a little. And for many of our bloggers and readers, it ties in nicely with the fact that April is also Active Dog Month -it’s like a 2 for 1 special, really.
Stress Awareness Month – I think we are all pretty aware of stress (ha!) but this could be a good time to pay attention to your stress levels and see if you can find some relief.
For me, though, the best awareness day this month is April 5 – which is My Sister Denise’s Birthday Awareness Day.
Denise is a fun, creative, outdoorsy person and I highly recommend that you celebrate My Sister Denise’s Birthday Awareness Day by finding some nonsense to participate in, by taking yourself outside for some fun, or by doing something creative.
In fact, if you *do* celebrate My Sister Denise’s Birthday Awareness Day on Sunday, let me know and I will draw you your very own gold star as a reward.
Thinking about self-care amidst the chaos of these times might feel a little ridiculous, somewhat of a distraction, a bit like you are gazing inward when you need to be looking outward.
And, yes, some people might take it to an extreme, focusing only on their own needs and buying a ton of unnecessary products in the name of self-care.
But most of us aren’t like that.
In fact, many of us could probably use a nudge to remind us to take care of ourselves.
After all, how are we supposed to do the important things we are here to do if we’re worn out, frazzled, and just churning through endless to do lists?
So, please let me remind you that it is ok – in fact, it is necessary!- for you take care of yourself, to be kind to yourself, to meet your needs, to rest, to connect, to get away from the push to be bigger, better, more. *
You can take care of yourself for your own sake – after all, literally no one benefits if you forgo self-care. It’s not as if you sacrificing a brief rest means that someone else automatically gets that time.**
And you can do it for the greater good. It will be hard to be part of the solution if you are too worn out to deal with the challenges we are facing – alone and together.
Yet, even when we KNOW that self-care is a good idea, it’s hard for us to take that time, to make that effort.
And hopefully it can help you build even stronger self-care habits from now on.
Here’s the calendar:
Check out Action for Happiness for more versions of the calendar as well as links to other resources. Image description: a calendar of daily tips for self-care. Each calendar block is either light blue, medium blue, peach, or red and the edge of the calendar is decorated with cartoon drawings of people doing self-care activities like meditaton, exercise, speaking positively to themselves, etc.
And here are three self-care tips from Action for Happiness in a video presented by Vanessa King.
A video from the Action for Happiness YouTube channel. The still image shows Vanessa King, a woman with her dark blonde hair pinned up in the back but with sideswept bangs in front, she is slightly smiling, and is wearing a red and white patterned shirt.
So, whaddaya think? Want to give Self-Care September a whirl?
*Ideally, you would have other people supporting you in this/taking good care of you but this post is about ‘Self-Care September’ not ‘Mutual Support May’ or something. Note: Mutual Support May should totally be a thing.
**Yes, I know there are exceptions to this. For example, if you pull a longer shift caring for your sick baby, your partner can have more time to sleep but that’s a short term benefit. It won’t actually be helpful in the long run if you end up getting sick because you are overtired or if you become so resentful that it creates friction in your relationship. Ultimately it would be better for you and your partner to alternate break times so everyone can take good care of themselves and each other.
In January, a dear friend of mine set a very fun resolution for 2024 – to try a bunch of different types of tea to find one that she enjoyed. Previous to this resolution, she would happily drink coffee or hot chocolate but she had always found tea kind of bland and dull.
I’m happy to report that her resolution has served her well. She has found a variety of teas that she likes and she highly recommends taking on resolutions of this sort – the kind that lets you try new things with little or no risk.
My friend’s resolution came to mind this morning as I was thinking about the fact that there are only about 6 weeks left in the year and that I am, once again, planning to Finish Soft instead of trying to hustle through to the end of 2024.
I think I would like to take on some sort of end-of-the-year resolution that matches the low-key spirit of my friend’s tea explorations but is about movement/meditation /well-being and that will add a bit more fun into my day-to-day without feeling like another big project on my to-do list.
For the record – this is my cup of tea, it isn’t part of my friend’s tea adventures. Image description: A cup of tea in a white mug with a red trim that has an image of a grey-hatted gnome in a red robe standing in a forest of grey tree trunks on it. The mug was given to me by my friend Elaine and it is resting on multi-patterned mug rug that my Mom made for me.
So, in a tea-sized end-of-year resolution, I’ve decided* that I am going to do 3 minutes of fun movement every day between now and December 31st.
What will that include? I have no idea!
I’m going to have to take it day-by-day – an plan that both delights and terrifies my ADHD brain – and let anything count.
And to add to my fun, I’m going to make a visual record of teeny drawings and text to keep track of what I did.
Got any ideas for me?
*I literally decided this while writing. The initial draft of this post said that I hadn’t decided yet – What a daredevil I am! (bahahaha – I assume you can read the sarcastic tone there.)
So, Team, here we are at the end of August, being our marvellous selves.
We had BIG plans for the summer and we got some of them done.
We managed to do some cool stuff that wasn’t on our lists.
We also dealt with unexpected (and likely very challenging) stuff.
While we *could* sit here and list all of the things that didn’t go as planned, the stuff we hoped to get to but never did, the obstacles we faced, I’m going to vote no on that sort of deliberate review for us right now.
I am especially voting no on anything that might lead us to be harsh to ourselves about the whole thing.
(Yes, there’s a time and a place to review what went awry and to adjust future plans accordingly but it doesn’t have to be right now. And there might be a time and a place to decide to make different choices and take different actions but there is never a time when we have to be hard on ourselves about that sort of stuff.)
Instead, I’m inviting us to view our summer highlight reels – the fun stuff, the shiny bits, the hard work that paid off, the times we relaxed, the summer-specific moments and memories that feel great when we roll them around in our minds.
Take a minute when you can and sink into those highlights.
Relive how you felt, the sensory details, the work and the fun.
Give yourself the chance to celebrate the effort you put in, the good choices you made, the fun that happened even if things didn’t go according to plan.
I know that the end of summer can bring a sort of melancholy and, obviously, it’s totally ok to feel however you feel about the change in season, but you don’t have to get mired in that feeling.
You can be present for your melancholy moments AND you can enjoy the memories of the highlights of your summer. You don’t have to choose.
You can have some regrets about things undone AND be happy about the fun you had. this isn’t an either/or situation.
However, given the human brain’s negativity bias, we might have to consciously choose to fully remember the highlights of summer as the season comes to an end.
So, Team, here are some stars for your efforts to celebrate the good and create your summer highlight reel.
Okay, so these stars aren’t gold per se but they are super fun so they totally count. Image description: a GIF of a series of stars dropping from the top of the image trailing sparkles behind them.
And, truth be told, summer doesn’t officially end until sometime in September. So, once you have that mental highlight reel in place, you can spend a little time planning another adventure or two even as your schedule moves into Autumn mode.
Go on, I dare you to add more fun to your next few weeks.
PS – If a mental highlight reel isn’t enough for you, create an album of photos on your phone, make a list, create a visual journal, doodle some memories, or make a video for future you to watch.
PPS – My summer highlight reel includes swimming with Trudy and Michelle, sitting on my patio in the evening, a backyard fire with a small group of friends, getting my tiny spiral garden planted, a couple of day trips with Steve, and watching Khalee sniff the same patch of flowers each day on our walk.
I love a good set of prompts. I have dice, cards, apps, and prompt sheets for writing, improv, storytelling, drawing, and all kinds of creative activities.
Prompts help me to avoid getting stuck in decision mode (a huge pitfall for my ADHD brain), and they offer just the sort of constraint that helps creativity to thrive.
Since I also have a bit of a decision challenge with exercise (trying to strike a balance between consistency and avoiding boredom makes for a tricky endeavour a lot of the time) I was intrigued when the all-knowing algorithm served up this set of exercise prompt dice on Monday afternoon.
Image description: Amazon product photo for Wadeo exercise dice. In the upper left the dice are displayed in a black mesh bag, on the upper right is a white paper instruction manual, and across the bottom are four dice (yellow, green, blue, teal) with various exercises printed on them.
I usually have to decide things in advance – knowing the what and the when and the timeframe helps remove the ‘Ugh, I will be doing this for the REST OF MY LIFE, I don’t even want to start.’ feeling that my brain automatically generates. But, when I use prompts, I usually only have to decide when and how long. (I guess the prompts only offer a certain range of ‘what’ so my brain is ok with that.)
I couldn’t help but wonder whether my brain would be ok with choosing a time and the length of my exercise session but leaving the exercises themselves up to the dice.
Then I looked closer at these particular dice.
I won’t do burpees. I know they are a great exercise but they make my head spin so I already know I won’t do them.
I’m not quite ready for pistol squats or ‘jackknifes’ so I would need to adjust or substitute something else for those…
And I don’t even know what is on the other side of those dice. There could be far worse things in store for me.
So I won’t be ordering those.
BUT
I am still intrigued by the IDEA of exercise dice.
And I just so happen to have a set of wooden cubes like these…
Image description: a photo of a pile of about 20 plain, unfinished wooden cubes on a white background.
So, I am going to create my own exercise dice.
And this will probably work better for me because instead of having to roll one die over and over, I could roll a whole set of exercises at a time and have a very clear end point for my set or for my session.
Now I just have to decide what exercises to write on each die.
Recently some adult folks and I celebrated a friend’s birthday outside at a park in the snow. We simple played kid outdoor games: a team tossing game, a ball relay, and a good ol’ fashioned snowball fight. We ran around, egging on members of the other team, getting soaked. It was hilarious and silly and fun.
Marnie gives instructions to the adults for the next kid game.
Playing outdoor kid games can bring a swell of nostalgia for games in the school yard, the backyard, the park, the lot, the court, or the field. Those games taught us important lessons (good and bad) that we remember throughout our adult lives.
I decided to describe and rank various types of kids outdoor games that can be and still are played by adults. Inter-rater reliability (i.e. with my partner) for the aspects of each game type (e.g., high, medium, or low) was about 92%.
What is your favourite outdoor kid game or game type, and why? Reply in comments below!
These games that pay attention to detail and precision. They have rules and specialized equipment, and may be played individually or in teams. It’s usually the accuracy games that adults want to play to show kids that they’ve still “got it.”
Snowball and water balloon fights have few rules and are generally a free-for-all of silliness. Often, one need not be the strongest or fastest participant: those who create their own strategy (or find good hiding places) can fare well.
Be careful in these games around those who wear glasses. In northern or southern climates, less popular in Spring/Fall.
Examples: Lost on an island, Cowboys, Fashion show, etc.
Imagination games (also known as “pretend” or “make believe”) are for those who want to escape rule-bound games with winners and losers that require equipment and physical skill or strength.
In imagination games, anyone with creativity and a playful attitude can participate.
Examples: Flag football, baseball, dodgeball, kickball, soccer
Organized sports build skill, stamina, and teamwork. They create opportunities for life-long bonding. But being group-based, rule-bound, and equipment-heavy, these serious games can separate casual from competitive players.
Examples: Relays (e.g., egg and spoon race), potato sack racing
Criteria
Level
Energy
med
Skill
low
Teamwork
high
Inclusiveness
low
Silliness
high
Individual or team-based–and often requiring nothing more than a ball, a baton, or a sack–speed relay games can bring the best of a group of people working together.
These games can be not so fun for folks who may struggle to keep up or who take relays too seriously.
Examples: Tag, Capture the Flag, Musical Chairs, Red Light-Green Light, Hide and Seek
Combining the skill of accuracy games, the endurance of strength games, and the creativity of imagination games, tag and strategy games can utilize diverse talents. These games attract those who enjoy being the last one standing.
Have you played scrimmage, shinny, or pick up? Until this past summer, I had not (as for many years I lacked a team sport to play, as I guest blog about elsewhere). Friends, let me tell you that I think scrimmage is AWESOME. I didn’t realize how awesome until after the end of our short “season” these past few months.
If you already know scrimmage or pick up is awesome, this post will not be news to you. But still, read on to re-affirm what you and I now know together.
No Refs = Self-Regulation
In regular team games, a referee is there to make calls so no one else has to. But when you are self-reffing, everyone has to monitor their own potentially illegal moves. Obviously, this leads to more individual accountability during gameplay, but it got players talking to each other about the calls. One time I saw players stop to discuss what might have been a hand ball, and compare what they knew about the rules about hand balls, but then play happily resumed.
In reffed games you always want rulings in your team’s favour, but without refs everyone seems to take more responsibility to play fairly, and the talking creates both game understanding and player camaraderie.
Slower Pacing = Safer Play
When you’re in a traditional team game, everyone wants to hurry up and score. But in scrimmage everyone takes their time, sets up, passes more. One striker with a killer goal shot deliberately eased up when she came in to shoot (which was fortunate for me when I was in goal). The result of slower play seemed to be that everyone got more chances to touch the ball, yet folks didn’t get tired out.
Also, no injuries. In the half dozen games I played in, I think I was the only one to get a minor injury—because I overextend myself. Once I took cues from others about pacing, I eased up and could play the whole game without getting myself hurt.
Friends on Both Sides = No Losers
In regular games, things are pretty fixed: everyone on your team has their positions, sub rotations are often pre-set, and the point is to win the game. In scrimmage, there is much more fluidity and choice. People felt free to take a water break whenever they needed, even if their team was short-handed for a minute. Most everyone took turns in goal, unless someone was nursing an injury and wanted to play there longer. I spent a little time as a forward, where I learned that “give and go” passing is not a skill that is totally beyond me. I even scored a goal! 🙂
When friends are on both sides, the stakes were lower. Goals were scored (or not), efforts were congratulated—but no one kept score. Maybe there were no winners each week, but no one walked off the pitch on the losing side either.
Is Scrimmage for Everyone?
As someone trained to look at stuff through the lens of feminist theory, I see many overlaps between the values for which many feminists strive and the kind of play that scrimmage affords. Why aren’t we playing more scrimmage? If feminism is for everyone, and certain aspects of scrimmage reflect the values of some feminisms, then is scrimmage for everyone too?
Three reasons why not all of us are playing more scrimmage:
Logistically, scrimmage only works up to a certain numbers limit, and someone has to volunteer to take the added responsibility to be a convenor. (One of our wonderful friends put the extra work in to make ours happen.)
Usually the fields, courts, and ices are perhaps usually spoken for by organized sports associations, so it’s only in these strange pandemic times that these spaces may be more available than usual.
There are probably plenty of skilled and competitive types for which scrimmage/pick up is not speedy or challenging enough. Some people thrive most when there is structure and competition.
So, maybe scrimmage isn’t for everyone all the time. But for me, as a late-to-the-sport rec soccer player, the less structure the better. Whether you get to play for fun each week with a long-time bestie or a sister, or make some new friends (as I have), scrimmage is WHERE IT’S AT.
Whether you are training to be a Jedi or you just want to mix things up a little, here’s a fitness-based way to celebrate Star Wars Day.
Sure, some of them are designed for kids but that doesn’t mean that adults can’t do them, too.
The key here is to maximize your fun while getting a little movement into your day. You get bonus points if you do any of these workouts in costume.
When I’m looking for a themed workout, I usually check at Darebee first and they did not disappoint. Here’s their Jedi Tribute Workout:
Image description: A poster of a series of exercises entitled ‘Jedi Tribute Workout’ featuring a black and white drawing of a person doing pushups, sit-ups, lunges and other bodyweight exercises.
If that’s not your thing, you could try this Daisy Ridley/Rey inspired workout from Sarah Rocksdale:
Image Description: a still photo from a YouTube video that features Daisy Ridley in character as Rey, holding a lightsaber. She is wearing grey clothing and her hair is in a bun on top of her head.
Or if you are looking for something a little different, here’s a fun, graduated challenge that Nicole P. found on Instagram from one of her local gyms:
And, of course, here are some kids’ workouts that work just fine for adults, too.
Image description: a still image from a YouTube video with text on the left reading ‘Star Wars Jedi Academy Workout’ and a person with brown hair, and white and grey clothing holding a lightsaber standing to the right.
Image description: a person in a blue tracksuit stands on a yoga mat in a virtual version of a scene from Star Wars ( The Force Awakens.) She is holding a lightsaber aloft. A banner that reads ‘Cosmic Kids!’ in pink and purple bubble letters is on the left side.
If you try one of these workouts, be sure to tell us about it in the comments.
My friend and colleague Lee is the energizer bunny of teaching. She just keeps on going and going, coming up with new ideas and maintaining classic winning strategies year after year after year.
I just saw this post on her FB page, showing a way to invite students to talk about how they are doing this fall using a safe proxy: cat pictures. She asked them, which of Lee’s cats are you feeling most like today?
6 pictures of Lee’s cats, in various kitty moods.
What a great idea! It’s a way to talk about ourselves, but with a feline shield in case we need it. I love this and plan to implement it immediately.
Except I don’t have cats. Or dogs. I have a bunch of plants, but their moods seem to comprise blooming, being green, wilting, yellowing, and dying.
Well, maybe we’re not in need of much more mood nuance than that. Or are we? I happened to notice (while wandering the internet) this set of 20 cards to aid in identifying our emotional barometers. At first it seemed silly, but maybe we can use some help in unraveling our emotionally snarly selves. Here’s the set, which you can buy here (at the ICA museum store in Boston):
A color wheel of emotions, ranging from happy to envious to stressed and back again.
It doesn’t cost a ton ($21.95 USD), but I’m sufficiently impressed by Lee’s personal approach that I thought I should create my own mood packet. So, in lieu of pets or plants, I decided to do a grouping of various forms of me in motion, labeling each with some mood.
On a bike, in the water, running hard, paddling slow, climbing up or skiing down, we movers experience the full range of human emotions. It’s part of why we move– it both provokes feeling and reveals feelings we’ve kept inside. It’s one of my favorite things about physical activity– it feels… like… living.
So here are some mood collages of me in motion.
Clockwise, from top left: goofing around, happy, irritated, trusting, taking a risk, maintaining.
But wait, there’s more.
Clockwise, from top left: hanging on, barely hanging on, loving, immersion, Look ma, no hands!, and done.
If you read this on the Fit is a Feminist Issue FB page or Twitter or Instagram (or other things I don’t yet know about), how about post a picture of yourself in motion (or stillness), and name the mood? Just for fun. Or for self-investigation. Or grousing. Or joyful exhortation. Hey, you never know.
(CW: Very silly and irreverent photos and descriptions and gifs of people in T-rex costumes doing physical activities. I hope this makes people smile a little.)
It’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and we’re all yearning to get outside and explore nature in all its forms. However, COVID-19 will be with us for a long time to come. Vaccine development is still in early stages, and our knowledge and resources for treatment are limited. So we’re left with what we can do: prevention. To reduce transmission, we’re social distancing. I blogged about sports and risk recently here. That means limiting or avoiding activities with a high risk of transmission, especially avoiding any sports or activities that involve contact with other people.
Not so for T. rex! Other than keeping a eye out for stray comets, Every T. rex is out and about, enjoying themselves. Boating is one of T. rex’s favorite pastimes:
On the other hand, many of us are screaming out for novelty these days; what better way to change up your exercise routine than by combining two favorite pastimes in novel ways?
Without a doubt a novel activity, but the chances of this catching on seem slim.
Back to reality: I hope you found some silly respite in these images. For me, a smattering of jokes fits nicely into my schedule of ranting, gnashing of teeth, hiding, crying, donating, letter/email writing, self-reflection and learning.
Finally, the inspiration for the T. rex post is from my favorite T. rex in real life: here’s my friend Steph and me before the Orchard Cross costume race a few years ago. I’m her second banana. Looking forward to costume cross races, picnics, swimming outings with friends’ kids, beach trips on hot holiday weekends, and all the other lovely things we all do together.
So readers, how are you getting out there this summer? Any plans? Any interesting protection ideas? Feel free to share what you’re up to; I’d love to hear from you.
Me (on left) and Steph, before the Orchard Cross costume race, held every Halloween weekend.
