Category: self care

A drawing of overlapping patterned circles in fall colours with the word “update!” at the top. Update on Christine’s September Circles
fitness · habits · health · mobility · self care

Update on Christine’s September Circles

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

Ok, so I am reporting back a little early but since I don’t think there will be a drastic change in my results over the next two days, we’re in the clear.

On September 1, I told you about my experiment for this month – 5 minutes of circle-based mobility exercises each night before bed.

And, despite the fact that I was ‘going in circles’ this whole time, I have definitely made some progress towards increasing my mobility and improving my sense of well-being.

Here are my discoveries:

1) As I suspected in my initial post, doing circles seems to reduce the restless, twitchy feeling I was often experiencing while sitting in bed reading before going to sleep.

2) I feel far less stiff and achy when I get up in the morning.

3) My body feels a bit more mobile and fluid overall.

4) I like having a small physical practice as part of my bedtime routine.

5) If I had trouble settling into sleep in the evening, doing a few more circles was soothing.

Obviously I am declaring this experiment a success!

And I am giving myself bonus points and a gold star ⭐️ for sticking with my experiment even though this month included some travel with friends and coordinating a 10 day arts festival.

Normally that kind of shift in routine would affect any kind of new practice I was trying to incorporate into my days but I guess that my plan to go in circles was just the right-sized practice for almost any circumstance.

And since it has worked out so well, I plan to keep this circular strategy going.

Now to figure out an experiment for October…

The words good on a shop winder. By Jon Tyson for Unsplash. A good week. Yes, definitely a good week.
fitness · functional fitness · habits · self care

A good week. Yes, definitely a good week.

catherine wLeave a comment

It’s been a good week.

My courses are settling into what they’re going to be, which is a smooth-ish and pretty amiable set of class meetings on topics I’m into and the students are enjoying/tolerating (so far).

I’m organized enough to vary my going-to-work footwear more than usual, color coordinating it (yes, I have shoes in many colors– sue me) with my more-colorful-than-the-average-person’s clothing. And jewelry, too. Ain’t I fancy…

I acquired three baby spider plants from my FB Buy Nothing group. They are joining my indoor aspiring jungle and appear to be getting along well with everyone.

On Wednesday morning, I went to yin yoga with my friend Kathy, joining Norah, who goes (almost) every week. I usually sign up for the zoom recording, leaving it for later (or not), but I thought to myself, I can make time for this. So I did.

Afterwards, eating sandwiches with Kathy, I got a preview of what it might be like to be a lady who lunches (well, I am a lady who has lunch but you know what I mean). It’s pretty damn good.

On Saturday I went swimming with Rachel and her 3-year-old Teagan. We (Rachel and I) traded off hanging out with Teagan in the kids’ pool so the other could do some laps in the lane pool. It worked out well, each of us doing 4 laps (8 pool lengths). Rachel said afterwards that it would be nice to work up to 50 laps. I corrected her, saying 20 laps was a more pleasant-sounding goal. She agreed (for now).

The swimming was at a local indoor pool and it cost the three of us $10 total. A bargain.

I’d really like to a) re-establish a weekly in-person yoga class; and b) go swimming once a week. Both feel really good. Can I do this? Yes, I think so. Okay, let me rephrase that:

Yes We Can.

Bob says “yes we can!”

By “we”, I mean me plus my friends, who support me in most/all of my social and physical activities. It’s much more fun and happens more often when I enlist the company of others. Of course you all know this. But it doesn’t hurt to remind oneself from time to time.

Who are you heading out the door with this week for physical activity, fun, or frolic?

A small painting of a shiny gold star Go Team 2026: Forge Ahead, Pivot, Restart!
advice · fitness · Go Team · goals · habits · motivation · self care

Go Team 2026: Forge Ahead, Pivot, Restart!

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

Hey Team,

Here’s your semi-regular reminder that you are the boss of you.

Soooooo, it is up to you how to proceed with your plans. 

If your current plans feel good and you are getting where you want to go, then forge ahead. 

I mean, it’s good to check in every now and then but you are under no obligation to examine every single detail of your fitness plans over and over. 

And you certainly don’t have to keep changing them to match trends or to prove a point. 

Basically, if your current plan is working for you then… FORGE AHEAD!

But what about if your plan sort of works but there are stil rough spots, friction, and/or you often find it hard to get going.

In that case, it may be time to make a few changes.

You may want to switch up your plans a bit, change the exercises you’re doing, find some company, take on a different challenge, put in some extra effort or maybe dial things back a bit. 

Basically, if your initial plan is getting on your nerves you don’t have to keep frustrating yourself (and you definitely shouldn’t be hard on yourself), instead, you can… PIVOT!

But what about if you started out strong but your enthusiasm waned? 

Or if you hated your plan from step one?

Or if you love the plan but life got in the way and now you just can’t?

Or if your plan worked when you made it but then your schedule changed?

Well, in that case, the only thing you *can’t* do is be mean to yourself about it. (Ok, I guess you can but I will give you a stern look about being mean to my friend.)

After all, finding a fitness plan that works for you isn’t about doing the perfect thing as your perfect self on your most perfect day.

Instead, it’s is about finding ways to keep doing things that you want to do (or achieving things that you want to achieve) so it only makes to make your plans appeal to the most important person in the equation – YOU.

Basically, if you aren’t doing the things you want/need to be doing then change your plans and …RESTART.

And yes, I know there is great value in starting something new on a significant date (New Years, your birthday, September 1) but there is also value in starting wherever and whenever you happen to be. 

(In fact, with a little imagination you can turn anything into a significant date. If nothing occurs to you, feel free to post in the comments and I’ll wrangle any ordinary day into an auspicious occasion for restarting you project.)

So, Team, the key information here is that it is ok for you to do the things you want to do, in the way you want to do them, on a schedule that works for you.

You can work hard or proceed gently or do anything in between. As long as you match your expectations to your efforts, your intensity is up to you.

You can have a strict schedule or something a bit more loose and responsive to your day to day plans. As long as it works for you, it’s a good way to proceed.

Basically, as I said at the beginning, you are the boss of you.

AND your needs are the most important factors in your fitness plans. 

So, whether we’re going to forge ahead, pivot, or restart, let’s do all what we need to do to help us stick with the things that help us feel the way we want to feel. 

Oh, and please collect your gold star for your efforts below.

Go Team Us!

A drawing of decorated, overlapping circles in fall colours Christine and the September Circles
aging · habits · self care

Christine and the September Circles

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

In the spirit of Anne-Laure LeCunff’s Tiny Experiments, I am planning to spend September going in circles …but in a good way. 

Here’s the backstory:

For the last few nights, I have been doing about 5 minutes of mobility exercises before bed and the practice feels really beneficial. 

I didn’t start the exercises with a plan, I just did them one night while listening to the end of a podcast and I liked how I felt afterwards so I did them again the next night.

And since I often find myself feeling a bit twitchy and restless before bed – with an odd feeling or an ache in one place or another – but I haven’t had that feeling in the last few nights so it seems worth exploring if there is a connection between the exercises and the lack of twitchiness. 

This may be a coincidence of course but that’s part of the experiment.

I’m referring to it as going in circles because I made myself laugh when I referred to the exercises that way on Sunday night. 

And seeing as the routine includes rolling a ball under each foot and then doing ankle circles, knee circles, hip circles, upper body circles, arm circles, shoulder circles, and neck circles, it’s not wrong it just sounds a bit funny.

So here’s my experiment:

For September, I am going to go in circles for 5 minutes each night before bed and note whether or not I feel twitchy afterward and whether I feel more or less stiff each morning. 

I’ll report on my experiment on October 1.

A drawing of decorated, overlapping circles in fall colours
These imperfect circles were fun to make and they are a good representation of the imperfect circles in my practice. Image description: a drawing of 8 overlapping, painted circles in fall colours (shades of green, brown, red, orange) with a different pattern in black ink on each one (spirals, circles, grids, lines, triangles, squares) and each circle is outlined in black. The drawing has been cut out of a larger sheet of white paper in an irregular shape that resembles a cloud or a puddle. The outer edge of the paper is trimmed in black and there are gold dots between the black trim and the edges of the circles. At the bottom are the words ‘hello, September!’ written in black.
a calendar from Action for Happiness for August 2026 Altruistic August from Action for Happiness? Sounds like a plan!
fitness · habits · self care

Altruistic August from Action for Happiness? Sounds like a plan!

Christine Hennebury1 Comment

Whether you call it kindness or you use a ten-cent-word like altruism, the world needs a lot more of it right now and the Action for Happiness calendar for August is a great place to start.

As always, the calendar is full of small practices that almost anyone could try but if you don’t feel up to the practice of the day, it’s totally cool to be kind in a whole different way. I’m sure you have a huge repertoire of kind actions you can take at any time.

In fact, even though this calendar is about being kind to others, it’s also a swell idea to practice being kinder to ourselves – these Self-Compassion Practices from Dr. Kristin Neff are a good place to start.

And the small actions are the most important part.

It’s pretty easy to get caught up in waiting to do a big project or to solve a big problem but to not actually be able to get started.

Doing a small thing right now is way better than developing a big thing that never actually gets done.

So, as you give these small actions a whirl, please don’t worry that you aren’t doing enough right now. It’s ok to take the small steps now and let them build over time.

Here’s the full calendar for this month and today’s action is pretty straightforward, “Ask someone how they feel and really listen to their reply.”

Good luck out there, folks!

a calendar from Action for Happiness for August 2026
An image of a calendar of tips for Altruistic August 2026 that features small cartoon drawings of altruistic along the bottom edge. (for example, someone is putting coins in a tin, someone else is offering noodles to a friend, someone else is picking up garbage. Each block of the calendar features an action for that day and the background of each block is either dark or light blue or dark or light green.
A video from the Action for Happiness YouTube channel entitled, “Never underestimate the power of small acts of kindness.” The still image features Vanessa King, a middle-aged woman with medium blonde hair cut in a bob with a bang. She is wearing a white top with a series of red bead necklaces looped around her neck. Text to the right of the image reads, “Kindness Matters” in red and “3 tops tips with Vanessa King” in yellow.
When Rest Feels Reckless
Fear · rest · self care · traveling · vacation

When Rest Feels Reckless

Mina2 Comments

the present/ is a feather/ on loan from the wings of time/ that only attention/ makes beautiful/ and only kindness/ valuable.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my relationship to time (and work and rest), so when I read those lines from Maria Popova’s bird divination cards a few days ago, they felt like they were meant for me. I’ve been getting her newsletter for years and only rarely open it anymore. That I even clicked through to see the words had that divine timing feel (speaking of time again).

With sports, I’m diligent about taking one day of complete rest per week and balancing my workouts within the week. Where I’m not so attentive is when it comes to my work-rest balance. I am about to go away for five weeks. To spend time with family and friends. And alone. Usually work comes with me, anywhere I go. This time it is not. This will be downtime. I’ll be doing things I love, which fill my cup. Reading novels. Writing. Running. Hiking. Cycling. A meditation retreat.  I can’t remember when I last took this kind of work-free time for myself. Part of me thinks, I’m not successful enough to take this kind of time.

My trip, as it turns out, is coming at either the perfect time, or exactly the wrong time. The planning happened months ago, before I knew that my work would be in quite the state of transition it is (good and much needed changes, yet …). My plate is not as full as I’d like. I’m not a person with a full-time job and salary. I don’t have a long waiting list of potential clients. That’s good, in terms of making it easier to get away. And not good, in terms of I don’t know what September will look like workwise when I get back. What if none of the seeds I’ve planted take root and I come home to nothing?

This choice feels reckless and scary. I am going anyway, stepping back from the hustle. Not getting paid. Fear will board the plane alongside me.

And what a waste it will be if Fear rides along the whole time, leaching the joy out of my days and agitating my rest. Can I allow myself this period of resourcing and renewal, without getting sucked into a vortex of self-doubt? Or worse, the spiraling worry of how I will be judged? I can’t bring myself to write out the verdicts I imagine.

Still, I’m going. How will Fear and I spend this feather of time?   

Fragment of Maria Popova Bird Divination card

I’m counseling myself to be in the moment. In practice I find the present moment extremely hard to be fully inside of. Encumbered as it is by my past baggage and future plans.  

This is my gentle challenge to myself: Can I quiet Fear and heighten my attention to the feather? Make each present moment while I’m away more beautiful. A respite from pushing and chasing. Should-free.

Can I find that kindness the poem mentions and offer it to myself?

a photo of purple lupins (flowers) with a bright blue sky and water in the background (Finally) Circling Back to Trisha Durham’s ‘Movement Snacks’
ADHD · fitness · functional fitness · habits · mobility · self care

(Finally) Circling Back to Trisha Durham’s ‘Movement Snacks’

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

Back in Planuary 2023, my Dad was in hospital and my time was very limited so I was using movement snacks from Trisha Durham’s Instagram account and, later from her book, Movement Snacks to add more movement to my days and to help me take the edge of my stress.

I found the practice quite useful at the time. Having a list of small movement prompts that felt useful, that kept me from stiffening up too much, and that could be done quickly made a huge difference for my mental health at a difficult time.

I know that I kept it up for a while but I don’t remember noticing when I fell out of the habit of doing them*

In fact, I had essentially forgotten all about them until I came across the book again this weekend and actually said, “Oh! Movement snacks! I love them.”

I flipped through the book right away and picked a movement to do (I put my arms overhead and wiggled my fingers and the like) and as I did that, I had an idea…

“Do you know what would be better than having these listed in a book? If they were on separate cards or something so I could just pick one out at a time without having to flip through them.”

And that, my friends, is how I spent a chunk of my Saturday cutting up a photocopy of the listed movements and separating them into two types.

The first group was ‘overall practices’ – like taking the stairs, parking further away, etc., and the second group was ‘quick things’ – like using a ribbon to practice balancing skills or standing on one foot to brush my teeth or stir a pot.

Now I am trying to decide the best container to hold all the movement ideas (and I strongly suspect that I will be decorating the container AND the slips of paper but I will leave that as a fun treat for Future Christine) so I can just pick one when I am so inclined.

A selfie of the author sitting on the floor, wearing a black shirt.
This is from before I rediscovered the book but before I took this I was practicing getting up off the floor without using my hands for support so that’s totally a movement snack! I look a bit cranky because I wanted to be better at that project than I was. Image description: A head-and-shoulders selfie of me – a middle aged woman with a round face and shoulder length light brown hair that is kind of wavy/curly here – sitting on the floor. I am wearing a black shirt and a slightly disgruntled smirk. Behind me you can see the light green wall of my bedroom with a bunch of photos and decorations on it – including a string of star-outline lights hanging up behind me. Also, I can never seem to remember to look at the camera instead of the screen so I am looking downward a bit instead of straight ahead.

PS – Sam wrote about exercise snacks in May of this year and Catherine wrote about them in September 2024 but the ‘snacks’ they describe seem to be slightly different than the ones in Durham’s book. While she has some suggestions – taking the stairs, parking further away, etc., that are more exercise-y Durham has much more of a focus on mobility/movement rather than on getting a few minutes of cardio in. I guess that’s why the book is ‘movement snacks’ rather than ‘exercise snacks!’ Also, I agree with Catherine that using the word ‘snacks’ is much more likely to make me think of food than exercise. Don’t worry though, I make sure to have plenty of both kinds of snacks. 🙂

*My Dad actually passed away in May of 2023, just a few months after my initial post, so my timeline for those few months is blurry, to say the least.

a brightly coloured calendar of resilience tips from Action for Happiness Jump Back Up July? Sounds like a plan.
fitness · habits · health · mindfulness · self care

Jump Back Up July? Sounds like a plan.

Christine Hennebury1 Comment

This month’s Action for Happiness theme is ‘Jump Back Up July’ and their calendar is full of small steps to help you build your resilience, to increase your ability to face challenges, to notice your strengths, and to be kinder to yourself.

Now, as I am sure you can guess, I don’t really think that we have to *jump* back up every single time but even staggering back up gets us back up and trying again.

Cultivating the inner fortitude to try again when things go awry, to be compassionate when we make mistakes, to ask for help when need it, to reframe challenges, and to nurture hope throughout the process can serve us well in so many areas of our lives (including fitness!) that the effort to build our resilience skills is worth the effort.

Even though many of these practices are already in my regular repertoire, I’m going to make a point of practicing them during Jump Back Up July (or Get Back Up At Your Own Pace Using Your Choice of Movements July which is more accurate for me but far less catchy. 😉 )

Are you in?

Here’s the Jump Back Up July Calendar :

a brightly coloured calendar of resilience tips from Action for Happiness
The ‘Jump Back Up July’ calendar from Action for Happiness. I will, of course, be using this for ‘Get Back Up At Your Own Pace Using Your Own Choice Of Movements July’ too. Image description: A calendar for July 2026 with each block coloured in a repeating pattern of dark green, light green, orange, and yellow. The text in each block is a daily tip for building the skills to ‘Jump Back Up’ and the edges of the calendar are decorated with black and white cartoon images of people doing resilience activities such as hugging someone or carefully repairing a loved object.

And here’s a tip video from Action for Happiness featuring Vanessa King:

A video from the Action for Happiness YouTube channel called ‘Coping with challenging times. Jump Back Up July with Vanessa King’ on the left side is a still image of Vanessa King, a middle-aged white-presenting woman with reddish blonde hair that is pulled back from her face on the sides and top but with her bangs curling down towards her eyebrows. She is wearing brown-framed glasses, a black shirt, and a green scarf decorated with white flowers and gold-coloured leaves. She is looking towards the camera and smiling and there are two books and a vase of flowers behind her. On the right side of the image is a light blue rectangle with text that reads ‘Resilience. Bouncing Back’ in red and ‘3 top tips with Vanessa King’ in yellow.

Here are a few links about resilience that you may want to check out:

Leo Babuta – A Guide to Habit Resilience

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health – Building Resilience

Dr. Tracey Marks – Is Your Brain Stuck? How To Build Resilience Through Microregulation.

Robert Waldinger – How To Ease Suffering By Widening The Container

Woman standing on wall in bedroom. By Taurean Hill for Unsplash. Catherine adds yoga before bed to her evening, and her hips are thanking her
226 in 2026 · fitness · Physiotherapy · self care · yoga

Catherine adds yoga before bed to her evening, and her hips are thanking her

catherine wLeave a comment

Last summer I spent a lot of time dealing with sciatica, which had me limping and having trouble with climbing stairs. Thanks to many months of physical therapy, I got better. My gait became steady and strong, and I could climb stairs without pain or favoring one side. Yay!

A lamb leaping for joy-- my inner lamb is doing the same. By Jonathan Mabey for Unsplash.
A lamb leaping for joy– my inner lamb is doing the same. By Jonathan Mabey for Unsplash.

Maintaining my hard-won stability and strength takes effort, and I’ve done my hip exercises regularly. But I noticed that if I read in bed before sleeping, I would be creaky or have some hip pain– not enough to wake me up, but noticeable.

Reenter yoga before bed. I used to do some rotation of gentle yoga exercises before bed most nights, but for no particular reason stopped.In the past few weeks, I restarted, and noticed happy changes:

  • no joint pain in bed during the night or in the morning
  • easier walking around in the morning
  • a little more stability and flexibility in general

What I do varies– sometimes it’s mini sun salutations with warrior poses and twists and forward folds, other times I’m on my mat in the living room doing twists and hamstring stretches with my yoga strap. I sometimes do tree pose as well, although I’m less balanced in the evening. So far I haven’t fallen over, which I’m taking as a win.

I’m not sure it matters exactly what yoga poses I do. But I’m thinking it does matter that I do it. So I’m doing it. Having restarted my posts for the 226 workouts in 2026 is helping motivate me to do it (almost) every night. Yay again!

Yeah, yay to that. By Fausto Garcia for Unsplash.
Yeah, yay to that. By Fausto Garcia for Unsplash.

Readers, are you doing or re-doing something that’s making you feel good or better? I’d love to hear from you.

Tall glass with ice, fruit and green lime beverage. Yummy. By Fiznek Mutezi for Unsplash. Cold drinks for a hot summer: they don’t solve climate change, but they are mighty refreshing
celebration · climate change · fitness · food · fun · self care · vacation

Cold drinks for a hot summer: they don’t solve climate change, but they are mighty refreshing

catherine w1 Comment

Here’s a scientific term I wish I didn’t understand: heat dome. Europe has been suffering under one, bringing with it two record-breaking heat waves and more than 1300 excess deaths in the past month. And North America will be on the receiving end of one this week. Ontario and the US midwest and east coast are preparing for temperatures to top 100F/37C this weekend.

There’s a lot to say and feel about climate change. We here at Fit is a Feminist Issue worry and write about it a lot, including most recently Sam’s post here. It’s changed our daily lives in so many ways, including exercise and work and wake-up schedules, travel habits, buying plans– this is just the tip of the (melting) ice berg.

But we can’t and shouldn’t spend all waking moments confronting future and present fears and woes. In order to keep ourselves ready for the long-haul of adjustment and advocacy and innovation and conservation, we need occasional pauses. We need to be refreshed.

And, for my money, there’s no better and more refreshing pause than making and drinking a cold or icy fruity beverage. I’m serious. Who can be sad in the presence of fresh watermelon, a spritz of juicy lime, the cold rush from an ice-cold glass? Not me. And I bet not you. I mean, doesn’t this look like a (momentary) solution to all our problems?

watermelon agua fresca, with a sugared rim, spring of mint and lime squeeze at the ready.
watermelon agua fresca, with a sugared rim, spring of mint and lime squeeze at the ready. Go here for the easy-peasy recipe.

This drink is part of my regular summer drink rotation. Consider adding it to yours.

A new addition that I’m trying this weekend with friends is limonada, or Brazilian lemonade. It’s not really lemonade in a classic sense, as it contains sweetened condensed milk as an ingredient (WHAT?! don’t knock until tried). Also, you pulse (not pulverize) cut up limes in the blender, which adds to its limeyness. Here’s a recipe. I dare you to try it, and I double-dog-dare you to comment on the results. Are you reading, Sarah Pie?

The creamy simplicity of the Brazilian lemonade, or limonata.
The creamy simplicity of the Brazilian lemonade, or limonata.

I wrote in more detail last summer about fun summer cold beverages; check it out if you are looking for more ideas for cooling off in a hot summer.

And Happy Canada Day to all!

Summertime feminist kitchen activity: Catherine makes yummy cold beverages