The weather in Southwestern Ontario has been mercurial. One day rain and 12C, the next freezing rain, then snow, then rain. You get the idea. It’s what we call in these parts a “wintery mix”.
With the barometer fluctuating any joint I’ve injured starts a conversation with me. My right knee gets cranky when it rains. My right hip reminds me of a fall in December. Lots of biomechanical feedback. So much so I didn’t walk in the worst weather. This is very out of character for me. I’m the one who wrote Nat decides she’ll weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether she likes it or not.
I do take advantage of opportunities to walk to physiotherapy, the chiropractor and work.
My commuter bike is tucked behind construction supplies awaiting me to adjust the shifting. I’ve been getting a lift. It’s been so gross out!
I’ve enjoyed the days where there is good footing and I have my little spikes for my shoes on me at all times. They are not great on my knees when the ice gives way to solid footing.
All of that to say, overall, I’m still averaging 9,500 steps a day, even taking it “kneesy”.
So here’s to navigating the rest of the season with self compassion and some stick-to-it-ive-ness
Nat smiled at the camera in a light jacket, a grey knit toque and a mustard yellow cowl.
Today, December 14, is our first real cover-the-ground-looking-like-winter snowfall here in Boston. I have such a soft spot for snow– it’s the fact that, as a southerner, I grew up with snow as a mysterious, rare and fleeting treat. Whenever we got enough to cover the ground, make snowmen, do snow angels or (oh joy!) go sledding, it never lasted more than a day or so. So we all pulled on our improvised snow gear and raced to the nearest hill with baking pans and whatever we could scrounge, so excited for that first snowy slushy slide.
I moved to New England 42 years ago, but the first snow has never failed to entrance me. There’s not nearly enough for me to pull out my cross country skis, but I’ll take a walk around the Fresh Pond reservoir and ooh and ahh at the frosted trees.
While I’m doing that, feel free to read this post about warmer weather winter walks with y family in South Carolina. I’m headed there next weekend, and will enjoy getting outside in sneakers and a light-ish jacket with family, friends and dogs.
What are you doing to take advantage of or endure the weather where you are? I’d love to hear from you.
I was shoveling my driveway on Wednesday. It was after my morning walk with Michel, my immortal beloved, and Lucy, hellhound, when I had a slip and fall.
It was sudden. I was upright shoveling and then on the ground. I’m sure I yelled.
I landed on my right hip and shoulder. Imagine a panda bear rolling around, that was me.
I got up, dusted off my pants and headed inside. I was embarrassed and mad. There was ice from the previous day under the fresh powder. A classic formula for slipping.
It’s been a few days. I’m sore but nothing serious. My socials have photos of friends with broken arms or other tales. One involved a brain bleed. They are recovering. But. Wow. Falling is not nothing.
I’ve been working on my balance. It involves deliberately using my peripheral vision, core strength and practicing my balance in a variety of settings. It’s really helped.
But it is icy and I’m out in it, biking and walking.
A friend offered her strategies for avoiding falling. We know these things well.
The penguin shuffle, where you are slightly forward and take small steps.
Wearing grippy footwear and adding crampons (little spiked overshoes).
I occasionally break out my hiking poles.
Strength and flexibility should help me stay relatively injury free. I credit learning barrel rolls in roller derby to my good outcome.
If you go down like a rodeo clown rolling helps disperse the energy.
Here’s to staying Rollie Ollie this winter!
A penguin being very skilled at walking in slippery conditions.
Sometimes, things move slowly (including me) and it is a lot easier on my brain if I just accept that pace and keep going.
This is definitely one of those times.
November has been a good month (yay for birthdays!) but it has also been a month with lots of rain, lots of meetings, lots of things to get done – and a few inconvenient migraines thrown into the mix.*
So, with all of that said, here are the updates:
My Walking Challenge
I’m 37% of the way through my walking challenge and I have been enjoying the little bit of extra motivation to get moving and the little bit of extra incentive to walk a little further.
image description: a screen capture of the activity screen from my challenge app. The top of the screen is a spooky scene depicted in purple and green. (That line rhymes!) below that is a map of Salem, Massachusetts with the route marked out in blue and icons representing different people doing the challenge at whatever point they are on the route. Below that are my stats: I have covered 37% of the distance in 39% of the time I have allocated for this challenge. I have completed 18.07 km and I have 29.73 km to go. I have completed 22 days of the challenge and I have 34 remaining.
While I *could* set my tracker to include all of the movement I do in a day, I decided that I only wanted to count deliberate activity. So, my walks count and so did raking the leaves but bringing in the groceries doesn’t contribute to the challenge.
My 11 Things Challenge
Here are my things-in-progress:
Journal while sitting on the floor once a week – I’ve done this twice.
Practice those three tricky TKD patterns for at least 30 minutes (total) – I’ve done 10 minutes of practice.
Rake up some of the backyard leaves (I’m leaving some for the bugs!) – I spent 30 minutes and filled up two paper lawn bags with leaves so this one is done!
Do at least one 10 minute meditation per week – I’ve done this twice.
Find a way to elevate keyboard for a standing writing session – I’m working with my Brother-in-Law to make this happen. By the way, I’m writing this on his birthday (Nov 17) so Happy Birthday, Dan! 💚🎂
Not bad, hey?
(The reason I’m describing my progress as slow is because I haven’t gotten to some of the bigger items on my list. I’ll get there though.)
I’m awarding myself a gold star for my efforts so far and I’ll update you further in a couple of weeks. ⭐
PS: My sister shared this short video with me recently and I found it really helpful. It’s good to be reminded that the purpose of making a list is not necessarily to get everything on the list done. Instead, it can be about ensuring that you get more done than you would have without the list. Good perspective shift, hey?
*Is there such a thing as a convenient migraine? Of course not! But some migraines are more inconvenient than others. This month they have all happened when I could just stop and take good care of myself without too much of a scramble.
I love gardens all year long. Yes, the spring and summer are the flashiest times to visit, with all the wild colors and shapes and so many shades of green. But I really enjoy the shift to subtler color palettes– the browns and yellows, darker greens, all made different by the softer light and shadows.
A path in botanical garden called Garden in the Woods, near me. Photo by Native Plant Trust.
I’m a member of the Native Plant Trust, which gives me access not just to this botanical garden, but also to dozens of gardens all over the US. I’m planning a few free fall garden walks with friends for November.
But before that, I’ll be in Portland, Oregon at a conference. I’m headed there on Wednesday. While there, my friend Norah and I are taking a little break from the conference activity to visit Portland’s Japanese Garden. I can’t wait to see this place in its version of fall color. Here are some pics from their Fall Colors Tracker page:
Trees shifting to reds and yellowsStrolling pond garden path with oranges and greens.
Closer to home, the Mount Auburn Cemetery is putting on its own show of colors. On their “what’s in bloom” page for this week, here’s what they say:
By mid-October Mount Auburn’s landscape is awash in color. As our many deciduous trees and shrubs begin to transform their foliage into jewel-tone shades of red, orange, yellow, and purple, other plants set out their fall fruits and nuts.
Here’s a photo from Instagram from this week of Mount Auburn Cemetery:
A person walking near the stones amidst bright orange and yellow foliage. Photo by Corinne Elicona.
Readers, do you have any tips for great garden walks in the fall? Let us know.
We are a numbers-obsessed people (we humans, I mean). We always want to know:
How much do I have?
How many do I need?
Is more ever too much?
These are hard questions. Luckily, I’m not here to try to answer them. But I can tell you one thing: the number of steps recommended per day according to scientific studies is definitely NOT 10,000, but rather 7000 seems to be a sufficient number for loads of health benefits. We’ve written about this before, but a new meta-analysis came out in Lancet Public Health re-affirms this claim.
The researchers found studies meeting their criteria that showed associations between number of daily steps and the following health outcomes:
all-cause mortality
cancer incidence
cancer-related mortality
cardiovascular disease
cardiovascular disease-related mortality
type-2 diabetes
dementia
depressive symptoms
physical functions
falls
Here’s what they said:
Three key findings emerge. First, even modest daily step counts were associated with health benefits. Second, 7000 steps per day was associated with sizeable risk reductions across most outcomes, compared with the reference of 2000 steps per day. Third, even though risk continued to decrease beyond 7000 steps per day, it plateaued for some outcomes. Notably, the dose-response relationship might differ by outcomes, participant age, and device type.
So, the latest research analysis is saying that, compared with 2000 steps a day, 7000 is great for a lot of very important health outcomes. In other individual studies, an average of 4200 steps a day provides modest improvement in lowering health risks. And, I might add, activity researchers happen to agree with this blog that every step counts– small amounts of activity contribute to health and well-being in lots of ways that we appreciate.
Researchers have also tried to pin down whether speed makes a difference. Here, the new Lancet study could not make any definitive conclusions, in part because there are various ways to measure intensity and because differences could simply reflect better overall fitness and physical function.
“We actually don’t see an association once we consider the total number of steps,” says Paluch, who has also looked at this question. “So, essentially, the total number of steps, regardless of how fast you’re walking, seems to have a benefit,” she says.
So– faster or slower, harder or gentler, up or down, to or fro– all of these add up to the message (which we knew already, but science is reaffirming it) that movement is key to a number of the features of well-being and health as many of us think of it.
Oh, last thing: those 7000 steps don’t all have to be all up. Just saying.
A very steep and long stairway. You make the call. By Ozlem for Unsplash.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of opportunities (or time-flexibility!) to walk to my activities on a week to week basis.*
Either my commitments are too close to get much extra exercise in or they are too far to reasonably walk without adding a lot of extra travel time. (If only regular time worked like conference time, hey?)
And yes, I suppose I could just choose to take longer walks some of the time but I can almost guarantee I will talk myself out of that process on a regular basis.
Ideally, I would have a meeting or a class a couple of times a week that was within 45 mins walking distance and I could build my schedule around it, including the walk time.
However, since the ideal situation is not naturally occurring, I have decided to create it myself…
At least once a week, I am going to go on a creativity walk!
I’m going to pick somewhere to walk to where I can read, draw, or write and I am going to shape my schedule so I have plenty of time to get there. And, since I know what my brain gets like, I am also going to create a definite plan for what to do while I’m at my destination and I am going to bring the things I need to be comfortable (a stool or a blanket and some snacks.)
This combination should help my outing feel like a treat rather than an obligation.
I’ll report back once my first creativity walk is complete!
*I don’t count my brief ‘walk to work’ each morning because it’s quite short and that stroll is not really about the exercise, it’s about shaping that part of my day.
Technically this post has nothing to do with snails, except for the fact that I have no plans to go particularly fast on these creativity walks, but I just really like snails. Image description: a yellowish-brown snail shell (with the snail inside) resting on the metal railing of a bridge next to some overhanging leaves.
Thanks to a whole bunch of massage therapy (Yay for Renee!) as well as a combination of rest, stretching, and curation of my activities, my neck and back are feeling a lot better than they were two months ago.
In fact, I spent the last week at the Storytellers of Canada- Conteurs du Canada conference in Halifax – plane rides, lifting stuff, sitting for long stretches of time during concerts, meetings, and performances, telling very animated stories during my workshops, sleeping in a dorm bed, and walking for long distances with a backpack – and I had very little trouble with my back or neck.
The view from my dorm room in Loyola Residence at St. Mary’s University – a very comfortable place to stay, by the way. Image description – a photo of the view from a window on the 19th floor of a building on a sunny day. We are looking down on several university buildings with lots of windows as well as the tops of a lot of deciduous trees with glimpses of buildings and houses here and there.
All of that has really convinced me that I’m ready to get back into more strenuous exercise on a regular basis.
I’ll be careful about it, of course. I don’t want to have any sort of avoidable setbacks and I think the key to avoiding trouble is to only take on activities that let me control the intensity and duration of my efforts.
Overall my capacity for exercise has slowly increased as my back and neck have been healing and I had noticed that walking the dog was feeling easier over time and my new habit of ‘walking to work’ has been very straightforward, exercise-wise.
Then, while I was away, I really enjoyed my long walks, even though they were sometimes difficult. I liked the purposeful feeling of striding* (sometimes ambling!) along to get where I was going and it felt good to be the kind of tired that comes from solid exercise.
I think that longer walks could be a good way to take things up a notch without wearing myself out and possibly putting my neck and back at risk.
Maybe I’ll start with 1 or 2 longer walks per week and see how that feels.
More reports as events warrant.
Image description: a photo of a white paper zine cover that says “The Stories We Wear (a workbook) Presented by Christine Hennebury at the SC-CC Annual Conference – Halifax, 2025” and is decorated with stars, spirals, and dots.
Yes, you’re right, it probably would have been better to share a photo of someone telling a story or of myself leading a workshop but I somehow didn’t take or request any of those – too caught up in the moment, I guess – but I am really proud of how the cover of this little workbook turned out so I am sharing that instead. Meanwhile, to be transparent about it, I couldn’t actually get to the photocopy place before it closed so my fun workbook is going out to the attendees after the workshop instead. During my workshop they answered the questions in their own notebooks.
*Meanwhile I suspect that part of the reason I enjoyed those walks so much was because I had moved walking from the ‘exercise’ category to the ‘transportation’ category in my brain so I’m going to see if I can make that happen in my regular life as well.
Many universities have limited space for cars, lots of sidewalks and spaces for students to walk or cycle between classes (and often to residences on or near campus). Generally, students can buy most of what they need at shops on campus or very nearby, and there are lots of third spaces such as parks and plazas where they can simply hang out with friends.
They may be the nearest thing some cities have to walkable communities (sometimes known as 15 minute communities). I have seen arguments that they may be part of what has older adults reflecting back on university as one of the best times of their lives. There may be some truth to this.
This week, I returned to living on campus for the first time since 1980 as I have been at a textile conference out of town. I walked a lot! I’m actually pretty impressed with myself, considering that I spent hours every day hunched over textile equipment.
I’m an analyst at heart, so I checked with Google Maps to estimate how far I would have walked as a first-year student at the University of Western Ontario, when I lived in a residence and walked to the music school every day. I walked a lot then, too: at a minimum, I walked to class, then home for lunch, then back to class and home again. That’s over 50 minutes of walking, even before going out in the evening, or leaving campus, or going to a class in a different building.
This week’s distances were similar, by the time I walked to breakfast, to my classes, home to unload and rest, and then back to the class area for evening activities. There were lots of elevators, and car parking and a shuttle bus for those with disabilities, so there were options for people who don’t walk everywhere.
Obviously, university campuses aren’t a perfect model for walkable communities for whole families or people who don’t work on campus. But wouldn’t it be nice if we could incorporate more active transit, third spaces and housing that is close to where we live and shop?
This third space on campus was quite lovely. It has public art, benches, trees, a pub/restaurant, and a mix of older and very modern buildings. Behind where I am standing to take the picture you will find restaurants, some shops, an art gallery, a church and a hospital, all within a five minute walk.
In last week’s post, I told you about how I was going to “commute” to my desk by going for a short walk before work each morning (with a backup plan for an inside walk if necessary.)
My one week update?
I LOVE IT.
What’s not to love? image description: a photo of a plant-clogged stream taken from a small bridge on a sunny morning. My shadow and the shadow of the bridge railings can be seen in the lower right and the rest of the photo shows various kinds of greenery, including deciduous trees.
I’ve tried lots of different ways to get my weekday mornings in gear and I have had moderate success with some of them but none of the other things I’ve tried have felt as good, mentally and physically as this short walk before settling down to work each morning.
My walk somehow gives me energy AND helps coax my brain into focusing on the tasks ahead but that’s not the most important part of this whole practice.
By adding walking as a fixed task, I am creating a clear division between the ‘at home’ and the ‘at work’ parts of my morning.
I don’t have a specific time to walk but I know that it is the deadline for the ‘at home’ part of my morning so anything that’s not related to work tasks has to be done before my walk. And, truth be told, I also include a few work-prep tasks like making a cup of tea (I put a cover on it so it doesn’t get cold), turning on my computer, and opening my notebook* to the page with my to do list on it.
Then I put on sunscreen and head out for around my neighbourhood**, walking fast enough to get my heart rate up a bit, and I’ve already noticed an improvement in how that little bit of exercise feels.
Some of the mornings I have chosen to listen to a podcast while I walk but other times I have mulled over a task on my list for the day so I could figure out a way to get started.
And every single time so far (yes, only 6 times but STILL!) I have been able to come home from my walk, head upstairs. and get down to work.
I haven’t hesitated, I haven’t gotten distracted, I haven’t started reading my book or gotten snagged by YouTube, I have barely even overthought it, I have just gone ahead with the first task of the day.
And it all feels great.
I am getting extra exercise on my own schedule (and at my own pace), I am creating a definite start time for my work (which by ADHD logic means I’m “allowed” to have a specific end time), and I just feel more even, balanced, and calm overall.
I know these good feelings aren’t solely due to the walks but I really believe that the walks were the missing piece in the puzzle and I’m so happy that I started them.
Wouldn’t *you* choose to walk down this path if you could? Image description: an asphalt path stretches towards a small metal bridge on a sunny morning. There is grass on both sides of the path and all kinds of trees down near the bridge and the water.
*Using a notebook instead of an app is contributing to my ability to get down to work right away because it limits how many tasks I can write down AND it forces me to prioritize long before I am actually sitting at my desk about to work. My notebook isn’t the focus of my post but if you want more commentary about the logistics of this, let me know and I will respond in the comments.
In other news, my notebook is very pretty…
Image description: a photo of a soft covered notebook with a dark background decorated with mushrooms, moths, greenery, and sparkles.
** I have deliberately decided not to start taking Khalee because she would slow down my process for getting out of the house and because I don’t want to change her daily routine and create a complication in her routine. Also, that dog loves a good amble and I want to walk briskly.
