fitness

My FIFA Protest Has Turned into Something Pretty Great

Diane HarperLeave a comment

When the Men’s World Cup started, I had complicated feelings. I fell in love with soccer while living in Brazil. I was there for the 1992 event, which Brazil won. Brazilians go all out in their love of the game. We had to shut down my workplace every time the home team played because even public transit was pulled off the roads, leaving employees with no way to get home.

By the time of the Qatar event four years ago, I was pretty much over FIFA’s management of the tournament but I had grown to love the women’s game, which I discovered via the Olympics.

This year’s Cup was shaping up very badly, at least in the USA, what with the treatment of that Somali referee and the entire Iranian team, and I just couldn’t bring myself to give the organizers even a penny of advertising dollars by watching games.

So when I saw repeated slights* to the women in reporting on the men’s game, I bought a ticket to an Ottawa Rapids game. The Ottawa Rapid is part of the Northern Super League of Canadian women’s soccer.

What started out as a bit of a protest instantly became my new favourite summer sports thing to watch. The game was fast and skilled and it was fun to see so many past and future Olympians and Women’s World Cup players up close. I’m not quite ready to commit to season’s tickets because scheduling in the summer is complicated, but I have gone to a second game and have plans to take a friend for a third.

I have previously written about the joys of watching the PWHL, and Sam has written about the queer joy of the WNBA. I’m happy to have another professional league to support.

I have a lot to learn – names of players and teams (I was even confused about what team was playing at my second game – turns out it was Calgary). And how can they run around in the heat, especially with all that long hair touching their backs? I was uncomfortably hot just watching!

Ottawa (in black) makes a corner kick against Calgary (in red) near the Calgary goal. You can just see the ball highlighted against the dark staircase beside the first section of the stands in the background.

*Slights included:

  • claims that the USA could win their first World Cup (the women have won four);
  • Canadian men had scored the first ever Canadian World Cup goal and gotten past the group stage (Canadian women did both, years ago, and this image never gets old);
Janine Beckie, Canadian gold medallist in soccer at the 2020 Olympics, reacts to one of the other panelists saying that Alfonso Davies’ goal against Croatia at the 2022 Men’s World Cup (the first by a Canadian man) was the best moment in Canadian soccer history. This is supposed to be where I describe what’s happening in the image, but I have no words for the expression on her face.
  • Lionel Messi had scored the most World Cup goals (that was Marta, though he since tied her record), and been in the most World Cups at six (that’s actually Formiga, who played in seven, though Marta has also been in six, and is likely to play in next year’s Cup so may also be able to recoup that scoring record);
  • and overlooking Christine Sinclair when talking about greatest players (she scored more international goals than any person and and was at the game when it happened);
  • and all the men getting angry when any of this gets pointed out (patriarchy should not be the default, my dudes).
Sam’s three good things, the coccoon edition
fitness

Sam’s three good things, the coccoon edition

Sam BLeave a comment

#threegoodthings

1. You know how yoga instructors always say,  if at any time the pose we are doing doesn’t feel good for your body today, you can take up a restful pose? In antigravity yoga with hammocks, that’s coccoon, which is just like it sounds,  hammock napping basically.  As I’ve said before, “Coccoon shivasna is the best shivasna.” Last night, a woman walked into class dressed in work clothes,  in a skirt,  hopped into the hammock, assumed the cocoon pose and stayed there the entire class. Bad day at the office? Late for class and didn’t have time to change? Our gym has a penalty for registering and not showing, and maybe she wanted to avoid that.  Who knows.   Full points.  Wow.

2. Oh, Montreal.  I was there for a sad reason, a funeral,  but I still love you.  Bike infrastructure, parks,  food,  street life, tree-lined boulevards,  music. We will be back more often now, and I’m sad about why but happy to spend time in Montreal. Also, there are some pretty nice universities…

3. My Duolingo streak!

fitness

Volunteering As Fitness

Diane HarperLeave a comment

FIFI bloggers often write about their adventures fundraising for various causes: Sam’s pedaling for Parkinson’s springs immediately to mind, but she has a whole list of upcoming rides. I often swim at Bring on the Bay, sometimes raising funds for Easter Seals and sometimes supporting other swimmers. As a swim angel, I can’t fundraise directly, but you can support anyone from my club here.

Sometimes, just doing things to make the planet better are also fitness activities. Martha tried plogging. I am still intrigued by the Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage.

Last week I spent a whole day being active while volunteering. It’s one of the nicer things about being retired.

First up, I spent two hours picking mulberries with Hidden Harvest, an organization that harvests unwanted fruit and gets it to various agencies addressing food insecurity in Ottawa. It wasn’t super strenuous, but there was plenty of reaching and bending.

My next stop was a three hour shift with the National Capital Commission’s archaeology program. As part of its commitment to reconciliation, the NCC tests every site that might have been used by Indigenous communities before any construction or other work is done. In this case, we dug test pits in a field that is to be reforested.

Each pit is about 18 by 18 inches, and we dug down until we hit undisturbed soil – sometimes two feet or more deep. Every shovelful of dirt then had to be screened for artefacts. I think we managed four holes in three hours. We didn’t find anything of significance, so it looks like the reforestation project will go ahead.

Top: Laila, the archaeology summer student, takes photos and measurements of our work. The dirt we have sifted sits below the sieve on a blue tarp in the foreground, waiting to be returned to the hole once she is done. Bottom: some of the mulberries from our harvest.
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

painted pink hearts Making the everyday special
fitness

Making the everyday special

Sam BLeave a comment

I love this list of ways to romanticize your everyday life.

Lots of the ideas on the list, things like taking morning baths on the weekend, or small splurges like flowers or new nail polish, might seem familiar. You know, life is short so wear the fancy dresses and use the good china. But others seemed new to me, like the idea of playlists for everyday life events such as bill paying. I’m imagining a death metal themed playlist for that occasion.

Here’s another great one:

“I take myself on what I call ‘Date Me Days.'”

“I’ll take the day off work, get a coffee, go thrifting, eat at my favorite restaurants. … I do whatever I want to do for as long as I’d like to do it since I’m alone with no one to rush me.” 

Some are sillier.  One of the list contributors says, “My roommate and I have Waffle Wednesdays where we always have waffles for breakfast!” and that reminded me of our French toast Fridays. In our house, Sarah often makes French toast on the weekends, but sometimes we start the weekend early with French toast Friday.

I think we might have borrowed that idea from my fellow philosopher and cyclist friend Tim K.

Back to fitness, which is after all the main theme of the blog, one of the ways I like to make the everyday special is by giving each day its own fitness theme, like Movement Monday (see Embrace Mondays: Finding Joy in Every Day) or making Saturday a designated rest day, (see Saturday is Sam’s rest day.)

For many people in the fitness world,  it’s bench press Monday and long run Sunday.

For a time I loved Sunday night hot yoga

How about you? Do you have any special fitness days?

a row of dumbbells in a gym
Photo by Jason Morrison on Pexels.com
226 in 2026 · fitness

226 in 2026 in record time!

Sam BLeave a comment

Hey, I did it. I met my 226-workout goal for 2026 very early. On June 24th, in fact. There’s been a lot of dog walking, physio, personal training, bike commuting, aquafit, longer recreational rides, and Zwifting. In the winter, there was some snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. And then there’s been swimming and skating lessons, not to mention my personal favourite, Anti-gravity restorative yoga.

I feel like I lived up to my word of the year, Expand.

It’s not too late to join us. July 1st could be your new half-year. Instructions on how to join are here.

charity · cycling · fitness

Sam’s August Charity Riding

Sam B1 Comment

Hey, blog friends,  thanks for your support on the Tour de Guelph. I’m doing some more charity riding later this summer. I’m not doing any big rides in July but Nat is. She’s doing the MS Bike Tour and you can sponsor her here.

In August, I’m riding 200 km during the month in the Great Cycle Challenge to fight kids’ cancer! I think I’ll do one 50 km ride each weekend.  We’ll see.

“Because cancer is the largest killer of children from disease in Canada. Over 1,700 Canadian children are diagnosed with cancer every year. Kids should be living life, not fighting for it. Please make a donation to support my challenge and save little lives.”

Simply click this link to view my fundraising page: Your donation will support SickKids’ Foundation to continue their work to care for these kids, develop innovative treatments and find a cure for childhood cancer.

In September,  Sarah and I will be Pedaling for Parkinsons with the Spinning Wheels Bike Tour. You can join us here.

How about you? Are you doing any charity bike rides this summer?

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.

Summer’s in full swing and Nat couldn’t be happier
cycling · Sat with Nat · swimming · walking

Summer’s in full swing and Nat couldn’t be happier

natalieh (she/her)Leave a comment

Like many places in the Northern Hemisphere we have been experiencing a heatwave the past week.

It has messed with cycling plans, both for Michel and I.

I just saw him and about a dozen riders off at 6 am local for “Prettiest Town” a 300 km Randonneur brevet.

Originally Michel was to do the ride Thursday but it was canceled the night before due to the temperature. As were the rides scheduled Friday.

Now everyone is off and rolling, including myself. I’m going out for a peppy 50 km ride just as soon as this post goes live.

It’s been a marvelous week of getting on both my bikes. I had a nice 10 km recovery ride on my road bike, Ethyl.

I’ve gotten back into utility cycling. I picked up some groceries Monday.

Two reusable grocery bags sit on a bench, full to the brim with $100 of groceries.

I discovered my commuter bike, Myrna, can easily carry two bags of groceries. I love just a click from a grocery store and it felt good to stretch myself into cycling more.

Tuesday I visited a friend and got a 6 km ride round trip.

Wednesday was Canada Day and VERY HOT. A friend was moving so I provided a cooler full of Gatorade on ice and linen handkerchiefs for blotting our sweaty brows. They worked marvelously.

Lucy has been getting walks in the morning and evening, avoiding the worst of the heat.

Thursday, with the change in Michel’s schedule, we walked Lucy then did strength training in our basement. It was a day of enjoying unexpected time together.

It was lovely in the evening so we went to the closest outdoor pool for a lane swim. It felt amazing.

There’s something about dappled sunlight on the pool’s surface that feels magical.

Since I’m no longer racing in triathlons I just enjoy going through my drills and getting a few laps in. It’s about 600m in 30 minutes. I focus on my form and getting a full range of motion.

Friday was still hot so we got Lucy’s walk in early. I then invited Michel to bike with me to the pool for a 9 am laps session. It was busy but all the swimmers were familiar with sharing lanes and sorting out which speed lane they should be in.

Another 30 minutes or so and about the same distance felt good. My hamstrings complained as we biked home, extending out a bit to make the route a bit longer.

Walking, biking and swimming in the heat lead to a chill evening. Just what was needed for us to wake up at 4:30 this morning.

Being up before sunrise means you get some great views

I’m loving the variety of activities, especially the availability of so many lane swim times so close to my house.

Yes, I prefer it to be in the high 20s rather than “feels like 48”. I am also loving time to be active with Michel outdoors.

fitness

Blowing the Whistle on Gender at the World Cup: Why Six Women Referees Matter More Than the Score

marthafitat55Leave a comment

I love the Olympics, and I love the World Cup, both the men’s and the women’s. At present, the men’s World Cup is underway in North America. There are three country hosts: Canada (2), the United States (11), and Mexico (3). There are 48 teams playing matches in four different time zones. On top of all that, there are also 25 other sites across North America serving as training base camps.

The logistics of using three host countries instead of one is fascinating, but do you want to know what my favourite statistic is? The number of women referees.

Image shows six women dressed as referees. Text reads: Six women will officiate the 2026 Men’s World Cup. It’s the highest number of women officials in World Cup History, matching the record set in 2022. Yet 164 of FIFA’s 170 appointed officials are men. Source: The Female Quotient/Instagram

Six women are refereeing the games: two centre referees (Tori Penso and Katia Itzel García), three assistant referees (Brooke Mayo, Kathryn Nesbitt, and Sandra Ramírez), and one video assistant referee (Tatiana Guzmán). I watched Tori Penso referee the women’s World Cup final in August 2023 and she was fantastic. It was great news to read that two other officials from that game — Kathryn Nesbitt and Brooke Mayo — were joining Penso in WC 2026.

I haven’t seen a game yet where Penso is refereeing, but I have read a lot about her and her colleagues. There’s a great English-language article in El Pais (Spanish newspaper) where you can get snapshot biographies of the six women. I learned two things from the article: women are less than 4% of the appointed officials, and most of them began refereeing as teens.

Six may not seem a lot, but representation matters. I can’t tell you how many reels I have seen since the beginning of competition highlighting their presence. I took a look at some other stats to see how the number of women referees stacks up.

First, there’s not a lot of data, so we have to do better on that front.

Second, it looks like between 22 and 24% of the referee pool in North America is female, with Canada trending higher than the US. According to Canada Soccer, “out of the 19 elite Canadian match officials selected for the FIFA 2026 International List, 10 are women (roughly 53%).”

It occurs to me that we have a great opportunity to promote women in sports not just as athletes but also as leaders, mentors, coaches, and yes, officials. Supporting young women athletes as leaders in the refereeing sphere may become easier with the increased visibility Penso and Garcia, along with their colleagues, are getting on and off the pitch.

As we head into knockout play over the next week before we hit quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals the week after, I’m looking forward to catching sight of these six women living their best referee lives managing World Cup matches—I hope girls and young women everywhere are watching, too.

UPDATE: I came across this news story from my home province: the Newfoundland and Labrador Soccer Association has launched a program to get more girls into soccer—playing and coaching. Watch it here: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.7259174?cmp=newsletter_CBC+Newfoundland_1648_2175429.

MarthaFitat55 lives and works out on the far east coast of Canada. She’s cheering for Canada and Spain.