Relax! Running, pain and my CFT experience

In the last week I’ve gone on 2 runs. This is a big deal for me! I love running. Running has been one of the things I’ve missed most these last 7 years. I’ve given it a go a few times, and was quite successful last summer (read about it here!), but I started experiencing new pain in my left hip

Goals. Whose goals are they, ours or theirs?

I went for a walk today and took pictures, a favorite pastime of mine and one I’m very grateful for. As I was perched on two rocks, squatting to gain a better perspective for a photo, I started thinking about a few things, namely goals and motivation.  For a long time I couldn’t squat, at least not with any comfort.


Confidence when coming back from injury or while in pain

This post is a sort of intermediary between my last post, where I shared some of my discussion with Simon Roost Kirkegaard, a Danish physiotherapist and awesome human being, which led me to a new understanding of my pain and how my beliefs/fears/expectations about my hip were limiting me in ways I didn’t realize, and my next post, which will be

Nudging Pain: Movement Variability and Expanding our World

In my last post I talked about movement variability and how important it is for folks trying to change their pain, or just live more healthfully and resiliently in general, and in this post, I want to dive into that topic a bit deeper and talk about ways I’ve added more movement variability into my own life. This is part of

Getting real, changing pain: how my ego held me back

Wow, weeks can fly by! I had started the first two parts of my movement repertoire series with the intention of getting parts 3 and 4 out the following week. That obviously didn’t happen. And this isn’t yet part 3 because I want to share something with you all. It’s related to everything I’ll talk about in those posts but


Expanding our world and our movement repertoire when we have pain: Part 1

When we have chronic pain our world can become very, very small and when our world becomes very, very small, it becomes less populated, less interesting, less motivating, less engaging, less enjoyable…just less. And when our world becomes so very small, our movement becomes small too. Our movement becomes stifled, guarded, restricted, limited…less. We may not move much or as much as we used

Fear of movement and persistent pain

I recently wrote about how my thoughts on movement have changed over the past couple of years (part 1 and 2), and I thought I’d delve a bit more into the evolution of those thoughts and why I posted them. Why I think our emphasis needs to shift a bit from the overly formulaic and prescribed movement to exploring enjoyable


Movement nourishes your mind, body, and spirit. So move your butt.

Movement is powerful, not simply as a means of locomoting from one place to another but rather as a means to keep our bodies and minds functioning at optimal levels. When we sit all day long, our bodies and minds become stagnant. You’ve seen stagnant ponds, right? Stagnant = no good. But when we break up our sitting bouts with

Finally, a post on why I think everyone should have a FitBit (or activity tracker of your choosing!)

As a person who is obsessed with my Fitbit, I want to infect everyone else with my enthusiasm for activity trackers. I love my Fitbit!! I think everyone can benefit from wearing an activity tracker; young, old, middle-aged, active, inactive, athlete, weekend warrior, office worker, public service employee – I think you get the picture. Sitting less, moving more for


Go Slow to Go Fast–Build a Foundation of Good Movement

Nearly everyone that makes a resolution at some point in their lives (or frequently throughout their lives) that includes some component of getting fitter. Often times this includes starting a new workout program to lose pounds but with only a vague or confused understanding of how to accomplish that goal as efficiently as possible. You Google workouts, read fitness magazines