“Beating the competition is relatively easy. But beating yourself is a never ending commitment.”—Nike, There Is No Finish Line ad copy Since the moment I saw this image, from Nike’s “There Is No Finish Line” ad campaign, I was inspired. Everything about it was — is — me. When I first laid eyes on it,…
Fitness Corner
Fitness Corner: A New Year’s note
There’s a collective energy in the air at this time of year. Wafting all around us are feelings of freshness, motivation, potential for change, new opportunities, and chances to make ourselves and our lives better — promoted and perpetuated by newspapers, magazines, books, social media, our friends and family, and of course, ourselves. I’m a…
Fitness Corner: Audit and edit your fitness regimen for winter
Lately, it hasn’t felt in the Seattle area as though winter is near (and hardly even fall) although this may have changed by the time this column is published. In fact, this is the perfect time to take a good look at your current exercise program and think about how you may want to prepare…
Fitness Corner: Appreciation through absence
When I was growing up, all I ever wanted was a pool. I was obsessed with pools. The most exciting thing in the world for me was when my grandmother would come to visit from England and stay at a hotel with a pool. My sister and I would be in that pool all day…
Fitness Corner: The momentum of doing nothing
A couple of weeks ago, there I was, as usual, on the couch. A common place for me to be, two months into recovering from what felt like the slowest-healing-ever sprained ankle and pain-won’t-go-away broken wrist. That was the moment when I realized that I felt too comfortable on the couch. Far more comfortable on…
Fitness Corner: Strive to be an average person doing average exercise
I sit here with a broken wrist and a sprained ankle, unable to do much of anything. As a trainer and coach, I am the queen of modification. I would never let a client off the hook if they had any kind of localized injury because, I would say, “we can always work around it.“…
Fitness Corner: The measure of my mother
As a daughter, there were always three sure things in my life. Death, taxes and the deep, passionate love my parents have always had for each other. So it seems fitting that every year my parents’ May 11th wedding anniversary occurs near Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Because from my perspective, they are who they…
Fitness Corner: Lessons learned from my mysteriously disappearing golf club
The last time I played golf, my driver mysteriously disappeared out of my golf bag. I only realized it was gone when I went to grab it for my first shot on the first hole. To describe my reaction as shock, well, that is an understatement. This isn’t a club that leaves the bag except…
Fitness Corner: What motivates you to work out?
What is the thought that gets you exercising? What is it, exactly, that makes a sedentary person decide that they want to get active? Or an overweight person decide they want to shed some pounds? Or a person decide they want to start lifting weights? It’s a decision that comes from a thought that motivates…
Fitness Corner: The most useful health and fitness advice I’ve ever received
Twenty years ago, I started my career in the fitness industry, but exercise was already an integral part of my life for long before that. I’ve been exposed to a great deal of formal and informal learning over the years, including advice, tips, tricks, methods, methodologies and multiple schools of thought about anything and everything…
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Fitness Corner: In the new year, resolve to persevere
Every January I feel that this coming year could be a great year, maybe the best ever. I usually look to January as a time of positive change. If nothing else it’s my preferred month to do some organizing and clearing out of stuff! Even if my “resolutions” don’t bring lasting change, at least I…
Fitness Corner: It’s OK to move the ball
My late husband and I are at our favorite golf course in Palm Springs. It’s 108 degrees in June. We are on vacation, precious time away from our Edmonds home and most especially, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, which my husband visited at least monthly in the good years and way more in the bad years….
Fitness Corner: How to make exercise (mostly) effortless
There’s always effort involved in starting and maintaining a consistent exercise routine. Although it’s possible to fall into it, like I did when a boyfriend started dragging me to the gym several afternoons a week to lift weights, most of us aren’t so lucky. It takes conscious desire, effort and work to begin and continue…
Fitness Corner: Learning from limitations
Ask any of my clients and they will tell you that I am an expert in working around all sorts of physical and mental limitations. For example: Client text: I tweaked my knee and so I don’t think I should workout today. Coach Pritam reply: We can do all kinds of things that don’t involve…
Fitness Corner: Make every holiday moment count
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it…
Fitness Corner: How do you want to show up for your future self?
This has been an unprecedented and overwhelming year. Even as we move into winter, COVID is not letting up. Our lives have been compromised by the significant consequences of this pandemic and we all feel the cumulative and collective stress and worry. We’ve figured out various ways to cope this year, and with good reason…
Fitness Corner: Simple lifestyle choices key to actively aging
No one wants to get old, yet we can pretty much agree it is far better than the alternative! There are few of us who don’t complain about how our bodies and minds change as we get older. But as 90-year-old Edmonds resident Janet Robertson demonstrates by her own experience, aging doesn’t need to be…
Fitness Corner: Walk your way through the pandemic
Walking, it seems, is now a “thing.” If there was a form of movement that most of us can do, made for a stay-mostly-at-home-avoid-crowds-crisis, it is definitely walking. And with this pandemic apparently here for the foreseeable future, as well as summer upon us, there is never a better time to make walking a part…
Fitness Corner: Running with Wonder Woman
In early 2020, I signed up for the DC Wonder Woman 5K race. I have always been a solitary exerciser but after a hiatus of many years, it felt right to kickstart my running again by running 3.10 miles with a bunch of other runners and walkers, everyone coming together to get moving and achieve…
Fitness Corner: Grieving and the COVID-19 crisis
Six years ago, I was in the midst of the worst circumstance of my life—the death of my husband. Now, as we are collectively experiencing the worst thing our country has experienced in our lifetime, I have been constantly reminded of my grief journey. Perhaps you can relate to what I am feeling. Heartache. Anger….
Fitness Corner: Exercise in the age of coronavirus
The novel coronavirus has upended our lives in a way that few of us have ever experienced. With seemingly no end in sight, it’s an unsettling and frightening time. As we socially distance and isolate ourselves at home more, combined with the loss of control that many of us are feeling, it’s easy to lose…
Fitness Corner: Stop worrying about your weight
“I really need to lose some weight. Right now I weigh 105 lbs.” —Me, writing in my diary when I was 11 years old You can imagine how I felt when I found this diary entry recently. I don’t remember ever worrying about my weight at such a young age! I am sad. The fact…
Fitness Corner: When a New Year’s resolution lasts a lifetime
When I was 16 years old I made a New Year’s resolution that changed my life. I resolved to give up soda for one year. I have no recollection of why I did it, but I do remember it ended up being a resolution as well as sort of a bet with my boyfriend at…
Fitness Corner: In November, my thoughts turn to men’s health
When November rolls around every year, I think a lot more about gratitude. Thanksgiving has a way of reminding us how much we have to be grateful for, and I often find myself telling people “I’m thankful for you” and that sort of thing. And when Movember rolls around every year, I think about my…
Fitness Corner: Exercising while traveling
My late husband, Coach Dan Potts, was the most dedicated exerciser I have ever met, even on vacation. I have vivid memories of him on the floor of vacation rentals and hotel rooms, completing multiple repetitions of crunches, push-ups and bodyweight squats, nearly every morning we traveled together. And then we’d head out on a…