Once upon a time a long time ago when I lived in a third floor walkup with only on street parking, played racquetball at lunch and danced all night I was incredibly fit, shocking I know. The importance of movement at that time was irrelevant, I was having a blast.

Fast forward several decades, I leave it to you to figure out just how many decades, I am round.  No doubt you’ve noticed.  Through complacency, tumultuous times, yo-yo dieting and a lack of motivation I have become…round.  I go back and forth between how the hell did this happen and it is what it is.  No it’s not…and I know exactly how this happened.  Now what to do?

Enter the best kept secret in Vermont, I’m pretty sure they really don’t want to be the best kept secret so look here, and life as I know it is changed forever.  Not overnight, not in the gym, not in boot camp, but in real life, my life.  I am beginning where I am, what a concept.

LynnAnn Covel is the dynamo leading the fitness department.  She is trained in several areas of expertise and has been at Green Mountain at Fox Run for the last 26 years, well here you read it:

An energetic and inspirational leader, she heads up our fitness department, lending her own special touch and motivational skills to help women learn to love physical activity. Through her personal training and L.I.F.E. (Lifestyle Integration for Empowerment) program, LynnAnn provides personalized fitness programs and strategies needed to facilitate changes that make all the difference in “taking it home and making it work.”

Here’s the thing about LynnAnn, you would never know that she’s been at this for the last 26 years.  She brings a freshness to each day, she has an amazing sense of humor that goes right to the crux of what you think you want to use as an excuse and her pragmatism leaves you thinking, well shit of course I can do this…

Add to that the now famous LynnAnnisms and you’re pretty much set:

Your pace is THE pace.

Something is better than nothing.

I’m doing this for me and no one can take it away.

I’ve been playing around with functional fitness as a way to incorporate movement into some of the many things I do all day.  Things like walking the dog, really walking the dog.  She’s not that happy about it especially on the weekends when we continue up the hill instead of making the right. Things like stretching when we get back using the porch steps, she sits on the step above where I’m stretching and gets a cookie at the end.  She’s beginning to like that part.

I found myself watching my Nutriblast whirring around for the minute it takes and thought I’ll do pushups against the sink while I’m waiting.  I do squats to get the clothes out of the washer and dryer (front loaders).

I took my first yoga class at GMFR and loved it.  Imagine looking out a huge cathedral window at Okemo as the sun sets and the candles scattered around the room come into their own as your first class. I mean really is that a tough act to follow or what?  Best I can do is sun salutation right out of bed. But hey, something is better than nothing, am I right LynnAnn?

She stresses finding something that will work for you on a personal level, something you enjoy, some way to make it work.  We had a bit of a mindfulness walk one morning and I couldn’t help equating that to my photo walks.  When I’m behind my camera I’m so busy looking around that I lose track of time.  God knows how many steps later I feel like I got my fitness in without even noticing.

We practiced ti chi one morning which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I took a ti chi class several years ago and really enjoyed it then too but didn’t quite know where to take it after that.  I could never remember the sequences so it fell by the wayside.  Fast forward, lot of that going on, through the magic of Amazon Prime I’ve downloaded several ti chi classes through TIVO.  It’s all just magical this universe I’m living in.

Growing older is inevitable but aging is optional said someone recently, damned if I can remember who, but that resonated with me.  That along with something LynnAnn said about saving for your physical future needs to go hand in hand with saving for your financial future.  After struggling to recover my financial future I can certainly see the benefit of recovering my physical future as well.   My gratitude runs deep…

On our final day in Vermont we took a walk in the woods, it was the only time I felt it appropriate to bring out my camera so enjoy some of these wonderful last moments spent in Okemo State Forrest.