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My interest in
community fitness was formed early in my life. I grew up in the
home of a medical doctor and
nurse who were very involved in community health issues. My mother
founded the non-profit organization Project Compassion in the
1970’s,
which continues even today to provide visitors and programs for
local nursing home residents in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. I grew up
in these nursing homes with an acute awareness of the impact of
immobility
on the human body. My dad, an endocrinologist, spent a great deal
of his practice working with obese patients. Observing his practice
heightened my awareness of the health ramifications of obesity
and instilled in me a love of clinical science and modern medicine.
However, physical fitness was a new concept
for my family. It began for me as a survival skill in college due
to my school’s holistic philosophy, “fitness of body,
mind, and spirit.” Physical education classes were required
each semester, and relied heavily on the teachings of Ken Cooper,
the exercise physiologist who began the aerobic movement in the
early 1980’s. In order to survive the 3-mile field test required
of students each semester, training was required on a year-round basis,
and running became
a part
of
my life. |
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After completion of my bachelor’s degree in science and nursing, I
spent four-years as an intensive care nurse. By caring for human bodies
in their most broken and critical stage of life, it became apparent that
restoring health was a much more difficult and expensive task than preventing
illness altogether. Many of the patients I cared for as a nurse suffered
from diseases that were largely preventable—diabetes, stroke, obesity,
and hypertension. The job was intensely physical, emotional, and exhausting.
Glaring problems in the health care system became obvious to me, yet with
my current knowledge base I could not solve them.
Therefore fulfillment of a Masters degree in Business Administration
became top priority. I was the only nurse in my class of 200 in a top-10
business
school. Throughout the course of my study, more research became available
on the health benefits of exercise. I found that I could more easily
share my passion for exercise with others as a gym-based group fitness
instructor,
and embraced this role on a part-time basis. I could feel in my body
the direct benefits of cardiovascular and strength exercise--more energy,
stronger
immunity, and better weight control.
After two years of study in principles of accounting, finance, marketing,
and administration. A Fortune 10 pharmaceutical giant recruited me to
market anticancer
drugs to physicians. Though my $30 million budget was small by pharmaceutical
standards, I enjoyed assembling clinical data to make a case for physicians
to prescribe my product. With an enormous sales force and a large promotional
budget,
it was fascinating to influence market share and prescribing practices.
Fast-forward 12 years. After the birth of two sons and the yearning in my
heart to raise them myself, I left corporate America for the pursuit that
has nourished
my mind and body for the past 20 years--fitness. Over the past 15 years,
I have taught just about every type of fitness class in a variety of gym
settings (nonprofit,
corporate, for-profit), and have enjoyed the connection with others who too
are investing scarce minutes in their health.
In my heart I am still a clinician and a data-gatherer. Now there is such
an arsenal of data that no one questions whether exercise prolongs life or
reduces
the incidence of disease. In fact, I have stronger data now to support the
prescription for exercise than many of the drugs I used to market. However,
without a sales
force, a promotional budget, or much money to be made, the case for exercise
as a way to promote optimal health is so often greeted with a yawn.
The majority of Americans today are overweight
and over half of them do not exercise at all. Only 12% of the population
will ever be
a member of a gym.
Those who
live in areas of urban sprawl are heavier and less healthy than those who
walk to work and school. My mission is to bring fitness opportunities
to these—the
sedentary, the unmotivated, and the working class of America that may not
be able to invest time in a gym-based fitness program or afford
a personal trainer.
Working together, I believe we can reduce the rate of obesity for children
and adults, and the obesity-associated chronic ailments that rob us of
our quality
of life and cost our country billions of health care dollars every year.
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