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Dan’s Last Texts
I do not understand how it’s been five years since Dan died. My first thought is that somehow, I don’t know how, I have managed to survive for five years without him. After that, I think, I don’t know how I got through the pain, but I did because I am here. Then I realize that not only did I survive, I have thrived. Yes, I have suffered terrible sadness and loneliness and unbearable grief, but I have also been very happy, and deeply loved, and unconditionally supported by so many wonderful people. But even five years later, I still can’t make sense of the dichotomy of these circumstances. I…
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The Most Stressful Time Of The Year
The fact is, the holidays are very stressful. Even if you don’t manifest your stress in illness, like I apparently do, it can be an overwhelming time for so many of us. It never hurts any of us to minimize stress regardless. Here’s my plan, it’s not too late to join me!
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Instant Pot Tips for Beginners
Recently I’ve seen a lot of posts by people underwhelmed or overwhelmed by the Instant Pot which is a bummer because it’s an incredible device. Although I am most definitely still a beginning user, I’m hoping I can help a few newbies with some things that I wish I had known when I got my Instant Pot!
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Since When Did Simple Shredding Become So . . . Complicated?
The good news is, we have finally got to a point in our adult lives that we are able to hire real, live housecleaning professionals. The bad news is, on their very first visit (in their eternal efficiency,) they took away my big pile of “sensitive” documents which I have been accumulating for six months with every intention of sitting down and shredding at some point!
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The Value of Quick Emergency Response
Call the aid car, babe When Dan Potts says call the aid car, you call the aid car. I called 911 right away. At that point we were six months from me calling 911 for the second time, an ambulance ride from which he was not to return home. But we didn’t know that. All I knew that day, as his wife, was that he was lying there in enough pain to ask for help. Dan Potts was the proudest and strongest person I’ve ever known, and he never needed—or asked—for help. But today he did.
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Simple ways to move more
Obviously I am a huge proponent of setting aside time to work out. Whether its cardio or strength work, an hour a day combined would be ideal! However in this day and age, it’s not feasible for so many of us. Even if you can only squeeze in a workout a couple of days a week, there are plenty of other ways to stay active by doing a little bit at a time. Just as small changes add up nutritionally, doing brief snippets of exercise more consistently will keep you stronger and fitter, more balanced and flexible. I can’t stress consistency enough! You will get so much more out of…
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The Healing Table
It was a Friday morning and I woke up alone. My beloved husband had passed away the afternoon before at the University of Washington Medical Center and the friend who had spent Thursday night with me left for work before I awoke. My clients were canceled, and it was the first day of the rest of my new life that I didn’t ask for and certainly didn’t want. I didn’t know what to do. The house was so silent, empty and awfully lonely. I am not surprised that as I have always done in times of stress and turmoil, I turned to exercise. I left the house and started walking…
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Simple nutrition tricks for weight loss
If you’re like most people, you want to lose weight. It’s a pretty normal desire, and one that is simultaneously motivating and debilitating. We’re surrounded by endless sources of information that tell us to eat this not that, this study says this, this study says that, if you just do this you’ll lose that, if you don’t do this you won’t lose that. It’s confusing and wearying yet each time another study or article catches our eye, we hope that this will be the one that has that magic piece of information that will make the weight loss happen, or happen quicker, or happen easier. Weight loss is something you…
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Wearable devices connect community through exercise
The other day when I hit my step goal, my accomplishment was cheered by quite a few of my clients and friends. Yet no one was waiting at the end of a finish line for me to step across. It all occurred virtually, because we’re all owners of a Fitbit product, and consequently part of our own little connected fitness community. Some of us don’t tend to have any problems getting out and exercising. In my case, because of my work, I’ve made it an integral part of my daily routine. Yet most of us struggle to carve out time and energy to exercise regularly and for a long enough…
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This Too Shall Pass
Happy New Year to our Edmonds community and readers of this column! I’m glad to be back in the Edmonds Fitness Corner. It’s been about six months since my column has appeared for My Edmonds News. Some of you may remember that I lost my husband Coach Dan Potts last January, and I wrote last February about exercising through grief. Subsequently, last year went on to be the most difficult of my life, and although I religiously exercised my way through it, there were plenty of other parts of my life that fell by the wayside, including writing. It felt like I barely kept my head above water. They say…
