GET PUMPED Team Spotlights: Team 15 – The Healthy Higgins-Hers
Mary Centrella, Jenn Daigle, Sara Gaudette, Judy Jaeger, Gina Patterson
Our team represents a range of ages and abilities, interests and goals. However, our common fitness goal is staying in shape and being healthy, and that’s why we signed up for the GET PUMPED Challenge. We work together in University Advancement, in Higgins House, and have exercised together on and off in various ways—taking yoga and barre classes together, walking the track, and using the weight machines—for several years. It made sense to form a team.
Our goals for this challenge vary. One of us is looking forward to wearing spring clothes and to outdoor activities, and wanting to feel good in both. One of us has two grown children and is hoping for a few grandbabies someday—if and when that day comes along, she wants to be a healthy and strong “Mimi” who can keep up and have fun with her grandchildren and then send them back home with their parents. One of us wants to feel her best in her own skin—and in her wedding dress in early June, and on her honeymoon following the Big Day. One of us wants to get into a more consistent exercise routine. For one of us, it’s most important to be able to participate in all family activities—with young and old—and be a fit and healthy mom and grandmom. For one of us, seeing a loved one go through a physically debilitating stroke makes her want to stay as healthy and strong as possible, for as long as possible. And for another, the goal is keeping up with a very busy and active six-year-old son.
Our motivation comes from many sources. Richard Armitage. Justin Timberlake. Elvis Presley. Tom Brady. Blake Shelton. Need we say more? OK—we do have other means of motivation. We all love to laugh, so humor plays a big role, and a lot of positive self-talk and positive talk to each other.
Our favorite workouts also vary. One of us loves bike rides with her husband. Last year they rode 22 miles roundtrip—her legs and butt hated her the next day, but it was worth it! All of us take yoga at WPI and love it. All of us have taken the barre class at one time or another, and two of us continue to take it. It’s a love-hate relationship—we hate it while we’re in it, but we love the results. And even that’s not true—we laugh a lot during the class, and swear a lot, and generally have a great time, even though we like to call it Ballet-Inspired Torture. One of us is doing Spin, too, and we all enjoy walking—either on the track in the Sports and Recreation Center or outside.
We’re all enjoying the GET PUMPED Challenge. Individually, we’re each pretty healthy and motivated about our fitness routines, but this challenge has helped bring each of us to a new level with our exercise. None of us has skipped a day of exercise since the start of the challenge—because we feel accountable to each other. One of us started walking after work and on the weekends because of the challenge. One of us actually feels disappointed when a meeting or other real work obligation gets in the way of working out with the team. And we all find it a lot more fun to work out together than by ourselves.
So, to the five teams who are ahead of us right now—you better keep working hard, because the Healthy Higgins-Hers have our game faces on!
