Synchronized Skating: Wellness in Winter

Heather is second from the left.

We know it’s hard to maintain your healthy habits on those cold, short winter days. But, it’s not impossible. In our Wellness in Winter series you can hear directly from healthcare and fitness professional GoGetFit users on what they do to stay active year round.

For the second piece of the series, we talked to Heather Mielke, an exercise specialist with the Lloydminster primary care network. She also works with Exercise for Cancer to Enhance Living Well (EXCEL) to support cancer patients in becoming more active during and after cancer treatments.

What are some of your favorite summer activities, Heather?

So I run all year round, and I much prefer it in summer! That’s the big one for me. But, we also love to wakesurf. We lived at the lake until we moved to Lloydminster a couple years ago. We’re a big watersports family. And a little bit of golf now that my daughter’s a bit older and we don’t need to arrange for her to do something different; it’s been nice. And also just walking and getting outside whenever the weather is nice. 

So you run in winter and also skate, right?

Exactly! I skate with the synchronized skating team in Lloydminster; this will be my third season since moving back to town. We practice once a week and this year, as long as the COVID restrictions don't put a kink in our plans, we'll be going to a competition at the end of January!

Amazing! How many routines will you have to do?

Just the one, but how it works with the competitions is they give you a practice time slot, usually the Friday night. Then, we skate twice on Saturday doing the same routine and they average out the two scores. 

And you like the competitiveness of it? 

Well it's fun and it’s kind of a girls trip. We travel down together, split hotel rooms, have dinner as a group, and all those things. So, yes, it is a competition but we’re also just kind of glad to be there. And I’m not going into it with any expectations. 

Have you always been an active person? Tell us about your fitness journey.

Yes, I would say for sure. I figure skated from the time I could stand up pretty much all through to the end of high school. That was my big sport, and I grew up on a farm. I actually went to summer skating schools too. So, I didn't really get involved in a whole lot of other sports just because of time and costs; figure skating was always my main focus. I started university thinking I’d be an athletic therapist. But I went to Mount Royal College and at the time they were saying the athletic therapy program at U of C was just getting going and that we’d be able to transfer over. But, the program never came to fruition so I finished my degree in kinesiology and then started working in rehab and the primary care networks. 

Do you ever work out at home as well? 

Oh, definitely. We have a bit of a gym set up in our garage. It's just been something we accumulated over the years that we were living at the lake so we wouldn’t need to do the extra drive to go to the gym. We have an elliptical and my husband likes the rowing machine. We’ve also picked up some weights along the way and a few more things with the pandemic because the gym was closed. But, that's usually plan B because I'd rather exercise outside if I can!

It's nice to have options! So what is your temperature cutoff this time of year?

I think it fluctuates through the year, because I remember back in October, that first morning where it was -10, and you think “How am I gonna cope with winter?” But you always adjust and even today it's plenty cold enough but there's not really any wind, so I’d probably run in this. Overall, though, I’d say my cutoff is around -20/-25. Preferably with no wind! Because of my schedule, I run in the morning before work. So it's 5:30-5:45, that's the coldest part of the day too. When it’s really chilly it’s also fine to just go walking outside; it’s still something.

What would advice do you have for somebody who's trying to become more active in a winter?

You have to have a plan and I think you have to be okay with being a little bit flexible. Having fun is always good, but if you're too stuck to it, and then things like the weather happen and it's just not gonna work, you can get derailed really easily that way. So have a plan and maybe a plan B. I tell my clients all the time, it's always better to do something than nothing. And I think it's good for a person to get outside whenever possible, even if it's a short period of time. This is easier said than done, but if you try to find something that you like to do, or at least don't mind, you're more likely to stick with it and see the value in it. And, the other thing is how you think of exercise. A lot of us think it’s a chore, something that we “should” do. But, what about thinking about it as something you do for yourself? I think it helps to change your expectations and your reason why a little bit. This helps to get started and it definitely helps to keep going.

So, this said, what do you like about GoGetFit?

I'm very much the kind of person that likes to track and schedule things. So right off, I knew for sure this was right up my alley. Beyond that, it's a valuable tool because when you're already in an exercise routine, it's hard to imagine the difficulties that somebody else would have getting there. I've done it for so long; it's such a part of my life that it’s not a big deal to coordinate whatever I need to do to do my activity. But, for a lot of people that's just too much and that's why they're not doing it. So, to have that scheduling piece where you sit down and think, “What am I gonna do? When am I going to do it?” Then you start to think about what you're going to need in order to do that, like shoes or other equipment - that's a really valuable tool. I'm always telling people, you know, even if this is not typically how you run your life - you're not a scheduler like I am - try it for this because it makes a big difference; it ties you to it. I know for me, because I have such a schedule and feel so connected to it, that if something comes up and I miss my activity, I am much more likely to reschedule it. And that's what GoGet.Fit gets people to do as well. I see real value in that.

As a GoGetFit pro user, can you give us an example of a success story that you've had?

Well, I think that talking to people about getting started, and giving them that sort of practical tool, is really what they need. They know what to do [to be healthy and active], they’re just not doing it. With GoGet.Fit you can give a person this tool and then follow up with them. I’ve had many people really enjoy feeling accountable and just a bit more organized.