Lisa Dumontier
Editor

I’ve been feeling inspired to turn over a new, more health conscious leaf lately. Maybe it’s the upcoming holiday season and the ten pounds that I undoubtedly pack on most winters spearheaded by the overindulgence of Christmas goodies (turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, gravy yummmm) and subsequent inactivity that results from all that eating and lazy days spent by the fire with family and friends.

Too many sweets have been a crux of mine on too many occasions and after a great—and healthy—feast with a wonderful group of women last week, the wheels have started turning prompting me to take a broader look at healthy living from a community perspective.

The timing is perfect I suppose given the fact that it’s just about that time to be setting ourselves up on the path to New Year’s resolution success and while it would be soooo easy to pledge to lose twenty pounds in 2012 and then drop the ball come February, I think it would be a tad more realistic to veer away from dieting to settle instead on active living.

This is not a hard concept in the Red Lake area. Do you know how lucky we are here in Ontario’s great white north? Clear the fog from your glasses and take a clear look around. There are endless opportunities to get out and get active and believe it or not, this isn’t always the case in small remote communities especially when populations are as spread out as they are within this Municipality.

With two recreation centres, a community pool, a well-used arena, school gymnasiums open for after-hours use and too many outdoor trails and lakes (frozen or otherwise) to make use of year-round, the Red Lake area makes getting active super easy. Nope, you need not look far for something to do and if you focus your telescope just a little bit further, you’re sure to find a throng of healthy living enthusiasts waiting in the wings to help you reach your goals.

There are running classes, kickboxing, step aerobics and aquafit classes to name just a few and if you head to the Red Lake Recreation Centre on a Wednesday night, you’re sure to find someone willing to show you the basics and lend a helping hand when you’re feeling overwhelmed or unsure of where to start. There are bootcamps and biggest loser challenges, the Red Lake Friendship Centre’s HEAL program, groomed ski trails at the golf course and yoga on Saturday mornings and that’s really just the start as community calendars continue to prove time and time again.

There are so many things you can’t control in this world. So, so many things. Healthy living is such a large component of happy living and as you take inventory of the last twelve months and begin to look ahead to 2012, consider your own lifestyle and how turning over a healthy leaf could benefit you, your family and this community as a whole. After all, as I’m sure you’re well aware, as a community we are only as strong as our weakest link.

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