Fitting exercise into a busy week isn’t an easy task but top Calgary realtor Tanya Eklund has found a strategy that works.
“Fitness is a huge part of my life and I schedule it just like I would a business appointment,” Eklund explains. “Unless it’s a catastrophe or I’m not feeling well I make it to that appointment.”
“I exercise to maintain, I don’t exercise to lose weight – and, I just love to eat,” laughs Eklund. “I’m a firm believer in healthy eating during the day and I try not to snack at night the key word being ‘try!’ I think it’s important to keep everything in balance.
Eklund works out six days a week including three with a top Calgary personal trainer – Philip Ndugga who keeps her on track with her fitness goals.
“Tanya is one of the most focused clients I have,” Ndugga says. “She works hard and is very determined,” says Ndugga.
Several years ago Eklund met Ndugga when she hired him to help her train and qualify for the Boston Marathon. She needed a time of 3:40 which she achieved in the 2010 Scotiabank Calgary marathon. But she didn’t get a chance to run in Boston. Three weeks before the race she came close to dying with a pulmonary embolism.
She was able to recover with treatment and medication and although Eklund missed meeting her goal of running in the Boston Marathon, she made a life-long friend in her trainer, Ndugga.
“Philip is just so amazing,” says Eklund, “I thought to myself ‘how can I not have him in my life?!’ So I continued training with him and this year boosted my sessions from two days to three days per week. He’s someone who will be in my life forever!”
Eklund says she’s a runner at heart. She began running in high school and particularly loves sprints. Although she’s not doing long endurance runs today, in order to spend more time with her two young daughters, Eklund still gets out for shorter runs on a regular basis.
“I really love running,” she says. “I always go by myself and I love the solitude of it. When I work out I’ll do a 30 – 40 minute sprint workout on the treadmill and then some weights. Fitness is a big part of my life.”
In addition to running Eklund enjoys boxing workouts with Ndugga, weight training and recently starting going to Barry’s Gym which offers an intense, bootcamp-style workout. In short, she’s just as energetic in her fitness life as she is in her business life!
Eklund says she was lucky to find a career I loved when she was 20 years old. This proved to be a big advantage timing-wise because she started her career so much earlier than friends of the same age. It’s enabled her to have the means to travel regularly, work out with a trainer and hire people to help at home even though she’s only in her late-thirties. She’s upfront about this and appreciative too.
“Balance is a word that gets thrown around a lot these days,” Eklund says. “But I feel I have found a balance that works for me.”
