Jennifer Fitzpatrick
Meet Jennifer! A Wellness Coordinator for Northern Light Beacon Health. She joined the team in the fall of 2013, and has been guiding people toward their wellness visions through goal setting and collaboration.
Jennifer is an early riser. A habit she began back in college. She rises before the sun, between four and four thirty, to get in an energizing workout. “It’s harder in the winter, but I feel better when I exercise in the morning!” Sometimes finding energy and motivation can be a challenge. But Jen values her health and her family, and wants to be a good role model. “Wellness is important and I am passionate about it. I try to be a good role model for my family and friends by practicing wellness in my everyday activities.” Being a good role model means living up to her personal standards of wellness. For Jennifer, that includes all aspects of life, like getting enough sleep, managing stress, and balancing work lifeit can be more than improving your diet and exercise. It can be working toward achieving any and all aspects of wellness. For example, finding balance between a busy work schedule, and life outside of work.
Jennifer enjoys being active, “exercising and eating good food give me energy.” She enjoys exercising most days of the week. She likes hiking, kayaking, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, recreational field hockey, basketball, and softball. She also enjoys keeping up with her three young Labrador Retrievers! Her supportive husband and family encourage her to achieve her personal goals. In September, she ran a half marathon, and although the training was difficult her support system kept her going! “Support is big for me, but everyone is different. Everyone has their own motivators to achieve their goals.”
Jennifer believes that a positive attitude plays a huge role in wellness. “For me, I can never be at my best self because I can always be better.” She believes that getting to your best self means arriving at a point where you’re happy.
Kevin Dunton
Meet Kevin, a Wellness Coordinator and passionate team member of Northern Light Beacon Health.
Kevin values his family and his two young sons, his friends, health and fitness, and his job. He even has his own home gym. Easy access to his personal workout space means that Kevin can fit in an exercise routine right when he gets home. But working out in the gym is not the only physical activity Kevin enjoys. He bikes locally at Bangor’s City Forest. In the summer, being out on the water is big for him and his family. He takes his two boys boating, fishing, and tubing. Fitness is an important part of Kevin’s wellness vision, and he incorporates it into spending time with his family.
When Kevin is faced with an obstacle, he tries to connect with what motivates him, like his family, work, and his clients. “My clients give me energy, when I watch them reach their goals and see them succeed.” Kevin is passionate about helping people reach their health and fitness goals. In addition to being a wellness coordinator, he has been certified as a personal trainer for the past 12 years. He says that wellness coaching is much different than personal training because it is more than just improving fitness, It encompasses all aspects of health. Kevin appreciates the success and achievement in his clients when they realize that their goals can be accomplished!
Lynn DeGrenier
Lynn is a part of Northern Light Beacon Health team as a Wellness Coordinator. Her vision for balanced health and wellness brings inspiration to the team.
“Exercise is a medicine, it’s mental health as well as physical.” Lynn has always been health conscious, so she finds a way to “make it work, because then you feel better.” Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Lynn participates in a fitness boot camp. “It encourages me to do exercises I wouldn’t normally do, it pushes me to work harder.”
Lynn values her family, her health, and balance in her life. “My wellness vision is to stay active with my family and to have a good quality of life.” She loves kayaking, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, and biking. “I love kayaking, it’s so peaceful.” Lynn makes wellness and physical activity a part of her life. It takes a lot of planning, but she makes it happen because it’s “too easy to let yourself go.” Lynn prepares a lunch to bring to work each day. “Everyone laughs because my lunch bag is so big,” she says, but by planning ahead, Lynn can bring healthy foods to snack on throughout the day. She says that if she didn’t bring her own healthy foods, unhealthy foods would become more tempting.
Lynn stresses that it’s important to her to maintain her friendships and to make time for her friends. Life is busy, but to Lynn, time for friends and family should not be sacrificed. She also expresses the importance of giving back to the community through volunteering. She is involved with the Orono Bog Boardwalk and Safe Medicine Disposal. Lynn finds a balance between all aspects of her life and strives for optimal wellness.
As a wellness coach, Lynn’s goal is to “educate and encourage individuals to make voluntary, well-informed choices to improve their quality of life -to me, being a wellness coach is very exciting because life is busy, we have children, jobs, and activities, and I love saying, ‘this is all about you.’ I am their biggest cheerleader.”