Why This Iceland Native Says the Long Winters are More Than Worth It
It takes some serious motivation to commit to a healthy, balanced lifestyle and finding a little quiet time to do simple things she enjoys like a reading a book. Rakel admits that she will occasionally have to log on to her work computer at night to catch up on something she missed while picking up her kids, but it's well worth it for that quality time with her family.
“I want to be a role model for my kids; I want my kids to think about me and talk about me as the mother who is doing things,” she explains. “[I want them to say] ‘my mother is a runner, she is a cyclist, she is a doer,’ not ‘my mother used to go out for a run, walk, bike ride, to the gym . . . ’”
That's also the message she hopes to spread as a workout leader for the November Project. "The people at November Project [in Boston] taught me to believe in my fitness and that I am strong," Rakel says. "I wanted to share this experience with Icelandic people, to bring fitness and health closer to people, to make everybody welcome and believe in themselves to do whatever they want to do."
