Lindsay Richards has been the head of physical education and health teacher at Rangeley Lakes Regional School since October of 2020, but she started her career in fitness well before then.

As the former fitness director and personal trainer at Rangeley Region Health and Wellness (RRHW), Richards had already been a healthy influence in the lives of area children for over a decade.

“It actually worked out pretty well because I was able to use all my background. I mean I had been working with all these kids through our afterschool program, so I knew most of the kids.”

A couple of years ago we started a snack program at the school. This is when I was still working at the fitness center, and I would cut up and prepare healthy fruits and vegetables for the school. I would bring it to the school, and they would try it, and it’s funny, some kids they wouldn’t try tomatoes, or pea pods, but because their peers were, they all of a sudden tried it, and loved the stuff. And now it’s actually a part of the school’s budget. So, they actually buy healthy snacks for the kids to have which is kind of cool because you know they kind of all developed healthy habits and I actually bring that into my classes too. I buy healthy foods and we do things with healthy foods- like we made these little banana snowmen. They all loved it. Everybody devoured them.”

After having majored in childhood development education at University of Maine, Orono, Richards was a great candidate for RRHW. “I always played sports, but I got into some nutrition courses there and when I graduated, I was working at a daycare a little bit and then this job at the fitness center opened up and they were looking for somebody with an education background to try to get more children’s programs at the fitness center.”

While working at RRHW she got certified as a personal trainer but continued to add to her professional skillset. “And then just kind of went on from there – youth fitness specialist and nutrition specialist, women’s fitness, women’s nutrition and just kind of kept, every one or two years, just continuing education stuff and just seeing the people that I help, and you know how their whole worlds can change”

Many parents, including myself benefitted greatly from the programs she helped create and develop. One example is the Children In Action (CIA) after school program which was and still is appreciated in the community.

In addition, she ran and led many group events and classes that have been very popular. Really more than I can successfully describe to satisfaction in this article. Basically, before the term became popularized, Richards was and is a true healthy living “influencer”.

She still incorporates a lot of the principles and programs from RRHW with her students. One such program is called the Let’s Go! 5210- A community engagement initiative working with communities to create environments that support healthy choices in Maine and parts of New Hampshire that encourages 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables, 2 hours or less of screen time a day, 1 hour or more of physical activity and zero sugary drinks.

“So when I first started this year off, we really focused on those things, and so every day they were trying new healthy foods, different fruits, different dried fruits.”

By helping the children, she is also helping the parents.

“I saw a mom in the grocery store one day and she said, ‘Oh my gosh, my son is obsessed with apricots now- thank you!’ So, it’s kind of cool to see that, yea.”

She is also reshaping the very nature of what you might call your typical gym class from back in the day.

“I’ve kind of changed PE (Physical Education), even Pre-K up. It’s not all about like just playing dodge ball and games, I’m teaching life lessons like how to eat healthy, and how to be a good citizen.”

“We’re still moving and playing games, but it has to do with working together and you know I threw nutrition games in there and just trying to get everybody to have a healthy lifestyle from kind of a young age.”

One game that she significantly altered was dodge ball. “I try to take some games like that and change it. Like if you think about it, dodge ball… It’s like, kids are just getting hit with balls. So especially if they’re not into sports and they’re not exactly athletic they’re going to hate it because they’re just getting hit with a ball by their classmates. So even dodge ball I’ve kind of changed, where we have like bowling pins, and I put a whole bunch of bowling pins on each side and rather than trying to hit each other you’re trying to knock the other teams bowling pins down.”

I was able to observe Richards teaching style during one of the WinterKids events held in February. RLRS students from kindergarten through eighth grade were in the midst of completing with 21 other schools in series of healthy winter activities. (For more on this see WinterKids Results on this page).

On the day I visited the students were learning about and trying foods from all around the world. Of course, she herself was preoccupied so after taking photos I waited until later that week to ask her how the students took to the event.

“K through 5, they love everything. They want to try new things, for the most part. Middle school they’re in that ‘I want to be cool and fit-in.’ With the food and activities that we do, it’s like somebody else doesn’t want to try something, or doesn’t want to play a game, even if they want to, they’ll say they don’t want to and not do it just because their peers aren’t doing it…which I’m trying to kind of nip in the bud.

There are a couple of kids that are around other types of foods and are active, and then you can tell the ones that really won’t do anything or try anything and I’m trying to break that.

I always say there’s a health triangle, so you know there’s your physical health, your mental emotional health and then your social health.

Raised by parents Nancy and Gary Perlson, with sisters Morgan and Kylie in Madrid, her childhood reflects that spirit.

“We didn’t go to the movies a lot, we didn’t go out to eat, we didn’t go to fast food restaurants. If we had pizza, she (mom) made it from scratch. We all helped and chipped in too. If we needed to bring wood in to heat the house, like even if you couldn’t carry it down to the basement, you were still helping. I remember being really young, and I’d carry one piece of wood at a time, drop it at the step, and then my sisters or my mom and dad would carry it down the steps.

At an early age I remember all the kids in school you know they’d have the Gushers and the Dunkaroos and my mom wouldn’t pack us stuff like that because it wasn’t healthy. I mean every once in a while we’d get a treat but it wasn’t like, I wasn’t bringing that to school and so I think just at a young age my parents taught us that.”

That being said, she was not always in the best of health. Back in 2007 she was living on her own, “When I was a junior in college I was really struggling with my health. Trying to grocery shop and be healthy, I was buying wheat pasta, and all these grains. You know I just had a lot of stomach issues and couldn’t figure out what was going on. I was losing weight, I was still exercising and eating well, but just wasn’t feeling great.”

I started going to doctors and taking different tests and they couldn’t figure out anything. Everything would come back, and they’d say, ‘you’re fine, you’re fine’.”

Fortunately, a random conversation with someone whose daughter had Celiac disease led to Richard’s own diagnosis. She learned she needed to steer clear of all foods that contained gluten.

“I can’t have even cross contamination. So, if french fries are gluten free, but they cook in the same oil as breaded chicken fingers, I can’t have them.”

She characteristically took this all in stride.

“When I first became gluten free the food was disgusting. The bread was cardboard. You know, you couldn’t find anything. So, I started making my own food. Making my own granola bars, bread from scratch and just kind of avoiding all of the processed junk and I was able to gain weight back in a healthy way and feel better and just realized how much better I feel when I’m not eating processed junk and I kind of suggest to people that are having stomach issues or anything wrong with them to just try gluten free, cause sometimes blood tests don’t always come back correctly.

I was fine as a kid and what one of the doctor’s actually said was that sometimes stress can trigger it. And I was kind of thinking you know at the time when I found out, I was like geez you know I’m not stressed, I feel fine, but my mom said well, I was just dating Jake at the time, we weren’t married, he was deployed, my grandfather and dog had passed away, like all kind of at the same time, so she’s like you know, ‘That could have been a trigger’, which is kind of interesting. But I don’t know if that is just something that without knowing about it happened.” She added, “but they say sometimes it’s just genetic too.”

Her sister has since been diagnosed as well but had significantly different symptoms.

“And so, my middle sister Morgan actually had done the blood test and she had actually had her gall bladder out first, because she was having so many issues, and it didn’t really help. So, after I got diagnosed, she went and got tested, and her test came back negative, that she didn’t have it, but the doctor said that ‘sometimes those are not always accurate, so just try going gluten free’ and she has been totally fine.

She gets crazy migraines when she gets into gluten, and so that’s the thing that’s hard to diagnose too is that everybody has such different reactions and symptoms from it.

So, gluten isn’t just something that’s in junk food, it’s barley, it’s rye, it’s wheat. So, a lot of foods that are still healthy have gluten or something that I can’t have. I can’t really have any bread because I can’t have any wheat flour and a lot of places say that’s it’s because of the processing. They say that where the wheat is processed has RoundUp in it and so it’s not actually the wheat but the RoundUp that’s in it, which is kind of interesting. I don’t know if that’s true or not.

Even junk food back then I feel like is different than it is now. They’ve just come up with more chemicals and just cheaper ways to make it so that they don’t have to spend as much to make it even though we do. I mean think about it. How cheap is a loaf of white bread versus whole grain bread? You’re paying 99cents for white bread and you’re paying like 5 bucks for a decent loaf of bread.

I’m not saying go buy gluten free pretzels and bread and everything like that but just have whole foods. You know, eat sweet potatoes, eat steak, eat chicken, just don’t fry it, and put all kinds of like breading and processed stuff on it and people find out that you know, there’s a lot better.”

Speaking of better, Richards wound up helping others who could benefit from a gluten free diet, albeit unintentionally at first.

“I just had a whole bunch of recipes that were gluten free that I make all the time and then I had some people that were asking about them so finally one day I was like rather than having all my recipes just in a box, I’m going to make it kind of like a notebook, and then after I made it I was like you know what, if I making it for me, maybe I’ll make it for a couple of other people and then like so many people wanted it, so I just kept making more copies. It wasn’t anything I ever wanted to publish or anything like that, I just printed off papers, put it in a 3-ring binder, and protective sleeve so people could take it out, they photocopy it and share it with friends and family if they wanted to.”

With her now husband Jake, three-year-old Connor and one-year-old Charlotte, she continues her healthy lifestyle where they have a hobby farm. “Brown Dog Farm”, named after their dog Gunner, includes horses, pigs, and chickens. “And hopefully this year we’re going to get cattle!”

She encourages walking the walk and not just talking the talk.

When she has company, she doesn’t offer the usual chips, soda, ice cream, etc. Yes, she likes chips and chocolate but everything in moderation. “But I try not to overdo it. If we have dessert, I usually make the things from scratch and people are usually thankful. Because I know for me if I go to somebody’s house and you know you’re playing like board games or something you can tend to just snack and not know what’s going on, but it’s nice to have a healthy option when you go. I think everybody has the goal of kind of being healthy, it’s just the will power.

She tries to encourage everyone from all ages to improve upon their healthy lifestyles and the benefits of her health education has touched her family in more ways than one. Specifically, when she was helping her father with his fitness goals and even during his bout with cancer. “He still goes to treatments and stuff, but I really helped him with his nutrition and staying active and it’s really helped him with recovery and staying cancer free. So just seeing the changes that I can help in people it’s kind of a reward in itself and it makes me continue to do things like that.”