"I hate to work out!! I mean I really, really hate to work out. I like to be active and participate in competitive activities but find exercising just for the sake of exercising incredibly boring!

Last spring at the Family Building Blocks’ Uncorked Wine Auction there was a package from Encore Fitness for 10 hours with a personal trainer. I knew that I needed to improve my fitness and knew that I would never do it on my own so bid on and won the package.

I went to my first session with Tracy Gannaway with great trepidation. What would she think? I knew I wasn’t in great shape and worried that I would humiliate myself!! Tracy couldn’t have been warmer or kinder. There was no judgment, only encouragement and I left that first session knowing I had a new friend.

I still don’t love to work out but after almost a year of training with Tracy I take pride in my accomplishments.  I am in much better shape and push myself harder than I ever did before (because I can always see Tracy’s smiling face as she tells me to do one more set).

I will always be grateful that Tracy’s generosity in donating to FBB led me to her and I became the recipient of her warm but firm encouragement.  She has taught me a new way to think about my health, fitness and diet.  I will always call her my friend. "
-Eileen Childs

"As I was turning 63 and having several recurrent injuries to my neck, back and hip joints, my son, Jeff Blanchard, PT Therapeutics Associates here in Salem, said, "Mom, you need a personal trainer and I have found the best one for you...Tracy Gannaway. She has a nursing background and working with seniors is her speciality." Boy was I relieved because I would not have known where to start in hunting for a personal trainer! 

Well, I called Tracy and she was happy to take me on as a client. I think we "hit it off" right away...we both love being mom's...and she tuned into my needs right away. She saw my weaknesses and strengths, and worked with me gently encouraging me to address my weaknesses. She has been patient with me as I have had peaks and valleys in training, but generally I have found my strength increasing and my weaknesses diminishing, and I have been able to return to the activities I love...enjoying and interacting with my 22 grandchildren, gardening, and walking on the beach with my athletic husband.

 A side note....I am getting smiles from Jeff and my husband John...they have noticed my firming biceps and increased strength in carrying the laundry and groceries! Just like my grandchildren would say... I am saying, " I do it myself!"

Thanks for bringing more strength and joy into my life, Tracy! I appreciate your expertise as well as your friendship."
-Linda Blanchard​

"We often have people come in and out of our lives that meet a specific need…I call this “for such a time as this” moments.  Tracy is one of those people for me. 

Last October I had pretty much come to the end of taking off the extra weight I had been carrying on and off for the last 27 years but was still not content with the results of the work I had done. I wanted to make a life-long goal of running a half-marathon a reality but, still did not have the confidence to make the commitment. I wanted to be satisfied and happy with my body and its weight loss and work towards maintaining a healthy weight but found myself more frustrated and more preoccupied and anxious about that happening. That is when I reconnected with Tracy which led to spending time with her as my personal trainer.

Almost immediately Tracy was able to identify the weak areas of my body that needed extra attention….as well as the emotional weak areas of my soul. Work-outs are physically intense....and they feel good when they are done! Physical results came almost immediately and sweating out the stress…being pushed beyond what I thought I was able to do all worked together to draw to surface the emotional core issues that I have struggled with for so long.  Early on Tracy made the statement to me that she was not going to let me trade one prison (being shamed by the extra weight) for another prison..(being obsessed with being thin…or living in fear of the weight returning).

Tracy is an excellent, professional that knows and can communicate the science behind being physically fit AND she also has the heart to set women free from their personal prisons of shame, obsession, fear, and failure when it comes to how we view our bodies."
-Jane Schmidt, Dallas Oregon 
Jane finished her first half marathon three months after beginning her training at En-Core Fitness