In a time where fast food, video games, and obesity in young children are not unusual, walking inside a Starbucks coffee shop and seeing a 2-year-old and 4-year-old munching on fresh apples and protein puffs is a refreshing sight to see. But this is the norm for Shayne and Ann Wittkopp’s two children.

“They’re our homemade version of protein puffs. They’ve got flax seeds, sunflower seeds, oatmeal, a little bit of honey and almond butter to glue everything together, and some chocolate chips. The kids love them,” Ann said.

The Wittkopp’s live a life centered around health. Both have been trainers at the SURC since 2009, and value the importance of teaching a healthy lifestyle even outside of their work.

“The kids have never eaten in a fast food restaurant and they don’t know what lucky charms are,” Shayne said. “Their world is whatever we expose them to.”

Although the Wittkopp kids have been exposed to a healthy lifestyle since birth, this wasn’t the case for their parents.

While Shayne, a personal trainer, has been an athlete since his teen years, it wasn’t until he tore his ACL his junior year in college that he got serious about the science of exercise.

“I had just broken the school record for the triple jump, it was devastating,” Shayne said. “I decided at that point that I was going to get into nutrition and figure out a way I could come back better from the injury. I would be sitting in the training room just reading books to teach myself.”

Shayne decided to combine his newfound knowledge and his passion for fitness to teach young athletes like himself the correct methods of exercise.

Ann’s love for fitness started in college after taking a Broadway Aerobics class. She auditioned for a dance company and danced with them throughout college.

She earned her Master’s in Sports Medicine from Montana State University-Billings.

“If track and field was it for Shayne in college, the dance company was it for me,” Ann said.

The couple both grew up in the small town of Circle, Mont. After eight years of grade school and high school together, they finally began dating during their junior year of high school.

It wasn’t until seven years later that Shayne finally proposed to Ann.

“She jokes that it took me seven years but I had been saving money for two of those years,” Shayne said. “I’d known I was going to marry her for a while.”

The couple later moved to Long Island, N.Y. but soon realized the high cost of East Coast living didn’t suit their dreams of starting a family. Shayne applied to graduate schools in North Dakota, Montana, Washington and Nebraska in an effort to earn his Master’s and leave New York.

“Ellensburg sounded like home so I was sold,” Shayne said.

With Shayne attending graduate school, Ann found work as an athletic trainer at the Recreation Center and Shayne soon followed upon graduation.

“After I graduated, I got put in charge of personal training and group fitness at the Rec Center,” Shayne said. “After three years they made my position full-time, and the rest is history. That’s how we ended up here.”

The couple has fashioned a living in Washington they say they wouldn’t have been able to make anywhere else.

Unlike Montana’s short growing season, Washington allows for them to garden and has given them easier access to organic food.

“Being in Washington has changed us for the better,” Shayne said. “Living here has allowed us to do more of the stuff that we like,”

The Wittkopp family dedicates their Sunday nights to prepping food for the week in order to maintain healthy eating throughout the week despite their busy schedules.

From steamed vegetables to cooked quinoa, a healthy meal is always readily available.

“How many bad decisions are made because people don’t have time? People come home late, are starving, and eat the first thing in front of them,” Ann said. “That’s why we do food prep day. It makes choosing healthy so much easier,”

The couple recommends this food prep method when coming across patients wanting to lose weight.

“There are strategic lifestyle habits we can adjust,” Shayne said. “We have to give strategies to success because losing a lot of weight can be overwhelming.”

Lifestyle habits are a prime focus when dealing with their patients.

With Shayne teaching patients how to make better daily fitness decisions and Ann dealing with patient rehabilitation, the duo frequently work together to ensure patients get the best quality fitness training.

“It’s really beneficial for us to work together because if Shayne has someone that comes to him and wants personal training but they’re having back pain, he can send them to me and I can figure out why they’re having this issue,” Ann said.

For Shayne and Ann, making sure patients enjoy taking care of their health is just as important as getting them healthy.

“I can give you a workout that will solve most of your problems and you’ll hate every moment of it, and when I’m not there cracking the whip you’ll stop and gain all the weight back,” Shayne said. We want to attack health from a lifestyle standpoint.”

In order to change habits, Ann said trainers must adjust ato patient’s needs and capabilities.

“If the gate pattern is faulty, we fix the gate pattern…who needs a list of 15 things to change? That’s ridiculous, no one will remember that,” Ann said. We try to make it simple and give 3-4 points that you can easily apply.”

Things such as becoming a more disciplined shopper and getter more sleep are some of the things Ann and Shayne try to teach their patients.

For some patients, the lack of these two factors makes getting healthy an even harder task.

“I’ll ask patients how stressed or fatigued they are. Sometimes it’s not the gym that’s crushing you, it’s because you’re crushing yourself before you even get into the gym,” Shayne said. “That’s why we both advocate sleep.”

For both Ann and Shayne, keeping patients safe from injury and teaching them to enjoy a healthful lifestyle is the most important aspect of fitness.

“We are here to make fitness a lifetime salutation. To enjoy what you are doing and be able to enjoy it without injuring yourself,” Shayne said.

Aside from training and rehabilitation, Ann and Shayne are also passionate about helping students interested in exercise science as a profession.

Shayne currently runs the American Council for Exercise certified personal trainer course and encourages anyone interested to take the class and seek similar opportunities.

“A lot of students who want to work in exercise science need to learn that it’s not about them or their perfect workouts,” Shayne said. It’s about who they’re working with and helping people adopt a healthy lifestyle.”