Lisa Druxman

While Brooke Shields and Tom Cruise battled in the media over how to treat postpartum depression, Lisa Druxman was helping new moms walk away from the illness. Literally. “To say that you are not happy about being a mom or don’t have positive feelings toward your child is not comfortable,” says the founder of San Marcos-based Stroller Strides. “Because of increased education, women are realizing that it is a condition and that it can be helped.”

Druxman, a longtime fitness instructor, points to Stroller Strides as one way women can battle the baby blues. She designed the 50-minute program when she was a new mom who had little time to exercise. But Druxman knows some women experience postpartum depression to depths unreachable by mere exercise. That’s why she is on the Postpartum Health Alliance board, helping the nonprofit consortium of San Diego organizations increase awareness of and provide support for sufferers of the disorder. In May, the alliance will sponsor a month-long focus on motherhood, including education and fund-raisers.

Meanwhile, Druxman continues to seek more healthy strategies for mothers. In 2007, she will launch her book “Lean Mommy,” a maternal take-off on the popular “Learn Eating Awareness and Nutrition” program she taught at area health clubs such as The Sporting Club in La Jolla. The mom version features an eight-week weight management program that “takes the power out of food” and helps women make healthy lifestyle choices.