Sarah’s Journey: National Diabetes Prevention Program

I think starting in the first grade uh my parents got me into sports and so I played um soccer and then I started playing different sports like volleyball basketball softball but I also um definitely struggled with my weight even as a child I think I just used food as a crutch for some things and um whether it was to celebrate or to make me feel better and I just don't think I made very good um food decisions it was Fall 2 years ago so it was um during the pandemic and my daughter had turned one right before everything shut down and as she got mobile and started to walk and and do things I think I really just started to reassess um my life and where I was I was like man I really want to U make better choices I want to be an example and so I think I had started like my own um journey of um my diet and um exercise and a cooworker of mine had mentioned that she had heard about this program our main purpose for the diabetes prevention program is to help people just increase their risk of developing type 2 diabetes whether it be by weight loss or improving their physical activity and teaching them that you know nutrition is just not an impossible [Music] task the best thing about the chock tall nation National diabetes prevention program was the support that I got from everyone it was if I didn't have a good week and I was struggling with something that I could hear someone else say you know what I had a really bad week too but I know that we have this and I know we can get through it cuz we have this uh information to help us and we're going to succeed and hearing that I wasn't the only one struggling really helped me and that's what part of a journey is there's going to be ups and downs but to just keep on going there's many aspects I love of it but I think the thing I enjoy the most is that I see one person go from a a diagnosis of pre-diabetes with a high A1C down to underneath the 5.8 A1C where pre-diabetes starts and maintain that or if they're struggling with it come back and um ask for help again that connection you make with the people in your cohorts the people in your community that connection lasts a lifetime and they become not only uh participants they become your friends and sometimes they become your family I in no way am in this program to get um beini body ready or to look a specific way in skinny jeans I am in this program because I want to be a good example for my daughter and I want to be able to be active and play with her and not be like o mom's got to sit down or I don't want to go out you know let's just stay home I want to take her to the park and run around I want to be an active mom and be there for her I want to be around for her I want to take care of myself with the national Dobby prevention program and the uh lifestyle change program uh curriculum we encourage native culture we encourage um Native Foods if the participant chooses to do that I'm a firm believer in not telling anyone you can't have it because as soon as you do that they want it every day so as a lifestyle coach uh you know we try to encourage less of it cook it a different way something that helps the particip but see that we value their their desires but we're trying to help them prevent diabetes so if I had to give any advice on uh about joining a national diabetes prevention program my advice would be do it it was so great it was such a great opportunity having the support and the encouragement from my coach and um the participants and not just that but the tools and education that I got throughout do it try it and I think you're going to love it [Music]