Sharon’s New Way of Life
Every day, Sharon Wachs is on a mission to keep her prediabetes in check.
The goal: Healthy living.
The strategy: Nutritious meals, daily exercise, and the buddy system.
At the core of Sharon’s plan is Sun Health’s Center for Health & Wellbeing and its Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP). Struggling to take charge of her diagnosis, Sharon enrolled in the program and then convinced a friend to do the same.
Designed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the 16-week DPP program, followed by six months of maintenance sessions in a support group format, focuses on education, healthy eating and the benefits of staying active. For Sharon, a program that stretches over many weeks is vital for success. Otherwise, she said, “you fall off the wagon.”
“I knew a lot about these different things, but had never been able to quite put them together,” Sharon said. “Sun Health did that for me. They put all the different benefits together in a package for DPP participants.”
“The DPP program has changed my style of eating completely and now I think that way,” she said. “I like the long term process of the program.”
Every day, Sharon scoots her dogs out the door for a nice long walk. When the weather warms up, she heads to the recreation center with her headphones and gets moving. Sharon used to walk about 1.5 hours a week and now she has doubled that. She rarely misses a day of exercise.
“I feel really good about going out and walking,” she said.
Many evenings, she meets up with her friend to cook healthy dinners. They work together to make nutritious meals, and help each other say no to temptations like potato chips and desserts.
So far, Sharon has lost about 30 pounds and her A1C has decreased. In fact, since she started the program, her A1c had decreased one full point and is now in the normal range. Drinking more water and eating more fiber have been good for her overall health, too. Diagnosed with arthritis, she said weighing less also eases the pain in her joints.
“I was just really ready for this program…and the program is absolutely excellent,” Sharon said. “You can’t beat it.”
