Before the DPP, Frieda had very little awareness of the nutrition and impact that it had on her body. She had no energy, didn’t exercise, had joint pains, had consistent mood swings, and “felt quite hopeless about losing weight”. Despite the rough position Frieda was in, she took it upon herself to sign up for one of our DPP classes and soon started seeing a difference. One of the key differences that Frieda saw with the DPP compared to other ways that she had tried to change her unhealthy lifestyle was the commitment. Her prevention experience was an entire year long, with meetings going from weekly to monthly as the program progressed. This reliable, safe place allowed Frieda to find her own success.

“Lifestyle changes just don’t happen overnight, weight doesn’t come off in a flash, and exercise habits take a long time to establish.  Being able to have a framework for a year meant the stage was set for me to succeed.”

     The DPP was also something that Frieda genuinely enjoyed, and that is due to the instructors and impressive group support provided. Frieda’s instructor would email her between classes and go over plans before trips out of town, which really gave her the support and extra push she needed to change her habits. The group in which Frieda worked with was incredibly diverse, with some fitness nuts, others who hated running, as well as people who were short, tall, fat, or skinny. This environment allowed the DPP meetings to become an enjoyable social gathering, creating a place where sticking to a meal or exercise regimen much easier with the support of colleagues going through the same thing right along with you. We are proud to congratulate Frieda on not only reaching the 5% goal, but reaching all the way to 10% below her initial starting weight! Her commitment took her to a much healthier place, and SGP could not be more proud. Just like Frieda felt in the beginning, you may feel discouraged and hopeless, but take her advice and give the DPP a shot, chances are you could change your life and meet some great people in the process.

Designs By: Courteney Lisowski

As a self-proclaimed “date driven person”, Dr. Ivanic uses marketing analytics, statistics and experimental research to come to a general understanding of what influences an individual’s nutritional choices. In her line of research, Dr. Ivanic wants to understand “through a marketing lens, what can firms do in order to help people make better food choices”, while understanding the nuances of race and ethnicity and how they affect those choices.

Her work undermines misconceptions about marketing as simply a creative and ad driven field, stressing the importance of data and numbers for successful marketing projects.

At the very heart of Dr. Ivanic’s research is the concept of empowerment. She says that “when people feel empowered, they tend to make good decisions”. Her aim is to understand how marketers can empower people to make better nutritional choices by instilling affirmation and confidence. In her experimental research she asks subjects to reflect on their race and ethnicity in order to come to an understanding of whether or not they feel empowered with the necessary tools to make these decisions or not. She also gauges “nutritional literacy” in these groups in order to understand where there is a lack of knowledge and information about nutrition which could ultimately empower or disempower specific subgroups of individuals.

Dr. Ivanic chose to become a board member at the Skinny Gene Project because her professional and personal goal of empowerment aligns with the organization’s. Both the Skinny Gene Project’s work and Dr. Ivanic’s research take into consideration how race and ethnicity are two imperative factors for making sweeping changes in nutrition, health and diabetes.

Dr. Ivanic was recently tenured at USD, and hopes that this opportunity will give her time to work even harder on her research and projects. In the near future she hopes to focus her research on epilepsy and stigma, ultimately hoping to understand how social issues and disease are intertwined.

Photography by: Samantha Combs

We’ve had the opportunity to work with an inspiring mother-daughter duo.  The mother, Rosalvina, was on a mission to not only create a healthy home for her family, but to also bring back one thing her daughter seemed to have lost – hope for a healthy future.

When we began, Erika was only 12 years old but had been diagnosed with a health condition that usually means heart disease and type 2 diabetes are just around the corner.  Rosalvina and Erika looked for someone to help them with weight loss, but their efforts just left them feeling more frustrated and discouraged. That was until she found the Skinny Gene Project through her local Copley YMCA.

Initially, Erika was hesitant to come to the Skinny Gene Project “Boost Your Metabolism” classes with her mother.  In the past, she felt like the doctors who were trying to get her to lose weight did not see who she was on the inside.  All they saw was an overweight preteen.

After her mother brought her a sample of the food provided at the first class, Erika had a feeling that this weight loss class would be different. So, despite her previous negative experiences, Erika changed her mind and decided to risk attending the Boost Your Metabolism class with her mother.

When asked what made her want to improve her health, Erika said, “What motivated me the most was seeing other kids being able to run around non-stop.  And me having to stop after 20 minutes and then I’ll be all tired out.”

Creating healthy habits is a family affair.  Rosalvina makes almost all their meals at home in order to provide healthy choices.  She also exercises 5-6 days per week and models good habits for her daughter.   Rosalvina teaches her daughter how to live a healthy lifestyle, simply leading by example -making Rosalvina the perfect “Mommy Mentor”.

Rosalvina and Erika’s hard work definitely paid off. Erika’s goal at the beginning of the program was to lose weight before she started 7th grade in the fall.  With Skinny Gene’s help and her mother’s support, Erika started exercising regularly and making small consistent changes to her diet.   She was able to exercise more without getting tired. By attending our Boost Your Metabolism classes and practicing what she learned at home, Erika started feeling more confident in her ability to have control over what she puts in her body. All of these small positive lifestyle changes led to big weight loss.

After being in our program for just 3 months, Erika and Rosalvina have become the first mother-daughter duo at Copley YMCA to become a member of the Skinny Gene 5% club.

The Skinny Gene 5% club is an honor given to recognize the people in the Boost Your Metabolism program who made significant positive lifestyle changes and lost 5% of their body weight.

Studies show that losing just 5% of your body weight can have significant long term health benefits, including reducing the risk of heart disease (e.g. lowers bad cholesterol and blood pressure) and preventing type 2 diabetes by at least 58% (i.e. 4+ years)

We are excited to announce that at the end of the 3 month period, Rosalvina lost 5.7% of her body weight and Erika lost 8.8%

After losing the weight Erika said, “I have all this energy stored up now!”

Rosalvina has helped Erika to start down the path to a healthy and happy future, and the mother-daughter team plan to continue working on their lifestyle changes with the Skinny Gene Project to continue on this path.

Although we, the Skinny Gene Project are happy about the weight that these two lost, we are more excited about what they gained- improved health and renewed hope for the future.

If you’ve watched any of the TED videos, you know that they are generally very thought provoking speeches that often challenge conventional thinking. Well, this video is no different. The question is simple…”Is obesity the problem” ; the answer is anything but.

Simply put, this video is not just thought provoking, it’s a great story. What begins as a snap judgement ends as a tearful plea for forgiveness. And in-between the two are a series of statements that really question how we view obesity and diabetes, and treat those with this very complicated metabolic disease.

Although we may not completely agree with all statements and conclusions made in this video, there are a few questions and points he raised that we absolutely stand behind. The 4 comments and statements below justify and reiterate why our work, as a non-profit diabetes prevention organization, in the community is still so desperately needed.

1. There isn’t a set dietary prescription for being insulin resistant and preventing diabetes.
   
2. Can people make the necessary changes in their diets in a way that’s safe and practical to implement? How can we move their behavior in that direction so that it becomes more the default rather than the exception?
3. Just because you know what to do doesn’t mean you’re always going to do it. Sometimes we have to put cues around people to make it easier.
4. We can’t keep blaming our overweight and diabetic patients. Most of them actually want to do the right thing, but they have to know what that is, and it’s got to work.

What points did he make that stood out the most to you?

TRANSCRIPT
I’ll never forget that day back in the spring of 2006. I was a surgical resident at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, taking emergency call. I got paged by the E.R. around 2 in the morning to come and see a woman with a diabetic ulcer on her foot. I can still remember sort of that smell of rotting flesh as I pulled the curtain back to see her. And everybody there agreed this woman was very sick and she needed to be in the hospital. That wasn’t being asked.The question that was being asked of me was a different one, which was, did she also need an amputation?

Now, looking back on that night, I’d love so desperately to believe that I treated that womanon that night with the same empathy and compassion I’d shown the 27-year-old newlywedwho came to the E.R. three nights earlier with lower back pain that turned out to be advanced pancreatic cancer. In her case, I knew there was nothing I could do that was actually going to save her life. The cancer was too advanced. But I was committed to making sure that I could do anything possible to make her stay more comfortable. I brought her a warm blanket and a cup of a coffee. I brought some for her parents. But more importantly, see, I passed no judgment on her, because obviously she had done nothing to bring this on herself. So why was it that, just a few nights later, as I stood in that same E.R. and determined that my diabetic patient did indeed need an amputation, why did I hold her in such bitter contempt?

You see, unlike the woman the night before, this woman had type 2 diabetes. She was fat.And we all know that’s from eating too much and not exercising enough, right? I mean, how hard can it be? As I looked down at her in the bed, I thought to myself, if you just tried caring even a little bit, you wouldn’t be in this situation at this moment with some doctor you’ve never met about to amputate your foot.

Why did I feel justified in judging her? I’d like to say I don’t know. But I actually do. You see, in the hubris of my youth, I thought I had her all figured out. She ate too much. She got unlucky. She got diabetes. Case closed.

Ironically, at that time in my life, I was also doing cancer research, immune-based therapies for melanoma, to be specific, and in that world I was actually taught to question everything,to challenge all assumptions and hold them to the highest possible scientific standards. Yet when it came to a disease like diabetes that kills Americans eight times more frequently than melanoma, I never once questioned the conventional wisdom. I actually just assmed the pathologic sequence of events was settled science.

Three years later, I found out how wrong I was. But this time, I was the patient. Despite exercising three or four hours every single day, and following the food pyramid to the letter,I’d gained a lot of weight and developed something called metabolic syndrome. Some of you may have heard of this. I had become insulin-resistant.

You can think of insulin as this master hormone that controls what our body does with the foods we eat, whether we burn it or store it. This is called fuel partitioning in the lingo. Now failure to produce enough insulin is incompatible with life. And insulin resistance, as its name suggests, is when your cells get increasingly resistant to the effect of insulin trying to do its job. Once you’re insulin-resistant, you’re on your way to getting diabetes, which is what happens when your pancreas can’t keep up with the resistance and make enough insulin. Now your blood sugar levels start to rise, and an entire cascade of pathologic eventssort of spirals out of control that can lead to heart disease, cancer, even Alzheimer’s disease, and amputations, just like that woman a few years earlier.

With that scare, I got busy changing my diet radically, adding and subtracting things most of you would find almost assuredly shocking. I did this and lost 40 pounds, weirdly while exercising less. I, as you can see, I guess I’m not overweight anymore. More importantly, I don’t have insulin resistance.

But most important, I was left with these three burning questions that wouldn’t go away:How did this happen to me if I was supposedly doing everything right? If the conventional wisdom about nutrition had failed me, was it possible it was failing someone else? And underlying these questions, I became almost maniacally obsessed in trying to understand the real relationship between obesity and insulin resistance.

Now, most researchers believe obesity is the cause of insulin resistance. Logically, then, if you want to treat insulin resistance, you get people to lose weight, right? You treat the obesity. But what if we have it backwards? What if obesity isn’t the cause of insulin resistance at all? In fact, what if it’s a symptom of a much deeper problem, the tip of a proverbial iceberg? I know it sounds crazy because we’re obviously in the midst of an obesity epidemic, but hear me out. What if obesity is a coping mechanism for a far more sinister problem going on underneath the cell? I’m not suggesting that obesity is benign, but what I am suggesting is it may be the lesser of two metabolic evils.

You can think of insulin resistance as the reduced capacity of ourselves to partition fuel, as I alluded to a moment ago, taking those calories that we take in and burning some appropriately and storing some appropriately. When we become insulin-resistant, the homeostasis in that balance deviates from this state. So now, when insulin says to a cell, I want you to burn more energy than the cell considers safe, the cell, in effect, says, “No thanks, I’d actually rather store this energy.” And because fat cells are actually missing most of the complex cellular machinery found in other cells, it’s probably the safest place to store it. So for many of us, about 75 million Americans, the appropriate response to insulin resistance may actually be to store it as fat, not the reverse, getting insulin resistance in response to getting fat.

This is a really subtle distinction, but the implication could be profound. Consider the following analogy: Think of the bruise you get on your shin when you inadvertently bang your leg into the coffee table. Sure, the bruise hurts like hell, and you almost certainly don’t like the discolored look, but we all know the bruise per se is not the problem. In fact, it’s the opposite. It’s a healthy response to the trauma, all of those immune cells rushing to the site of the injury to salvage cellular debris and prevent the spread of infection to elsewhere in the body. Now, imagine we thought bruises were the problem, and we evolved a giant medical establishment and a culture around treating bruises: masking creams, painkillers, you name it, all the while ignoring the fact that people are still banging their shins into coffee tables.How much better would we be if we treated the cause — telling people to pay attention when they walk through the living room — rather than the effect? Getting the cause and the effect right makes all the difference in the world. Getting it wrong, and the pharmaceutical industrycan still do very well for its shareholders but nothing improves for the people with bruised shins. Cause and effect.

So what I’m suggesting is maybe we have the cause and effect wrong on obesity and insulin resistance. Maybe we should be asking ourselves, is it possible that insulin resistance causes weight gain and the diseases associated with obesity, at least in most people?What if being obese is just a metabolic response to something much more threatening, an underlying epidemic, the one we ought to be worried about?

Let’s look at some suggestive facts. We know that 30 million obese Americans in the United States don’t have insulin resistance. And by the way, they don’t appear to be at anygreater risk of disease than lean people. Conversely, we know that six million lean people in the United States are insulin-resistant, and by the way, they appear to be at even greater risk for those metabolic disease I mentioned a moment ago than their obese counterparts.Now I don’t know why, but it might be because, in their case, their cells haven’t actually figured out the right thing to do with that excess energy. So if you can be obese and not have insulin resistance, and you can be lean and have it, this suggests that obesity may just be a proxy for what’s going on.

So what if we’re fighting the wrong war, fighting obesity rather than insulin resistance? Even worse, what if blaming the obese means we’re blaming the victims? What if some of our fundamental ideas about obesity are just wrong?

Personally, I can’t afford the luxury of arrogance anymore, let alone the luxury of certainty. I have my own ideas about what could be at the heart of this, but I’m wide open to others.Now, my hypothesis, because everybody always asks me, is this. If you ask yourself, what’s a cell trying to protect itself from when it becomes insulin resistant, the answer probably isn’t too much food. It’s more likely too much glucose: blood sugar. Now, we know that refined grains and starches elevate your blood sugar in the short run, and there’s even reason to believe that sugar may lead to insulin resistance directly. So if you put these physiological processes to work, I’d hypothesize that it might be our increased intake of refined grains, sugars and starches that’s driving this epidemic of obesity and diabetes, but through insulin resistance, you see, and not necessarily through just overeating and under-exercising.

When I lost my 40 pounds a few years ago, I did it simply by restricting those things, which admittedly suggests I have a bias based on my personal experience. But that doesn’t mean my bias is wrong, and most important, all of this can be tested scientifically. But step one is accepting the possibility that our current beliefs about obesity, diabetes and insulin resistance could be wrong and therefore must be tested. I’m betting my career on this.Today, I devote all of my time to working on this problem, and I’ll go wherever the science takes me. I’ve decided that what I can’t and won’t do anymore is pretend I have the answers when I don’t. I’ve been humbled enough by all I don’t know.

For the past year, I’ve been fortunate enough to work on this problem with the most amazing team of diabetes and obesity researchers in the country, and the best part is, just like Abraham Lincoln surrounded himself with a team of rivals, we’ve done the same thing. We’ve recruited a team of scientific rivals, the best and brightest who all have different hypothesesfor what’s at the heart of this epidemic. Some think it’s too many calories consumed. Others think it’s too much dietary fat. Others think it’s too many refined grains and starches. But this team of multi-disciplinary, highly skeptical and exceedingly talented researchers do agree on two things. First, this problem is just simply too important to continue ignoring because we think we know the answer. And two, if we’re willing to be wrong, if we’re willing to challenge the conventional wisdom with the best experiments science can offer, we can solve this problem.

I know it’s tempting to want an answer right now, some form of action or policy, some dietary prescription — eat this, not that — but if we want to get it right, we’re going to have to do much more rigorous science before we can write that prescription.

Briefly, to address this, our research program is focused around three meta-themes, or questions. First, how do the various foods we consume impact our metabolism, hormones and enzymes, and through what nuanced molecular mechanisms? Second, based on these insights, can people make the necessary changes in their diets in a way that’s safe and practical to implement? And finally, once we identify what safe and practical changes people can make to their diet, how can we move their behavior in that direction so that it becomes more the default rather than the exception? Just because you know what to do doesn’t mean you’re always going to do it. Sometimes we have to put cues around people to make it easier, and believe it or not, that can be studied scientifically.

I don’t know how this journey is going to end, but this much seems clear to me, at least.We can’t keep blaming our overweight and diabetic patients like I did. Most of them actually want to do the right thing, but they have to know what that is, and it’s got to work. I dream of a day when our patients can shed their excess pounds and cure themselves of insulin resistance, because as medical professionals, we’ve shed our excess mental baggage and cured ourselves of new idea resistance sufficiently to go back to our original ideals: open minds, the courage to throw out yesterday’s ideas when they don’t appear to be working,and the understanding that scientific truth isn’t final, but constantly evolving. Staying true to that path will be better for our patients and better for science. If obesity is nothing more than a proxy for metabolic illness, what good does it do us to punish those with the proxy?

Sometimes I think back to that night in the E.R. seven years ago. I wish I could speak with that woman again. I’d like to tell her how sorry I am. I’d say, as a doctor, I delivered the best clinical care I could, but as a human being, I let you down. You didn’t need my judgment and my contempt. You needed my empathy and compassion, and above all else, you needed a doctor who was willing to consider maybe you didn’t let the system down. Maybe the system, of which I was a part, was letting you down. If you’re watching this now, I hope you can forgive me.

By Erica Gray- Skinny Gene Healthy Momma

With spring, I’m always brought to a sense of renewal.

I think it’s important to not only clean out my closets, but my pantry and refrigerator too!! I also, like to do some re-evaluating. Am I eating the way I should be consistently? Am I as active as I should be? Well, no one is perfect and although I’m a mile from where I used to be in the health department, there is always work to be done.

I’m not going to lie, in the winter I tend to get a little lazier. I mean who wants to  bundle up to go for a walk or let alone get out from underneath those warm covers and face the cold. Not me!!!

I do but not as much as I probably should. Plus with all the holidays, birthdays, school parties you just get so busy. Why does it feel like the busier I get the harder it is to eat right? Why does “junk” food have to be so convenient!

Well… its time stop with the excuses and get it together! Time to make commitments and taking steps toward change. They say it takes 28 times of doing something to make it a habit. So, I will try to make good habits by choosing things I feel confident I can change for 1 month.

Step One: Clean out my pantry and fridge

Goodbye clutter, hello organized!! (I like to put the snacks and foods I
want to be eating front and center in easy to get to and labeled
containers!) Treats and such I put out of eye level and usually on the
highest shelf. If I am super hungry and I have to dig behind some potato
chips (my weakness) and cookies to get to the dried fruits and nuts, you
know what I’ll eat.

Same goes for the fridge. I put what I should be eating front and center.
Plus, keeping it organized and clean make it easier and more enjoyable to cook.

Step Two: Take steps now to make it more convenient to eat in later

– Prepare and freeze a couple of slow-cooker meals for those days that I
don’t have the time to cook.

-Precut, wash, and store fruits and veggies. I put my celery in a plastic jar
with a little water at the bottom to keep it fresh. I will put grapes, baby
carrots, etc in individual bags for a quick grab and go snack.

-I prep and bag and freeze ingredients for my green smoothies.

-Plan out meals for the next two weeks before going to the store so I only
have to make one big trip.

-If I make and easily freezable meal (soups, chili, etc) I will make a lot
more and freeze the extra in individual servings. They make great
lunches or dinner if I don’t feel like cooking.

I know this seems like a lot of prep, but sometimes if I don’t have one big
chunk of time to do this I will do it as I go. For instance, while I’m
already making a smoothie I will clean and chop ingredients for 2 more
and put them in freezer bags. If I am making dinner, while its cooking I
will prep a slow-cooker meal or chop some celery. When I clean
grapes for my daughters lunch I clean and pick all of them and store them
for later. It’s all about making new habits.

Step Three: Time to make some commitments and set some goals for at
least the next month (because that’s totally doable)

– I commit to always have at least one pre-made meal in my freezer.

– I commit to keep my fridge and pantry organized (always have at least
two “healthy” options in each that are easy to get to)

-I commit to plan out meals 2 weeks at a time and stick to the program!-I won’t beat myself up if I slip! Just start over and try again.

-I have also made some big goals on the activity front (you’ll hear about those soon!)

This is how I’m spring cleaning. How are you? What commitments are you making?

March Madness brings out the best of the best teams to compete in head-to-head matchups on the basketball court!  In honor of the march mayhem, Skinny Gene presents the Produce Playoffs!  Just like the big dance, anything can happen on any given day as these super foods go head-to-head!  Whatever the outcome, all of these foods are winners!

SEE RULES AND GIVEAWAYS!

DAY 4 MATCHUP: Outrageous Oranges vs Banging Brussels Sprouts

(voting from April 3rd – April 8th @ Midnight PST)

The next produce playoff is the Outrageous Oranges versus the Banging Brussels Sprouts.  Both of these teams are peaking at the right time for the playoffs.  This is sure to be a match up of the most potent antioxidant players.  Here is the game day breakdown for the two teams:

ORANGES

Season: Phenomenal season, December through April.

Star players:  Vitamin C, Fiber, Phytonutrients 

On the bench: thiamin, folate, Vitamin A, potassium, calcium

Offense:  The offense attack of the oranges relies on the fast break, wash, peel, and eat!  Oranges also can play a sweet role in a spinach or fruit salad.   

Defense:  The oranges ‘go to’ star player is Vitamin C, providing immune defense and cancer reduction.   Fiber plays an important role regulating blood sugars and the bowels.  You will want to keep an eye out for the phytonutrients which can protect the heart function, lower cholesterol and reduce inflammation.

VERSUS

BRUSSELS SPROUTS

Season: Long season from December to June. 

Star players: Vitamins K and C, fiber

On the bench: Vitamin A and E

Offense: Brussels Sprouts are best steamed for about 5 minutes, over cooking decreases their nutritional value.  Try roasting Brussels Sprouts to enhance the flavor.

Defense: The defense antioxidant trio of Vitamins C, A, and E decrease inflammation and reduce risks of cancer.  Fiber provides 4 grams per cup, sure to help defend against cholesterol and constipation.

THE WINNER

This was an awesome matchup. Both teams played hard, but there could only be 1 winner. And  it was…. CLICK TO SEE THE ANSWER! 

Erica’s story begins with a candid account about what happened when she put down the butter and picked up running.

 ERICA’S STORY- The Beginning

I think to really understand my journey, you must go to the beginning.

I guess you can say it’s a “love story”.

I have always been naturally pretty thin. A blessing I know, but in some respects a curse. On the outside, I was a thin girl that my friends/family were always trying to “fatten up”, but on the inside I was a mess! Slowly but surely I was destroying my body. I was eating fast food everyday sometimes several times a day. I couldn’t eat most things without ranch, cheese, or butter on them. I would eat a bowl of popcorn with an ice cream scoop of margin to dip it in every night. Plus, I would eat close to a pound of chocolate after that. The amount of butter I would use at dinner was so noticeable that my husband’s family would joke that everyone better get the butter before I do because there wouldn’t be any left if I got to it first. I never had a reason to change because what the heck I didn’t look that bad and when I would try to eat healthy I would be given a hard time, “you already thin! Why are you trying to diet?”. Plus, I was feeding my addiction to fat and sugar that stems back to every dish my mom cooked had at least a stick of butter in it. Just think Good old southern cooking. My eating was out of control, but my physical fitness level was even worse! I would get winded going on a short walk with the dogs. I never wanted to do anything even slightly active with my family. My daughter would ask me if she could walk home from school and I would tell her no because that meant I would have to walk too.

With my Thirtieth birthday approaching quickly, I began to take some though looks at my life. I was not the mom or wife I wanted to be and I wasn’t getting any younger. My father had a quadruple bypass at 55 and that age suddenly didn’t seem that far off. I knew that I had to make some changes. I had always been what I like to call a flash dieter! I would go through phases or have events coming up. So, I would start “working out” and go on some incredibly restrictive diet that would last a couple of weeks or so until I started slipping back into my old ways. To me working out and eating “healthy”was always about how I was going to make myself look better not feel better. I’m not going to lie, this time I was partially motivated by the 2 sizes I had gone up in the last 2 years, but I didn’t want to just do what I had done in the past. I wanted to make real changes so I wouldn’t end up with the heart problems I was already predestined to get.

That’s when I decided I wanted to make a lifestyle change not go on a diet! I went to the store and came home with a trunk full of leafy greens and other fresh produce. The look on my husband’s face was priceless!!! You know the “who are you and what have you done with my wife” look. I was going to have a salad everyday or at least that’s what I told myself. I vowed to give up fast food and start slowly making healthier choices.

Now that I had a plan for eating habits, I needed to get active. I didn’t have a gym membership. I also didn’t want to spend the money and not use it like I had so many times before. So, I decide to run but I needed a goal and one big enough to really push myself hard! That’s when I said to my husband, “Do you think I can run a half marathon in 5 months?”. To which he responded, “That is a pretty big goal! Are you sure about that?”. It wasn’t the response I wanted, but it was the one he knew I needed. He said, “Well… get out there and prove me wrong.” I was so determined and I vowed to not give up! The decision was the easy part the running was the hard part. I could barely run a quarter of a mile. So, I signed up for a 5k(3.1 miles) and I got to work.

A couple of months in to me eating better and running my daughter looked at me and said, “Mommy how come you don’t get so frustrated with me anymore?”. That’s when it hit me. My change wasn’t just about me. Not only was I becoming a healthier and happier me, but I was becoming a better example and role model to my little girl. It was my job to show her how to build healthy habits now. Our family bonding used to be centered around going to get ice cream or going out to eat dinner. We still do that some, but now it’s going on family hikes and bike rides. When it’s nice outside we walk home from school together. It is amazing how much more talking you do on a walk home from school vs a car ride.

My first 1/2 marathon!

Over this journey I have grown so much. I have managed my anxiety with exercise more than any medication ever could. I have learned to use food and exercise to help manage the pain and inflammation that has plagued me from endometriosis. I have gone from barely being able to run down the street to finishing my first half marathon and 2 more before the year was over. I have become a happier healthier me. However, the most amazing accomplishment on my journey came a couple of months ago. It was the morning after I had completed a race and Cameron (my daughter) came up to me with sleepy eyes, threw her arms around me and said, “Mommy, I am SO proud of you! You did such a good job on your race yesterday.” It is that comment that will continue to drive me to improve myself. There is absolutely no better feeling than having your child proud of you. Proud of you for the right reasons!  I will continue to push myself to be the role model my daughter deserves.

Since it’s Valentine’s Day, I thought I should share a story about a person that I love dearly- my mom!

It’s about what started out as an act of love for her,  ended up also becoming Lesson of Love for me.

Happy Valentines Day, everybody!

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For as long as I can remember, I have had a hard time asking for help.

One of the main reasons I haven’t liked asking for help was because I didn’t want to burden anybody else with the task of helping me, particularly if it involved a situation “I created”.  But then I realized something.  Failing to ask for help not only shackles me to the problem, making it more difficult to keep moving forward, but it also ties the hands of those around me that want to help.

But then, as I was preparing to post my mom’s story, I had an epiphany…

I realized that ASKING for help is really offering an invitation to achieve greatness in disguise, and those who accept it have the opportunity to realize their own potential and achieve more than they ever thought was possible.  — I guess after all these years my mom is still teaching me a thing or two.

You see, almost 2 years ago I made a special birthday wish. It was what I’d call a “2-fer”.  You know, 2 wishes in 1. I hoped to inspire my friends and family to get out and be more active while raising money to fund our Skinny Gene Birthday Wishes program, which provides financial assistance to those in need of nutrition education and support to prevent type 2 diabetes.

Truth be told, I had my mom in mind when I created the part of the wish to get moving. But my mom was also the one person I was afraid to ask to participate. Mom has always been a very busy person, but over the years her health has made it difficult for her to remain active.  Her frequent migraines and sensitivity to heat and sun exposure make it difficult for her to participate in many outdoor activities. In fact, being outside can make her downright miserable.

Needless to say, I was both relieved and pleased when my mom accepted my first birthday challenge to walk 3.4 miles (in one day) for my birthday.  Not only did she say yes, she took it seriously. She went to the gym and started exercising to make sure she wouldn’t have any problems on the “big day”.  She also recruited her office staff, friends, and local business to participate in my wish.  In total, she walked 40 miles during my birthday month and raised $1,300 in donations. And this was just the beginning!!!

Last year, in 2012, my mom made her own challenge –  do a “tri-city walk”.  She set a goal of walking 418 miles, the

equivalent distance from San Antonio (where she lives) to Austin, to Houston, and back home. She used a pedometer to track her distance and kept a running tally of her monthly totals. At the end of the year, we added it all up and realized that she had walked a total of 760 miles, surpassing her tri-city walk goal, and actually walking the equivalent distance from San Antonio, through New Mexico, and past the Arizona border.

This year, my mom is once again raising the bar. She is determined to walk 760 more miles in 2013. My mom will start where she left off in 2012 (around Bowie, Arizona) and continue all the way to San Diego, California -where her granddaughter lives. She has also donated $760 and hopes to raise  an additional $760 for the Skinny Gene Birthday Wishes rogram.

Not bad for a”68 year old grandma” who 2 years ago trained to walk 3.4 miles in 1 day, eh!!!!

If somebody had told my mom, you’re going to walk 1,520 miles in 2 years, she would never have believed it;  neither would I.

By accepting my initial birthday challenge, she accepted the opportunity to unlock her own potential and achieve more than she ever thought was possible.-Way to go mom! I’m proud of you!

The Lesson of Love…that (real) love is rarely one-sided. When we have the courage to act out of love, what we receive in return is often times greater than we could ever imagine.

Through my internship with the Skinny Gene Project, I had the opportunity to obtain a  better understanding of theses issues, and I‘d like to share my thoughts with you.

I’d like to begin with why I came to the U.S.

In South Korea I worked as a Process Engineer at a Pharmaceutical company. I wanted to change my profession and work for a global company, and to do so, I needed to improve my English. So I enrolled in the Intrax language school, because I could improve my English and gain experience interning at a U.S. company.

Life in San Diego

Living in San Diego has allowed me to create many memorable experiences that I wouldn’t have had in South Korea.  For example, San Diego keeps such a temperate climate throughout the year, it’s easy to take advantage of the ocean and go surfing, kayaking, and snorkeling.

Difference in Culture

From the moment I arrived here, the people were so friendly and hospitable to me all the time. This was very unexpected because, especially in my city, Seoul, it is not easy to imagine greeting strangers as if they have already known each other for a long time. What’s more, I couldn’t imagine a person I didn’t know approaching me and saying, “Hello”. I would think “why say hello to me? What is your intention?”

With its weather and friendly people, I see why everyone likes San Diego.

 Blended Culture

When I studied about American cultures, to prepare to come to San Diego, I heard that diabetes had become a growing issue in the U.S. Of course, diabetes is a big problem in South Korea, as well. The main reason Koreans think diabetes is a growing issue is because the Korean lifestyle is getting similar to the American’s lifestyle. Even we are consuming more foods like hamburgers, pizza and other fatty dishes, so we are starting to get some of the same health problems.

I’m curious, why do Americans have a bigger problem with obesity and diabetes than other countries?

In my opinion, I found two reasons to explain this. The first one, as mentioned above, is the “diet”.

I’ve had the unique experience of discussing the American diet with my friends from Intrax. It was surprising to hear their perspective, because the students are all from diverse countries like Brazil, Turkey, Korea, Japan, Germany and Taiwan etc., yet we all had the same opinion.

Unfortunately, nobody I spoke to thought “American foods” were healthy. My classmates said that most “American foods” had too much oil, and they believed many Americans eat these “greasy” foods all the time. Not sometimes. This way of eating appears to be a part of the American culture. This is the definite difference between the U.S and my country. It sounds like this is  also the difference between the states and my friend’s countries too.

In my country, we also enjoy something “oily”, but it can’t be always. It’s okay to eat in moderation.

The second reason why I believe Americans may have a bigger problem with obesity and diabetes is a lower level of physical activity. The U.S. has one of the best car markets in the world, which is why automotive companies from around the world love to sell to the U.S.  In other words, I think the driving culture is so well developed in the U.S. that it is easy to get anywhere by car. Whereas, in other countries, like South Korea, walking and public transportation are the main methods of transportation. Having a car seems nice, but on the contrary, I think it might be the core reason for the decreased level of exercise in the U.S.

Different Steps

In doing some research, I found an interesting fact.

According to the Pedometer Test, Americans take over 4,000 fewer steps (walking) a day than other countries.  This gap is equal to about 30 to 40 minutes of walking each day. It is recommended that people  in the U.S take at least 10,000 steps a day to maintain good health, which is approximately five miles of walking. The study showed that  on average Americans are only taking 5,117 steps a day.

This study surprised me, because it means American are getting half of the exercise they need to live a healthy lifestyle and prevent things like heart disease, obesity and diabetes.

Doing some quick math, I realized that these missing 4,000 + steps can really accumulate, causing a person to gain an extra 21 pounds a year.  These additional pounds can be the tipping point between a person being healthy and becoming overweight, getting  high blood pressure, or having  high cholesterol.  Or, it could even be the difference between a person with prediabetes developing full blown type 2 diabetes, or preventing it all together.

New Perspective

During the internship, I’ve been taught a lot of things that I’d not known and had misunderstood about obesity and diabetes. Especially, it was a good chance to learn the distinction between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, the important role diet and exercise can play in diabetes prevention, and most importantly that diabetes is no longer the disease for the older generation. People my age, late 20’s, need to start being more careful of their health and live a healthier lifestyle, if we want to prevent diabetes from continuing to attack our generation. It is becoming a global issue, but we don’t necessarily need a “big solution”. What I figured out from the research and lessons are that we can slow the growth of obesity and diabetes by taking small steps, 10,000 of them to be specific, to improve the health of all nations.

Before concluding my story, I want to say that San Diego is AWESOME. It not only helped me to achieve my prospective goals, but also provided a bunch of ways to broaden my horizons. I believe that all the experiences that I had in San Diego are invaluable and never forgettable.

LIVING LIFE WITH INTENTION

It’s my life’s journey towards becoming who I am today.  Since it is rather long, I have broken it into chapters, so you can read it at your leisure. Each step along the way has had its own particular relevance to me today.

It begins like this….

I guess from some perspective, it could be considered odd.

I was lucky. I found my passion in 2002. At the time, I probably would have described it as merely needing to find an answer to a question that I couldn’t seem to shake – WHY?

I found that the more I searched for an answer, the more questions I seemed to find. Then before I knew it, I had turned a chapter in my life and my previous career ambitions had come to an end. A new chapter had begun; one that would be the beginning of my story and would lead me to the life I choose to live today.

I’m beginning to see that my life is written very much like a book, but I’m not the only author. Last month a scene was written into my life that concluded with a blank page, an empty slate and a question; it was my opportunity to create, with intention, the next steps my life would take.  Now that my actions have chosen the path, I wait with anxious anticipation to see how my co-author will direct me through it.

Before I show you how my chapter ended, I want to go back and share how my story had begun.

A MEETING OF TWO STRANGERS

Last month, I was sitting at a table in Union Square in San Francisco. It was a beautiful sunny day. I watched as people sprawled across the grass to eat or read a book. Despite the busy intersections and numerous construction projects underway, everything felt so still and peaceful. I remember thinking in that moment, how much I enjoyed living life.

After sitting there for about 5 minutes, I began talking to the lady at the table next to me. She had recently rescued her puppy from an animal shelter and wanted to acclimate him to city noises, so they were waiting in the square while her boyfriend was getting an eye exam.  She was killing time; I was enjoying my vacation time, so naturally…we chatted.

It started off like any other normal conversation. What’s your name? Where do you live? What do you do? I recited my answers thoughtlessly, like I had hundreds of times before. Then it happened. When I told her what I do for a living, she paused, and overtly examined me from head to toe. Then with a very puzzled look on her face, she uttered the same 3 letter word that started my journey 9 years ago. “Why?”

PERSPECTIVE

It actually happens pretty frequently. People are curious to know why I have chosen to dedicate my life to preventing diabetes. As I mentioned in the beginning, I suppose from some perspective, it could be considered odd. Why would a 30-something year old, petite woman be so passionate about preventing diabetes that she would start a diabetes prevention, non-profit organization. This is particularly perplexing to people when I reveal that I do not have diabetes, nor do my sibling or parents.

I think it’s all a matter of perspective. Where some may say, “why you”, my perspective has always been, “Why not me”.

Although I’ve answered the question, WHY, countless times, this time was different.  This time, the answer didn’t feel like a simple exchange or conversation. It felt like a prelude into what would become a new chapter for me, a better story my life was about to live. 

PRELUDE TO A NEW STORY

The moment the words escaped from my lips, I knew I was only telling a portion of the story. The part people wanted to hear. The part I felt comfortable telling.

The truth is that few things about preventing diabetes are comfortable or easy; but they are necessary.

Prevention is a process, not a pill. It’s about long-terms solutions, not band-aids. It’s a choice to live life, not to have it taken from you.  Prevention is not where you simply end up, it’s something you arrive to and strive to.

I have learned that the prevention process usually has 3 stages:

1^st– The Beginning– WHY it started, such as: genetics, environment, self-esteem, or abuse

2^nd– The Catalyst– WHAT happened to propel them towards prevention

3^rd The Motivation-WHO keeps them on the path to success

As I sat there in Union Square, answering the question “WHY”, it occurred to me for the first time that my answer was incomplete. All these years, my story began in the middle. It began with the catalyst. It wasn’t the answer to the WHY, it was the WHAT.

 Click here to read the next section…

THE CATALYST – What I thought was the beginning