Healthier Living
At the advice of his doctor, Don decided to take the Am I Hungry?® Workshop offered by Affinity Medical Group to get better control over his diabetes. “I didn’t take the class to lose weight but to change my lifestyle. Weight loss just happened to be one of the benefits.”
It certainly has. Don has lost 50 pounds in six months and he proudly announced that he now weighs less than his oldest son. But that’s not all. “I am diabetic and my hemoglobin A1C has dropped from 8.2 to 6.3. I was taking four different diabetes medicines but I’m down to only two.”
Don also reports that his knee and back pain are gone. He said, “People don’t realize that as they lose weight, it’s easier to be active.” Recently retired, Don has taken up golf and “keeps pretty busy.” “I have a friend who can barely get out of a chair. It gets harder as you get older and I didn’t want that to be me in a few years.”
Simple, but Significant
He says the lessons he learned are fairly simple but this time they stuck. “The main thing is that the class taught me how to eat less. I was programmed to eat everything on my plate. Now when we go out to a restaurant, I only eat about half.”
Don says, “My stomach shrunk. I notice that I’m not hungry that often.” After the workshop, he and his wife made some adjustments since their kids had moved out of the house. “We used to make a big dinner every night. Now we eat when we get hungry and we eat a lot less.”
Don added, “I probably ate more than I should have during the holidays but I didn’t gain any weight.” He’s decided that next he’s going to join a gym with his son. He isn’t particularly concerned about whether he loses more weight. “I had been fighting with my weight for 20 years and had a lot of injuries at work because of my weight. Working out is a lifestyle for me now.”
His advice to others in the same situation: “If you don’t change your lifestyle, you’ll just stay the same. Take it one day at a time and never give up.”
Update from Michelle May MD
I just received an email from Don that he has kept that 50 pounds off for over a year! If you have prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, we now have a book just for you! Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat with Diabetes: A Mindful Eating Program for Thriving with Prediabetes or Diabetes.