| Posted June 13, 2014 | By Sarah Neil Pilkinton, R.D. | Categorized under WMC Happenings |

One in three American adults has prediabetes and most don't even know it. Having prediabetes raises your risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

So, on the heels of a wildly successful first run at hosting a Diabetes Prevention Program at Williamson Medical Center in 2013, we are gearing up for another one and are looking for qualified participants to join our next program beginning June 24.

The program is free and consists of weekly meetings through November followed by six monthly meetings after that to help ensure participants stay on track. We are participating in the National Diabetes Prevention Program led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This approach has proven to prevent or delay type 2 diabetes and includes a trained lifestyle coach, group support and CDC-approved curriculum.

The feedback we got from our initial program participants last year was incredible and collectively, our group lost 354 pounds in 10 weeks.

Am I At Risk?

In order to participate, we have to determine if you are at risk of diabetes. People who already have been diagnosed with diabetes are not eligible. If you have lab work from a physician that shows you have prediabetes or a body mass index higher than 25, you will qualify. If you don't know your BMI or don't have lab work, there is a great risk assessment tool on the CDC website at http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/prevention/pdf/prediabetestest.pdf.

Time for Change

The goals for the program are primarily to lose weight and integrate more physical activity into your daily life. There's no way to make drastic life changes quickly, which is why the program lasts a year. We don't just want you to shed a few pounds. We want to help you make lifestyle changes, which is often difficult. We know that everyone is stretched for time and it's easy to do what we know.

Past participants in the program have said their perceptions change as far as their lifestyle. The focus shifts away from their weight and becomes more about the more important numbers. People come into the program because they don't want to get diabetes, but they tell us that it's what they learned that they weren't expecting to learn that made a huge difference.

Just the fact that they know how much fat and calories they are supposed to be eating every day is a huge improvement. All of a sudden it's not "I can't eat those chicken fingers because they are bad for me," but it changes to "this is such a huge percentage of what I am supposed to eat in a day." It's a different way of thinking.

Group Dynamic

One element of this program that has proven to be effective is the group setting. We can sit up here and teach this stuff all day long, but if someone in the class recommends something the members of the group really listen to their peers. One person will talk about wearing their FitBit and then others show up wearing theirs.

There's also group accountability.  The members of the program are reporting back their minutes of exercise, they turn in food journals every week, and we weigh each week. So being able to hear from other people who are going through similar struggles as you and what they might have done to overcome it is very helpful. These groups have not had any competitiveness to them. They have all been so supportive of each other. We see lots of encouragement. It's positive and uplifting.

Plan of Attack

Another major aspect of this program is learning to identify stress triggers and manage or change those. Participants have to come up with a plan of a roadblock they might face during a week and work through how they are going to get past it if it were to actually come up. It's a challenge, but they write out their plan and that really makes a big difference.

Participants learn they need to budget throughout the day to meet their goals at the end of the day. A lot of their problems come down to lack of planning. With the group activities, we are tackling that in class.

If you are interested in participating in the program, email Sarah Neil Pilkinton at [email protected] or call her at 615.435.5580. Space is limited so slots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.