When Mary Buckley got married, she weighed 118 pounds, but after two pregnancies and a breast cancer diagnosis that she said caused her to treat herself to food for comfort, she topped 200.
“I was disgusted with myself. I didn’t feel good, my feet hurt,” the 57-year-old chief information officer at Chester County Hospital in Pennsylvania says.
Her doctor told her she was at risk for Type 2 diabetes, so she enrolled in a year-long diabetes-prevention program at a hospital funded through a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the American Association of Diabetes Educators.
“My heart was not in it at first,” she says. “I did just enough to lose a few pounds, but I couldn’t get my poor sleep and night binging under control.”
Then she joined a gym and signed up for 10 sessions with a personal trainer who pushed her.
“I felt good after working out, and I wasn’t as apt to eat from dinnertime to bedtime and beyond.”
Buckley has shed 25 pounds. Her cardiologist said her blood pressure is under control and she is not taking any medication. She eats regularly rather than going hours without food and keeps healthy snacks with her.
“Don’t think you should be able to go this alone. It’s tough work. Find your champions and surround yourself with cheerleaders,” she says.
Robyn Wilson weighed 250 pounds when she turned 30. She had a strong family history of Type 2 diabetes and was diagnosed with it, too. Wilson dramatically changed her food choices and eating habits and largely stopped eating packaged foods, instead choosing fresh fruit and vegetables.
“I said no to sweets, sugar-sweetened drinks and unhealthy carbohydrates,” the 33-year-old administrator for Ahold USA retail from Harrisburg, Pa., says.
She started drinking more water. She found that when she had a good night’s sleep, it tamped down cravings for unhealthy foods. She became an aerobics instructor and lost 80 pounds.
Her weight has been holding steady at 170 and she no longer needs glucose-lowering medication. She attends a monthly diabetes group coordinated by a registered dietitian at her workplace, and she leads the support group’s monthly exercise.
“Don’t eat things you don’t like or do activities you don’t enjoy,” Wilson says. “Do what puts a smile on your face.
