Highland Medical Center To Offer New Class

“My name is Capitola Jackson – most of you all know me as Cappie. I am the Health and Wellness Coordinator at The Highland Medical Center.”

Ms. Jackson had stopped by to talk to us about an upcoming program at the Medical Center.

“Pre-diabetes is a serious condition affecting one out of three American adults. That’s more than 84 million people. Starting Wednesday, September 19^th, Highland Medical Center will offer their first CDC recognized diabetes prevention program at no cost. Depending on its popularity, we may start additional groups at later times during the year.

“What is it, you might ask. A CDC recognized lifestyle change program is a structured program developed specifically to prevent Type 2 diabetes. It is designed for people who have pre-diabetes, or at risk for Type 2 diabetes. A trained lifestyle coach – which is me – leads the program to help you change certain aspects of your lifestyle, like eating healthier, reducing stress, and getting more physical activity. The program also includes group support from others who share your same goals and struggles.

“This lifestyle change program is not a fad diet, or an exercise class, and it’s not a quick fix. It’s a year-long program focused on long term changes and lasting results. A year might sound like a very long commitment, but learning new habits, gaining new skills, and building confidence takes time. As you begin to eat better, and become more active, you’ll notice changes in how you feel, and even in how you look.

“Anybody who has been previously diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, I would invite to this program, and anybody who is considered pre-diabetic.”

I asked if there were any age restrictions.

“No, unfortunately, diabetes doesn’t have an age range.”

She also spoke about some of her other health related activities.

“The cool part about my job is that I’m allowed to do a lot of different things regarding health and wellness, so it doesn’t have to be at the Medical Center always. So I’ve been spending a lot of time at the school, specifically with the advanced P.E. class. As most of you all know, we do have a new high school P.E. teacher, Megan Botkin. She invited me over several months ago to focus more so on the fundamentals of strength and conditioning. Thus far, we have been working on dynamic stretching, we’ve talked about sports nutrition. I’m working on speed and agility this week – the students don’t like me very much because I’m making them run.

“Most everybody knows me as the ‘Butt and Gut’ lady. Unfortunately, that name caught on. And that is a body weight class that I do on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Medical Center, and that’s a fun class, and it’s actually kind of cool because my youngest member is 15 and my oldest member might be 65. We’ve had some new additions and some new energy, and I hope that continues. We are taking a little bit of a fall break for September.

“We’ve started a diabetes education team at the Medical Center, with two of my co-workers, and we’ve gotten some awesome feedback from that.

“I’m trying to kind of inspire people – maybe give them a little boost, a little reminder. So I’m doing seasonal community wellness challenges, and my first one, I’m probably pairing up with Catie King, the Rec Director, and we’re doing a ’30 Miles in 30 Days Fit For Fall Walking Challenge’ starting in October. I think for the winter challenge, I might do kind of an ‘eat this, not that’ food challenge- because obviously, we all have a problem at Thanksgiving and Christmas. And then I may do some type of exercise challenge in the spring – we’ll see from there.”

For more information on any of these programs:

“I would suggest calling my office number specifically, and that direct line is 540-468-6434.”