Wednesday, June 10, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon 13 Sisters ‘Prevent Diabetes’ class hits halfway mark Agenda By Katy Yoder Correspondent What does it take to change your life and improve your health? Classmates in Sisters are finding answers as they seek ways to avoid Type 2 diabetes. Most of the adult students either have pre- diabetes or are teetering on the edge of a diagnosis. It9s Kylie Loving9s job to guide students who either have pre- diabetes or are concerned about getting the potentially debilitating disease. A collab- oration with Prevent Diabetes Central Oregon, the Sisters program began in January with a dozen participants. Together they9re navigating the challenges and rewards of getting active, losing weight and feeling better. Loving is a Health Educator with the Crook County Health Department and has been teaching a year- long class in Sisters for the past two years. She9s dedi- cated to providing the tools necessary to make behavioral changes that promote overall health and decrease the pos- sibility of adverse health risks associated with being overweight or an unhealthy lifestyle. Students learned that avoiding diabetes takes more than just shunning sugary food and drinks. Fats, both saturated and unsaturated, can play an important role in becoming diabetic. Some fat is beneficial. To find a healthy balance of fat in their diets, students learned that saturated and trans-fats (often solid at room tempera- ture) and monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (often more liquid) have dif- ferent effects on the body. To gain insights into their eating habits and how it may be affecting their health, stu- dents began tracking the total fat and calories they ate daily. They began reading packag- ing and investigated the fat and calories in animal prod- ucts and plant-based foods. For many the realization of how much fat and calories were in certain foods was shocking. That knowledge helped them decide to control and balance how much, and what, they were eating. At the beginning of the class, each student had a six- month weight-loss goal that was approximately seven percent of their starting weight. With a daily target for exercise and total grams of fat and calories, students could expect to lose one to two pounds per week. Then COVID-19 entered the pic- ture, adding a level of stress and challenges to every- thing from having weekly meetings to managing food- related triggers. The pandemic took a toll on the class with some students deciding to stop and possibly start again next year.