Jennifer Van Syckle  0:00  
I think we all know how it feels to age from getting into a little bit worse shape and physical fitness. That's what happened with our guest, Cheryl. And she found herself with a pre diabetes diagnosis, a warning sign for worse yet to come in the future. But she found her way back to health and wellness through the Diabetes Prevention Program and other lifestyle changes. And she's going to share her journey today with the hopes that it helps you. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Talking Health in the 406 where we're one community under the Big Sky. I'm your host, Jennifer Van Syckle longtime health care worker turned health educator.

Cheryl I'm I am curious what your health issues when you were younger were so if you want to start with with that and start telling us some of your success with that, that'd be I'd be curious to hear what you experienced. Okay,

Cheryl Tillemans  0:56  
basically, I was a tomboy healthy girl just you know, riding her horses and playing football with the boys in the neighborhood. And you know, just keeping up and I was just really athletic and healthy and having a wonderful childhood. And then I reached probably like 2019, or 20. And I got hit with hypoglycemia. And they took about six months to get it diagnosed because they thought it was a hard thing because the symptoms were such that all of a sudden, my heart would just take off and I'd feel weak and shaky and so finally found an endocrinologist, you know, put a diagnosis on it, reactive hypoglycemia, it would kick in, like within like an hour or half an hour after eating something. Or if I just didn't eat anything, basically had to do the high protein, low carb eat every two hour diet. So I did that for a couple of years with the diet. And basically it dissipated the dietary issue. Help did not you know, being on that diet. Anyway, so I chugged through that in my 20s You know, it was like my early 20s Everything was normal and fine and seemed good for probably, I had my son when I was 25 my daughter when I was 30 just living my life, everything was good. And then when I was 33 I ended up getting the flu and it was both flus respiratory and digestive at once, and I was sick as a dog. And I came out of that with a post viral thing. And the the most that they could come up with is that it was a chronic fatigue. I finally you know, kind of like I Natural Remedy book, and started looking at different syndromes and how I could maybe supplement to try and help my body heal from this. Chronic Yeah,

Jennifer Van Syckle  3:12  
this reminds me of COVID about the post COVID that you hear people having long hauler and this was way before COVID

Cheryl Tillemans  3:19  
I'm guessing and I did this, you know, I probably after about a year and a half of them really not knowing what was going on with me and me just having to live with it. So I just started taking you know, different supplements that that the chronic fatigue syndrome suggested, and I talked to my primary she was she was fantastic. So I just basically knew that it was affecting my sensory nerves, my energy level. It was post viral, so I was assuming I still had a viral load. But I eventually pop through that and was living you know, a good life still raising the kids I was glad to be feeling better. At that point. I think that's probably everything until I hit where I started just gaining weight and putting weight on because I was not living a healthy lifestyle. And this is where I think a lot of my problems started happening again after you know feeling good and stuff I just you know started having a cocktail after dinner my husband and I would come home from work and that was kind of our thing and it just got to be a really bad habit and I got more sedentary wasn't doing as much athletically just working coming home you know we would go on you know motorcycle riding and camping and we were still active and that  but not so much. Exercising

Jennifer Van Syckle  4:52  
this lifestyle sounds exactly like a lot of people I know same thing. Kids and I think a lot of people can relate.

Cheryl Tillemans  4:59  
Yeah So that got to be real habitual, it was just one of those things that he does it every night. And of course, I always was thin and healthy. And in shape it was getting to the point where I mean, I knew I was gaining the weight, but I just, you know, you just hit the end of the day, you just want to relax. And that was just my way of doing it. And both my husband and I, it was just a routine that we got into, I had put on probably between the age of I want to say 45 and 52, I put on about 70 pounds, and my frame of five, five, that didn't go over well, I just I mean, I never really looked at myself as being that overweight, and my husband bless him. He was always supportive, everything never said anything to me, I knew I had to do something, to to get my myself back on track. At that point, I knew my blood pressure, my cholesterol, my A1c, my blood sugar in general, everything I knew was was not good. I had heard an ad for the National Diabetes Prevention Program. And it sounded like something I really needed to do. And I heard the ad three times in that two years. And I was just, you know, the first few times going, Yeah, I need to do that. I need to do that. But, you know, I just wasn't ready, even though I knew I needed to do it. I mean, I was just like, I thought about it a lot. You know, Cheryl, you got to do something. And so finally, the third time, I said, Okay, that's it, I'm gonna do this. So I called the number I forget how the whole thing, you know, added up, this is five years ago. So I ended up getting interviewed by Leslie, the head of the National Diabetes Program here. And I met all the criteria, I definitely was overweight, my cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, everything was elevated, not in the healthy range. And so I was eligible. And I began that in September of 2017.

Jennifer Van Syckle  7:09  
And so Cheryl, did you have any idea that you would have been classified as having pre diabetes? Before that? Like you said, that test?

Cheryl Tillemans  7:20  
Yeah, I never even I knew that my numbers probably weren't good. I had had bloodwork, obviously, through the years and things were rising. So I knew that but I never thought about pre diabetic or diabetes period, right? No, I always, I was like, I don't, well, I'm not tired. I'm not, you know, urinating a lot. I'm not, you know, all this stuff that you're not thirsty a lot. You know, all the things that you hear when you think that you know, Oh, got it? Because I didn't have any of that. But but it sneaks up on you.

Jennifer Van Syckle  7:51  
It absolutely does. And yeah, exactly. Most people, it's hard not to have the oh, it won't happen to me attitude. So like in Montana right now. There's about 282,000 people, almost 35% of our population that has pre diabetes, and most of them are probably exactly like you were just walking around without a clue. And we have about 24,000 people with diabetes that don't know it, you know, and you just think about the health questions. And every year we get about 7500, that crossover from pre diabetes to diabetes with a diagnosis, and that's the population of Glasgow, and Gelndive, combined which is just when you stop and think about it, it's astronomical, how much what we're walking around with and how dangerous it is.

Cheryl Tillemans  8:36  
Yeah, it's a ticking time bomb. Yeah, it's a ticking time bom

Jennifer Van Syckle  8:41  
So after you met with Leslie, you kind of had an oh my gosh, moment,

Cheryl Tillemans  8:45  
I was just so grateful that I was accepted into the program had to get a doctor's note and all that. I was totally committed. It just, it was everything that I knew I needed. So of course, they do your first blood draw when you first start, numbers were not good. That was expected. And so I started to do it. And then I, I had the flu really bad, I think was December, my husband and I both got the flu really bad. We were just down. And so we you know, I would I would still do my tracking, I would still try and eat. Leslie would send my trackers back and forth home because my husband started feeling better before I did. So he would go at the end of the week, take my tracker, I get another tracker, because the tracking for the program is so important to keep you accountable. So I had to keep doing that even though I felt so bad.

Jennifer Van Syckle  9:44  
And is that paperwork that you had to fill out or

Cheryl Tillemans  9:48  
Yeah, it's a little it's a little seven day thing. You monitor your caloric and you're allowed a certain amount of calories, certain amount of grams of fat, you have to drink water. So you just have to every meal, put it in there and then Make sure that you're not going over, you know what you're supposed to go over. So I was still doing that religiously. My life basically, for about three, three and a half months was between the bedroom, the bathroom and the chair in the living room, I just couldn't do anything. You know, I went and saw my physicians once a while just for them to check up on it, Leslie, you know, she kept working with me, we called each other and we just kept pushing through. And then I went into the Journey to Wellness continued on with that program to try and get my self my confidence back in my body. And I, I had so much support between my girlfriend Brandi, she's an animal, does the Spartan and all that. And so she was like, let's just start walking you slow this and that. Let's go to Heron and we'll do a little this little that. So she started getting me out. She introduced me to five K's, which I've probably done 40 5 K's in the last five years, I'd love my five K's. And then I got Margosha, who was she just retired from the Whitefish Legacy Partner. She did the Whitefish Trail System. And she would do these like noxious weed hikes, bear aware hikes, bring flower hikes mushroom hunt. And so I would join her on the group hikes in Whitefish on the Whitefish Trails. And that helped me because I knew I was with a group get my confidence back in my body.

Jennifer Van Syckle  11:38  
And with those are probably all free anyway, right? Yeah. And same thing with the Diabetes Prevention Program and

Cheryl Tillemans  11:46  
the Diabetes Prevention Program. You do have to pay but you get half your money back if you successfully lose the weight. And you only have to lose, you only have to lose 10% of your weight. You don't have to lose a whole lot in a year and I managed to lose all 70 Yeah, so I got my pounds off and and that's held it off today for five years. But it's because I do a lot of the hiking and with the five K's the Journey to Wellness Program through The Summit. There's such a wonderful support group. I recommend that highly if anybody's having issues. They really need to get started. Not not because of a diabetes thing. But just to get out and get yourself started on a healthy route.

Jennifer Van Syckle  12:29  
And I'm not familiar with that one. Sure. What is the what is The Summit or what is the journey to Wellness

Cheryl Tillemans  12:35  
I think they call it Logan Logan Health, the hospital in Kalispell, the gym that's medical gym that's associated with it they still call it the summit. It's yeah, it's in Kalispell right up on Buffalo Hill, but next to the hospital, it's the gym. And they have the coaches will help you with dietary exercise and help you meet your goals they're there for you and then they do have these outings that you can join in and and once you've joined the program you like I've done this for five years, you can come and join their things anytime you want. They have little hour long things about how to manage your money how to clean out you know if you if you just got a clutter in your house and you don't know how to get rid of it and get more organized and you know, shopping for healthy foods and you know, they have all kinds of these programs that it's a three month program. I'm not sure what the price of it is now but it's worth every penny. I recommend that then I also joined a Run The Edge group over the internet what it was is for 2019 and 2020 I did it the goal is to reach that many miles in a year. So you know if you've got if you can do it individually and get 2,000 miles in which I was never going to be able to accomplish or you can join and everybody pitch in and do as much as they can whether it's hiking or running or snowshoeing any kind of movement getting miles in so for two years, I did 1000 miles of that I hiked I snowshoed and basically, I had gotten my confidence obviously back and I my Zen is just being out in the forest, climbing mountains and just just enjoying the outdoors. And that's become my new passion.

Jennifer Van Syckle  14:41  
That's cool. I can see where someone even in you know, southeastern Montana were yeah, maybe there's not a lot of there's maybe not like a local gym or health center. They could do that. They can just set a goal for themselves. I want to do 1000 miles this year, January 1 is coming. Let's Let's do 500 miles. Yeah, for free. Yeah, yeah, it's

Cheryl Tillemans  15:03  
awesome. Yeah, even if you don't, you know, join the it's called Run The Edge. Even if you don't join something like that and just get a group of your friends and start with, you know, all together Yeah, we're gonna do 500 miles all together and it's just amazing how just putting your toe in the water you you end up swimming. You know, it's just amazing how I, like I said, the confidence that I lacked in my body to where I am now. I mean, I've climbed mountains and that I never thought I would I mean I've been on you know on Mount Neus and up on Huckleberry Lookout and Apgar Lookout and Firefighter Lookout and Cyclone Lookout and Grinnell Glacier. And on top of you know, I climbed up the Face of Big Mountain in Whitefish, which is the bene up, which was a heck of a climb 2000 feet in 1.8 miles. So that was a grunt. But I've pushed my body now to the point where I'm back to where I'm confident in it, I'm relaxed with it just gives you a whole different confidence in yourself knowing if you just put a little bit of love into yourself, push yourself a little bit through those limits. I don't know. It's just, it's an amazing feeling.

Jennifer Van Syckle  16:26  
And did you and tell me about the eating because I know that's a that's a tough thing for a lot of people. Did you learn about that with the through that Diabetes Prevention Program is

Cheryl Tillemans  16:37  
what got me started first two is my father died in March of 2017. And that was, you know, 70 pounds overweight and my bless my father, he when he passed, it just kept ringing in my head, I'm gonna get to the food, I just need to tell you another reason why I did this. He would always tell me he used to be so beautiful. You used to I mean, you're so beautiful, but you're not. You're so overweight and stuff. So that, that got me started on my own, I had lost 16 pounds before I went into the Diabetes Prevention Program. Because I was like, Well, you know, I mourned to my dad. And then I was like to honor him, I was like, I probably should do this also for him. So I lost 16 pounds before I got into the program. But as far as the eating, it's, it's very low fat, which when you do low fat, the sugar kind of is taken out of the equation. I was surprised that they didn't really focus on no sugar being diabetic, but it was more the just know really, really low fat. I mean, you have to give up your oils, your olive oil, you have to give up your cheeses, your dairy, your nuts, I mean, you're gonna have to give them up. But the avocados, stuff that you think that are healthy for you in general then that's an avocado and oils and such you have to give them up for a while to lose the weight. And then when you get into the maintenance program, you can incorporate them again. But so yeah, it was basically a lot of course you know your vegetables, lean meat and fish. You know, you're you're healthier grains, beans. You can get real creative with recipes, adding flavor and not so much the fatty stuff. I learned that putting pickled juice in my turkey meatloaf is is a winner. I would never thought about putting my pickle juice in there. But um, but you can you just have to learn you know how to incorporate different stuff for the flavoring and replace the fat. But if you do this, and for me, of course, there was no alcohol. No alcohol is another thing that you really need to you know, maybe have one glass of wine a night but you have to count the calories in there. There's no fat you have to count calories, you know. And it is a sugary thing. But so you just like laughing cow, you know came into play since I couldn't have the cheeses. What else you know, polenta. You can have bread, you just the calories. You really have to watch and as much as the fat. That's where the tracker comes in because it really keeps you accountable. They give you a little book that has everything in there from fast food eating out to just normal, you know, your normal intake of food and it gives you all that the calories the fat, the carbohydrate. And then you can also get like the app, My Fitness Pal you know put that in your phone and that'll help you keep you know on track. So it's just it is a lot of being conscientious about it. Because you basically, if you don't track every meal, you have to at the end of the day, think about what you've had all day and add it up and see where you're at. And, of course, like I said, drink a lot of water. But yeah, the food is, you know, it's hard at first, but it becomes habitual, you know, it becomes a norm. And once you see the weight coming off, it just gives you more incentive to keep up

Jennifer Van Syckle  20:34  
almost sounds like the hardest part is just that first step. And then once you can invest a little bit into it, and start to get results, it can just carry,

Cheryl Tillemans  20:41  
yeah, you've got to be ready for it, you have to go into it with the intent that you need to do it. In the middle of the program, they again, you know, do a blood draw. And you know, you can see if you're doing this, the way that it should be done, you can see the progression of how you know, your blood sugar is better, your cholesterol is better, your triglycerides are better. And you know, I got off blood pressure medication, I was never on any kind of a sugar, glucose pill or anything, but I got off of one of my heart meds and my cholesterol medic, or my blood pressure medication, and they cut my cholesterol medication by half, I still take half about but then at the end of the program again, then you get your a A1c went from 6.2 to 5.7 by the end of the thing. So you're A1c is is dropped. If everything looks good, and I just got a blood draw with my wellness about two weeks ago, and my everything and my, my blood draw was spectacular. So I'm still doing what I need to do. But I am incorporating some nuts, I am incorporating my oils, you know, because I'm more on a maintenance situation now. But I still have to watch. I mean, I weigh myself probably three times a week. And I have to just be disciplined. If I fluctuate, probably about five, seven pounds, we're all go up and then it's like, Okay, I just gotta bring it back down. And it's just a constant, you know, a conscientious thing, because I just remember how I felt when I was overweight. And I cannot picture pulling 70 extra pounds up a mountain at this point, it just, it's much easier to just be able, you know, to just, you know, pass on this or pass on the cake or pass on the ice cream or whatever, and don't get me wrong I I indulge but then I have to be aware of what I need to do the next day or, you know, I hike an extra three miles instead, which I don't mind because I said that's the kind of my zen it, it doesn't faze me anymore being in a situation where everybody's drinking, and I'm not that I that used to bother me probably the for the first couple years, it was a little hard. And now it's just like, I don't even think about that. Which makes it a lot easier. Yeah, so that's kind of where my journey has led me to Bradi and Margosha and Leslie and the crew at The Summit The Journey to Wellness. I hope I'm not leaving anybody out, everybody, you know, seem to come and and just gather with me and give me the tools that I needed to, to get on the right track and then support me, I'm very happy. I feel very grateful. And I just really, you know, I know there's a lot of people out there that are in the same boat. And I just hope that listening to my story that they get, you know, some inspiration and feel like maybe they could give it a try and and never you know and just always, you know, you have to ask for help. You have to just put yourself out there and trust and believe me there are people out there that want to want to help you. So

Jennifer Van Syckle  24:19  
absolutely. And even even if Yeah, even if you're not in a an urban area, like the Kalispell area. I mean you can even just call your county help the County Health Department. They're there for public health there. They could tell you to yeah, there's everywhere. Absolutely.

Cheryl Tillemans  24:36  
There's coaches, dietary coaches out there, there's wellness centers, there's, you know, just walk in the door, ask tell him, you know, and they'll direct you in the right direction, the right direction. Yeah, and our

Jennifer Van Syckle  24:47  
diabetes prevention program. If you live anywhere in Montana, it might not be a local program where you can walk into a building and take it but people are able to take it online at least you know, you can go to your local library and log into their internet if you don't have any you're house and

Cheryl Tillemans  25:02  
I definitely there. Yeah, Leslie had me come back, I think three times and talk to some of her classes and tell them my story and she had people Zooming in. So I know that you can actually probably Zoom into the class,

Jennifer Van Syckle  25:18  
they actually have a family member going through the diabetes prevention program right now. And they sound like that cohort is just turning into this little family, she's gonna have people to go walk with and everything right there, right from her class, even though she didn't know others to go walk with or bounce ideas or frustrations off of it's, it's cool,

Cheryl Tillemans  25:37  
good camaraderie there, everybody's in the same situation, everybody has the same intent. And it's just nice to be able to, to, you know, talk to the like minded people that have the same same goal and go through the same struggles. I mean, that's the whole thing, you're gonna have downtime, but you've got someone there that's in the same position, and, and you can get inspiration from it, you know, so yeah, I just think it's a really, really worthwhile little program. And,

Jennifer Van Syckle  26:09  
you know, there's just so many reasons to, to get healthier to, you know, to lose that 70 pounds it to me, when I think of that I think of going on an overnight backpacking hike for a weekend, a couple of days, and your pack is 70 pounds, you know, to carry that around, I can see why it would be so difficult to get up and going. And there's so much I mean, you know, if you do lapse into diabetes, it's the medical expenses are over two times more what you're paying every year, compared to pre diabetes, you know, and you probably saw that to Cheryl with all of your testing and, you know, medications and everything you had to go through. And yeah, hopefully, that you're healthier. You haven't had to do that. So yeah,

Cheryl Tillemans  26:52  
no, I've been feeling really good. Like I said, knock on wood, and I just keep doing my hiking, I try and be conscientious of everything I put in my mouth. Like I said, I am not perfect. I mean, I'll I'll have myself a piece of cake, or a bowl ice cream or whatever, here there. And I don't feel guilty about it. Because I know that it's a lifestyle, you can't be, you know, on on task 100% of time, or you won't do it. So if you just get through, you know, that year. And like I said, you have the support, you have the tools, you have, you know, you can tweak recipes, and there's just all kinds of ways that you can get it to work. And like I said, you know, in the first month, you start seeing the pounds come off, they come off pretty quickly the first 6, 7, 8 months, then you might plateau a little and that's when they drop the calorie and fat intake and then your body adjusts to that. Yeah, it's definitely a journey worth taking. And if

Jennifer Van Syckle  27:55  
anybody wants to look more into the Diabetes Prevention Program, all they have to do is go to our website, which is www.diabetes.mt.gov. And you can take the risk test get referred into the program or talk to your provider, your provider will know all about it. Thank you so much to Cheryl for sharing her story of success with us today. And thank you for joining us. The Diabetes Prevention Program is available around Montana, both in person and online. For more information on that or anything else you heard in the podcast, visit our website at TalkingHealthinthe406.mt.gov. Until next time, take care

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