When Bellwood resident Doris Courts, 78, was diagnosed with prediabetes several years ago, she was determined to do all she could to avoid full-blown diabetes. She had seen too many of her family members and acquaintances with the disease suffer serious complications.

The retired reading teacher started the battle by focusing on weight loss. She used Weight Watchers and other weight management programs. She lost 22 pounds through those efforts, but did not improve her A1C level, a test used to diagnose diabetes and prediabetes.

In early spring 2016, Courts visited the Diabetes Learning Center at Elmhurst Hospital in search of programs that might help.

She says, “I was able to get into the Center’s Jumpstart Your Health program.”

Jumpstart Your Health is a year-long lifestyle change program designed to help people lose weight, increase activity and prevent disease.

Registered dietitian Julie Sanfilippo, a lifestyle coach with the Center, leads the Jumpstart program, which follows guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Our goal is to help people reduce the risk of developing diabetes,” says Sanfilippo. “Research suggests that lifestyle changes are twice as effective as medications in preventing diabetes. That’s why we focus on nutrition, exercise, behavior modification and stress management.”

Sanfilippo says typical goals for individual group members might be to lose 5 to 7 percent of their weight and complete 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week.

She says, “I do an hour on the treadmill and 40 minutes of exercises based on the physical therapy routines I’d been given.”

Courts also faithfully attended her Jumpstart sessions, which were held at the Edward-Elmhurst Health Center in Lombard. Meetings were held weekly for the first three months, every two weeks for the second three months, and monthly for the last half-year.

“The program led to a complete lifestyle change for me,” says Courts. “Julie (Sanfilippo) is excellent and very nice. She taught us how to make healthy food choices and control portions. She also stressed the importance of tracking what we’d eaten. That included whether we stayed within the allowance of fat grams she’d given each of us. We tracked our exercise, too. We were given a pedometer and encouraged to walk 10,000 steps a day.”

How did Courts stay motivated?

“Being part of a group makes you feel more accountable,” she says. “There was a lot of sharing of ideas, personal experiences and recipes. Everyone was cordial, and several even brought in samples of food they thought the others would like.”

Courts is happy to report that she met her personal goals.

“I’m no longer classified as prediabetic. My A1C is within the normal range. My other numbers are good, too. Cholesterol is down 25 points, glucose is down and my sed rate (a measure of inflammation in the body) dropped. I also lost 21 pounds. I feel so much better.”

As a next step, she joined a support group of other Jumpstart graduates that will meet every two months at Elmhurst Hospital. 

Are you ready to make lasting lifestyle changes to improve your health? Learn more about Jumpstart Your Health. 

If you struggle with excess weight and obesity, you are not alone. Endeavor Health® Weight Management at Edward-Elmhurst Health offers both surgical and non-surgical options to help you achieve permanent weight loss and the healthy, active life you were meant to live.

Read related blogs:

7 signs you might have diabetes

You have prediabetes -- can you fix it?