That I did, in just a few short 12 weeks, I have lost weight, lowered my cholesterol, kept my sugar normal, and lowered my blood pressure so much that my doctor took me off my prescription blood pressure medicine!! Thank you all for helping me save my life!!  I also want to thank my friends, old and new, and co-challengers Jenny, Bob, Felix and Janice, a special hug for all of the sharing and caring and support that you have shared with me along our journey. I am also thankful that Evan shared in the challenge and learned a lot with us, perhaps he cured himself before he was inflicted with any of our diseases and will keep him healthy as he ages! It was great! So for the last time you all, just get out of that chair and move it!!

Blessing to you all, Vickie Dietz-Kelly

  A special thank you to my children, Tiffany, and Roy,  my husband Mike, son-in-law Christopher and my sons fiancé Tammy and her daughter Kirsten, and of course my reason for starting the challenge, my precious granddaughter Alexis.  It has saved my life to share with my whole family as a healthy Mom,wife,daughter,sibling,aunt and Grandma without being a burden to them because I was to tired to listen and get educated about improving my health.

Wow!!!  That is just a small word of thought of what the challenge did for me!

 What a great success story this is!  I truly have one to share!  When I agreed to do this challenge I was a little scared because all of my adult life I have always failed to learn and do what it takes to improve my health. I never could stay on a "diet" for more than a day or two. Now that I will never be on another "diet" and have changed my way of thinking and eating and exercise, my life is much more fulfilling not stressed with my health.  This is the final commitment for life about my habits that have been changed to do both physically and mentally. I no longer dread eating healthy foods since I've learned how to make them much more appealing to my eyes and taste buds.  I have always given myself excuses to fail at eating healthy and continued to gain weight which made my health fail along with deep depression which made me eat more.  After having all of the education from the challenge educators I have finally learned great skills of healthy eating and exercise.  What a great change in my life, and I do owe it to the I Can Challenge folks and all of those health care providers and Fox 43 TV for all of the education and support they have given me.  They have given me courage and dedication to go through my life as a healthy caring person.

Keeping a journal seemed like a real pain to do, however, what a great tool it has become!  You do not have to write a book, or use proper writing skills, you can just scratch some notes about what you are eating, thinking or doing.  It gives you a huge insight on what you are eating and how much!!! Also by keeping a journal, it will help you remember times when you lost or gained by looking at what you ate or how much exercise that you did or didn't do.  I now have changed my eating,exercise,sleeping paterns,mostly due to the challenge tips and education.  The journal is a great self help tool, use it and you will agree I'm sure!  Now for the love of your good health....Just get out of that chair and move!!!! Blessings, Vickie

There are many different ways to deal with stress, one of my favorite is to listen to some soft jazz, closing my eyes and leave each part of my body rest, each part at a time.  I invite each part one by one to rest and relax, this only takes a few minutes of your time and you will find it is very helpful for stress relief. Another way I deal with stress is to dance, if I am at the gym or at home I put the dance music on and dance like no one is watching, not only does it relieve stress, it is great exercise!  Also, the easiest way when you are stressed is just to turn it over to your higher power, in my case I pray to the Good Lord, and it will help you through the tough times!!!!!

Stress is one of the biggest challenges to control, you will always deal with stress in your daily life.  The way you do not deal with it is to eat or drink! The levels of stress are different for every event,however,you must find a way to cope or it will destroy you in many ways, starting with your health, physical and mental!

The most difficult part of my week is making supper for my family who have to eat at different times. But, I have found that making a nutritional and tasty meal for some, warming in the microwave isn't so bad after all for my husband that eats later.

There are so many ways to research about your health, for those of you who use the internet, you know all you have to do is print in the word and you have a vast library of help.  My biggest help is to ask my doctor how,where,when I can receive other education about my diseases.  For folks that do not have a computer or use one, all you need to do is ask your physician for help and they will be very happy to educate you and find you ways to get more information for you to help manage your health.

I have been very blessed with a great Dr. as my primary doctor, Dr. Bice is a great doctor to talk to and he listens and cares about you as an individual and is willing to take the time to help you understand your problems, he invites you to ask questions and refers you to other health care providers when necessary. Quality health care should be your top priority when it comes to having someone taking care of your life!  You need to search for great" teams" not rely on just your primary care physician.  If you have a physician that does not take time to discuss your health and ways to improve it, you need to move on.

I am so thankful for all the information about diabetes and heart disease, and you all can get a lot of information about your disease, you only have to ask your health care provider and they will guide you to the folks that can help you!!  And remember, I started out in that dang chair and now that I got out of it and started moving around, I HAVE IMPROVED MY HEALTH GREATLY IN JUST A FEW SHORT WEEKS!  SO JUST GET OUT OF THAT CHAIR AND MOVE!!!!!! BLESSINGS, VICKIE

My doctor visit was tremendous today, not only have my numbers moved for the good(I'll report them to you soon), my doctor took me off my blood pressure medicine because since I have been on this challenge way of life my health has improved greatly.  I have a very caring physician, we spoke about the life style changes and he explained all of my blood work to me and advised me what I need.  He also congratulated me on my success, so you really do need a doctor who is caring enough to discuss anything about you that you will need to succeed in taking care of your physical and mental health!  Thank you doctor!!!  Also for you folks that are just sitting there, all of you need to is" just get out of that chair today and move!!!" Blessings, Vickie

I always wondered why folks with diabetes had to look at their feet all of the time, we learned that when you have numbness in your feet caused by diabetes you can't feel anything, like if you walk on a tack you would not feel it, it then would get infected and perhaps turn into an ulcer.  If that isn't taken care of you may loose your limbs.  So for you folks that can't see your feet anymore you need to have a mirror on the floor so you can see your feet or go to a foot doctor or your own doctor.  Please do not be a burden on your family, start taking care of yourself, before someone else has to!

I have learned quite a bit about my diseases and it is a tremendous help when trying to understand how these diseases effect your body.

The biggest benefit of all of this exercising is my goals that I set to lower my a1c, blood pressure and cholesterol.  Not to mention some weight loss and especially the inches are moving to a better size!  My clothes are all now looser than they were 6 weeks ago.  What a terrific feeling.  Just knowing that I do not have to use an inhaler every five feet I move is a great success in itself!  So you know the rest of the story!!  "Get out of that chair and just move!!!!!!"

Well, I had a very stressful day yesterday and I just wanted to eat!  So instead of piggin' out, I emailed my friend Jen and said" Help", I want to eat because I am stressed!  She said ok, she was having a stressful day too, so we were going to help each other through this rough spot!  She advised me to take 3 deep breaths through my nose and let it out my mouth, then to get up and walk around a little or get some ice to chew on.  I did all of these things and it did help me go on the rest of the day without failure.  Thanks to my friend and the initiative that I have received through the education I have received thought the challenge, my day got a lot better.  We all have those days, but if you just take time to call a friend, say a prayer or distract yourself someway away from the food depression eating you will be so thankful you did in the end.  It sure is better when you do not do the eating thing, because the pressure you have about eating wrong is a lot greater than doing something about it!  So you know what is next:)  Just get out of that chair and move!!!! Blessings, Vickie