In January 2017, a program was implemented at the Lincoln County Extension Office to encourage healthy eating and physical activity for the New Year.  Utilizing the Healthy Choices for Every Body Curriculum allowed the participants to not only learn numerous tips on how to live healthier lives, but also introduced them to great recipes which they loved and continued to use and share with their families.  The program was very successful and yielded several positive outcomes for the participants, but perhaps one of the best outcomes was the weight loss experienced by one participant in particular who had struggled with this for many years.  This client was a lady in her sixties who always attended class with her husband.  They were always eager to come to class and participate, and they almost never missed in the 14 weeks it was held. 

This lady shared toward the end of the class that she had been in a car accident around 10 years earlier and had suffered from whiplash.  She initially did not think much into the problem, but she did have to regularly visit the chiropractor to help ease her pain.  She noticed that after her accident, she had a very hard time managing her weight, which she had never dealt with before.  After some time, her doctor pinpointed what was causing her issues- her thyroid.  Due to her neck injury, she started having problems with her thyroid which was the reason she was struggling to lose weight.  She shared however, that since joining the class, she had lost 10 pounds.  She said that by cutting down on her portion sizes and limiting the amount of saturated fats she consumed, she was able to lose the weight.  She was also exercising more often and limiting her added sugar that she consumed.  Although losing weight was still not easy, she credited the class with giving her the tools to make it much more manageable.