by Glendale Sports Center | Oct 20, 2023 | Glendale City News
Denver Woman Shares Diabetes Prevention Month Success Story
YMCA Programs Provide The Toolkit To Set And Meet Health Goals
Healthy living is more than just exercising or just eating right. It is a lifestyle commitment that requires knowing the best ways to meet personal goals — something that is especially front-of-mind for those who are at risk of diabetes. And while Colorado has one of the lowest rates of diabetes in the nation, rates continue to climb as noted in this USA Today story.
Leticia Lozano joined the Diabetes Prevention Program this year at the Downtown Denver YMCA at the suggestion of her doctor. While not technically pre-diabetic, she knew that some things needed to change, but didn’t know how.
“Before I had no vision, no plans,” Lozano shared. “I knew that I wanted to be healthy and change but I didn’t know where to go or how to start. I thought that I was very smart… could do it myself. I realized that was not the case. I needed help.”
Now she has completed 20 diabetes prevention sessions that provide practical insights for healthy habits and specific goals for each participant.
Now “I have a goal,” Lozano explained. “It’s just different — very different, and I can see results.”
This didn’t mean it was easy from the start — the courses are content-rich and can take time to digest and integrate into daily living. Since different methods work better for some people than for others, certified YMCA instructors provide different recommendations to track diet and exercise. For instance, one method includes looking at food labels and keeping count of carbs, protein, fat, and general calories over the course of a day. Another involves using smaller plate sizes and paying attention to how much and what kinds of food are put onto each one.
“At first the class was very boring, and I didn’t like the tracking,” Lozano shared. “It was overwhelming and required a lot of detail to read all the food labels… but later when [my trainer] shared the plating method, I could relate — I am very visual. I could see the portions and that approach, and then it started working for me.”
In addition to the Diabetes Prevention Program, Lozano also more recently started the Y’s Blood Pressure Self-Monitoring Program, which provided helpful perspective on the importance of monitoring blood pressure levels and direction on how to make nutritional and other adjustments as needed.
“I knew beforehand that sometimes your blood pressure can go up because you’re overwhelmed or just finished exercising, and I’m happy I took that class because it made me aware how serious it can be and how easily it can go out of hand. Something like a stroke can happen,” Lozano said. “I reduced my salt intake, and I’m working to be more at ease and not react suddenly to anything. Now I am much more calm.”
As November is National Diabetes Month, Lozano is particularly aware of how the YMCA of Metro Denver programs have helped her identify and meet her own specific health goals.
“I needed to take more control of my lifestyle. Even when this is over with, I think I am going to join the Y, because I see that they have a lot of things that are the best for my health,” she shared. “This is a lifetime commitment — to be healthy.”
The YMCA’s Diabetes Prevention Program is offered year-round in seven counties in metro Denver, including the five YMCA Wellness Centers and over 20 community sites. Virtual sessions are also offered. Learn more about the cost including Medicare eligibility and scholarships at our website.
The YMCA of Metro Denver has been building strong, thriving and equitable communities since 1875 and provides a wide variety of programs and resources for Denverites. Learn more about the Y’s Diabetes Prevention Program, Blood Pressure Monitoring Program and other opportunities at denverymca.org.
by Charles Bonniwell | Oct 20, 2023 | Editorials
The election to replace Auon’tai Anderson as the at-large Board member for Denver Public Schools (“DPS”) will occur on November 7, 2023. Fortunately, almost anyone in the world would be better than Tay Anderson, who became best known for harassing underage girls and setting up grifting GoFundMe get rich schemes. He was the one leading the charge to get rid of police resource officers that got a teacher killed, not that he cared.
It is amazing that anyone would want to run for the thankless non-paying position. Moreover, the Denver School Board is itself a morass of petty, bickering, backstabbing individuals that spend most of their time fighting about the black/brown divide and little about the scandalous performance of Denver Public School students after the closure of the schools because of COVID-19. Those closures were prolonged by the teachers’ unions across the country. The one silver lining to those closures was parents got to see what the schools were in fact teaching and many didn’t like what they saw.
Less than half of DPS students can now read, write, add, and subtract at grade school level and it is getting worse. The longer your child spends at DPS the worse it gets. At one time the business community actually cared about DPS board races, but have abandoned the schools, leaving the field to the teachers’ union (the Denver Classroom Teachers Association) with expected disastrous results.
For this election you actually have a choice. The teachers’ union has endorsed former mayoral candidate and ex-CEO of the now bankrupt Tattered Cover Bookstores Kwame Spear. The teachers’ union has endorsed and gotten elected far worse individuals (see present DPS Board).
Spear is a graduate of DPS, undergrad degree from Columbia, law degree from Yale, and business degree from Harvard. He is probably way overqualified to be on a board of misfits and malcontents. He wants to up teacher pay, paid by a tax hike through a citywide ballot measure. He also wants to boost teachers’ healthcare and parental leave benefits. Moreover, he is for subsidized teacher housing with a down payment support program, and 2,000 units of subsidized housing built on city-owned land. He declares that “the best way to support our students is to support our educators.” No wonder the teachers’ union loves the guy.
But we don’t agree that simply pouring money and benefits to teachers is the best way to help students. He doesn’t demand any increased accountability or increased standards from those same teachers. In the end he will likely simply enrich teachers while the students will continue getting the same deficient education.
John Youngquist
The other major candidate is John Youngquist. He is the former principal of East High School and parent of two East High students. He also served as the area superintendent of
36 schools in Northwest Denver, and has been the president of a consulting firm for school principals.
He decided to run after watching the present board and the superintendent fail to address safety threats and concerns on campuses across the city. He has been endorsed by Denver Family Action, a charter school supporter. Notwithstanding that teachers’ unions believe that schools are there to provide a living for teachers and bureaucrats, education is really about the students and their education. The best way to provide a great education is giving students and their parents choices for schools and letting them determine what is best for them. It creates automatic accountability. Luckily Denver has begun a strong charter and Magnet school program that needs to be expanded and grown upon, and it’s clear Youngquist will do that as well as provide a safe learning environment in all public schools. He has the background to know what works in Denver schools and what does not.
The third candidate is Brittni Johnson, a licensed massage therapist who is now unemployed due to a car accident. She has raised little money and has done little campaigning for the job. She has been endorsed by a plethora of progressive groups. She is the one that would probably fit in well with the other present Board members.
If you’re a teacher and want to vote your pocketbook, then you would want to go with Kwame Spear, but for everyone else, John Youngquist appears the strongest candidate, and we strongly endorse him.
— Editorial Board
by Peter Boyles | Oct 20, 2023 | Blasting with Boyles
OPINION
The Colorado GOP is the answer to a question that nobody asks. There’s been an amazing transformation in the last 10 or so years inside the state of Colorado. The GOP has not won a major statewide election since 2016. So, what does that say when the past performance of any entity pretty much defines the future? And what is next for the misfit toys?
Let’s look at their lineup. In this corner, Lauren Boebert. Congresswoman Lauren Boebert apparently not only is capable of not telling the truth until shown on video but then trying to explain her actions in a very bizarre way. She’s been making headlines again and not for the normal things you see politicians making headlines for. When I first met her, she was an advocate for gun rights and the kinds of things that made basic sense to me and then we’re off to see the wizard. Lauren and her Beetlejuice boyfriend after denying — she wasn’t vaping, and they weren’t doing the laugh in the dark — and then the video emerges on KUSA, and she really starts to look tragic. And then it was discovered her boyfriend was having drag shows in his bar. Way to go Lauren.
My next favorite misfit toy is Tina Peters, former Clerk in Mesa County. She was arrested by the Grand Junction Police in 2022. State investigators attempted to execute a warrant, she goes off the leash and now has been found guilty on obstruction of a government operation. Goes on to ignore any state orders, makes that appearance at the Mike Lindell symposium, and said state officials raided her when she was fighting for the truth of the election.
This misfit toy also was the recipient of a Mike Lindell, who has to be on Colorado’s misfit toys list, donation as he allegedly gave her up to $800,000 to help quote “stop the steal” and defend herself. He of course had no business doing that either.
How do folks like these two first remain as darlings of this party?
Next Ken Buck. I was amazed when he voted to unseat the Speaker of the House only then to turn around a few days later and threw the vote the other way. Normally on the island you would expect Boebert to vote to unseat and Buck would vote to retain. Not so fast on the island, it was the exact opposite. He is now known as CNN-Ken apparently with a clear pathway in front of him and is still on the island.
For your dining and dancing pleasure, I present Jenna Ellis. She is now being charged with violation of the Georgia RICO Act and something called solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer. How did she end up with the great legal minds like Rudy Giuliani and the kraken Sidney Powell? It makes the state of Colorado proud.
The same GOP bringing Kari Lake in for the Centennial Dinner. Come on, Dude. Kari Lake?
This folks, is your GOP. My father once said to me, “You couldn’t hit yourself in the ass with both hands.” I think that applies to the Grand Old Party. What does the future bring? Tragically, it brings more progressive gun grabbing, and in your life, telling you what to eat, where to go, what to do, that the Democrats offer. I plead with GOP chair Dave Williams — stop the madness.
Take care everybody, the beat goes on.
— Peter Boyles
by Mark Smiley | Oct 20, 2023 | Featured Stories & Advertisers
