Anyone know about Mayo Clinic Diet Experience

Thank you for sharing this with us. Your positive attitude is contagious! I hope all goes well for you. Keep us posted.
Rosemary

Today I went down to Dan Abrahamson Center and took a tour, met my wellness coach, and signed up for the research cohort. You have to give samples and fill out a long questionnaire. I was worried about going down for two whole days in an unfamiliar environment. That's why we thought it would be good to see the environment and meet coach a week early. I already go a hotel room reserved next week on priceline. I think I'm ready.

Hi everybody, I'm going camping tomorrow. Going camping is a goal on my wellness plan that I made at Mayo Clinic diet experience. I'm going to wing it. I'm taking my Smokey Joe grill to cook. I got a tent but I figured out that I can sleep in my little minivan with back seats folded down. I just have to survive one night of winter camping to meet my goal. It's part of becoming an outdoors person. I have been hiking and sleeping out seemed like the next step.

@ihatediabetes, good for you! It is pretty cool that you set that goal and just decided to go for it. Hopefully it is not too cold out where you are planning to go camping. If it is, make sure you take the necessary tools to stay safe and warm!

@ihatediabetes I am so excited for you. Such an adventure. Please share with us - how did you do? Was this a solo trip? And mostly I want to hear about your Mayo Diet experience program! What has you the most excited; weight loss? feeling good due to healthy eating? Or the 'new you (outdoor person)?
Rosemary

Hi everybody, well I came back at 6pm because it was cold and I left dog at home. But I did get a camp spot and backed in my little minivan. It's a Mazda 5. So it's big enough for a sleeping bag in back. I did light my Smokey Joe and ate some food I brought. Then I went hiking for 5 miles. I met the staff naturalist. She invited me to volunteer when I told her I'm interested in the master naturalist program. She invited me to take one of the routes for monitoring bluebird boxes. They're trying to rebuild bluebird population. So that would mean I hike one of the routes every week from May to September. Something like that. I think it would be good for me because of exercise and being in nature. I'm supposed to be working on mindfulness. Looking into the boxes and counting bluebird eggs will be good for my mental health i think. I really love Minnesota state parks. Btw the Healthy Living Program is a really good program. They did all these tests on me like stress test, body composition test, blood glucose and cholesterol test. I met with nutritionist and physical therapist. Nutritionist asked what I'm eating. Physical therapist wanted to see how I can move like reaching, bending, jumping. I could do all the things she asked. So they said I had good base to work from. So I'm supposed to keep up my hiking and resistance training at women's club I go to. They said it would be good to add interval training but I haven't done that yet. I need a heart rate monitor. They told me what my heart rate should be for intervals. They get those numbers from stress test. I had to wear mask during stress test. That's for vo2 max but I don't know what that means. I'm also supposed to be more mindful about my eating and snacking. I have wellness plans for nutrition, physical activity, and resilience. Those are the three pillars of wellness. I also have a wellness coach assigned to me. I tell her what I'm doing and send her photos on email. I showed her my bed roll in car and photos of my cooking and hiking. She's got me for a whole year. It's like have somebody watching over you. She can see my steps on fitbit because they wanted us to link fitness apps to mayo clinic healthy living program. I think mayo clinic has research project going on about what happens to people like me from this wellness intervention and one year of coaching. I signed up for research cohort. They encourage people to volunteer for research. It's really not expensive for what you get from program. I'm glad I'm doing this.

@ihatediabetes, thanks for updating us. What a cool opportunity to volunteer at the state parks. As a Minnesotan who LOVES my state, I completely agree that our state parks are great. It was a bit cold, which is why I was wondering about your camping excursion! However, it is pretty neat that you were able to get a volunteering opportunity by doing a brief camping experience. I would say it was a success.

Your updates are helpful for the other members, myself included, on understanding the Healthy Living Program. Thank you for the updates and your energetic/positive outlook.

Sure. I'm happy to provide updates. I got referred to Healthy Living Program by mayo endocrinologist for type 2 diabetes and weight management. The Healthy Living program is supposed to help people with their chronic conditions. Some people get referred by cardiology. Lots of us with chronic conditions can make lifestyle changes if somebody shows us how. You actually have to fill out a questionnaire before they let you participate. You have to tell the truth about heart conditions etc. They don't want to put someone on the stress test treadmill on first day or other exercises and have a cardiac event. So they are careful with people. I think the doctors actually look at your electronic medical record before you arrive. I don't know what they do if you're not mayo patient already. I think somebody was monitoring us when we did interval training on second day because we had to wear heart monitors with numbers on them. I was supposed to hit 146 and then 156 during this training. It was actually a pretty arduous experience. So now I have my wellness plan for physical activity, nutrition, and resilience. Resilience is an important part. My plan included camping because it scares me. I also added the master naturalist program which is Minnesota DNR and University of Minnesota extension joint program. There's a class and 40 hours volunteering per year to be master naturalist. It's like master gardener program. That's why I'm getting into bluebird monitoring program. I'm going to try to do my hours at William O'brien State Park. I love this park. It's on the St. Croix River plus there are forest and marsh areas to explore. This is all part of my healthy living program. It's supposed to be a lifestyle. Nobody needs to hit you over the head to do what you want to do. It's not about guilt or shaming people into compliance with diet and exercise. I'm done with guilt and shame. I am free. So right now I'm hurrying to finish my coffee so I can meet naturalist to see what bluebird routes are available this year. Peace.

@ihatediabetes Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for sharing this! I did not know that such a program was available.
I feel energized from simple reading your reply; Your energy is contagious!
Huge,
Rosemary

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