Grassroots group sponsors diet, exercise and mutual support

West Plains Health and Wellness hopes to reach wider community with personal wellness message

By RYAN LANCASTER

Staff Reporter

It would be easy for Joanna Williams to justify an unhealthy lifestyle.

Diabetic-friendly meals take more time and effort than their fatty counterparts, a gym membership is unaffordable and exercise is difficult when you're wheelchair bound after losing a leg to cancer.

Instead of spending her time generating a list of excuses, however, Williams has been busy. In 2007 she founded the West Plains Diabetes Support Group as a way for others affected by the disease to share information, recipes and resources. She invited nurses, pharmaceutical representatives and dieticians to speak to a gathering of about 15 friends and neighbors who would meet regularly at St. John's Lutheran Church in Medical Lake.

One of the guest speakers was Jill Sheffels, a nationally certified fitness trainer who instructs classes through Cheney Parks and Recreation among many other projects. “I told them exercise is so linked to diabetes,” Sheffels said. “If you start an exercise program, even a moderate one, you can dramatically decrease the amount of meds you have to take.”

In July of 2009 Sheffels and Williams teamed up to create West Plains Health and Wellness, broadening the focus from helping diabetics to pretty much anyone with a fitness goal. A small core of about five adults moved from the church to Williams' Medical Lake home with the understanding that they are always able to return to the larger space if need be.

The diverse group now meets every Monday evening and Thursday morning for Sheffels' personalized exercise tips and Williams' dietary pointers. On a recent morning, a Medical Lake volunteer firefighter worked out across the living room from a woman in need of a knee replacement. Meanwhile, Sheffels directed two young boys in a calisthenics drill.

“Sometimes we have more kids than adults here,” Sheffels said. “It's kind of a trickle-down effect. I think it speaks to Joanna that all these kids think it's great to be able to come over here. And if they're coming I'm going to keep them busy.”

Williams said everyone in the group encourages each other to push themselves according to their ability and celebrates accomplishments, whether it's a pound of weight lost or a spot on the school football team. “I have this vision of the whole town getting involved, and why not?” she said.

For those who's health has been compromised by sickness or disability, Sheffels said the key to making a positive change is to flip a “mental switch” to replace a total dependence on doctors with some personal empowerment. “It's looking only to that outside source versus looking to the inside source and saying, ‘this is what I'm going to do' and making that choice.”

But making healthy choices is often difficult on a limited budget when many rely on the food bank for the bulk of their meals, Sheffels acknowledged. Except in the summer, when fresh garden vegetables might be available, a large portion of donations consist of salty, saucy prepared foods due to the widespread idea that quantity, not nutritious quality is what's most important.

In order to remedy this, Sheffels said she wants to educate donors by handing out a list of inexpensive, wholesome foods. She's also working on a cookbook for food bank clients, offering healthy recipes that use commonly found ingredients. “I want people to be able to go to the food bank and get the nutritious and healthy things they can use,” Sheffels said. “We can help recipients get the nutrition and then tell them what to do with it.”

Since first starting the diabetes group, Williams said she's learned that any physical condition someone wants to overcome can be improved through diet and exercise. “Even if your condition never completely goes away you're still going to improve your overall health,” she said. “It's flipping that mental switch from ‘I can't' to ‘I can.' I went from ‘I can't' to ‘I can' to ‘Look at me now.'

For more information on West Plains Health and Wellness or Sheffels' cookbook, call Joanna Williams at 299-6615.

Ryan Lancaster can be reached at [email protected].