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My name's Josie and I live in Cold Springs, Nevada.
When I was about 15 years old I went to the doctor
and he told me that I was pre-diabetic.
At that point my mom, me and the doctor decided to enroll me
in a class at Kaiser;
I think it was called High Five for Health.
They taught us how to eat right as far as, you know,
switching out snacks and cutting out dessert
and how to exercise.
I noticed that she wouldn't eat as much
and I kept trying to push it on her.
"Come on. Come on. You know, this stuff's good."
She's like, "No, no."
And then I hear she's exercising more and exercising more
and...it made us start exercising.
After the class finished, I took the liberty of doing it
on my own and I started doing like videos at home like
The Biggest Loser or kickboxing and I started seeing results
and that's what really motivated me.
It's been about four years since I've last seen the doctor
and I've lost about 60 pounds and I'm still continuing
my weight loss journey.
I attend the University of Nevada, Reno.
I am hoping to major in community health sciences
and exercise physiology is my minor to help inspire others.
Going to college, it's obviously a very busy lifestyle.
I have to basically pack grab-and-go foods.
I don't have any sort of meal plan at the university
so I don't have the liberty of like swiping my card
and buying like Panda Express or pizza.
I usually pack all my food from home; vegetables,
fruit, et cetera.
I walk everywhere instead of taking the bus and
never take the elevator; always the stairs.
At the college I'm able to like go off campus for an hour
and go hiking or I walk laps around the school
and stuff like that.
Since I moved in here with my father for college
I've kind of had to sort of push them to like
change their eating habits.
Like my little cousin, he's five and he's kind of
on the heavier side and, you know, just been trying
to do the little things like giving him an apple instead of
chips or cutting out dessert or taking them to the gym
just to like get them to walk on the treadmill.
I do my own type of workouts as far as weights go,
weightlifting.
I mostly do the classes with the trainers because it gives you
something to push for and you have everyone surrounding you
so it's like your motivation.
The best advice that I could give is, you know,
the beginning is going to be a struggle,
but you always got to look ahead and push forward
because you're going to lead a healthier lifestyle.
Oh I'm very proud. She's a very smart girl.
She's excelled in everything she does
and she knows a lot about nutrition, a lot about exercise
and it just makes me proud of her.