Sylvia Valdez

 Navajo
Rocklin, California
55 years old
Employee at Sam’s Club, Roseville, California

My name is Sylvia Valdez. I would like to participate in the PATHSTAR Alcatraz swim week because I feel that I have worked hard in these last 5 years of working the diabetes prevention program and that this is my next step. I started my personal journey a long time ago. I tried so many programs and groups and nothing seemed like it was going to work.  In 2007 I was 385; that was a wakeup call for me.  I was like wow I must do something. So, weight loss surgery here I come. I had to lose 20% of my body weight to have the surgery.

I was fully committed the year of classes, learning how to eat basically nothing, ready for all my hair to fall out, supplements, and side effects for the rest of my life because I had no control. I had just given up on ever being able to be normal and have normal foods ever again. That is until one day I got a call from a friend she told me that someone who had the surgery died and all they did was eat pancakes. I thought to myself there must be another way. My weight now was running about 350-360 range— good but not good enough for me.

In 2011, I was introduced to Chapa-de by other people in my family; they have been going for years but I never really understood how this placed worked. I had my first check up and I was then introduced to the diabetes prevention program. I was very resistant at first, trying to understand what is the angle? What do these people get out of helping me? Wondering to myself is this really going to work? How am I going to benefit from all this? I just knew inside of me that I had to just shut up and listen. In other groups, they teach you to just be quit listen and take notes and soon you will understand. Now I get it.  I need to take that next step.

During my PATHSTAR week, I’d like to learn about having more control over myself, my choices, and emotions. My down fall is the waiting too long to eat, eating and going to bed, along with the emotional eating although I have gotten better but I need more tools and better options to continues my success.

The learning I would bring back home to apply in my own life most definitely will be self-confidence. People tell me how inspiring I am to them and how I give them hope and joy but I would like to feel some of that for myself too. I have no problem helping others find the light; it is myself who gets lost in the dark sometimes.

The learning I would bring back with me to share with my family and my community is a can-do attitude. If I can do it anyone can I would be like an ambassador for healthy eating—not a nag but more like one of those ‘this instead of that’ kind of people.     

The commitment to this experience during the following year is just that to keep this commitment and not break it, to follow rules and understand that this is a new experience and a privilege, not a right.

The three goals I will commit to in participating in the PATHSTAR program are getting my sponsorship money, educating people on what this program is and how it helps the community and to make myself a better person. I have worked very hard and I think this is the next step that I need to help continue my progress. When you share your story with others it helps to know you are not alone. I have been though a lot, seen a lot, and understand.