We have a goal to positively impact the health of 50,000 lives in 5 years

Anthony: Oh, just open this door. Come in.

Sara: Hey, Anthony. How are you?

Anthony: Oh, hi. It's cold, so come on in.

Sara: Yeah. How's it going? Oh, it smells good!

Anthony: Thank you. Well, it's a little bit warmer in here, I hope.

Anthony: My name is Anthony Romano. I'm 64 and a half years old. I've been in this program for, I believe now 10 weeks.

Sara: When we initially met, his blood pressure was in the hypertensive range. He gets his exercise and all was good about reporting his weight and blood pressure each week.

Sara: And you were saying yesterday, you liked the one, was it the one with the onions?

Anthony: Yes.

Sara: Okay.

Anthony: It was like a square type-

Sara: Yes.

Anthony: And it was really good.

Sara: And it had the little Mandarin orange.

Anthony: Yes. [inaudible].

Sara: Delicious.

Anthony: And the red pepper on top, which was tasteful. Every single one of these meals, I've enjoyed. Give the chef compliments because, such a variety is really good. If he would open up a restaurant, I would go to that restaurant.

Sara: I've worked with Anthony now about 10 weeks. He's done some amazing things. It's really been exciting to see it go in the right direction.

Sara: Roll that sleeve up. Be flat on the floor. All right, happy thoughts.

Sara: Some great numbers, Anthony, keep it up.

Anthony: I want to enjoy life, and I believe this program and with the little push, I can do all these things that I want to do and keep on doing.

Anthony: If someone cares enough for me, I'm going to do the same thing back.

Abby: Hi Tracy.

Tracy: Hi Abby.

Abby: How are you doing today?

Tracy: Pretty good.

Abby: Good.

Tracy: No more snow.

Abby: I know it's a perfect day out.

Tracy: My name is Tracy Olkwitz. I'll be 53 in August. I was born on 8/6/68 so that's a good number. Same forwards as it is backwards. I grew up, went to Menomonee Falls High School. My family's been there since 1840. We are one of the founding families of Menomonee Falls when it was called Fussville, which is German for foot. My insurance company called me and they said, "We think that you qualify." And they told me a little about what they knew. And then I said, "Yeah, put me in for it." I was like, "Oh my God. No, please do come to my house in the middle of a pandemic. We can use my garage." Then I was eager, ready to go.

Abby: I'm Abby. I'm the health coach for Tracy. I've been coaching her since October 19th, I believe. It's already been about six months. I was super excited to begin working with her. She's so positive. She just goes with the flow. It's just such a wonderful thing to work with someone who is like that. Like she said, she's definitely a foodie. All the ingredients that we have in our meals, it's fun to talk with her about the meals that we have because she really knows all the ingredients we use. Each week we talk, she sets a weekly goal. She achieves it. And then we move on to the next small goals.

Tracy: We always knew that food was medicine. You are what you eat. One of the best part of the program is the variety of the food and learning that I can deconstruct this, on my own. So when it gets to now, it's really bringing me back to my roots. It should be, hopefully, bringing other people back to roots that they should have themselves. Just did it. I think it's the moving towards the plant-based proteins that's a big deal.

Abby: Tracy has lost 16 pounds in this program and seven and a half inches around her waist, which is very impressive. She's learned some new skills from this program, as well. Just learning from our ingredients that we have. She's really seen both improvements in her energy, as well as improvements in her biomarkers.

Tracy: We couldn't find anything that was working. I would take the cardboard things from the dome in Food For Health to my doctors. I've been carting them around to three or four now. And one, I told the endocrinologist, please do not put diabetic on my chart. Please don't do that because of this program, I know I can get it down. And so that was one of my biggest goals, was that I was going to show my A1C who it was dealing with. It was messing with the wrong person. For the past three or four years, nothing was working in the weight loss department until Food For Health.

Karen: Well, hello.

Tiffany: Hello. Come in.

Karen: How you doing, Tiffany?

Tiffany: I'm good. How are you?

Tiffany: My name is Tiffany and I've been in the Food For Health program about six months. It was brought to my attention from my insurance company. They called me one day out of the blue and asked me would I be interested. It's for people with diabetes, high blood pressure, so forth and so on. So then once I did all the paperwork, I got to meet Karen and she explained more detailed because I didn't know about the health coach and the weekly updates and things about that. So I'm excited.

Tiffany: I've always worked out. I was doing great, because I told Karen I weighed a lot more than when she met me. And once I found out I was diagnosed with diabetes three years ago, that was my wake up call to do better. So I exercise, I portion control, I have a dietician, I ate great, and I lost 65 pounds on my own. So when I met Karen, COVID of course had hit, and I gained 15 pounds back. I just want to get, as my son told me, to keep going down. I've picked up my activity. I've stopped a lot of bad food choices. Right, Karen? So I'm looking forward to it. I motivate myself. Even if it's a pound, I want to lose something every week versus gain two. Then I got to lose that two again.

Karen: I'm Karen Witkowski and I am a Food For Health coach. I've been with the program, as well as the Dohmen Company, since December of 2019. I met Tiffany. We've been working together for about six months.

Tiffany: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yes.

Karen: And Tiffany and I hit it off because she's very transparent. She's very real. She's honest. And willing to try different things and gives great feedback, which is awesome.

Tiffany: I like the experience of trying new things that I never would have ever eaten before. And then, like I said, I do like the convenience because I don't like to cook. It's easier. I can just take it to work. It's been nice. I'm looking forward to six more months working with Karen and hopefully keeping the weight off.

Tiffany: So this is dinner tonight. At breakfast, let's see what we have. Oh, this is lunch tomorrow. It ain't breakfast. Okay, it just this veggie sauce over spaghetti squash. This is one of the ones that my favorites, too.

Karen: Yeah.

Tiffany: And then I have a tofu one for tomorrow dinner. It's really good.

Karen: Tiffany has become a mentor to her coworkers because they've seen that she's getting healthier, having more energy. She brings these meals in and they're like, "Well, where can we get these meals?"

Tiffany: I know. They've all asked. So now it's like every day, "What you got today? Oh, it smells so good." This, this, and that.

Karen: Right.

Tiffany: It's nice. And they're a good motivation for me, too. And I try to motivate them and try to eat healthier because a lot of them eat a lot of junk food.

Karen: That's huge. That is huge. Because it's a peer.

Tiffany: They're excited for me because they see that I've lost some weight. And they just peering because it smells so good. All the meals there so they're like, "Oh, that smells so good. What are you eating today?" They look forward to me actually bringing these in every day.

Tiffany: Working with Karen has been awesome. I think she's a great woman. I think she's a great coach. And she generally cares about me, which makes me want to be honest with her because even like people will tell me, "Oh, did you actually tell her everything you eat?" Yes. What am I going to lie for? We have a great rapport and we fit off right away. So I can trust her. And I know that she cares about me. So this program, Food For Health, definitely helped me actually like different vegetables. So even when I'm done with the program, it is certain things I will buy on my own and continue to eat.

Tiffany: My goal 15 years, 10 years, even a year from now, is to be healthier. I want to maintain my weight. I want to be diabetic free. I'm tired of taking all this medication. I'm just not ready to die at a young age from diabetes. I refuse to let that take me out.