Ring and Run – A Childhood Prank or a Blessing?

Ever answer the doorbell and find no one outside? Rotten kids! But what if you answered the doorbell, and found presents outside? Lots and lots of presents when you had no idea how you could afford the holidays this year. The work of Santa? No, kids! Wonderful kids!

The youngsters who rang the doorbell and quickly ran off giggling, pushing and shoving to get away from the door aren’t real pranksters. The teenagers are from the leadership groups at the Spring Valley and Lakeside Teen Centers. Their Ring and Run program (see 2010 video below) is now in its 12^th year and they’re asking for our help in making the holidays brighter for another six families this year, three in Spring Valley and three in Lakeside. Combined, those low-income families include 15 to 20 children.

Being kids, the eighth to 12^th graders know how important the holidays are to other kids. That’s why they’re asking for new unwrapped gifts for children of all ages and donations for a festive holiday meal.

The families were all chosen by third party referrals from local school counseling offices or groups such as the Youth and Family Coalition, San Diego Youth and Family Services, Lakeside Community Collaborative and others. The families are documented as being in financial need and are not being served through other outreach projects. Over the years, the program has served more than 70 families including more than 200 children. The teens don’t know the families and don’t get any recognition; any prize, card, thank you or reward.

The donations are a boon to the needy families, but the youngsters in the leadership program get something out of it too and it’s not what you think. Yes, it’s fun to ring and run, and there’s that warm, fuzzy feeling from helping others, but there’s more to this story.

“The idea is to teach them about civic responsibility, to give them leadership skills to help them succeed in the future and show them a way to give back to the community,” said Lakeside REC Club Recreation Program Coordinator Ryan Flickinger.

The leadership groups meet on a weekly basis for team building exercises and community service projects. The teens volunteer at community events, take part in tree-planting projects and conduct canned food drives. Flickinger says the goal is to keep them busy during the critical hours after school when kids have the highest tendency to get into trouble.

This home away from home prompts the youngsters to stay in the program year after year.  “Most of our leadership kids graduate from high school and move on to college,” said Flickinger. “We help with resume building and college applications, giving them the next steps for when they disconnect from parents and schools.”

But not disconnect completely. For example, twin brothers who started going to the Lakeside Teen Center in sixth grade joined the teen leadership group, went on to be valedictorians at El Capitan High School and now attend USD as freshmen. The brothers moved on, yet they still keep in touch. 

Ring and Run draws kids in to begin with but then they become more than after-school participants. They learn to think outside the box, interact with the community and succeed in school. The youngsters grow up and see the importance of becoming educated, caring and responsible adults. 

And all this starts with a childhood prank; a chance to ring and run!

If you’d like to help the teens in their campaign to help needy families, here’s what is needed:

• Cash, checks or gift cards
• Frozen hams or turkeys
• Boxed mashed potatoes
• Gravy packets
• Stuffing
• Canned food
• Dinner Rolls
• Unwrapped new gifts for children of all ages

Items can be dropped off at the Spring Valley Teen Center at 838 Kempton Street in Spring Valley, the Lakeside Teen Center at 9911 Vine Street in Lakeside or Parks and Recreation headquarters at 5500 Overland Ave., Suite 410 in Kearny Mesa. Donations must be received by December 21 so they can be delivered the next evening. For more information, call (858) 966-1308.

Customer Service is the Culture

Ida Bell, left, Lemon Grove FRC manager, and Ariel Saluta, a human service specialist that receives many accolades from the public, pose in front of the "Lemon Tree" where employees can internally post compliments about the good service they receive from other employees.

“She’s supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”

That’s all the customer comment card said, but that was all it needed to say. Comments filled with superlatives are commonplace at HHSA’s Lemon Grove Family Resource Center (FRC).

It’s made for some long all-staff meetings.

“The staff here prides themselves on their customer service,” said Ida Bell, FRC manager. “I read off all the comments they receive from customers and fellow staff at our all-staff meetings.”

Some employees have received as many as 15 in a single month. Human service specialists Morris Lazard and Ariel Saluta always seem to be at the top of the list.

“They keep it up monthly,” said Bell.

That’s because great customer service has become a part of the culture at the FRC.

“We talk about the needs of customers at our all-staff meetings,” said Bell. “The staff here really cares.

“They have family and friends who could be in those lines (of people applying for assistance) and they understand how hard it is out there with this economy.”

The attention to customer service begins in the lobby of the FRC. Gone are the old metal benches and tables, replaced by more comfortable seating and a sense of openness. A staff member at an “ambassador station” greets customers and hands out numbers so people can avoid standing in lines for service.  These are the types of improvements underway in several family resource centers to improve the customer experience.

The FRC sees as many as 1,200 people a day come through the door.

“The staff supervisors here put a lot of effort into the lobby since it’s the first point of contact,” said Bell. “There’s always a supervisor monitoring the lobby to make sure people aren’t waiting too long and they will call more staff to the front to help if necessary.”

Many of the compliments staff receives now come from the lobby and first point of contact experience, but they also get kudos from contact with customers over the phone and people who come in for pre-scheduled interviews.

 “Good customer service is just so routine now,” said Bell. “They take it as part of their job.”

A Taste for the Unexpected

County employee finds inspiration in Thrive Across America healthy recipes

HHSA Associate Accountant Yuncie Danque celebrated her birthday in February with a special "birthday cake." Co-worker Therese Riis constructed the cake out of jumbo shrimp and salad because she knew Danque was trying to limit her carbohydrates and eat healthy.

Yunice Danque already eats light. She tries to avoid processed foods and instead chows on raw, healthy fare. Lettuce and tomato salads are a staple in her diet.

The 53 year old HHSA associate accountant is quite active, too, taking Zumba, swimming and other classes at her Pacific Beach gym five to six days a week.

Still, like many, she’s always looking for new ways to improve her health, after being diagnosed with high cholesterol and high blood pressure a few years ago. Earlier this year, Danque signed up for the County’s Thrive Across America program. She hoped to find inspiration when it came to exercise—and she did. Through the program, participants traveled from Maine to Hawaii on a virtual route based on the amount of exercise they logged in online. The program ran from July through September. She made it across the country a few times.

What she didn’t expect was to pick up so many new ideas for healthy eating. Each day, the Thrive Across America program sent her an email with a new recipe. She has tried most of them, printing them out and collecting them in a binder that she keeps at her desk at work. When she wants to try a new one, she makes a copy and brings it home.

Danque said she especially liked the recipes with unexpected ingredients. Her favorites? Chicken and blueberry pasta salad and artichoke and ripe olive tuna salad. She now makes both regularly.

“They’re unusual and really good,” she said.

Danque wanted recipes for high fiber foods, because of their ability to lower cholesterol. The chicken and blueberry pasta salad calls for whole wheat pasta, for example, and the artichoke hearts in the artichoke and ripe olive tuna salad are both high in fiber. Sometimes Danque wraps the tuna salad in lettuce instead of bread to cut down on carbohydrates.

The recipes have pushed her to explore new foods too. She hadn’t ever cooked with herbs like thyme or tarragon. And she’d never used kale or char, a type of fish, before this. 

Danque’s aim was to “maintain (her weight) and keep food interesting and not boring,” she said. And healthy.

How does she plan to eat healthy through the holidays?

For Thanksgiving, Danque brought a healthy dish to her family gathering: oven roasted grape tomatoes, prepared with salt and pepper, chive and rosemary and drizzled with olive oil. She found the recipe on Martha Stewart’s website.

Sure, Danque said she still likes foods like mashed potatoes and gravy. She just doesn’t eat as much of it anymore.

 “My focus has changed,” she said, saying she is “healthier altogether and more active.”

Plus, when it comes to dishes like roasted tomatoes, “you don’t have to work them off as hard.”  

Here are two of Danque’s favorite new healthy recipes:

Artichoke and Ripe Olive Tuna Salad

Makes 5 servings

Active time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Course: Lunch/Dinner

Ingredients:

•          1 12-oz. can (or two 6 oz. cans) of chunk light tuna, drained and flaked
•          1 cup of chopped, canned artichoke hearts
•          ½  cup of chopped olives
•          1/3 cup of reduced fat mayonnaise
•          2 tsp. of lemon juice
•          1 ½ tsp. of chopped fresh oregano or ½ teaspoon dried

Directions:

Combine tuna, artichokes, olives, mayonnaise, lemon juice and oregano in a medium bowl.

Chicken and Blueberry Pasta Salad

Makes 4 servings

Active time: 30 minutes

Total time: 30 minutes

Course: Lunch/Dinner

Ingredients:

•          1 lb. of boneless, skinless chicken breast, trimmed of fat
•          8 oz. of whole wheat fusilli or radiatore
•          3 tbsp. of extra virgin olive oil
•          1 large shallot, thinly sliced
•          1/3 cup of reduced sodium chicken broth
•          1/3 cup of crumbled feta cheese
•          3 tbsp. of lime juice
•          1 cup of fresh blueberries
•          1 tbsp. of chopped fresh thyme
•          1 tsp. of freshly grated lime zest
•          1/4 tsp. of salt

 Directions:

1. Place chicken in skillet or saucepan and add enough water to cover; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer gently until cooked through and no longer pink in the middle, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board to cool. Shred into bite-size strips.
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook pasta until just tender, about 9 minutes or according to package directions. Drain. Place in a large bowl.
3. Meanwhile, place oil and shallot in a small skillet and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until softened and just beginning to brown, 2 to 5 min. Add broth, feta and lime juice and cook, stirring occasionally, until the feta begins to melt, 1 to 2 minutes.
4. Add the chicken to the bowl with the pasta. Add the dressing, blueberries, thyme, lime zest and salt and toss until combined.

Turning the Corner on Cholesterol

County employee discovers exercise, healthy food and takes control of her health

 

Debbie “Pixie” Saiz had never been an exerciser.

A probation aide in the County’s Probation Department, Saiz remembers going dancing when she was in her 20s and early 30s. But she never carved out time to work out. Until this year.

The 52 year old mother of three realized she was going to have to make some big changes about a year ago. She’d put on a lot of weight and felt sluggish, with neck pain and a lack of motivation.

“I was drinking lots of soda,” Saiz said.”I was not being mindful of what I was eating. I was getting junk food, chips. I just started doing a lot of quick meals.”

A doctor diagnosed her with high cholesterol after hers came back as 245 mg/dL, putting her at more than double the risk of coronary heart disease as those with levels of 200 mg/dL or less, according to the American Heart Association’s website.

Through a combination of regular exercise and changes to her diet, Saiz has dramatically dropped her cholesterol level. Her most recent reading, taken last month, measured at 225 mg/dL, a full 20 points lower than a year ago. She plans to keep dropping it.  

The doctor hadn’t prescribed Saiz with medication, instead suggesting she try making lifestyle changes. At first, she wasn’t sure where to start. She tried to cut out carbohydrates, but that barely made a difference.

“I got discouraged, but didn’t give up,” she said.

Then, some of Saiz’s co-workers started inviting her on walks at lunch. They were enrolled in the County’s 10,000 Steps program, a 12-week walking program that encouraged employees to walk 10,000 steps, or the equivalent of five miles, each day. Saiz didn’t enroll or keep track of how far she walked, but it gave her a taste of what it felt like to exercise regularly. The walking made her feel better, providing her with an energy boost and, surprisingly, less neck pain. The exercise felt like a “breath of fresh air,” Saiz said. She realized she enjoyed it.

“Initially, I’d do 15 minutes,” she said. “Then 20 minutes. Then I’d do 30 minutes.” 

Then, she added Jazzercise to the mix too. She started taking classes at lunch with her co-worker Deputy Probation Officer Casey Ryan, who teaches them.

When the County’s Thrive Across America program launched this past summer, Saiz signed up as part of a team of co-workers. Under that program, participants traveled from Maine to Hawaii on a virtual route based on the amount of exercise they logged in online.

Saiz then added more exercise to the mix: circuit training. Her co-worker, Deputy Probation Officer Heather Lacroix, started leading workouts, also at lunch.

Saiz got hooked. Today, she exercises every week day at lunch, five days a week. Sometimes she does Zumba on the weekends too.

Along with the new exercise regimen, Saiz changed her diet and eating habits. She eats more vegetables, fruits and grains. She starts her day with oatmeal and takes Flax seed oil supplements. She’s gotten lots of healthy recipe ideas and tips from daily Thrive Across America program emails. So far, she has shed eight pounds (one pant size) and hopes to lose another 60 lbs.

The healthy influence has rubbed off on her children too. Her youngest son, a ninth grader, now buys healthier snacks, and her middle son, a tenth grader, just started boxing at a gym.

Even though the County’s Thrive Across America competition officially ended in September, Saiz and her co-workers haven’t stopped logging their daily exercise into the online program. The daily emails continue to keep Saiz on track too, she said.

“I attribute a lot of (my progress) to the emails and what the county has offered,” she said. “What they did has helped put the fire under me.”

Elderly and Disabled Clients Need Your Help

Terrance Corrigan poses with some of last year's donations.

You can help the Public Guardian’s Office bring holiday cheer to clients who wouldn’t otherwise receive gifts.

“Our clients have no friends or family to spend time with during the holiday season,” said Terrance Corrigan, Assistant Public Administrator/Public Guardian, who manages the holiday gift drive. “It’s a good time of year to go out and present them with a small gift for the holiday.”

The recipients are generally older, frail, and vulnerable adults who are at risk or have been victims of abuse or neglect. They live in nursing homes, board and cares and independent living facilities in the county.

The following new and unwrapped items are needed:

• sweaters and hooded sweatshirts (all sizes)
• slippers (larger sizes and with rubber bottoms)
• pajamas (all sizes)
• toiletries
• gift cards (Target or Walmart or other department store)
• large print books (new or used)

Donations may be dropped off at 5201-A Ruffin Rd. San Diego from 8 a.m. to 5:00 p.m through December 11.

In addition to donations from County employees, the Public Guardian’s Office receives a generous donation from Eunice and Ed Horn and the members of the Tierrasanta Seventh-Day Adventist Church. The Horns collect items throughout the year to provide 100 bags with toiletries and snacks.

“It’s a real sacrifice that she and her husband make,” Corrigan added. “We really appreciate it.”

All of the donations will be delivered to about 150 clients in the week of Dec. 17. For more information about the gift collection, call (858) 694-3500.

Turning Trash into Organic Gold

Take banana peels, melon rinds and brown lettuce leaves. Plan on eating them? Didn’t think so. You’ll throw them in the trash. Okay, at least most of us would, but kitchen staff at three County cafeterias are now recycling that food waste for compost, that rich, dark substance full of nutrients that gardens love.    

The County Operations Center (COC) cafeteria joined the County’s food waste recycling program in September. Polinsky Children’s Center and the County Administration Center cafeterias began taking part after the County Board of Supervisors approved the composting program last March.

Consider that the CAC serves an estimated 150 meals each day and the COC about 300 meals a day during a regular work week. Polinsky serves breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, about 400 meals a day. Altogether, the kitchen scraps add up to an astounding 1.5 tons of food waste each month that is being recycled into rich organic soil. Put it another way, the County is diverting more than 18 tons of food waste from the landfill every year.

Sounds like a lot of banana peels but the kitchen food scraps – not customer leftovers – also include other items. “Lettuce trimmings, vegetable peels, coffee grounds and even coffee filters,” said Laura Freitas of General Services. “It all goes toward reducing our carbon footprint.”   

The kitchen food prep waste goes to the City of San Diego’s Food Recycling Program at the Miramar Landfill where it’s ‘cooked’, aerated, watered and screened before the scraps turn into the organic gold of landscaping, compost. 

The substance is so rich; gardeners sometimes call it black gold because the material can improve the health of the soil, save water, control erosion and weeds plus reduce the use of fertilizer. 

So the cast-offs from plants that came from the earth go back to the earth and the cycle starts all over again with just a little help from us. Seems fair and almost as if nature intended it that way . . .   

Bird Bath - Parrot Style

Ahhh! Nothing like the sheer joy of taking a shower! This parrot is loving life as water splashes down all around him.
“Parrots love to take a daily shower. They spread their wings, squawk, shake their feathers and wings and generally have a ball!” said Animal Services Director Dawn Danielson.

This Doubled Headed Amazon parrot was found inside a hamster cage on a doorstep in Santee last September. He was taken to the county shelter in Bonita where he was named Noah and found to have a very friendly personality with a very colorful vocabulary!   

One of the shelter’s adoption partners, the Parrot Education and Adoption Center, took him in and this is where you see him enjoying his shower. Noah has since gone to a foster home and will be placed for adoption where hopefully he will still get his beloved daily showers!   

County Emergency Manager Assists in Sandy's Aftermath

Nothing quite prepared Leslie Luke for the aftermath of Sandy. The Office of Emergency Services program manager helped thousands of San Diego residents get back on their feet after the 2003 and 2007 wildfires, and his expertise took him to New Orleans after Katrina and Joplin, Mo. after tornados flattened the town last year.

But Leslie said he could tell Sandy was on a scale of its own the moment he stepped off the plane in New York City on Monday and was greeted by car rental companies with no cars.

A paper sign at Enterprise turned people away. At Thrifty, where Leslie had a reservation, the lot was empty. Customers queued anyway. Just as soon as someone returned a car, the first customer in line would get in and go, no vehicle cleaning or inspection first. And with gas rationing in New York City still in effect, some of the cars were returned without much fuel.  

Leslie said he was lucky his car had three-quarters of a tank.

He called the car rental experience an example of the “cascading effects of a disaster” that he began to note as soon as he arrived.

“The mere number of people who are responding to an area that’s already been impacted further drains the limited resources,” he explained.

In other words, Leslie thinks the thousands of volunteers and federal employees in the region created the car rental crunch, and he expects all the visitors to continue to impact the region even as they try to help it.

Leslie himself expects to be on the East Coast into next week to help FEMA and humanitarian agencies coordinate assistance to the thousands of people who need help.

He said he expects another “cascading effect” to hit next week, when tourists pour in for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Hotel rooms are already at a premium because of the influx of assistance workers and the thousands of people whose homes were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable in the disaster.

Leslie said Sandy, and the incipient parade, have opened his eyes to how a large-scale disaster in a densely populated urban and economic center raises its own considerations.

Emergency managers and city officials ponder: should you or can you cancel a major civic event two weeks after a major disaster? How can the city go forward with economic recovery—including the parade—while serving the needs of residents?

“These are the kinds of things you have to take into account that you wouldn’t normally have to think about if it weren’t such a widespread disaster in this kind of area,” Leslie said.

Since forming these first impressions earlier this week, Leslie has had a chance to visit some of the most devastated neighborhoods, including Rockaway and Staten Island. In an article to follow Monday, Leslie will tell us what he saw on the ground, and how he’s assisting in the effort to help East Coast residents who lost everything.

Veteran Answers the Call – From the White House

 General Services Director April Heinze shakes hands with President Barack Obama during a Veterans Day breakfast at the White House.

UPDATED MARCH 4 WITH NEW PHOTO

In her own words - General Services Director April Heinze describes a memorable visit to the White House for Veterans Day.

"This is the White House calling, can you join us for a Veterans Day breakfast?”  That was Friday morning in San Diego and Veterans Day was two days away, but I didn’t hesitate to accept!

As a 23-year Navy veteran and national co-chair of OutServe-Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, I was thrilled to join leaders from four dozen veterans service organizations, military service chiefs and senior political appointees to celebrate Veterans Day with the president.

Arriving at the White House gate, we were all checked against the official guest list, quickly processed through security and whisked into the East Wing where we were greeted by uniformed military White House aides.  Passing through a gourmet buffet line, we entered the east room which was arranged with seating for approximately 200 guests, and I found a seat facing the entrance so as not to miss anything!  I was not disappointed because in addition to other veterans leaders I was honored to shake hands with the Honorable Eric Shinseki, Secretary of Veterans Affairs (and former Chief of Staff of the Army) and the Honorable Ray Mabus, Secretary of the Navy, who joined my table for breakfast.

Following breakfast we were all escorted into the adjacent room to meet President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden in a receiving line.  With a firm handshake and a warm smile, President Obama thanked me for my service and I thanked him for all he had done for veterans and encouraged him to do a little more!

Our next stop was Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknowns. After a short bus ride over the Potomac River, we all joined the audience in the amphitheater while President Obama laid a wreath at the tomb at precisely eleven o’clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month. This time commemorates the Armistice that ended World War I. A 21-gun salute rang out across the quiet hills and a lone bugler played “Taps” in honor of our fallen heroes. The president and official party then joined us inside the amphitheater for a parade of flags by veterans groups, patriotic music, a prayer and official remarks by Shinseki and the president.

The president’s address and Veterans Day Proclamation reminded us that, “The freedoms we cherish endure because of their [veterans] service and sacrifice and our country must strive to honor our veterans by fulfilling our responsibilities to them and upholding the sacred trust we share with all who have served.”

I left the amphitheater filled with a great deal of pride, yet humbled by those who sacrificed so much more than I. In a quiet moment alone, I watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns and then veterans groups pay their respects by laying their own wreaths at the tomb.  Standing high on that hill, overlooking neat rows of headstones, the Capitol and the Pentagon, was a somber reminder that our freedom is not free.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus (left) and County General Services Director April Heinze at the White House.

County Employee Transforms Herself, One Step at a Time

Sherry Dutchko lost 45 lbs. through County exercise programs and a healthier diet

On the left is an image of Sherry Dutchko taken earlier this year. The image on the right was taken last week.

She could no longer fit into most of her clothes.

Sherry Dutchko’s weight had slowly crept up over the years, putting all but two pairs of pants out of reach by early this year.  She called them her “fat clothes.”

“Every time I looked I would gain two or three” more pounds, said Dutchko, 57, who works as a Legal Support Assistant in the Office of the Primary Public Defender.

She’s also struggled with severely high blood pressure. Doctors suggested she exercise, but Dutchko never made it a habit. Until this year.

That’s when her life changed dramatically, after she joined the County’s 10,000 Steps and Thrive Across America programs, both offerings through the County Employee Wellness Program. She also altered her diet. Thanks to a lot of walking and much healthier fare, Dutchko has dropped 45 lbs. over the past 10 months. She feels better—more energetic--and gets lots of compliments. Perhaps most importantly, it gave her health a critical boost.

“I needed this,” she said. “You could even say it helped save my life.”

Dutchko traces the start of her transformation to receiving a free pedometer through the County’s 10,000 Steps program. The little device sparked her competitive side. Through the 12-week walking program, she would track her daily steps and log them into a website. The goal was to walk 10,000 steps a day, or the equivalent of five miles. Initially she was falling far short of that.

“As soon as I found out I was walking 4,000 steps, I wanted to go to 6,000, then 8,000, then 10,000,” she said.

She and her co-workers would compare readings on their pedometers. Naturally, Dutchko didn’t want to get beat. So she started squeezing as much walking into her daily routine as she could. She began walking from home to the Trolley station and back every day rather than getting a ride. She walked with co-workers during breaks and met a friend for walks around Lake Murray and in Pacific Beach on the weekends.

She didn’t stop when the 10,000 Steps program ended in March. Dutchko and several co-workers formed a Thrive Across America team and she kept going, walking up to an hour a day. Under Thrive Across America, participants travel from Maine to Hawaii on a virtual route based on the amount of exercise they log in online. The program ran from mid-July to the end of September. Top individual and team performers were named last month and received prizes. To view their names, click here.

Above is an image of some of the Thrive Across America top performers.

“The more I walked, the better I felt and the clothes just started hanging off of me,” she said. “I knew it was working and that just stimulates you to do it more.”

In addition to the weight, she even dropped a shoe size.

The lighter she got, the easier it was to walk, Dutchko said. Her body started craving the movement and the endorphins that exercise releases.  She’s hoping to try a Zumba class.

“I would never have thought that I could take an exercise class,” she said.

Dutchko also made some major diet changes, cutting way down on sugar and carbohydrates in favor of lean meats, green vegetables, fruits and probiotics like Greek yogurt. She said she used the book, “The 17 Day Diet Cookbook,” by Dr. Mike Moreno, as a guide.

“You feel hungry at first, but we got rid of everything in the house except for what was on the diet,” she said. “So we weren’t tempted to slip. It got easier and easier.”

Dutchko discovered that she loves fish and also balsamic vinegar on salads and vegetables. Now she cannot imagine eating macaroni and cheese again. She doesn’t eat pasta at all anymore and when she makes batches of cookies, she gives them all away.

She’s planning to cut out the bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches for breakfast that she said have probably contributed to her regaining some weight. Dutchko said she will switch to oatmeal and fruit and let herself splurge on the sandwich once a week.

How is she going to get through the holidays, which for so many revolve around food?

Lighter fare. For starters, nobody will be eating gravy in her house. She’ll make mashed yams instead of mashed potatoes. And she will offer nonfat yogurt instead of sour cream. Dutchko said she is investigating healthier recipes online.

“If I see something floating in grease and fat, it doesn’t look appetizing to me,” she said. “I’ll pass it over for a salad.”

Her only regret is not starting an exercise routine sooner.

“Everybody was right” when they suggested it, she said. “They were right. You have to move your body.”

For more information on Thrive Across America visit www.thriveacrossamerica.com or for information on the County’s Employee Wellness Program visit the program’s online home on InSite.