Page 91 - HCPVitalityChronicles

Teammate Prisilla Miller Gets Healthier, More Active for the Sake of Her Kids

Along with her fellow teammates at In the first 51 days of the
HCP Downey, Prisilla Miller engages HMR program, Miller lost 20
in a fun, friendly competition called pounds. She restarted it in
the Workweek Hustle. The objective December of 2015, after ar-
is to see who can accumulate the ranging for child care since it
most steps from Monday through is an after-work program.
Friday. Miller, Manager, Administra- She has lost 45 pounds so far
tive Services, has found easy ways to and dropped two pant sizes.
reach her goal of 10,000 steps per At the end of March she
day: she has stopped using the eleva- plans to transition to Phase
tor and takes the stairs instead, and 2 of the HMR program. Eligi-
she parks at the opposite side of the ble teammates can earn Vi-
building. She counts the steps using tality points for their
her FitBit, which she uses through the Vi- attendance in the in-clinic weight
tality wellness program to earn points. loss portion of the HMR program,
as well as earn points for their
It has not always been so easy for Miller participation in the telephone
to find ways to be active. The mom of two coaching offered in the Healthy
young children (ages 3 and 1), she said Solutions at Home program.
she has always been overweight and hit
her heaviest—227 pounds—after having Her a-ha moment occurred when
her second child. She experienced an a-ha she had just turned 30, and she
moment that led to a change in lifestyle feels grateful in hindsight. “I was
for her. only 30, and my knees and back
hurt all of the time,” she re-
“I found myself thinking, my kids want to called. “I was feeling tired and
be active, and I was always too tired to do achy, and I always tried to blame
anything with them,” said Miller, at HCP it on something else—that I
for seven years, who started on the overdid it with work, or my
Health Management Resources (HMR) shoes were too tight.” She hopes
weight loss program in August. “I started to lose some more weight, as she
to feel like my kids wouldn’t have a child- is at her goal size but not quite
Above, Prisilla Miller before her weight
hood and I started to feel bad for them.” yet at her goal weight.
loss, and below, at a recent trip to Disney-
land, where she makes memories with her
At her lowest point, Miller realized she kids. Miller thanks her fellow team-
was too heavy to be healthy, but not mates for being so encouraging
heavy enough for bariatric surgery. In an illogical moment, and supportive in her journey to become healthy. “I have
she contemplated gaining another 30 pounds just to be huge cheerleaders at work—I wanted to make them proud
able to have the surgery. She quickly shook herself out of of what I was doing,” she said.
this thought process, realizing she would never recom-
mend it to anyone else, so why herself. Looking back, she realizes her reason for making a change