The following is an interview with Cindee Hurlbut, who has participated in a variety of Get Healthy North Country workshops. Cindee is 64 and lives in Louisville, NY.

What conditions are you living with?

I have Type 2 diabetes and fibromyalgia.

What programs have you participated in?

Healthy Living: Pathways to Positive Change, three times. Living Well with Diabetes, three times. Take Your Life Back from Chronic Pain, one time.

Why did you enroll in/complete the program? Or, another way to put it: what prompted you to seek out help?

I had been very ill with serious digestive issues — I couldn’t eat anything and lost a lot of weight. As a result, my diabetes was totally out of control. My doctor had also given me a bad report and I needed to do something. The next day, I saw something in North Country Now about a diabetes management program in Star Lake. I drove an hour and 20 minutes to take it.

I learned more in 2.5 hours at that first session than I had learned in six years — it started me on the path to live and eat better. If we could get every doctor to recommend these workshops, it would make a huge difference and help people stop certain conditions before they spiral.

What challenges were you navigating prior to enrolling in your program?

I had chronic digestive issues. I literally didn’t eat, lost about 40 pounds — I was living on apple sauce and mashed potatoes. And I had done every kind of test imaginable.

Because I wasn’t able to eat well, I was vomiting, having severe diarrhea, and as a result my medications weren’t doing their job. It was out of control; I thought I was dying.

Then I took this class, and I learned what to eat and how to eat.

How is your life different now that you’ve completed workshops?

Within three months of changing my diet, everything went away — the vomiting, the diarrhea, etc., it all stopped. I changed to a whole food diet and it felt like things healed inside me. I’m still on medication for diabetes, which might not be as controlled as I want it to be, but that’s my fault — it’s on me to manage that better.

At the diabetes workshop, I learned about another workshop — Take Your Life Back from Chronic Pain — that took place in Ogdensburg during the day. I took that one, then went on to take the Healthy Living: Pathways to Positive Change. I’ve done that workshop series in Potsdam, Ogdensburg, and Massena.

I have a lot of people I’m close with — they saw me feeling and looking better. The proof was in the pudding. I wasn’t just yapping about a class I took: they could see the results and how it changed my life.

Before these workshops, I couldn’t go to my grandson’s hockey games. I couldn’t function. That’s all turned around. I can spend time with my grandson again, I can garden again — I literally cried when I could get in the garden again.

My husband and I spend time every year in Pennsylvania; I thought I couldn’t go any more, and then after the classes I could do it again.

People saw my life change for the better. I started to tell everybody about these classes, especially anyone with an issue, instead of waiting for it to go away or the magic pill. I learned how to manage my health and it takes work — there’s no magic pill.

What are 3-4 of the best things you learned from your program?

Getting on a whole food diet was the biggest thing I’ve done. Cutting out processed foods. I’m not 100 percent there, but about 85-90 percent. For example, now I eat the apple, not the apple sauce. Prior to the workshops, I didn’t know what processed food was. I learned the difference and that you want the bulk of your diet to be whole foods. It’s really not as difficult a switch as I anticipated.

For physical activity, you’re always under the impression that you have to join a gym and work until you drop, but I learned that you don’t have to do it that way. You can do little things that get your body moving without having to go all or nothing. I like to walk, but there are days I’m not up for it. The workshops taught me little things — even just standing up to fold clothes as opposed to sitting down can make a difference.

What would you say to someone who is considering a GHNC program?

Just do it. It’s not as overwhelming as you might think.

Even if you don’t have a chronic disease it’s helpful; the focus is on chronic things, but in everyday life, the action planning you learn can be incorporated.

As we age, things change. You can’t do the physical activity you used to do, and the action planning can help you set up the smaller things that help you feel better.

If you’re on the fence, there’s no cost other than a couple hours a week — we waste that much time every week just doing nothing. These workshops are the best kept secret in the North Country.