Striving for a Healthy Community, One Woman at a Time
When does one’s health journey start? Does it begin when the doctor says that you have prediabetes and that you need to lose weight? Or when knee pain or back pain makes it a chore to walk around your own house?
For me, achieving and maintaining a healthy weight never came easily–losing weight was like climbing a mountain. As a child, I was not athletically talented, and I dreaded the Presidential Fitness Tests conducted every year in elementary school. I was always one of the last ones to finish running the mile (or mostly walking in my case). I had no upper body strength to do pull-ups or many pushups. In middle school, I was totally embarrassed when it was my turn to climb the rock wall and I not only failed to make it off the ground but didn’t even have enough strength to climb the ladder as an alternative. I was a chubby girl and a chubby young woman. Fortunately for me, I went into health care, and as a nurse I heard many times over about the health risks associated with being overweight. Unfortunately for me, while I was under the stress of obtaining my Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) to become a nurse practitioner, I gained weight and became the heaviest I had ever been. When I graduated with my DNP, I vowed that I would practice what I preach and lose the weight that was putting me at risk.
Why focus on weight? Obesity is not only an epidemic but a pandemic today. According to the World Health Organization, “Most of the world's population live in countries where overweight and obesity kills more people than underweight.” Unlike the COVID pandemic that turned our lives upside down almost overnight, the obesity epidemic in Western countries has been spreading gradually over the last 40 to 50 years and now has become a global pandemic. The prevalence of overweight for children 5 to 19 years has increased more than four times between 1975 and 2016. Obesity is linked to high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, polycystic ovarian disease, some forms of cancer, and even dementia.
Too often, the individual alone is blamed for their obesity as if they are simply too lazy, too indulgent, and don’t care about their health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “From 1999–2000 through 2017–March 2020, U.S. obesity prevalence increased from 30.5% to 41.9%.” Add in the individuals who are overweight, and this issue is affecting the majority of our population now. We cannot simply blame or shame the individual. The reality is that changes in food availability, lifestyle, stress levels, and financial responsibilities contribute to the multifactorial obesity pandemic. Many Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) live in food deserts where fresh, healthy foods are difficult to access. Technology conveniences allow a more sedentary lifestyle, and the proliferation of desk jobs prevents people from moving enough during the day. Increased stress levels increase our cravings for calorie-dense food. Lack of time to shop for groceries and prepare home-cooked meals is a prevalent issue in families where both parents must work and some must work more than one job. Poverty can also play a role in forcing families to choose cheaper food options that are less nutritious.
Becoming healthier is like climbing a mountain; it is simple to understand but can be challenging to do. We know that we need to eat properly and exercise adequately. But when we break down these guidelines and try to implement them, things get complicated. What does proper nutrition look like for me? Is there a grocery store near me that stocks fresh produce? Do I need to get a gym membership, and can I afford one?
After several years trying and struggling to sustain a healthier lifestyle, I turned to personal training and lost 47 pounds in one year. Personal training provides many supports that are vital to successful, sustainable weight loss. Personal training provided me with accurate information about how to gain muscle mass to improve my metabolism and how to eat to feel satiated. It provided a companion to exercise with every week for a year. It provided accountability, someone knew my goals and was asking me on a regular basis what I was doing to move toward those goals. My personal trainers helped me to break down my outcome goals into process goals that I could achieve and feel successful. They helped me to realize that weight comes off at 1-2 pounds per week and to feel happy about that very real progress.
After spending a year doing personal training and achieving my ideal weight, I was inspired to help others achieve weight loss like I did.
CLiMB came from a discussion about how Prophet Mohamed, peace be upon him, would climb to Mount Noor to sit and reflect, and his wife Khadija, may Allah be pleased with her, would also make that climb to bring food to him. In order to reach the summit, they both had to be healthy and physically fit.
That’s when i Care and Love My Body (CLiMB) was born. CLiMB was designed to offer many of the benefits of personal training without the high price tag, which was $343 per four weeks, even with a discount. CLiMB helps women of childbearing age achieve and maintain a healthy weight in order to improve their health and the health of their families. I taught nutrition and exercise and helped several women lose 5% of their weight over the 12-week program. We went beyond the basics, and with guest speakers, we explored mindfulness, mental health, supplements, religion, and how these contribute to weight loss.
Weight loss is not a one and done thing. You can’t achieve it and then “go back to being normal”—you have to be willing to find a new norm. I can’t be working toward weight loss during the 12-week semester but then, at every break, step away from healthy choices. The nutrition and the exercise learned must become sustainable habits for life, and establishing those habits comes in very small, doable increments. Good personal trainers can help people adjust their SMART goals and keep people moving toward their new healthy norms for life. Having a group of sisters supporting you can also promote success; we encourage each other, inspire each other, and help each other strive for the goals of each unique person’s health journey.
These women also bring their healthy habits back to their communities. They exercise with friends, feed their children healthy meals, even advocate for systemic changes that will make it easier for everyone to sustain a healthy lifestyle.
With support from the RISE Up grant, I pursued certification as a Personal Trainer so that I could better understand what it takes to help each individual woman achieve her fitness goals. Taking CLiMB to the next professional level and becoming a Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) means that I can use the psychological tactics learned as well as the exercise and nutrition information to help my CLiMB participants even more effectively. AND I was able to provide personal one-on-one training to women who were motivated to do it.
From Fall 2022 to Spring 2023, thanks to the RISE grant, there were 168 days of CLiMB programming, including 111 live exercise classes, 24 fitness challenges, 33 recorded lessons, three tabling events, two guest speakers, one live online and in-person special event, and one end-of-the-year party. Moreover, there were 14 personal consultations completed using the information from the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) Certified Personal Trainer course. One of my favorite success stories is from a woman who lost seven pounds during the three-month CLiMB program and another three pounds in the one month after the program ended. Weight goes on one pound at a time and comes off one pound at a time. Slow, steady, maintainable, and HEALTHY weight loss is the key! I am hopeful that more of my sisters will want to CLiMB with me for better health.
When Muslim women are empowered with the knowledge, confidence, and safe space that they need to become healthier, our entire communities become healthier. As activists, mothers, scholars, aunties, and community leaders, women play critical roles in caring for our communities. When we take care of ourselves, we can uplift all those around us.
After becoming a Registered Nurse in 2009, Dr. Laila Akhter, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, PHN worked in primary care at Axis Medical Center, a community clinic caring for an underserved population in Minneapolis. She was the Director of Nursing there for 5+ years. In this role, she worked on health initiatives to improve the patient population’s health and was invited to speak at conferences in 2013, 2014, and 2017.
She decided to put her leadership position aside to be able to help patients directly as a Nurse Practitioner. She graduated as a Doctor of Nursing Practice in 2017 and has been working as a Family Nurse Practitioner for Allina Health since then. While she enjoys working in the Allina urgent care department, she missed the prevention aspect of primary care.
This is why she started CLiMB at the Pearls of Hope Community Center to improve our community’s health by teaching women how to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. CLiMB has been going since January of 2019 and has helped over 50 women with their fitness goals. In 2022, she was awarded a grant from RISE to improve CLiMB with Certified Personal Trainer curriculum.
If you or someone you love would benefit from participating in CLiMB, please WhatsApp message Laila at 651-808-8788 or email her at lakhter.sd@gmail.com. To get a head start, complete the CLiMB Pre-Registration and Safety Form. This form will also give you details about our upcoming 12-week CLiMB semester starting Sunday, October 1st.
References:
Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC). (2022, May 17). Adult Obesity Facts [Website]. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html.
World Health Organization (WHO). (2021, June 9). Obesity and overweight [Website]. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight.
University of California Television. (2013). The Skinny on Obesity [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moQZd1-BC0Y.