My name is Angela Quildon Joseph and I was born in the lovely twin-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. My mother was overweight as were nearly all her sisters, and, weaned on the typical West Indian diet, I grew up an overweight child who suffered merciless teasing from my peers.
Fortunately, all of that changed around my third year in high school. I never had much interest in sports or physical activity of any kind, until one day my P.E. teacher looked at me —I must have been lurking in a corner— and said, “If you take a more active part, it would do you the world of good.”
I took her advice, and gradually I began to see great changes in my teenage body. My waistline, that had been hidden under the bulges, was suddenly defined. Curves replaced the rolls of fat, and teasing gave way to compliments. I looked and felt confident for the first time in my life. Exercise became part of my daily routine, even at home. I graduated, became a schoolteacher, got married and started a family. Then my mother passed away.
My mother had struggled with high blood pressure and heart disease for a long time before succumbing to a stroke. This was a sad and sobering time for me. It forced me to look at health and lifestyle through new lenses. As a home economics teacher, I knew about proper nutrition and so I began to pay more attention to what I fed my family.
I never knew if my mother was diabetic, but years later, after I’d migrated to the US and became an occupational therapist, I discovered, during a routine screening at work, I had prediabetes. This jolted me out of my complacency—I had slacked off a bit on my diet and physical activity— and I immediately began working on these areas again. I am happy to say that I brought that prediabetes under control.
Because of my childhood obesity, my mother’s illness, and my own brush with diabetes, I chose that as my niche. My husband also has type 2 diabetes, and I have learned a lot from taking care of him. With healthcare costs on the rise, it makes good economic sense to try to ward off illness as much as possible.
As a health coach, I give you the tools to help you make those lifestyle changes so you can look and feel your best.
After nineteen years working in hospitals, nursing homes and schools, I am now retired. I have worked with patients suffering from physical as well as behavioral disabilities, and my desire is to continue helping people achieve their health goals. Hence my reason for becoming a certified health coach.
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