Adventist Health Bakersfield | You + Us | Winter 2018

4 Living God’s love by inspiring health, wholeness and hope. Karen Madsen knew it was time for a change. At 60 years old, her weight was at an all-time high. She couldn’t do the activities she wanted to do, and a milestone birthday hit her hard. “That 60 thing really threw me,” she says. “I wasn’t living.” It’s a story that many middle-aged people know well. Karen was thin all her life, she says. In her 30s, she noticed the numbers on the scale creeping up. By 50, Karen was what she calls “extremely overweight.” “My eating habits were awful, and I was a borderline diabetic,” she says. Plus, with her 12- to 13-hour workdays as a registered nurse, she had very little time to exercise. Time for a real change For Karen, the last straw came in paradise. During a trip to Maui, she couldn’t zip line because of her weight. That was it. She was ready for a change. In January 2016, she kicked off the new year with a new state of mind. She made an appointment with Amira Ayad, MD, Inspiring Wholeness YOU + US : Together i nsp i red ™ Plenty of grit and giddyup. Karen Madsen can empathize with people facing a weight problem. “I wasn’t having any fun,” she says. Today, she’s quite happy with her new habits and believes the changes she’s made can help others too. In a weigh Determination is key in local nurse’s nearly 90-pound weight loss