Cutting Down on Sugar, Fat Leads to Sweet Payoff

Sheriff’s Employee Makes Dramatic Health Turnaround after County Screening

Josh Ritter used to drink five or six Pepsis and root beers a day. He’d crack his first open in the morning after he woke up, sprinkle them throughout the day, and sometimes have one right before bed.

The 54-year-old Sheriff’s Community Services Officer stashed Hot Tamales, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Hershey’s bars and other candies in almost every room of his house.

Ice cream was another favorite indulgence.

“I was a sugarholic,” said Ritter.

He talks in the past tense because he’s made drastic changes since being diagnosed with diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure after a County health screening in March.

Enticed by the $100 incentive to complete a County health screening, Ritter visited a Kaiser Mobile Health van at the North County Regional Center in Vista, where he works. A nurse expressed alarm after taking his blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure readings, suggesting he go see his doctor that same day.

He went the next day, and after getting the diagnoses, immediately began transforming his eating habits.

He’s made remarkable progress, losing 26 pounds since March. He’s managed to drop his blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure to within normal ranges.

Ritter’s success story alone makes the incentive program worth it, said William Erese, the County’s Wellness Coordinator.  

It shows the importance of learning about your health.

“Just knowing how much risk you face can be the push or kick that wakes people up and into making lifestyle changes,” he said. The significance of “avenues like this where you get that information cannot be understated.”

Erese emphasized that the Employee Wellness Program isn’t only for people who have health issues. Wellness screenings, for example, can also help people re-confirm that they are healthy.

After Ritter got the diagnoses, one of the first things he did was start reading food labels. He’d never really done that.

He started avoiding foods with cholesterol, and severely cutting down on red meat, chips and other fatty and sugary foods. He now eats more chicken than steaks and hamburgers, more salads and fruit, and drinks just one or two diet sodas a day.

He’s also cut his portions. Sometimes he still splurges, say on a Hot Pocket sandwich, but rather than eating two, he’ll have one. Instead of consuming a king size chocolate bar, he’ll eat a mini-sized bar.

“That takes care of the craving,” he said. “I’m still getting that hit, without it being the overload.”

He also takes a few medications that help with the conditions.

Ritter’s co-worker Mary Crooks, an office support specialist with the Sheriff’s Vista Court Services Bureau, said watching Ritter’s progress was inspiring. Crooks went through a health transformation a few years ago, too, shedding 30 lbs. She serves as a Wellness Champion, a County employee who volunteers their time to help plan, promote and organize wellness programming.

“Everybody here saw him lose the weight, and we were all like, ‘wow, good job,” Crooks said. “But I think the reason it’s so impressive too is he didn’t waste any time on this. He got busy and took care of it.”

Ritter said his weight had ballooned after he got married a few decades ago, and stayed there. His doctor would tell him to lose some pounds, advising him to eat less. He was able to slowly lose about 25 pounds over the past five years. But he was still overweight.

Since March, he has lost the additional 26 pounds.

Ritter wasn’t entirely surprised about the diabetes diagnosis. His father and both brothers were also diagnosed with it around the same age, in their mid-50s.

After learning he had it too, Ritter decided to take action. He said he has a lot to look forward to. He loves his job, his wife and his three children. And when he’s not working, he is an avid Renaissance re-enactor and a longtime Comic-Con volunteer.

He said he jokes a lot, but that he was as serious about making these changes and he has been about pretty much anything in his life.

“Do I want to drop dead in the next four or five years or do I want to address it?” he said.
For more information on the County’s Employee Wellness Program, visit its website.