Meet Healthy Me! Program partner, St. Joseph Regional Medical Center

To be healthy, individuals must have a good balance of exercise and healthy nutritional habits. Last week, The Medical Foundation introduced you to our Healthy Me! Program partner, Memorial Health & Lifestyle Center. This week, we want to introduce you to our Healthy Me! Program partner, St. Joseph Regional Medical Center.

St. Joseph Regional Medical Center (SJRMC) is providing a Registered Dietitian, Erin Hurst, to oversee the nutritional aspect of the program.

Hurst has been with the hospital since June and also has a background as a personal trainer. Her daily responsibilities focus primarily on the impatient population, but she is excited to be a part of the Healthy Me! Program and offering participants the education and resources they need to succeed.

According to Hurst, her plan for the six participants in the Healthy Me! Program will be very individualized. She will spend some time with the participants on a one-on-one level to get to know them.  Questions may be asked about the participant’s home environment, what foods they tend to eat, how they prepare certain foods, how much activity they get during the day, and other lifestyle questions. These individualized questions will help Hurst and the participant to figure out some realistic goals. 

There are a few themes that Hurst has noticed are common among those who need and want to lose weight.  For example, she mentioned that within our diet as a society, we know that often times we need to monitor portion sizes and make sure we are eating enough fruits and vegetables.

She realizes that many people struggle with good time management which can sometimes lead to poor diet choices. 

“We’ll work on understanding how to make the best choices especially based on limited resources or limited time,” said Hurst.

Planning ahead and preparing a few items that are easy to keep on hand and grab quickly are choices she hopes to instill in the participants as a healthy choice rather than driving to the nearest fast food restaurant.

St. Joseph Regional Medical Center provides a class to the community called the Healthy Heart Nutrition class.  The class is free of charge, but you must register before attending by calling 866.757.6248.

The Healthy Me! Program will have six participants who are chosen to receive a year membership and twice a month meetings with a fitness specialist at Memorial Health & Lifestyles Center, free monthly consultations with a physician at Family Medicine of South Bend PC, free lab work from

The Medical Foundation and nutritional guidance from a registered dietitian at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center.

Those interested in being a participant need to apply by sending your name, address, age and phone number along with a 500 word essay about why you want to be a participant in the Healthy Me! Program.  Applications can be emailed to info@sbmf.org or mailed to Colleen Hahn, The Medical Foundation, 530 North Lafayette Blvd, South Bend, Indiana 46601 no later than 5pm on March 21st.

You can look forward to upcoming articles from Hurst about how to help curb sugar attacks and how to read nutrition labels correctly. If you aren’t chosen as one of the Healthy Me! Program participants, don’t give up! Refer back to our website for updates and healthy tips from all of our Healthy Me! Program partners.