{"id":14605,"date":"2023-08-29T14:49:30","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T14:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifestylemedicine.org\/?p=14605"},"modified":"2025-07-10T21:59:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T21:59:12","slug":"making-the-healthy-choice-the-easy-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifestylemedicine.org\/making-the-healthy-choice-the-easy-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"Making the healthy choice the easy choice with lifestyle medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Making the healthy choice the easy choice with lifestyle medicine<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
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Dr. Meagan Grega co-founded an organization to transform the \u201cchoice architecture\u201d in her Pennsylvania community so that unhealthy options are no longer the default lifestyle choice.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

August 29, 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A leader in lifestyle medicine is at the forefront of an ambitious effort to make healthy choices the easy choices for families in eastern Pennsylvania\u2019s Lehigh Valley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meagan Grega, MD, DipABLM, FACLM, co-founder and chief medical officer of the nonprofit Kellyn Foundation<\/a>, spearheads a unique and collaborative healthy neighborhood immersion initiative to improve the short- and long-term health of the almost 700,000 people living in this one-time steel manufacturing hub north of Philadelphia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program utilizes schools and other community locations to pursue four areas of focus: access to healthy food, intensive lifestyle medicine interventions, school programming and teaching families to prepare delicious and healthy meals. Kellyn Foundation impacts more than 10,000 students in 36 elementary schools within nine school districts annually. Since 2016, it has operated the Eat Real Food Mobile Market, selling 136,000 pounds of nutrient-dense food during the past year in areas that lack access to healthy food options. The intensive lifestyle intervention program has documented success reducing HgbA1c<\/a> levels of participants with prediabetes into the normal range over a three-month period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Grega, who earned lifestyle medicine board certification<\/a> in 2017 and is a faculty member implementing ACLM\u2019s Lifestyle Medicine Residency Curriculum<\/a> in the family medicine and internal medicine residency programs at St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network-Anderson Campus, said the Kellyn program\u2019s longevity and impact has attracted attention from other communities interested in replicating the model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur big picture strategy is focusing on how we can shift the social norms of our community to healthier choices, and how can we shift the choice architecture so that healthy options are the default choice,\u201d Dr. Grega said. \u201cMaking the healthy choice the easy choice is our mission for what we do in the Lehigh Valley.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I wish I could do that too\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Grega has practiced family medicine for over 25 years and co-founded the Kellyn Foundation in 2007. In the early 2000s, she had noticed a great deal of obesity in both adult and pediatric patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI knew the parents I treated already had diabetes, hypertension and heart disease; but I saw that their children were on track to develop the same diseases their parents had,\u201d Dr. Grega said. \u201cI saw increasing pediatric obesity and decreased cardiorespiratory fitness among kids who couldn\u2019t run a lap around the gym without getting out of breath. I was providing lifestyle counseling during well checks but wasn\u2019t making an impact. And there was nowhere to refer them that could support the children and their families in shifting to healthier lifestyle choices, especially in regard to physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, decreased screen time and nutrient-dense food.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She shared her frustration with a family friend and businessman, Eric Ruth, who suggested they cofound an organization that would<\/em> impact the health of Lehigh Valley children and their families. She decided to change the trajectory of her career and try to build the type of programs that she wished she could refer her patients to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome friends and family members said \u2018You went to an Ivy League medical school, devoting all these years to medical training and building a practice and now you\u2019re just going to stop?\u2019\u201d Dr. Grega said. \u201cBut when I told my colleagues in family medicine or cardiology or gastroenterology what I was planning to do, every one of them said \u2018I wish I could do that, too.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neighborhood immersion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Kellyn Foundation initially offered an intensive lifestyle medicine intervention program for families. It included three months of structured group nutrition and physical activity classes, along with individualized lifestyle assessment and goal setting. It was largely successful in teaching new lifestyle habits. But once families completed the program, they almost always struggled to maintain those habits when they were no longer surrounded by a supportive environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Educating and supporting families in making healthy choices during the intensive intervention accomplished little if once the families returned to their regular routines and social interactions the conditions reverted to those most conducive to make unhealthy choices. That realization led to the creation of the Kellyn Foundation \u201cHealthy Neighborhood Immersion Strategy,\u201d which grew to include the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n