GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Many people start a new year with goals to become healthier. For Barry Hall, the lifestyle changes he wanted to make needed to be year-round. 

In a little more than six months, he lost more than 70 pounds, dropped 12 medications, had more energy, no arthritis pain and many more benefits. He did it all through focusing on food as medicine and learning how lifestyle changes can heal medical conditions. However, the road to get there was not without its challenges. 

In 2021, Hall went to his doctor with COVID-19. 

“She said, ‘Hey, I don’t know if you know this, but you are pre-diabetic and you have pre- hypertension,'” said Hall. “And I said, ‘No, no one’s ever told me that my entire life.'”

He was referred to Corewell Health’s Lifestyle Medicine program. The program is designed by a team of experts to lead lifestyle changes that influence health. These changes include nutrition, physical activity, stress management, sleep, social connection and avoiding risky substances. 

“I was going for about six months, lost a little bit of weight,” said Hall. “But then, life happened. I stopped going.”

Hall had not stopped thinking about lifestyle medicine, however, and in May of 2024, he returned with new motivation. 

“When I went back, I actually had diabetes, it wasn’t pre anymore,” said Hall. “I had hypertension. I was taking 10+ medications. I weighed 308 pounds. I was in a 3X size.”

This time, he stuck with the program. He learned how changing what he eats, how he moves and more can influence his medical journey. He also lost 70 pounds in six months. However, the effects were felt far beyond weight loss. 

“Right now, I don’t take a single medication,” said Hall. “I haven’t had any knee pains from my arthritis. I sleep so much better. My life has completely changed just because I’ve been able to make those lifestyle changes.”

Lifestyle Medicine is centered around an ideal called “food is medicine.” 

“What we know about chronic disease is that poor dietary quality is the single greatest risk factor for most of our chronic diseases,” said Dr. Kristi Artz, medical director for the Lifestyle Medicine program at Corewell Health. “Diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, many of our common lifestyle linked cancers, like breast cancer, colorectal cancer. And then, of course, the disease of obesity.”

Dr. Artz worked with Hall on his journey. 

“Barry is such a unique and inspiring person,” said Artz. “He’s a young guy. He’s got a great career. He’s got a young family. He has so many things that are really important to him, and so his health was a great concern, and something that he wanted to improve so that he could stay engaged in all of these really important aspects of his life.”

Lifestyle Medicine is not a weight loss program. Artz said that weight loss is often a result of the changes, but it is not the goal. 

“It’s not alternative or complementary medicine,” said Artz. “It’s truly evidence-based medicine that when we start to use prescriptions around nutrition and physical activity and stress management and sleep quality, that we can commonly and predictably see disease regression. As a physician like myself, I’m always thrilled and excited and awed by these changes, but they’re also so predictable, because the evidence is there that when we use lifestyle as medicine, that we know our patients are going to achieve health improvement.”

When taking part in Lifestyle Medicine, patients have access to health behavior assessments, personalized lifestyle plans, culinary medicine programs like cooking classes and meal planning, health and wellness coaching, substance treatment and more. 

“I can breathe,” said Hall. “There’s a weight off my chest.” 

Hall coaches football for his son’s team, saying he has much more energy now to do what he loves than before. 

He meal preps and exercises daily, changes that take extra planning, but are worth it. 

“It’s not what I’m doing, it’s why I’m doing it and how I’m doing it that got me to the what I’m doing,” said Hall. “If I can do it, I guarantee anybody else can do it as well.” 

If interested in Lifestyle Medicine, ask your doctor. There is also a 30-day plant-based eating challenge anyone can take part in happening until Feb. 5. You can learn more about the Plant Powered Challenge here.