Health Coaching in Los Altos: Support for the Generation in the Middle

I am Cheri Sacks, a registered nurse and a Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist. I coach people in Los Altos and Los Altos Hills by video across California, and in person on the Peninsula by arrangement. I sit with the generation in the middle: your job, your kids or none, a parent, and a body that just asked for attention.

The short version

Video sessions that fit a calendar with no slack. Care that names the middle, not just the lab. Alongside your doctors. Never instead. Free discovery call.

Hello. Los Altos can look like a town that already figured it out. The people I meet here have usually figured out everyone else. Then a number comes back, or a parent falls, and there is no extra hour hiding in the week.

Here is the thing I want you to hear first. You do not have to disappear to keep everyone else visible. We can put you back on the list.

The middle is a health condition of its own

You are the backup plan for two directions. You skip your own follow-up because the specialist visit was in Palo Alto at 2 p.m. and pickup was at 3:10. You eat standing up. You call it fine.

It is not a character flaw. It is a schedule. We build around it: one small change, not a retreat you cannot attend.

CDC notes that most U.S. adults live with a chronic condition, and many live with more than one. CDC, about chronic disease Life in the middle is how that lands in a Los Altos week: your glucose, a parent's pills, a job that still expects you at 8.

If the parent is the open loop, caring for an aging parent is the longer piece. If it is your glucose, living well with type 2. Nearby towns: Palo Alto, Saratoga, Bay Area.

NIDDK's managing diabetes page still puts you at the center of the team. You cannot be the center if you have taken yourself off the list. Please talk with your physician before you change a medicine, a meal plan, or an activity plan that could drop your sugar. I work with them, not instead of them.

PATH when you are everyone's plan B

I coach through a simple framework I call PATH: Personalized care, Awareness, Transformation, Health.

Personalized, in Los Altos, starts with the middle you live in. Your 2 p.m. specialist and 3:10 pickup. We do not write a morning routine that assumes you have a morning.

Awareness means we name who is on your list, and who is missing. If the missing name is you, that is the first fact, not a pep talk.

Transformation is one small step that can survive pickup. A glass of water before coffee. A walk after the meal you actually sit down for. A sentence for your doctor: "I am not sleeping in one block, and I am the backup for a parent."

Health is you back on the list. Feeling like yourself enough to stay in your own life, not only in everyone else's.

The longer PATH map is in working with a nurse health coach.

A moment from practice. A woman in Los Altos Hills kept canceling her own labs because her father had a fall the same week. We put her labs on the same calendar as his, in writing. She kept the next one. The middle did not get lighter. She stopped pretending she was not in it.

I offer diabetes education and coaching, one-to-one, and group when that is a better fit. The first conversation is a free call. You can book that here.

Life in the middle, in ordinary language. Some people call it the sandwich generation. I call it your week. You are the person who knows both portals. You are the person who packed the go-bag and still went to work. You are the person who ate standing up because sitting down would have meant noticing you were hungry. PATH does not scold that. Personalized care means we put your labs on the same calendar as the parent's, in writing, so they stop competing in your head. Awareness means we say out loud that you are on the list. Transformation might be one meal you sit down for, or one follow-up you do not cancel. Health is you still being a person at 8 p.m., not only a coordinator.

If the parent is the louder loop, start with caregiving. If your own glucose is the quieter one, start with living well with type 2. If you want the closed door, first session. If you want other people who are also in the middle, group vs private. Teachers, engineers, small-business owners, and people who look "fine" are all the middle. I do not only sit with executives.

You can bring a parent on the call if they live in California and they want that. You can also keep the hour as yours. Both are care. The people you care for do not get a vote about whether you get a chair.

Los Altos Hills and Los Altos proper share the same middle and different driveways. Video does not care which one you are on. In person is by arrangement on the Peninsula. I do not only sit with executives. Teachers, engineers, small-business owners, and people who look "fine" at the school loop are the middle. If nights are the thief because someone else is up, sleep and type 2 belongs next to the A1C. If the load has a glucose thread, diabetes burnout. PATH holds the sandwich without asking you to drop a person you love. One step that survives pickup is still a step.

Cost is a fair question. Ask it on the free call. I would rather put you in a container you can keep than sell you a package you will cancel because the hour felt like another dependent. You do not have to earn the chair by keeping everyone else comfortable first.

A final thought

You do not have to disappear to keep everyone else visible. PATH is how we put you back on the list without dropping the people you love.

You do not need to do more. You need to do what works for your body.

With Care, Cheri Sacks, R.N., C.D.C.E.S. Your Neighbor, The Nurse

This article is education, not medical care. Please talk with your physician before you change a medicine, a meal plan, or an activity plan.

Related reading

• Caregiving and healthy aging
• Health coaching on the Peninsula
• Health coaching in the Bay Area
• Diabetes burnout
• First session