Celebrating Our People – Meet Paige

After making major lifestyle changes and undergoing one of the first bariatric surgeries performed in Kentucky to lose more than 100 pounds, Saint Joseph East entry screener Paige Davidson strives to help women just like her.

At 315 pounds, Paige felt she had tried every diet to lose weight. After bariatric surgery in 2000, she lost 150 pounds, but slowly gained weight after relaxing her eating habits. By 2019, she found herself at 250 pounds and dealing with chronic achilles tendonitis and plantar fasciitis.

“I would have sworn to you I was not going to gain the weight back,” Paige said. “For 40 years, I was yo-yo dieting and couldn’t really lose weight. So I decided to have bariatric surgery, and for those first five years after surgery, I was white-knuckling it. It felt like another diet. Then I began to push the envelope and slowly started gaining that weight back.

“By 2019, I was back up to 250 pounds and I had plantar fasciitis in one foot and achilles tendonitis in the other foot. I was limping. I could hardly walk. I was close to not being able to do my job.”

With help from her sister and a Christian counselor, Paige said she tried intermittent fasting after learning about how it can alleviate inflammation without having to follow a traditional diet.

“I learned you had to change your lifestyle and change the mindset that got you to that really unhealthy place,” Paige said. “It’s not about the food. It’s about having a positive attitude and becoming aware of ‘diet brain’ and those unhealthy thoughts we have about food.”

Paige recently earned her health coach certification and wrote a book about intermittent fasting and lifestyle changes. She was also featured on the cover of Woman’s World Magazine last year.

“I feel so grateful, and that I have a lot to give and people to help,” Paige said. “I became a health coach and started a business. I had never wanted to start a business, but at the time, I didn’t know what else to do because I didn’t know there was such a thing as an intermittent fasting coach.”

Along with coaching and publishing her book, Paige has been at Saint Joseph East as an entry screener since November 2020. Paige retired from the state as a professional trainer, the last 12 years spent at the Department of Libraries and Archives in Frankfort.

“I just love my surgery patients,” Paige said. “It’s a scary thing to come in for surgery, and I think I can be a bright, positive, welcoming face.”

Paige retired from the state and worked at the Lexington Public Library until the pandemic started. Since retiring, Paige said her experience and desire to help and educate others led her to Saint Joseph East.

“My ideal job (for after retirement) was to work part-time at a library,” Paige said. I was working at Lexington Public Library when the pandemic hit and lost my job because they laid off part-time employees. I saw this position and always been one to give back, so I thought this would be a good way to help people, as well as make income.”

In fact, Saint Joseph East leadership recently recognized Paige for the kindness and compassion she shows surgery patients after learning of a patient who shared a social media post praising Paige for her positive interaction before her surgery and for the pocket prayer she received.