After a bicycle accident, one woman was forced to change her diet, and she shares how her lifestyle tweaks helped her put diabetes in remission — and how she's happier for it.
Zelda Robinson, a radio-show host turned motivational speaker, helped put diabetes in remission by trading packaged snacks for fresh fruits and veggies.
Zelda Robinson lost two of her older siblings to type 2 diabetes and one to heart disease. But neither her family's history of diabetes nor her own prediabetes diagnosis could convince the Chicago native to make her health a priority.
Constance Brown-Riggs, RD, CDE, is the owner and president of CBR Nutrition Enterprises, a nutrition consulting and counseling service in Massapequa, New York. She has not treated Robinson but regularly works with African-Americans diagnosed with diabetes, like Robinson. Brown-Riggs, who is also the author of The African American Guide to Living Well With Diabetes, points out that while diet and lifestyle can play a role in whether someone develops type 2 diabetes, genetics can affect the risk as well.
In 2013, a bicycle accident marked an unexpected turning point for Robinson: While trying to lose weight by roller-skating and cycling, she made the mistake of taking her bike out in the snow.
"I was fighting the battle of the bulge, [and] I thought I could burn more fat by riding my bike harder," says Robinson. She has been overweight for her entire adult life but says that by that point her weight had crept up to 280 pounds (lbs). "There was a patch of ice I didn't see, but it saw me," she says.
At the time she was 57 years old, and she was rushed to the hospital with a broken ankle. Before going into surgery, the ER doctor checked Robinson's vitals and asked how long she'd had type 2 diabetes.
"Oh no, you must have the wrong Zelda Robinson," she recalls telling the doctor.
Although she had been managing prediabetes for what she believed was 10 years prior to the accident, she had unknowingly developed full-blown type 2 diabetes.
Prediabetes means your blood sugar level is higher than normal but not yet high enough to be type 2 diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association. The A1C test, which measures a two- to three-month average of blood glucose levels, is one way to diagnose and help people manage diabetes. Healthy people have an A1C of below 5.7, people with prediabetes have an A1C of 5.7 to 6.4, and people with diabetes have an A1C of 6.5 or higher.
According to the Mayo Clinic, even having prediabetes can lead to damage of the kidneys, heart, and blood vessels.
Also, she continues, many doctors don't emphasize how serious prediabetes is. "They don't take the time to explain to their patients what prediabetes is and how they can prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes," she says.
Afterward she didn't have much of an appetite and could only eat "salads and light food." When Robinson left the hospital, she was determined to take control of her health and type 2 diabetes, so she traded her beloved salty and sugary snacks for fresh vegetables and whole foods.
A year after the accident, in 2014, she had lost more than 30 lbs. As a result of her lifestyle and diet overhaul, Robinson, now 61, has maintained her weight loss and also weaned herself off of diabetes medication.
Robinson took a multipronged approach to losing weight and getting her diabetes under control.
To try to get off the common diabetes medication Glucophage (metformin), Robinson started working out three times a week per her doctor's recommendation before ramping up the frequency to seven times a week.
Before the gym, Robinson eats a handful of nuts, like almonds or pecans, and drinks a glass of water with lemon. Her daily workout includes 5 miles or 30 minutes on the stationary bike at the gym (whichever comes first), 5 to 10 minutes on the treadmill, 30 minutes of floor exercises and gentle yoga (up to 30 seconds of plank position), and a few minutes of strength training.
Following her morning workout, Robinson drinks a juice made with fresh beets, apple, cucumber, kale, ginger, lemon, and turmeric. "I drink an 8-ounce glass [of the juice] every morning. I add chia seeds, which adds protein [and fiber], which fill you up. I'm not hungry until 11 a.m.," she says. For more fiber, she follows the detox drink with more greens. "I eat a salad for breakfast instead of bacon and eggs," she says.
Thanks to her weight loss and positive lifestyle changes, Robinson lowered her A1C to 5.7, which is still in the prediabetes range but has been low enough to compel her doctor to take her off metformin.
Robinson furthermore practices daily meditation to maintain a sense of balance in her life, and to stay social, she goes to a roller-skating rink every Tuesday to hang out with friends. While she can't skate because of her ankle injury, instead she enjoys playing cards. "I just go to be social and keep my mind active," she says.
She even brings a big salad with kale, spinach, cucumber, broccoli, red onion, tomatoes, dried cranberries, and apples to share. "I celebrated my birthday at the rink. I put a cake on one side and the salad on the other side, and the salad was gone first," she says.
When she retired from her longtime career as a gospel radio personality, Robinson became a volunteer media coach with a nonprofit that prepares young people for careers in radio, TV, film, and print media production. So many people have asked her how she reversed diabetes that she wrote an e-book about her journey, Diabetic Donut: How I Reversed Type 2 Diabetes. On the side, she is a motivational speaker, helping others transform their health. "As I share my story, I help others help themselves," she says.