We often hear about people with diabetes, but how often do you get screened for diabetes yourself? Hip hop legend Rev Run and his wife of 26 years Justine Simmons partnered up with “Ask.Screen.Know” to spread awareness about the importance of getting screened for diabetes. A screening could save your life. Here’s what they had to say.
BDO: What inspired you guys to partner with the AskScreenKnow campaign?
Rev Run: It was actually [started with] my manager Michael Lehman. We were having a discussion one day talking about health and he said his dad had diabetes and he passed away. And I said, ‘Wow, mine did too.’ We talked about it for a little while and he said he knew some people over at Novo Nordisk and they have a website, AskScreenKnow.com, so we went down there. This was five years ago and I hit it off with them really well. With everything I do on social media, this is something I want to talk about more because everyone knows about my tweets, and the stuff I talked about on Run’s House and the wisdom. I started leaning the wisdom more toward health and I thought it would be the perfect fit.
It’s helping the people around me, but it’s also helping me because I had to find out my risk for diabetes and I went and got screened and immediately after the meeting I found out that I didn’t have diabetes and I’ve been screening myself every year. Thank God I don’t have diabetes, but I am at risk. The website, AskScreenKnow.com, will tell you the different risk factors. I’m over 45—risk factor. I’m African American—double risk factor. So, with all of these risk factors, I’m very happy to be involved with Novo Nordisk because it keeps me in check and I’m speaking from my heart.
A lot of people I know go to the doctor every year and they tell me they were screened. And I ask, “Are you sure?” And they say, “I got the works Rev. I go every year and get a physical.” And I say, “Are you sure you got screened for diabetes?” I get on their nerves, but after a while when someone keeps saying that to you, you casually ask your doctor, “Did I get screened for diabetes?” and the doctor says, “No, you didn’t.” Then they’ll call me back and apologize, and say, “You know what. I didn’t get screened, but I’m fine. And I can see what you’re doing for people by letting them know that getting a physical is not enough.” Sometimes you have to ask specifically.
Justine: Because they won’t do it. We found out more than 30 million Americans are living with diabetes and 1 of 4 don’t even know it. That’s why we’re really trying to get the message out about AskScreenKnow.com. Take the free assessment and from there if you feel like you’re at risk, go to your doctor from there.
BDO: When you found out you were at risk, was it easy for you to make those necessary lifestyle changes?
Rev Run: It kind of scared me knowing that I’m at risk. It put me in a position of “Wow, I’m getting older.” I’m always thinking about my health all day, every day, all day as I’m getting older, so it prompts me to change my diet. Someone asked me today, what did I want to eat and I said, just get me a turkey burger. Years ago, I would have said, just get me a burger. But now it’s a turkey burger. Not that big of a difference, but big enough. If I’m eating breakfast, I’ll ask for turkey bacon. Anything I can do to change. Or if I’m going to drink something with a sweet taste, just give me a diet cola or I’ll just take water. Or if the waiter will come, I’ll say no bread please. We don’t fry anything in the house anymore. My wife came up with these great recipes that you can find on AskScreenKnow.com where we have this unfried chicken. She also has these great crispy brussel sprouts, so there’s a lot of things.
Then there’s Diggy. He’s super healthy, so we have a food police in our house. These days our kids are pushing us and reminding us. Everything on social media is health is wealth. People are filming themselves lifting weights and all this great health conscious talk. I’ve been saying health is wealth for years and now it’s a big deal to everybody. I’m just happy I made some changes. I’m not saying I’m in the perfect health, but I walk everyday. I’ve seen someone say, “You need to lift some weights Rev,” but I don’t let them push me. I’m not in a health competition. I’m going to make my way around this track four times. Maybe not as fast as you Diggy, but I’ll get there. I walk every day. I have my stepper. No carbs for you? That’s cool, you have your nutritionist. I’m gonna have a little. Its always something where I change a little and the gradual changes are good for me. And I’m not in competition with anyone.
Justine: We also learned about brown rice pasta from Daniel. It’s much lighter and its really great. We have the chicken where we kinda bake high and it tastes just as good. They’re crispy. We used to have potato chips on our counter where you can walk by and grab some, but now we have fruit. Like bananas. We have grapes. We have watermelon already cut.
BDO: How can our readers open the dialogue to have those important conversations with your family about diabetes?
Rev: I think what I did with my family was tell them to get screened and go to AskScreenkKnow.com to see if you have any of those risk factors. From there go to the doctor but let them know there’s help out there and you can make it better for yourself in the long run. My father passed and he didn’t know the wisdom that they have now. We cooked different and we ate different, but there’s wisdom out there.
Justine: Education is a form of medicine. Just knowing. Also men don’t like to get screened.
Rev: Especially African American men. They don’t like going to the doctor period. I tell them to do it for your family. A lot of my decisions are based on me not hurting my family. When it comes to your children, your wife, your mother or anybody else—for some reason we like doing things for other people. When you do it for your family it changes everything.
Justine: And do it afraid.
Rev: Yeah, sometimes we’re afraid. And I tell them afraid is not going to leave. You just gotta do it afraid.
BDO: Was it easy to get the whole family on board with those changes?
Yes. Well Diggy kinda started it. Russy does what his other brother does.
Justine: Miley has no choice. Poor thing. She’s so happy if she sees a soda.
BDO: How do you guys maintain this lifestyle while you’re traveling?
Rev: It’s not easy, but if you really take your time at an airport, you’ll find something. You’ll find a salad. There’s so many restaurant choices at the airport and there’s so much health consciousness going around these days.
Justine: People are selling more healthy items right now.
Rev: Yeah, they’re getting better. If you’re focused you can find some healthy stuff.
BDO: What are your go-to meals or snacks that keep you healthy?
Rev: A go-to snack for me is popcorn, pretzels, a Twizzler sometimes. Mainly watermelon makes me so happy. Pineapple makes me really happy. I have these unsweetened drinks or sugar free drinks.There’s quite a few things I can do to make myself feel like I had some kind of happy sugar that works for me.
Justine: We can count how many calories we had in a day. So if there’s some goodies that we want, we count and see how many cookies we can have.
Rev: Yeah, we don’t deprive ourselves because that doesn’t work. Its not an all or nothing thing. It’s gradual, its balance and it works out.
BDO: Outside of food choices, what else are you doing to lower your risks?
Rev: Exercise. Last week, me and wife we were walking together and people were enjoying that because I like to put up what I’m doing [on social media]. I like to keep myself accountable by playing music and putting up myself walking. I’ll put up a story of my day and I’m proud to look at it later and see that people see that I’m walking. Miley has a scooter that she like to ride around the house, which is nerve wrecking, so we take her to the park and we’ll walk with her. Its Russy’s birthday today and we’ll probably go bowling or something like that.
Me and Diggy will go to the track. He doesn’t like to ride with me which is crazy because I’m walking and he’s running. He’s like, “Dad, I’m going to take my own car is that ok?” I’m like, “Fine I’ll see you at the park.” He’s running past me like for or six times. I’m walking and I’m like, “I’ll see you at home.” We’re like two ships passing in the night. So we’re sharing these things but we’re not as focused as the food police Daniel “Diggy” Simmons. But it good because the refrigerator is filled with stuff we can all eat.
Go to AskScreenKnow.com for more information.
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