Ozempic who?
Nearly 10 years ago, Norma Lyons was 40 pounds overweight and considered tortilla a major food group when her doctor broke the news that she was prediabetic.
Unwilling to take medication, the now 60-year-old mother of three was determined to reverse the condition on her own — and she did, transforming her diet and her health in just 90 days.
Now she has 1.8 million TikTok followers who turn to her for healthy eating tips and recipes — and the twist, she told The Post, is that she no longer adheres to the strict diet she used to flip her diagnosis in the first place.
Back in 2016, Lyons was a busy mom who didn’t prioritize her health.
“I have three boys and a husband, and I was running around and not taking care of myself,” she said.
She mostly ate what her kids did, which meant a lot of cereal, bananas with peanut butter, sandwiches and ice cream.
“I’m Hispanic, so everything was thrown in a tortilla back then,” she added. “Lots and lots of tortillas. Probably a lot of cheese as well — just oversaturation of food that just wasn’t good for me.”
Though she wasn’t going crazy on fast food and donuts, she weighed 180 pounds and wasn’t exercising at all.
“I was teetering on a very, very scary weight for my 5-foot frame,” she recalled.
The not-so-sweet news
At a routine checkup that year, she learned she had elevated A1C, a chemical in the blood that is linked to sugar. She was firmly in the prediabetic zone.
People with prediabetes have blood sugar levels higher than they’re supposed to be — though not quite as high as someone with a full diabetes diagnosis. Unmanaged, it can progress to full-blown diabetes and put people at risk for heart disease and stroke.
They figured I’d be coming back in three months and having medication. But I came back in three months and they were shocked.
Norma Lyons
Lyons’ doctor wanted to prescribe Metformin, the most common oral drug to treat high blood sugar levels. But Lyons didn’t want to go on medication — and was determined to fix the problem on her own through changing her lifestyle.
“So I said, ‘Can we hold off on the meds and let me try and see if we can do this another way?’” she recalled.
Her doctors weren’t convinced: “They just said, ‘OK, good luck.’”
She was sent on her way with no information on how she might do that, no nutritional advice and no referrals to dietitians or nutritionists.
“I think they pretty much figured I’d be coming back in three months and having medication. But I came back in three months and they were shocked,” she said.
Carbohydrates vs. diabetes
Lyons went home and did her own research, quickly dedicating herself to the keto diet. “I had completely eliminated carbohydrates,” she said.
When we eat carbs, our body breaks them down into glucose, raising our blood sugar. Limiting carbs can reduce those blood sugar spikes, which helps manage prediabetes.
Lyons’ new diet included eggs, bacon and cheese every morning, lettuce wraps with cheese and chicken for lunch, and lots of meat for dinner. Her go-to snacks were nuts and mozzarella cheese sticks.
“All that animal fat, which, gosh, I’m so grateful that I didn’t have a heart attack,” she admitted.
She dropped 20 pounds in three months — and even got back in a bikini for the first time in 30 years. She’d ultimately lose a total of 40 pounds.
And three months after her diagnosis, she went back to the doctor — who told her that she got her A1C levels down and was no longer prediabetic. Lyons said they were “shocked.”
Keto worked wonders — why she decided to ditch it
Though she managed to make massive headway with her health on keto, she’s no longer adhering to the meat-heavy diet — and doesn’t recommend it.
Besides some unpleasant side effects, like a lack of energy, she realized that it simply wasn’t sustainable. After all, she wanted to be able to enjoy herself with friends and family.
A study by Stanford Medicine in 2022 came to a similar conclusion, finding that the Mediterranean diet and keto diets both had similar effects for blood sugar, weight and several other health indicators — but the ultra-restrictive keto diet was tougher to stick to.
It also eliminated some good-for-you foods.
“The lower in carbs you go, the more you’re wiping out entire food groups that are considered very nutrient dense and healthy,” noted Christopher Gardner, Ph.D., who was the lead author of the study.
“Restricting added sugars and refined grains and emphasizing the inclusion of vegetables should be the focus,” he added. “There’s no reason to restrict heart-healthy, quality carbohydrate foods above and beyond.”
How she’s managing her blood sugar today
Eventually, Lyons’ blood sugar started to elevate again. She learned from a nutritionist that that’s because you actually need some complex carbohydrates in your diet to balance out your blood sugar.
These days, she’s on a sugar-free diet. She’s also relying on Stelo by Dexcom, a tiny, wearable glucose biosensor that sends info about her blood sugar levels to her phone.
“Back then, I didn’t think that I could eat any carbs at all for fear of my glucose spiking, but the sensor is showing me that now I’m able to eat carbs,” she said, noting that it’s all about eating them at the right time and pairing them with other foods.
What you can do
Lyons stressed that the most important thing when you’re struggling with prediabetes is to know your glucose numbers.
She also recommends pairing carbs with protein. For example, oatmeal alone can make her blood sugar spike — but adding a scoop of protein powder and a tablespoon of peanut butter to it and she’s fine.
Fiber is another good tool. She cited the plate method often promoted by the American Diabetes Association.
“The plate method is half your plate with a fiber-filled vegetable, a quarter of your plate with a protein, and a quarter of your plate with a complex carb,” she said. “Start with a fiber first. So eat your veggies first, you know, and then you can go on to your protein and then your carb, for a much slower response in blood sugar.”
