Reflexology, Girly Days, wigs and Pinkberry: author, actress and TV co-host Sherri Shepherd (“The View”) has definite opinions about all of the above. She’s about to land in Dallas to represent a very serious cause (the Diabetes Health And Wellness Institute Healthy Harvest Fun Walk & 5K Run), but that didn’t keep the fiercely funny comedian from dishing about her vices, her victories, the free time-saver that more women should start using and her family’s generational war with diabetes.

MOTHER OF COLOR- It’s an honor speaking with you Sherri, my kids love you in the film Beauty Shop and I enjoy both of your books.

SHERRI SHEPHERD- “Aw Man, thank you so much! I appreciate that.”

MOC- I wanted to start by talking about your commitment to the fight against diabetes, the way you’ve been so open about it is really helpful to a lot of people.

SS- “It’s a huge problem in the Latino and African-American communities. I’m so passionate about living an amazing life and being healthy, even if you have diabetes, and I’m passionate about people preventing themselves from getting diabetes.”

MOC- I remember reading about how everyone in your family has suffered from the disease. How is everyone’s awareness about it these days?

SS- “I think everyone gets a light bulb at different times, but the last thing they want to hear is, ‘What are you eating that for? You know it’s bad for you!’ The testimony is better lived than spoken. We have a family weight loss Facebook page, where whoever loses the most weight and eats the healthiest wins money at the end of the month—I just found out that I was the only one giving any money, but anyway…(laughs). Everybody posts recipes and what types of exercise they’re doing, how they’re cooking, and that makes it fun for everybody.”

MOC- Why do you believe it’s so prevalent among Latinos and African-Americans as opposed to other groups?

SS- “It’s the way we eat in our culture. The way I used to cook greens I learned from my grandmother, you put of pound of bacon in there, the ham hocks—-I don’t know what nutritional value was left in the greens once I put all of the high-cholesterol stuff in there. When we fry chicken, we have the big ol’ spaghetti pot filled with Crisco….it’s a wonder that more people in my family didn’t die from a daggone stroke or heart attack. So I said to my family, ‘Let’s grill, let’s bake the chicken.’ They were like, ‘Bake? What am I gonna do with all this flour?’ I’m just so passionate about talking to people, especially our people, because diabetes is so high in the Latino community and in the Black community. We are leaving our children behind at young ages because we are making choices that are not good for our bodies and diabetes doesn’t affect just one person, but the entire family.”

MOC- Elaborate for me….

SS- “Both of my sisters have diabetes, my aunt just had a stroke where she’s partially paralyzed on one side, my grandparents had it, my mother passed away at 41 from it. My cousin, the aunt’s daughter, had to drop everything that she’s doing, all of her plans, and come home to take my aunt to rehab and dialysis, because her organs are shutting down. We’ve got to stop this, its getting out of hand.”

MOC- Oh wow, I’m sorry to hear that Sherri.

SS- “You never anticipate what diabetes does to you, it’s called ‘the silent killer’ for a reason: it does so much internal damage that you may not feel, so you keep eating that daggone peach cobbler and the fried catfish and ribs. I was speaking in Phoenix AZ and a woman came up to me with her mother and broke down in tears. The mother told me that her blood sugar was 496, so I took her hand in mine and said, ‘Look at how much this is affecting her—you’re going to die Ma’am, they need you! There’s wisdom that only you have, you’ve got grandbabies, they don’t want you to die!’ It’s breaking my heart and I don’t want to do to my son what my mother did to me [by dying at 41]. She left a 15 year old daughter to fend for herself, another daughter in her early 20s who got on drugs….she didn’t take care of herself, but she was a very vibrant woman, a prankster, love to have fun and try the latest hairstyles. My mother got a weave before I even knew what weaves were.

But with her leaving so early, I feel like there’s a lot of stuff I had to learn on my own. I’m not blaming my promiscuity on my mother, but I had nobody saying to me ‘Sherri, when a man says this to you, this is what he really means.’ As a mother, you know there’s a certain way you can rub your child’s back to calm them down; when they come home from high school and need to talk, they’re looking for you. You know exactly what it takes to make your child tick and if you’re not there, who will do that for them? I love my sisters, and if something happened to me they would take care of Jeffrey, but my son has special needs and nobody knows him like I know him. I come from a family where they will just tear your butt up, but my son, instead of getting spankings, you need to sit down and talk to him. I tell folks ‘You are needed, God gave you these kids and it’s not in his will for you to be in a wheelchair with half your leg missing.'”

MOC- Your latest book, Plan D: How To Lose Weight And Beat Diabetes (Even If You Don’t Have It), goes into a lot of detail about the changes you made to your diet and the setbacks you’ve had. It’s refreshing to see someone being so transparent about their struggles.

SS- “Knowledge is power and the Bible says a lack of knowledge will kill you. I thoroughly talk about the lifestyle changes you have to make, and if you’re pre-diabetic or borderline, there are simple changes you can make so you don’t get diabetes. I talk about the different types of foods that you should stay away from, and the ones you should eat, such as something that’s full of fiber and protein so you don’t raise your blood sugar as high. When people hear that their diabetic or pre-diabetic, they get so scared and the one thing that doesn’t help is pretending you don’t have it and that you hope it will go away, that’s the worst thing you can do.”

MOC- Like when you mentioned going for a full plate of waffles and syrup and hitting up Pinkberry…..

SS- “OH Girl, I had to put down Haagen-Dazs, and when I heard that Pinkberry’s was ‘fat-free yogurt’ I thought I could eat it—- no. It’s loaded with sugar and carbs. My blood sugar gets so high from eating it, so I haven’t been there in a long time.”

MOC- How do you handle the slip-ups and setbacks?

SS- “I tell people I’m not perfect and not to beat themselves up. I went to an event with my husband where they had a smorgasbord of Italian food. I’m trying to stick to my eating plan, but they had sausage and red peppers-–I had a talk with myself and said ‘Okay Sherri, if you eat this Italian sausage, you’re coming off your diet.’ So I had a little bit, pushed the plate away. I’m proud of myself for not getting seconds, drinking soda and I didn’t get the french fries, I got what I wanted and left it alone.”

MOC- Why do you think it’s so hard for us to be more vigilant about our health, especially women?

SS- “I think we have to practice saying ‘no.’ You figure out what your main priorities are, and if you’re married, have children and ailing parents, let go of all of the other stuff. Maybe you can’t be head of the greeting board and take so -and-so’s kids to wherever. You’ve got to learn that ‘no’ is an empowering word and we’re so used to doing it all, but we’ve got to get used to saying ‘no’ and being completely okay with it.

Also, it’s important to take a little time: my husband knows and will even set up my ‘girlfriend weekend.’ One of my best friends Neicy Nash, I’ve know her for 20-something years, and whenever I come into L.A., she’ll tell me ‘just give me two hours [notice],’ and she’ll gather the girlfriends, they’ll come in their pajamas and we’ll all have a girls’ night. When she comes to NY, I make sure we get together—we’ve got to charge up and connect and be able to unload. I have connected with sisters out here in NY who encourage me about my marriage, where I can just cry….you gotta have that, you can’t carry all of the burdens on your own. Even if you get just a pedi or a mani, pay a little extra to have somebody rub those feet. what a good reflexology massage can do for your body….my husband won’t rub my feet because sex is involved at the end of it (laughs), but but it does so much. You must carve out ‘me time’ and if you feel like you can’t find any, then you’ve got to let something else go because there’s something you’re doing that you’re not supposed to be doing.

MOC- Amen! Before we wrap up though Sherri, what do you want to share about your wig line?

SS- “It’s called Sherri NOW—I told myself if I don’t come away from “The View” with a wig or bra line, something is wrong in the world (laughs)! All the hair that I wear on the show is from my wig line. It’s available at QVC, beauty supply stores and online. My wigs are all synthetic because I wanted it to be where you could just take it out of the box, shake it out, put it on your head and get ready to go. They’re priced well and are good quality, they have to take a big beating because I wear them everyday. One of the reasons that us sisters don’t like going to the gym is that they just got their hair done and don’t want to mess their hair up. On the days you go to the gym, make that you’re ‘wig-wearing day.’ Don’t let your hair stop or being healthy.”