Q: How are you managing the disease?
A: I exercise a lot. I also find if I get enough sleep that helps me a lot because I don’t eat as much. Obviously, getting exercise and taking my medication and testing my blood.
Q: How often do you test your blood sugar?
A: Fortunately, I only have to test about once or twice a day. My blood sugar is pretty good most of the time—if I’m eating right, exercising, and taking my medication. [King takes metformin, one of the most commonly prescribed pills for diabetes.]
Q: What’s your exercise regime like?
A: I have weights at home and a stationary bike. I’ll do the bike and I’ll go to the gym. I have bad knees, so my days of heavy weight bearing are over. I try to do resistance training for my upper and lower body.
My goal is to get back on the tennis court. I’m getting close. I had an operation last year and had to start over. I couldn’t use my core for 10 weeks. I’m getting to the point where I can finally get back to the tennis court. It absolutely makes me happy when I can hit the ball.
Tennis is so good for diabetes. We’ve had several examples of professional tennis players with diabetes. Billy Talbert lived into his 80s. Ham Richardson lived into his 70s. They lived much longer than the normal lifespan for diabetics, I think, because of the tennis and taking good care of themselves. They never got overweight. And they were very conscientious. In doing so, they were great examples for all of us.
I just loved watching them play. In the old days, they’d change ends and they’d just guzzle down a Coke. Uh, oh, they’re blood sugar was low. It must have been such guesswork in those days compared to what we can do now.
Q: What’s the best advice you’ve gotten about diabetes?
A: I’m 65 now and on Medicare. If you’re that age, you qualify for a free diabetes test. Ask your doctor. I didn’t know that. I think the main thing is getting everyone tested.
Q: Being a world-class athlete, did you find it ironic to get type 2 diabetes, a disease often associated with poor diet and exercise habits?
A: Not really. I have an eating disorder; I was a binge eater. I don’t binge eat anymore, but for about 10 years, I was being very cruel to my poor little pancreas.
Then I also had diabetes in my family.
Q: Now that you have diabetes, are you concerned about other health issues?
A: I’m worried about what it can do if I don’t take care of myself. I know it’s the leading cause of blindness and I know there are other complications.
Q: What’s tougher—living with diabetes or beating Bobby Riggs?
A: [Laughing] That was a long time ago. That was over 35 years ago. I think it’s the daily thing of living with diabetes. It’s been around me my whole life, people with type 1 and type 2. You can live a great life with the disease, but you have to pay attention and do the right things to manage it.
Q: What’s the hardest thing to adjust to living without?
A: Bagels. I’d love to have bagels. But those are treats now. Portion control. Eat less, less often. I do a lot better when I don’t eat something like a bagel every day. That kind of sets up my taste buds to want it.
The main thing is to get my exercise in. And I try to really enjoy my eating time. I try to eat slower. I used to eat really fast and I didn’t know when I was full. So I really try to pay attention now.
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