(HealthDay News) -- It was two years ago that JoAnne Zoller Wagner learned she was pre-diabetic. The problem was, she didn't really appreciate what to do with that knowledge.

The 54-year-old Pasadena, Md., woman spent $100 on cookbooks from the American Diabetes Association and noodled around with them a bit. But all in all, she made no real changes to her lifestyle.

"I didn't know it [pre-diabetes] meant big time that you'd better do something or it would be too late," she said. "I didn't take control at that time."

It wasn't really a surprise that Wagner was prone to diabetes. It ran in her family. She had two sisters and a brother who'd been diagnosed with the condition. One sister had died at 58 of complications from her diabetes, suffering kidney failure and congestive heart failure.

Still, Wagner was shocked when, in March 2007, her doctor told her she now had full-blown type 2 diabetes.

Knowing what had happened to her sister, Wagner vowed to tackle her diabetes head-on. "I knew I was going to do everything I could to live as long as I could in the best possible health I could have," she said.

So she went back to the healthy cookbooks and began cooking and planning meals from them. She also borrowed books from the public library and read up on diabetes.

"There's a lot to understand," she said. "It deepened my resolve, because it was so much more serious than I ever thought."

Wagner also increased her physical activity, taking long walks through her neighborhood and practicing yoga to lower her stress.

Her resolve paid off. By March of this year, her blood sugar level had dropped nearly to pre-diabetic levels. But, she was still concerned, because her cholesterol remained high. So, she went on a low-fat vegetarian diet.

Wagner, who teaches in an elementary school, now brings a cooler full of food with her to work each day. "That's my personal vending machine," she said. "I started relying on my own cooking for what I eat, versus eating out or eating packaged foods, because I know what is in the foods I prepare."

And she lost weight, which studies show is a good way to help control diabetes.

"It was not just for looks, although that's nice," Wagner said. "All the complications of diabetes are heavily influenced by weight."

Because of her lifestyle changes, Wagner has never had to go on any diabetes medication. "That was one of my goals, to postpone medications as long as possible," she said.

Wagner is optimistic that if she keeps living a healthy life, she might be able to completely turn back her diabetes.

"I'm still kind of learning things and making an effort to figure things out," she said. "I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I do think it is possible to reverse diabetes."