Sacbee.com: Doctor pushes kids to exercise - Pediatrician’s healthy habits led her to start a riverside bike ride

Victoria Akins became a pediatrician because she loved kids and wanted to help them lead healthy lives. She eventually realized there was only so much she could do within traditional boundaries of her profession. Kids were getting fatter and more sedentary, and Akins was concerned.

Whenever she saw an overweight child at her office, Akins raised the issue. “I never shirk,” she said. “Most of them are pleased to talk about it. They want to know what to do.” But talking wasn’t enough. Akins wanted to get kids riding bikes the way children of earlier generations did, to experience the power and efficiency — and fun — of the timeless two-wheeled machine.

To Akins, a cyclist herself, the idea seemed practically nostalgic. Studies show a decrease in the number of kids who ride bikes to school or for recreation. So three years ago, Akins organized a bike ride, the Mustard Seed Spin. The event would raise money for the Mustard Seed School for homeless children, encourage exercise and show kids just how far they could pedal with a little bit of effort.

The first ride attracted 150 kids and raised $5,000. Last year’s event of 330 riders made $10,000. The goal this year is 600 participants and $20,000. This year’s Mustard Seed Spin is Sept. 23. It costs $20 per child or $60 per family of three riders and offers distance options of 13 and 20 miles along the American River bike trail.

The fee includes an event T-shirt. With a growing turnout, a sense of purpose and a spirit of helping the less fortunate, the ride is a Sacramento tradition in the making. “It’s really exciting to see what a community grass-roots effort can do,” said Akins, 49. The Sacramento pediatrician doesn’t just talk the talk. She rides her bike to and from work, 12 miles round trip, and is devoted to healthy eating.

When Akins’ medical assistant recently saw her slicing a bell pepper, she said, “Wow, I always see you eat so healthy.” To which Akins replied, “I’m walking the walk, honey.” Akins’ journey into the medical profession wasn’t nearly so straightforward. She encountered a couple of false starts and setbacks along the way — if you can call a Ph.D. a setback.

As a teen, Akins had an epiphany that seemed to set her course. “What really made me want to be a doctor was looking at my own cheek cells under a microscope in 10th grade,” she said. “I said, ‘That’s cool. I want to be a doctor.’ I knew right then.” But life and all its details got in the way. Her mother died in a car accident when Akins was 16. Her father died three years later of gastric cancer.

Akins set off for Wake Forest University with a plan to get good grades and skate right into medical school. But she soon realized her study habits weren’t up to snuff. When she got a “C” in organic chemistry, she figured she had blown her chance at medical school. She wound up with a solid 3.4 grade point average. While still in college, she married a German man and had a daughter. After college, she lived in Germany for four years. The marriage didn’t last, but the experience overseas shaped her outlook.

One of the things she appreciated about Germans was how active they were. They walked and rode bikes for transportation more than Americans. Akins enrolled at the University of Tennessee at Memphis, where she pursued a Ph.D. in physiology and neuroscience. She found herself in classes alongside medical students. “I did great in their classes. By then, I really knew how to buckle down,” Akins said. “I thought, ‘This is dumb. I’m going to be stuck in a lab with rats for my whole career.’ ” Akins gave medicine another try.

She practically aced the Medical College Admission Test. She landed at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The plan was to be an OB-GYN. “But I just hated all that tension in the delivery room, everybody screaming and yelling. I thought, ‘What if I can get on the other end of that?’ ” she said. That’s how Akins found her way to Sacramento as a pediatrician with Kaiser Permanente.

She is now married to a neurologist, Paul Akins, and they have two children together. One inspiration for the Mustard Seed Spin was her own experiences as a daily bike commuter. “When I walk out of the building,” she said with a smile, “I just get this feeling, ‘Ah, yes.’ I feel like I’m saving the planet. There’s something so wonderful about getting there under your own steam.”

Akins rides a heavy but sturdy bike for her commutes, saving her lighter, speedier road bike for longer weekend rides. She has ridden several organized 100-mile tests, including the challenging Sierra Century. “I’m not fast, but I’m somebody who will just keep going,” Akins said of her cycling abilities. When Akins started planning the ride, she contacted Sue Supple, co-director of the Mustard Seed School, which has a daily attendance of 15 to 35 children, preschool through eighth grade. “I think she’s amazing,” Supple said of Akins.

“I really respect the way she has gone about working for our kids. I love the whole concept of keeping kids healthy and having them make choices while helping other kids.” “The idea just makes sense on so many levels,” said Owen Howlett, a certified bicycle safety expert who will conduct a safety primer for kids before the ride. Howlett says he’s “tremendously concerned” about the decline in youth biking, but says kids need to feel safe while riding.

“We’ve built really enormous roads. I absolutely do not blame parents,” he said. Akins wants the Mustard Seed Spin to be part of a bike riding comeback for kids, allowing them to experience “ah, yes” moments of their own.

Anyone interested in this year’s bike ride can visit www.mustardseedspin.org.