A WOMAN who has maintained her 90lb weight loss for 15 years is now empowering thousands of women on their own wellness journey. Tameika, 34, weighed 230lbs at her heaviest and wasn’t able to go on theme park rides or fit into airplane seats. She is now a certified personal trainer and wellness coach. Tameika told Truly: “I quit my corporate job to empower women on their journey, helping them take control of their health.”
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00:00And at my heaviest, I weighed 230 pounds.
00:03I had been overweight my whole life.
00:04I'd gotten to about my early 20s
00:06when it really started piling on.
00:08I was going to a theme park with my friends,
00:10and one of the workers basically told me
00:13I wasn't able to go on the park ride because of my size.
00:16That just catapulted into this big breaking point.
00:19It made me really step into action mode.
00:22Since the beginning of my fitness journey,
00:24I have lost 90 pounds.
00:30I had been overweight my whole life.
00:32My family loves food.
00:34We're of Jamaican descent,
00:35so we would eat and we would eat well.
00:37The weight just piled on years over years, steadily,
00:40until I had gotten to about my early 20s
00:42when it really started piling on.
00:44I personally just wasn't physically active,
00:47so running to the bus to try to get to work on time
00:50or running to my next class at school,
00:52everything was just really difficult.
00:55And I would say when I hit my breaking point,
00:56it was a few situations that kind of happened back to back.
01:00I was going on a trip,
01:02and it was my first international trip to Japan.
01:05I remember sitting in a seat,
01:06feeling completely uncomfortable, piling over my seat,
01:09and the air hostess asking me
01:11if I wanted to purchase the seat next to me.
01:13And this was very embarrassing
01:15because I was with all my friends,
01:16and again, I was going to a theme park with my friends,
01:19and one of the workers basically told me
01:22I wasn't able to go on the park ride because of my size.
01:25That's when I got to about 230 pounds,
01:27and that's when there was serious concern.
01:30I started to realize, okay, I've got to take control of this.
01:33I had tried every diet under the sun.
01:35I had lost 10 pounds, gained 15 pounds, lost 20 pounds.
01:38I had tried everything prior, but it was time for change.
01:41It made me really step into action mode.
01:43At my heaviest, I weighed 230 pounds.
01:46I currently weigh about 130, 140 pounds.
01:53I actually lost 90 pounds in nine months,
01:55and I've been able to keep it off for 15 years.
02:00I like to train about four days a week,
02:02and that's in the gym or in my living room,
02:04depending on what time of the year it is
02:06and what's going on in life.
02:07A typical workout for me is strength training.
02:09I love feeling empowered and strong.
02:12I love picking up weights,
02:13and I love just seeing what my body is able to do.
02:16I had lost the weight, and a lot of my friends and family
02:18were saying, how did you do it? How did you do it?
02:20So I just started giving all of this free advice,
02:22and then eventually, that advice turned into paid advice.
02:26Got certified, and I started helping people
02:28I believe in just having a balanced diet
02:31filled with whole foods, fruits, vegetables,
02:34but also having fun.
02:35I really made sure that I wasn't ever depriving myself,
02:38because that's really the reason why a lot of diets fail,
02:40is because of deprivation.
02:42I have quit my corporate job to really help
02:44empower women on their weight loss journey.
02:46So I spend all my days, every day,
02:49helping thousands of women really take control
02:51of their health and wellness.
02:53I think a lot of people don't realize
02:54that they're not doing it for themselves.
02:57I think a lot of the industry right now
02:59is telling you that you need to go on the extreme diets,
03:01take the pills, do the detoxes,
03:04when really our business's ethos is,
03:06this is how you can do it, the holistic and sustainable way.
03:11Over the last kind of five years,
03:13I've been focusing so much on helping other women
03:15that I hadn't really focused on my personal life,
03:17until I met Eddie in Brazil at Carnival of all places.
03:20We met while dancing in the streets of Rio de Janeiro.
03:24Our eyes locked, and ever since then,
03:25we had been really focused on developing our relationship,
03:29and I've since moved to Germany.
03:31I think in the beginning,
03:32I had a typical German diet with beer and bread,
03:36but she taught me the lesson in healthy eating
03:40and healthy living, and I'm very grateful for that.
03:43So being overweight my whole life,
03:44I didn't date much until I lost the weight.
03:48Nobody really teaches you how to live life post weight loss.
03:51You're in a whole new body,
03:52you're getting a lot of new attention,
03:54and it's really hard for you to understand
03:56how to navigate this attention, these new feelings.
04:00Now that I've been on a journey
04:01to kind of self-love, self-discovery,
04:03my relationship is much more advanced,
04:06much more deep, much more evolved
04:08than the relationships I had in the past
04:10when I had just lost the weight or when I was overweight.
04:13Now when I look in the mirror,
04:15I see a woman who has beaten the odds,
04:18so a lot of people lose a lot of weight,
04:21but it's really hard to maintain and sustain that weight loss.
04:25I've since traveled the world,
04:26I've built a business that's helping thousands of women,
04:28I've been to over 40 countries.
04:30On my first international trip,
04:31I couldn't even fit in the seat.
04:33I am now traveling the world monthly, and it feels amazing.
04:38I think it's the persistence which is really key
04:41in the whole thing when you want to lose weight,
04:44and she showed me that persistence
04:46is basically the winning element to losing weight.
04:50I'm very proud of myself and my achievements.
04:53Not only what I was able to do with my physical body,
04:55but what I've been able to help women do.