Teresa and Tonya UNPLUGGED
Teresa & Tonya UNPLUGGED is a heartfelt and inspiring podcast that chronicles the personal journeys of two friends, Teresa and Tonya, who have dramatically changed their lives through bariatric surgery. With a focus on weight loss, wellness, and the ups and downs of life before and after surgery, this podcast offers a unique blend of personal stories, expert advice, and supportive tips for those considering or navigating the path of weight transformation.
Teresa Parent and Tonya Spanglo, having experienced the challenges and triumphs of bariatric surgery firsthand, share their insights, lessons learned, and the lifestyle changes that have helped them maintain their health and happiness.
Each episode features discussions on topics ranging from the emotional aspects of weight loss and the importance of mental health to practical advice on nutrition, exercise, and navigating social situations.
This podcast is more than just a weight loss podcast; it's a community where listeners can find motivation, encouragement, and understanding. Whether you're curious about bariatric surgery, in the midst of your own weight loss journey, or looking for ways to support a loved one, Teresa and Tonya invite you to join them in this unplugged version of the podcast.
Teresa and Tonya UNPLUGGED
The Weight Loss Journey Begins: Transform Your Life Premiere
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Welcome to the first episode of Transform Your Life with Teresa and Tonya! In this heartfelt and insightful debut, hosts Tonya and Teresa bravely share their transformative weight loss journeys with authenticity and vulnerability.
From the emotional and physical challenges of morbid obesity to the profound impact of mindset and support, they discuss the complexities of weight loss with candor and compassion. Join them as they emphasize the importance of community, self-acceptance, and holistic well-being in the weight loss journey. From sharing personal experiences to advocating for a more inclusive world, Teresa and Tonya set the stage for future episodes that promise to dive deeper into diverse aspects of weight loss.
Get ready to be inspired and empowered as they navigate the ups and downs, hopes and triumphs of their weight loss endeavors. So, without further ado, let's dive into the transformative and uplifting world of Transform Your Life!
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Welcome to transform your life with Teresa and Tonya, where we talk weight loss and all things in complete.
Hi, guys. Welcome to transform your life with Teresa and Tonya.
We have completely transformed our lives, everything from start to finish, and we wanna bring you guys along with us. We're super excited to have this is our 1st podcast episode. We're a little bit nervous, but we're more excited to bring you along with us.
We are so excited. And, Tanya, I love you, and I cannot wait to share this journey with you and with the entire community.
Me too. We haven't even known each other not even a year, Teresa. God brought us together, and we're gonna do something amazing with this journey. We're going to. I'm stumbling. Sorry.
Soul sisters brought together. We'll get into how we met because that's, a whole cup of tea on its own. Right? But that really is what brought us together and has created this platform for us and, this podcast. So let's dive into it. Let's we're gonna each, discuss our transformation journeys a little bit. Tonya, do you wanna go ahead and dive
in first? Sure. So I had gastric sleeve about 4 years ago, and I just was heavy my entire life, and I got so sick of being in watching my life pass me by, basically. And I got so sick of being the biggest mom in the room always and missing out on so much of my kids' childhood. And I felt like, you know, I was holding everybody back in my family. I was holding my marriage back from being something, like, at it's amazing now. And it was amazing then, but just my weight kept us from, like, going on family vacations because I couldn't walk around Disneyland. I couldn't even walk around 6 flags. I couldn't walk around anywhere.
I couldn't stand. I could barely make it through the grocery store. I needed to get in a wheelchair and do, like, the riding along things all the time, but I wouldn't because I was super embarrassed to do that. And so my weight held me back my entire life. I was big all during school in And in my just my entire life, my adult my adult life. And so I got sick of watching my life pass me by. I had gastric sleeve, and I'm down about 230 pounds. And now I'm living a life that I didn't even know was possible.
I didn't know that there were people that wake up happy because I never did. I didn't know that there are people in the world that wake up fulfilled and full of energy because I never had energy. It would take me 10 minutes to just get out of bed. I didn't know that there were people in the world that were happy when they looked in the mirror. I didn't know that this life was out there for me, and I'm so glad that I took a chance, and it was the last resort for me. I tried every diet under the sun. You name it, I tried it, and nothing worked. The most I ever lost on my own was 50 pounds, and then I gained back 72 pounds.
And so and just nothing would ever stick. In. And so once I finally made up my mind, like, this is it. This is a last resort. I'm going to have weight loss surgery. There was a guy that worked with my husband, and he had had it and been successful at it. So I visited with his wife, and she gave me all the information. Of course, money was always an issue issue for us.
I I didn't know if we could afford it. I didn't know if insurance would cover it, and it turns out that they did. And so that was great. And I'm about £230 down since then, And it has completely changed my life. It has transformed my life. I wake up with energy. I wake up happy. I can go to the grocery store.
I can go in the pool with my grandkids. Kids. I can go down the slot. I can swing. I can swing them around and get in the floor and get back up. Just simple things that people who have never been obese, they take for granted because they don't know that there's a whole community out there that can't get in the floor and get up, that can't go on the roller coaster with their kids, that can't in Do all of these simple everyday things that you you don't think of if you've never been more of the obese. So now I take pride in my life. I take pride in making everyday counts.
I take pride in building memories with my husband, and we've been traveling more, this year than we ever have. We've we've done so many more things than we ever have. In same with my kids, same with my grandkids. It's just an amazing life now, and it never has been. And so, I'm super blessed. I'm super grateful that I took a chance on me and that it stuck this time.
I am so glad that you took a chance on you because you are so incredibly amazing and inspiring and uplifting. And I think that's one of the millions of reasons why you have touched so many people in this community. You are genuine and kind, and you have shared your journey openly and honestly, and there's something really beautiful about that. I love it. Congratulations. Over 200 pounds. So combined, you and I have lost around 700 pounds.
Yeah. Almost 700 pounds. In that that's crazy.
So we know a little something something about weight loss. Yeah.
We know a little something something.
Right. And sustainable lifelong changes, like, healthy changes, weight loss. You and I have learned how to lose the weight and keep it off for good. I loved what you said, in about knowing true happiness now. You didn't know that it even existed. I can totally relate to that. So I was over 600 pounds for more than in 20 years of my life. I grew up overweight my entire life.
I was always the bigger girl in every room. Like you said you were, in and that was really hard for me. I felt very isolated and alone. For me, a majority of my weight I gained after in tragic losses in my family, and I didn't have the support network to process that grief and trauma. And so I internalized my pain, like, totally shut myself away from the world and gained, like, over 400 pounds in a very short period of time. In Before I even realized it, I stopped being able to walk more than a few feet at a time. Standing to brush my teeth or do simple things like wash dishes came almost impossible for me, and I spent about 20 years feeling like I was the only person in the world who had that kind of a struggle. In I missed out on being able to get married and have babies and go to graduations and birthday parties and do all the things in That, people, you know, often take for granted in life.
Right? And I was approaching 40, in And I had had 2 heart attacks. I was on 9 different medications. My body was completely shutting down. Like, I had problems with my kidneys, my liver, like, you name it. I was having problems with it, and the doctors basically told me if you don't Lose weight and get your life together, you're going to die. Right? That's pretty much every person's experience. When you are morbidly obese, you go to the doctor, they tell you You're too fat, you need to eat less, and you need to move more. Well, I have been told that my entire life, right? So that just kind of went right over my head, but I was sent to see a cardiologist, and this doctor, doctor Saurabh Sypnoski, I'll never forget her, she changed my life.
When she walked in the room, she saw her patient, me, sitting there over 600 pounds, and she didn't say anything about my weight or about my diet or my needing to move. She looked at me and asked me what broke me. What happened to you, Teresa? She asked me, like, why are you trying to kill yourself? Because that's what you're doing. You're over £600, and you're going to die. And something about those words, she treated me like a human being. For the first time in my life, a medical professional was asking about me, you know, if I was okay and what had happened. And I broke down and sobbed and told my story to her. And she told me that I was a powerful manifester, and that I had manifested all of my grief and trauma into physical weight, and that that physical weight was, like, my protective barrier from the world, And it was keeping me from living my life.
And she told me, Teresa, if you don't figure out a way to release that trauma, you're going to die. It's going to kill you. And so her prescription for me was to leave her office and learn how to meditate and learn how to, with intention, release my grief and trauma and process it. She didn't tell me to eat less or move my body even though I already had been told that a 1000000 other times. Something about the way that she treated me touched my heart, and I left her office Feeling motivated and inspired for the 1st time in my life. And within 8 months, I lost a 180 pounds with diet and exercise, but more importantly, working on my mental on emotional health. I decided to have gastric bypass surgery. There's so many people ask me, why did you have surgery even though you'd lost almost 200 pounds? And the reason was because at that time, I needed the support.
I was working on my mental and emotional health, and I was not strong enough. Had something happened at that time, like, a 100 other times like you said, I would have gained all the weight back. I would have slipped backwards, and I had come too far, and I genuinely, for the first time, wanted to save my own life. And so I had gastric bypass in June of 2018, and it changed my life. It was that extra tool that I needed during that really difficult time of transitioning my mind, body, and soul into living a different lifestyle. And a few years had passed. I struggled like any person does after having weight loss surgery and going through all these major transformations, but I wound up losing, like, 380 pounds and, found myself with a a ton of loose skin, about almost 50 pounds hanging from my abdomen. And, you know, just I think you already know this.
With this journey, Just when you think you've evolved as far as you can go, another thing happens. Right? Or you have another little mountain to climb and, Plastic surgery. That's a whole other few episodes that we'll get into you guys, but that, has totally transformed my life in itself. In Losing the weight, like you said, it's not just about being skinny or physically looking different. It is about the mental and emotional mindset of feeling happiness for the 1st time. I was sitting last night, in my bedroom with my boyfriend and it's raining and we're watching the lights and it's beautiful and I got choked up because I am now living a life that I never thought was possible. Like, sitting alone in a room for over 20 years, watching people in Walk by and jog by and live their life and always feeling like you said. You're sitting on the sidelines missing out on life, and I'm not missing out on life anymore.
And that's because I healed from the inside out. And, it's a beautiful thing. Life is beautiful. I am healthier and happier in more ways than I can count. Count. And, this journey has brought me here with my friend Tonya and with all of you, and I am just so grateful. I'm so grateful and blessed like you said.
I'm so proud of you, and I can resonate with so many things you said. And I think there are so many people. There's a community out there that feel just like we felt. Like, when you said, I felt alone. I thought I was the only one. I can remember laying in my bed, and we both talked about this, how in Laying in our beds and eating food is a trigger for us because that's what I did all day long while my kids were in school and my husband was at work. No one even knew how much food I was consuming except for me. Even still, like, to this day, my husband will say, but you never really ate a lot.
He didn't know because he was at work. My kids were at school, and I would lay in bed and I would binge Netflix and I would eat Funyuns. I would eat Hershey's with almonds. I would eat chips. I would just as much food as I could possibly consume mindlessly. Now we both know it's so important to eat mindfully, to sit down, enjoy your meal, and really fuel your body with the food that you need. It's all about nutrition. So many things I have learned on this journey, but I resonate.
And I know that so many others also resonate with what you said about being alone, thinking you're the only one. People treating you, it's all about your weight. You know, every time I went to the doctor, which I actually stopped going to the doctor in because every time I went, whether I had a cold or my back was hurting or, something was wrong with my foot. Like, it did it. In Something was wrong with my stomach, gastrointestinal issues, everything that when I went to the doctor, they would tell me lose weight, lose weight, eat less, move more. It always revolves around the weight, and they really didn't even try to diagnose what my problem was because the everything revolves around my weight, so I just stopped going. So I totally get what you're saying about she finally treated you like a human being, finally treated you like a person, and that probably was the first time that you opened up. You know, because when we are morbidly obese, like, it's it's so hard to open up to people because we feel like no one knows what we're going through.
We are the we are alone. Then you're not alone. If you're out there and you're listening, know that you're not alone. There's a whole community of people out there that feel exactly how you feel and are going through the same things that you feel right now.
Yeah. I definitely felt, so alone. And it's funny because even though I'm not alone and now I know that, It's taken time to really process that and, you know, you talked about the binge eating when you were alone and I just have flashbacks of driving in my car after work, going and buying extra large pizzas or going and buying 10 or 15 things and eating them all and, like, stopping on the way home, because I didn't wanna eat in front of people. People were always like, how are you this big? You must have some kind of, you know, health issue that's making you gain the weight. And people didn't see me eating up to 10,000 calories a day. I did that in secret. And there's some part of me that thought people couldn't see how broken I was, but going back and looking at pictures and videos, and I know you've done this because we've talked about this, in Going back, I look so sad. I look empty, and I always say I felt I felt like an empty shell.
And that may not be the case for for in some people. But for me, I didn't feel beautiful. I didn't feel loved. I didn't feel happy from within, and it radiated out my pain, my sadness, my isolation, all that radiated out, and it's taking years to deprogram in that way of life. And, if you're going through that, like Tonya said, know that you're not alone because we've been there. We've done that, and It's so hard and I think one of the keys to both of us and our success is that we didn't just in Subscribe to diet culture where they just want to sell you, crazy products and and these diet exercises and all these things. You really, need to work on your mental and emotional health because once you start to do that and you start to reprogram your mind with looking for positivity rather than obstacles and focusing on barriers. Because I know at 600 pounds, anytime someone would say, why don't you go for a walk? Why don't you do this? What I would say, what my knees hurt.
My back Kurt. Right, Tanya? Was that your experience too?
Yes. It was it's always how. Like, yes, do I need to walk. Like, they would say, just walk. Walking is so overrated. If you'll just walk a little bit. I tried to walk and I went I remember the 1st time I went to the track to walk a half a mile, and I could physically not walk a half a mile because my feet swelled out of my shoes. I was literally in tears.
I had to call my husband. Like, It was a whole it was a whole mess because when you're that morbidly obese, you can't do just everyday things. And people don't realize that if they haven't been morbidly obese or been married to someone morbidly obese, they just don't get how much your weight holds you back.
Yeah. I know so many times people would say to me, well, just don't eat, just get up and move, and when you are that big, You tend to hyper focus on all the barriers in your way because that is your reality at the time. And that's why having a support system, that's why in learning to work on your mental and emotional health. Once you start to work on your mindset, the diet will improve over time. Your mobility will improve. It's so much about your mindset. That I can remember laying in bed at nighttime before going to sleep, and I know so many people can relate to this. When you're alone with your thoughts, like, I would tear myself apart.
I would say the things to myself that I would never even think of saying to another human being. Called myself names. I was a loser. I was a failure. I would run through all the things I did wrong that day. I didn't follow my diet. I didn't hydrate. I didn't move more than 50 steps that day, and all I felt like I was doing was reprogramming myself.
Now looking back, I realized I was programming myself for failure the next day because I was not my best hype woman. I was my worst critic. I was not even my own support system at all. I tore myself down every which way that I could, but I think that that also speaks volumes for the kind of world that we live in because being a person who was over 600 pounds, I was made to feel almost criminalized. I was made to feel like I should be invisible. People didn't want to see me. They wanted to see me if I had lost all the weight, in and I was a success story. But at 600 pounds people did not want to see me, and I was shown that through TV.
I mean, When you go to the doctor, what they say to you? When I would go out in public, I tell the story where I was trying to walk at 600 pounds, which was a struggle. In Every single step, like you said, breathing, my blood pressure in my ears, like, high pitched. I thought I was gonna die any moment. And in These guys drove by and they were honking and oinking at me, and they threw their milkshakes and burgers and fries all over me. Did that motivate me to keep going? No. I went back in my house, and I didn't come out and go walking for almost a year. So In so many ways, people in our society, they want us to lose weight. They want you to change your life, but don't you dare do it in front of us.
Right? Like, don't you dare go out in public. So I know that that was 1 barrier that I really had to work on overcoming was, going out in public and the fear of being ridiculed and looked at because you know when you're that big that all eyes are on you.
Yeah. And that's something also you have to we have to give up is what others think about us. So many times we've said, what others think about us is none of our business, and that's so true. Because people, they don't want you to be morbidly obese society, but then they don't want you to get weight loss surgery because that's the easy way out. That's that's society. That's the that's the thought process. In Don't be morbidly obese, but don't you dare get weight loss surgery, which is just a tool to help you not be morbidly obese. Like that is literally the treatment.
Like my dad, he needed a kidney transplant because his kidney failed him. My mom needed a breast, breast removal because she had breast cancer. All of these are treatments for things. Weight loss surgery is the treatment for being morbidly obese, and people society just doesn't get that. They don't want you to be morbidly obese because they don't wanna see you, but then don't you dare get weight loss surgery and do that. Why don't you just do it naturally? Well, don't you think I've tried everything under the sun to lose this weight naturally and nothing worked? Like, sometimes I literally just want to scream that When someone says, oh, but, oh, but, yeah, she's skinny now, but only because she had weight loss surgery. I will shout that from every mountain top. If yes.
I had weight loss surgery. I saved my own life, literally. Like, what have you done? Like, sometimes it's just what I wanna say. I mean, I literally I literally yes. I had weight loss surgery because I didn't want to die at 42 years old. I wanted to be a mom. I wanted to be a wife. I wanted to live.
I wanted to be the best grandma that my grandkids deserve. Like, I didn't want to just sit back and let my life pass me by. So, yes, I had weight loss surgery. Yes. I'm super proud of that. I wish society would accept that. They don't want to accept you being morbidly I'm getting I'm getting fired up, but they literally they don't want to accept you in morbidly obese, but they don't also want to accept you because you had weight loss surgery. Which is it? Like, which is it? Do you want me to stay morbidly obese and die at 42, or do you want me to change my entire life and live happily? Like, it's my decision.
It's my choice, and I did that, and I don't have to defend that to anyone. And I love how you also said mindset because my doctor, he prides his self on telling, like, the 4 things after weight loss surgery that you have to do every day for the rest of your life. Like, that was a huge thing in the bariatric classes I went to. They always said these 4 things, protein, water, vitamins, body movement every day for the rest of your life no matter what. And then when I tell that and they love it now, they've heard me say this a 1000 times, I add in mindset. Because if you do all those 4 things, If you do protein and water and vitamins and body movement, but you don't change your mindset, you're going to gain that weight back because you never change your relationship with food. You never change your relationship with yourself. Like, just what you said, Teresa, how you hated yourself, you would cause your call yourself a a loser and you're a failure.
All of that is a mindset shift that we have both done, and it is so important in your weight loss journey. I always say, For me, personally, just in my journey, mindset, 50% of it, if not more, because I couldn't wake up and do all the things I do if I still had the same mindset that I did back when I was morbidly obese. I could not wake up and have this energy and be a positive person. I was such a negative person back then. In I was so woe. The world's against me because I would go out to a restaurant and people would look at, like, oh, look how much food she's eating. I'm not gonna order that because they don't end up as big as she is. They would never order what they saw me eating, or we would have to stand after Sunday at church.
We'd have to stand in the restaurants and wait for a table because mama couldn't fit in a booth. Well, then that would give us looks because people came in after us, and they were being seated because they could all fit in a booth, and I couldn't. They knew why. I knew why. And it like, the looks of disgust that you get of, like, you're gonna make your family wait. Why don't you lose weight because you can't fit in a booth so your family's having to wait at a restaurant? Same things when you go to a doctor's office. Like, I could never fit in the chairs, So I had to stand. Same thing is when I go to the beginning of school year, every year for my kids beginning of school year, I would always dread it because we'd have to go to the parent teacher meetings.
I can never fit in the desk. They never would have, like, chairs and tables set up for the big moms like me. So I would have to stand during the entire meeting when all the other parents were sitting in the desk because I couldn't fit. So it's all like, the world is not set up for morbidly obese people. It is just not. Can't go on a roller coaster with your kids. Can't you can't do anything because you're too overweight to do it. And for me, that's what I got so sick of.
Like, there's a little bit of a in a thing there. Like, should the world change? Should the world accept more of the obese people? That might be a whole another episode. But should the world be more custom fit to all sizes. All sizes matter. Like, for me, like, I have an athletic clothing line that I rep for because They're size inclusive because they go up to a 4 x. That's why. As opposed to other ones that don't. You know? Because I want the world to be size inclusive because I was a 5 x in the men's section.
I know how that feels to be a woman and go shop in the men's section and not be able to ever feel like you're cute. Not ever you know, I was at the time even in my twenties thirties, I feel like I was dressing like a grandma because I had to do the stretchy polyester pants with the elastic. I never even had jeans that had a button and a zipper. If they did, they were fake because the back was like elastic. You probably had the same ones. I never could wear the dresses because my legs rubbed together. I couldn't I had to always have on something in between my legs because I would get rashes. Like, so many things that people don't think about.
If you've never been obese, you just don't understand what it's like to see something online and you you know, automatically. It's not for you even though you love it and you think it's beautiful, but it doesn't come in your size. Like, there's no way. It's not gonna go up to a 5 x. In. And so there's just so many things that the role is just not set up for Morgan OB's people, which is super sad to me.
You know, Tanya, The thing that comes out so much when you're speaking about it is that there are so many layers in to living in an obese body. And I think that's why a podcast like ours is going to be game changing within the weight loss community because We can go on about this forever. We could do a 1000000 episodes about all the ways in which our lives have been impacted because we've lived in obese bodies. The experiences in that we share as women within this community, as men within this community are unlike a lot of other experiences that people will ever go through in. When you're talking about, people saying that weight loss surgery is the easy way out. When I first had surgery almost 6 years ago and people would say that to me, I would get personally offended and I would cry. Now I get heated, like you say, because I think back over the past 6 years of my journey, starting out at 600 pounds, you know, and struggling to make it from my back door to my front door. Weight loss surgery didn't make me do that.
In weight loss surgery did not make me reorganize my kitchen and learn how to prep my veggies and my ingredients. Weight loss surgery did not, you know, make those choices for me. It didn't it didn't force me to work on my mindset and to start focusing on possibilities rather than obstacles and barriers. Weight loss surgery, what is a tool that has helped me, like you said, with any other tool that people use in life when they need it. It is not the magic tool. If you do not learn how to reorganize your thoughts, how to focus on the positive, you know, the positive, and how to get up everyday, keep fighting for yourself, you're gonna gain the weight back. You and I both know many people within the weight loss community who have had weight loss surgery, in and gained all the weight back plus more, because they didn't work on their mindset. And I think that that is such a critical component of a successful weight loss in journey is working on your mindset.
So much of what I talk about is mind, body, and soul. And anytime I've ever struggled, or gained a little weight, or hit a plateau for too long, in I've I've shared this with you. I do a little self assessment. I check mind, body, and soul. Am I am I eating healthy? Am I hydrating. Am I moving my body? But most importantly, am I doing the things that I need to do to nurture my heart and my soul? In 9 times out of 10 when I'm struggling with my diet or with my movement, it's because I'm neglecting my heart and soul in some way, shape, or form. And for me having that little self assessment has been game changing for me. So you talked also about going out in public.
Right? And you and I both were limited for most of our lives not being able to go out places. And if we did feeling ashamed and embarrassed and socially, you know, isolated because of our weight. Now with our weight loss, you and I have been opened up and exposed to this entire new world of traveling, which is a whole other layer when it comes to Weight Loss, right? Being able to buy clothes to go on a trip, being able to go into the stores to go shopping for clothes and suitcases and jewelry and in being able to put together fun outfits and planning trips, not being like, for me, every single thing I had to focus on was controlling my environment because at 600 pounds, if somebody would say, for example, Let's go to a graduation. I would have to think, okay, how far is it from the parking lot? First of all, how am I gonna fit into a car? But how am I gonna get from the parking lot where we park in to where the benches are, and then how am I gonna get up the bleachers, and then how long can I stand there for before people start to talk to me and I start to breathe too heavy? You know what I mean? In All of those thoughts when you are that big and out of shape and overweight, all of your thoughts are preoccupied. All of your life energy goes to just sustaining your body. And so going out in public was almost impossible for me. I can't tell you how many things I missed out on, and I'm so grateful now that I can go anywhere. I can travel the country with my friends.
I can go out on dates. I can go mini in golfing. I can ride roller coasters now. And, again, it's not about being skinny for me. It's about the mental and emotional freedom where I am not trapped in my thoughts about maintaining that body, I am now present in the moment, and I'm able to fully enjoy the experience that I'm going through at that time, which brings me to how you and I met. In We met traveling, which never would have happened had we not gone through this entire weight loss journey and transformed our lives. Right?
That's right. We did. We met on a, a cruise, and I think that's been we
do not speak of.
Yeah. But we met on a cruise, and that was a situation that brought us together. I think that Teresa was missing in my life. There was something missing. I needed a friend. I needed it. I've had some I had people in my life that have had weight loss surgery. A lot of them have gained their weight back, and, and so it's kind of when we talk about weight loss surgery, you know, when they've gained their that I think they're a little bit resentful of people who haven't, and they're like, well, just wait.
You'll gain it back. We'll just wait. You know? They kinda get that attitude. And so but you and I met on a cruise, which was a whole situation. But
the bariatric cruise 2023.
In that moment, we needed each other. And I had my crazy sister there, And then you had your wasn't she your aunt there?
My my godmother. My auntie.
Yes. Your godmother. Yes. And, they're both a whole situation in herself or god to me, anyways. But, yeah, that brought us together, and look at us now. Look at how many conversations we've had and how many times we've been there for each other, and that just goes to show you need a support system. And I don't mean just a support system of Not necessarily people who like, I want someone to talk to that's gone through what I've gone through. I want someone that knows if I need to have a binge session at midnight.
I'm calling Teresa up like I'm struggling right now, and I really wanted to eat these chips, but I don't want to. I could call her up because she's been there and she knows what it's like. You need a support system. Teresa is my support system. She's a big part of it, and so I just think that we were brought together. It was fate, in And we're meant to do so much bigger things and share our journey. Look at all the people that we have inspired and motivated. I know you just like I, Teresa, get comments every day.
I just had 1 this morning, and there's certain all the comments are they mean so much. But this morning, for example, a comment stuck out to me, a woman, she was struggling. She was over £400, and she commented on my post from this morning, and she said I've lost 75 pounds, never been able to lose weight. I started drinking your waters. I started making your low carb recipes. I started talking to myself in a positive way because I preach that positive affirmations towards yourself. Talk to yourself like you would a best friend. My best friends can call me up.
I'm there for them. They know no matter what, I'm gonna hop them up. I'm going to whether it's buy the shoes, buy the purse, or, no, you look amazing in those in that dress or those jeans, so wear them. Talk to yourself like that. If we can talk to our best friends like that and tell our best friends how amazing they are and tell our best friends that they're worth it and to love their self, then we can talk to ourselves like that too, but she's 75 pounds down, which, of course, I'm sure you get the comments all the time of, like, I'm £75 because of you. You're not 75 pounds down because of me. I always tell them that's you. That's you doing it.
You just needed that kick in the booty. You just needed that little motivation, that little slap. You know, you just needed something to jar your mindset, something to be like, hey. She did it. I can do it too. And so I just look at like, I look at your followers, and I look at the community that we're in and how many people are just longing to be inspired, just out there looking for someone to be like, in That's what I needed to hear. You know? That's what I needed to hear today because I know when I go look up things and I'm lacking motivation, I look up things to inspire me, and I know that that's what you wanna do with this podcast. That's what I wanna do.
I want to find those people out there that are at their lowest of lows thinking that It's hopeless that they tried everything and that nothing has worked. Something will work for you. It will work for you when you are ready, when you get your mind shifted, when you're when you just make up your mind that you're tired of settling. I think a lot of overweight people, I hear that they settle. I settled. I didn't settle with necessarily things like my marriage. Like, some women are stuck in marriages because they are overweight, and they don't think they can do any better. I get that all the time.
I think that we just settle with okay. I'll okay. I'll do that. Okay. Because we don't wanna raise ruckus because we don't want people to look at us. I can remember feeling like that in the school. Like, yes. I will I will do that.
Yes. I will do that because, you know, you're overweight, and you really don't want people looking at you, and you don't wanna say no.
You know, that reminds me of 20 something years of my life of me being made to feel like I was unworthy, unworthy of the friendships, unworthy of the attention, unworthy of shining my light, unworthy of the love that I deserve, Because again, I feel like in our society, we make people who are really big, who are really overweight feel as though they're not okay. That there's something wrong with them and that's something that this community has changed for me. I felt alone until I went on social media when I had weight loss surgery, And then I realized, oh my goodness, I'm not alone. There are millions of other people who are struggling with what to eat, with how to move their body, with how to keep their mind happy with how to maneuver within relationships and friendships, as they're struggling to change their mind, body, and soul. And in I think that that's one of the reasons that God blessed, me with our friendship because you came into my life during a time when all of these things were new to me. I I just had my, plastic surgery. I was in a different body, traveling with people I had never known before, never traveled before because I couldn't, and in meeting you was like a breath of fresh air because I'm like, oh my goodness. Here's this woman who couldn't be more different than me, but is so similar in so many ways.
And I think that that's what's so beautiful about this community, about our friendship, about this podcast is because we can together, like, we've done individually, talk, share our message, like, just share our life experiences and that's people need. You need that support. You need that sense of community. And we're literally just girlfriends who have struggled, who have triumphed, and who have come together has. We do want to shine our light as bright as we possibly can so that other people can see it. You know? That's all that I've ever wanted in and to be blessed with this platform and which is also why we partnered with Pop Recovery Systems. Right? Because in For forever, as far as I've known, you go through a weight loss journey, a plastic surgery alone. You have to maneuver it by yourself, and that's not the case anymore.
You don't have to do that. There are people like us who have gone through it, who will help you, who will hold your hand. There are in There are companies now like Pop Recovery Systems and Bariatrics to Plastics who will support you and guide you through every step of the way, And I think that is what is so beautiful. That's one of the things I love most about our friendship is that we are able to come together, and we're genuinely friends, you guys. Like, this Mhmm. This is we text all the time. We talk. We we get to see each other every few months, and it's such a blessing.
And I just love this community. I honestly do not think I would have had this much success mentally, physically, and spiritually if it was not for this incredible community?
In I don't think so either because, you know, like, for the most part of our lives, when we were obese, we felt alone even though we weren't, but now we really aren't. Like, now we're now we know. Like, we are not alone. We have pop recovery. We have I've got so many things. I'm about to have my plastic surgery, and I have already met with a nutritionist over there. I've had a mental health coach. Like, there's so many things that I'm learning, and I'm 4 years out.
And there are new things that I'm learning. So, like, never think that you know at all about weight loss surgery. You know, whether you're 20 years out or whether you're 2 months out, you always can learn something new. There there are days that I think that I'm the teacher as far as weight loss surgery goes because I've done it all, and then there are even more days where I'm the student and someone is teaching me something new about weight loss surgery. And so always keep that for me, always keep that mindset of, like, you don't know everything there is to know. There's always more knowledge out there that you can learn, and you can always help someone. That's what we wanna do here is just help as many people in the weight loss community as we can.
Yes, you guys. Thank you so much for joining us today, Tonya. I love you. This amazing. And I cannot wait to just dive into all things weight loss related and to uplift as many people as humanly possible, and we are stronger together.
We definitely are, and we're gonna have so the future episodes, we'll pick a topic. This one was kinda just like a meet in Meet us and learn our journeys and, how we got to how we got to this point. So in the future, we'll pick where everything weight loss, you guys. Like Teresa said, we're gonna dive into so many different aspects, in so many different avenues. Everybody's journey is different. We hope that we can help you along yours.
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