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
Overcoming Shame and Celebrating Mobility
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Welcome back to Transfrom Your Life with Teresa and Tonya, where the journey of transformation is about more than just shedding pounds—it's about gaining a new lease on life. In Episode 4, we're diving deep into the heart of obesity, weight loss and body movement.
Join us for an honest conversation about the hurdles of gym culture, the impact of judgment in public spaces, and the resilience required to rise again after setbacks. With nearly 700 pounds lost between both of our hosts, Teresa and Tonya are living proof that every victory — from that first step to newfound confidence in the bedroom ;-) — is worth celebrating.
So, let's come together to honor the strength it takes to reclaim your life, one courageous step at a time. This isn't just a weight loss podcast—it's a journey of self-discovery and empowerment. Get ready to transform your mindset, your body, and your life with the Transform Your Life podcast. Let's embark on this journey together.
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Welcome to Transform Your Life with Teresa and Tonya, where we talk weight loss and all things in
complete. Let's get ready to talk weight loss and all things in between.
I'm Teresa Parent. And I'm Tonya Spanglo. Welcome to our podcast. We are so excited. We
have a lot to talk about today. We're gonna be talking about movement in all shapes and forms. Right, Tanya?
Yeah. You know what I always say? Move that booty, Judy.
Move that booty, Judy. I love it.
Saying when I'm walking around my island, and it was just me, and now I'm live when I walk a lot. And so I always say move your booty duty whether you want to or not. You know? Teresa, in the beginning, I did not want to get up and exercise. That wasn't me. That was definitely not the old me and not even the new me after I had weight loss surgery. It was a struggle for me. But now I wake up every day, and I can't wait to walk because I can. And so a lot of things for me in movements are just to prove to myself that I can do it, and I know I can.
It's something like another obstacle that you can prove to yourself that you can overcome. And I know that walking is a a huge part of movement for you and I after weight loss surgery. I do jumping jacks also because before at £430. And you guys, Teresa and I have lost a combined £700. We've lost almost £700. Right? That's amazing in itself. And to think of us moving our body every day, that is it's such a like, we're champions. We're warriors.
We've overcome all the things in our life that we thought we could not overcome.
You know, movement is so much more than just about moving your body. It also is a mindset. And I know that for me, starting out at over £600, my mind was always focused on sitting down. I would be high if I had to stand, I was hyper focused and obsessing on how long it would be until I could get back to my seat. Like, my body was in pain all the time, so I needed to be sitting down. Like, I I rarely move my body. When I talk I'm sedentary, I was like 247 sitting down. I couldn't even sleep in a bed.
I had to sleep in a recliner. I maybe walked a 100 steps, 200 steps a day on a really, really good day. Movement was really hard for me. I struggled, to breathe. I struggled to stand. I struggled to walk at all. Showering was very hard for me. I remember working at the school as a teacher, and I would get bladder infections because I couldn't walk to the bathroom.
So I would hold it all day long because moving moving was that hard for me. And I remember, especially, like, moving out in public, I would get to the school, like, an hour before the bell would ring because I wanted to be able to get my body across campus without people seeing me. Because I knew that I would be struggling, sweating, breathing, all the things. And so movement for me was something again that was involving shame and guilt and embarrassment and fear and anxiety and physical stress and all the things. So when you began when you begin a transformation journey, whether you're having weight loss surgery, natural weight loss, medications, whatever it is, you're gonna have so many mental, emotional barriers in addition to the physical barriers, and that's what we wanna talk about. Like, we wanna go through all of it. We've been there. We've done that.
We still are struggling in our own ways. But there's a lot of a lot of good people out there who have the experience, who've been through it. And I know for me, it's changed my life. I no longer, feel stuck in my body. I no longer feel stuck on the couch. I feel like I can fly. I feel like I can run and I can do all the things, and that is so freeing. I don't know about you, Tanya, but being able to move my body is, like, the best gift in the world.
And like you said, I don't have to do it now. I get to do it. But how do you go from the mindset of feeling like you have to get up and do something to, like, I get to do it? How do we flip that narrative in our mind?
For me, it's every single day. Like, it's every single day when you wake up. I think about my old routine that I had that I didn't even realize was a routine. It was a routine that led to being morbidly obese. It was a routine that I never left the recliner. I never left the couch. I never left the bed, ever. Like, I would lay there.
I would eat. I would watch Netflix. That was my daily routine. And so for me, I pride myself. I never wanted to go back to that. I never wanna go back to that. But how do you flip it? Like what you're saying. How do you flip it? It's mindset.
We've talked about mindset in every episode that we've done so far because it is a mindset shift. All of these things, your lifestyle change, your nutrition change, your body movement change. It is mindset first. You have to make up your mind that you're not gonna be the old you. For me, I had to make up my mind. You know, I started walking a half a mile. I would try to walk a half a mile. I couldn't.
I my my feet would swell out of my shoes, and so I would go to it. Let's do a 4th mile today, or let's just walk a 1,000 steps. And now I'm up to I do over 10,000 steps today. Sometimes I get 20,000 steps in, and I amaze myself. And I think a lot of times on your weight loss journey like, Teresa and I both, you we can walk 5 miles now. And before, we couldn't walk point 5 miles. Like, we couldn't walk a 5th of a mile. And so look at all that we've overcome.
You guys can do it as well. You just have to make your mind up. For me, it's about looking inside. It's about looking inside me and how strong am I going to be today. Am I going to lay around? And I don't like to use the term lazy, but, like, you're saying that, sedentary lifestyle that we had before. Sedentary is when you have a lifestyle where you sit all day long. You sit. You never move your body.
And I count in the beginning, Teresa, honestly, I counted everything. I counted dancing in my kitchen. I counted doing my dishes, doing my laundry. I would sweep the floor, then I would mop the floor. I would vacuum my rugs. I would clean my bathroom. I would make my bed. I literally counted all of that as body movement because for people like Teresa and I, we didn't just have a £100 to lose.
We didn't start out at £200. We started out, you guys, 400, 500, £600. You have a ton of weight to lose, and it's overwhelming. So if you are where we were, I know how you feel because I was overwhelmed. I would watch transformation journeys, and I would literally just sit and be in tears because I would be like, that's never gonna be me. Like, I wanted it so bad. I thought. I dreamt of it.
I wanted to go. You know, you see people in the gym and they're working out and they're hardcore, and the gym is supposed to be a nonjudgmental place. That is a lie. Like, I went to the gym. I was so judged the second I walked in. You know why? It's embarrassing. I could not step up on the treadmill. The very first time I went to the gym, I couldn't get up on the treadmill, and so that's why now I just do it in the comfort of my own home.
It started out as a judgment thing for me. I was so sick of being stared at because I've been stared at my my entire life. But literally, the gym is for people trying to lose weight. It's kinda like you talk about church. Like, people think that church, therefore, people who sin, that is not who the church is for. The church is for everybody. Like, everybody in the church is a sinner. Everybody in the gym needs to either lose weight or get healthy.
That's why we're in there. But I felt so judged going to the gym, and that's what led me to just to just work out in the comfort of my own home and just walk and do jumping jacks and do simple like, I have a kettlebell, but I don't get it out as often as I should. I have hand weights, but I don't get it out as often as I should. But I have still been successful on my weight loss journey. You don't have to necessarily kill yourself in the gym to be successful because Teresa and I, one of us have done that.
You know, I talk a lot about the beginning of my journey because I know that that is where a lot of you may be. You may be in the beginning of your journey, you may be in the middle. You may be like Tanya and I and you're a little bit further along, but everyone has to start somewhere. And for me and for Tanya, I know starting out in the beginning is so difficult because you are focusing on all the things that are stopping you from living your best life. Right? You're you're focused on how bad your body is hurting. You're focused on the judgment, the embarrassment, being ashamed to be out in public and move your body. So we can relate to that. I tell a story that is was one of the most impactful and traumatic experiences that I had as a person who was morbidly obese in public.
Now when you are when you occupy a very large body in our culture, you are made to feel that you are criminalized. You are shown in many ways, whether it's through media, whether it's through the dirty looks or the repulsive looks or the comments, you are shown that we should not be seen. Right? You don't wanna be seen. You don't wanna be heard. And so it's really hard, when you feel that you are not welcomed to exist in a in a public space. Which is why Tanya and I both also started out working out in our homes, not only due to the physical limitations, but so much of it has to do with being embarrassed and being ashamed. I was watching, one of those shows on TLC, the 1,000 pound sisters, and I remember watching her walking. She was trying to go to a water park and everybody there was hundreds of people watching her.
You know that that's happening. You feel all the eyes on you. So not only are you struggling to emotionally and physically move your body in public, but you also have to manage knowing that all those people are looking at you and judging you. And one day, I was out trying to walk at 600 plus pounds. And I remember I was I was trying to do something for myself. I had gotten up the bravery, the courage to even do it. And a young group of men, I live in California, so we have in and out here. The these young men drove by me and they started, oinking at me and yelling, literally, oinking at me.
And there was tons of people. I live in LA and there's people everywhere. And these men threw their In N Out all over me. Milkshakes hit me, their burgers. And I stood there, not a single person stopped to help me. No one did. They all were just looking at me. Everyone was looking at me.
And I remember it was so hard for me to even get a block. And what that experience did to me was it made me go back in the house. I didn't go back out and try to exercise in public again for a year. Mhmm. Why? Because of the messages that I was receiving from my environment that I was disgusting and repulsive. And so I find it very hypocritical and difficult to live in a culture that tells you you need to be thin. You need to be fit. You need to be active.
But then when a person who is bigger tries to go out and do there, we're shamed. We are ridiculed, and we are mocked. And so for me, I just had to stay in my house and do it. I like Tanya did, I started to set timers, and I made myself stand for a minute at a time. My back was shaking. I didn't think I could do it. Like, my my knees. And when I would sit back down, I would cry because just the fact of standing for a minute or 2 was so so challenging for me that I thought at times I was gonna die and have a heart attack.
Mhmm. I literally took me time to build up to being able to walk laps across my house. And I remember the first time I was able to go out of my house and walk a block. I was terrified because I knew that, I was gonna have to come back the 2 steps up my house. And just the block that I walked, I had to stop at 2 bus stops, okay, and sit there and breathe, everyone looking at me. And I knew I had to call someone at my house to meet me at the stairs because I couldn't get my body up those 2 steps. But after years of living that way and missing out on being able to do everything, like, I couldn't get married. I couldn't go to graduations, weddings, birthday parties because I couldn't physically move my body.
I started to use that lack, the thing that I was lacking in my life, the social connections, the events, the happiness, the freedom of being present in the moment. I started to use that as my tackling fuel, and I didn't give up. I kept going. And I know for you, Tanya, we've talked a lot about our why. Right? Mhmm. Like, my my why, you have to, like, do that soul searching and that self reflection. My why was because I didn't wanna die. I was tired of removing myself from the land of the living, I say.
I felt like an empty shell. I was missing out on everything, watching everyone live their life, and I was on the sidelines. And so I used my why to motivate me to continue to stand, to continue to practice walking and moving my body? Was it really hard? Did I wanna give up every single day? Sometimes, 100 of times a day, I did. But you can't give up. You have to believe in yourself, and you have keep fighting to save your own life. And that's what we've both done.
That's right. It makes me so sad for you, Teresa, that you went through that, and you told me that story before. I just wanna hug you. Like, I'm giving you a air hug right now because that's so sad, but that's what society is. That is the world we live in. You know, let's talk about how the world that we live in is not set up to be morbidly obese. The world does not want you to be morbidly obese, but don't you dare get weight loss surgery to fix that or change that. Don't you dare go to the gym being morbidly obese and try to work on your health and try to get healthier so that you do lose the weight.
Like, the world, you know, the doctor's office chairs are not set up. I can't tell you how many times I've had to stand at the doctor's office with my kids, and my kids could sit, but I couldn't because we all know those dang chairs with sides on them. When you are £10506100, you cannot fit in those chairs. We've all had to wait. I've had to wait after church to fit in a table because I can't fit in a booth, so my family had to wait an hour and a half. People that come in after us, they were getting seated and looking at us like, oh, that's why. Because she's so big, she can't fit in a booth, so we got her booth. You know? So the world is not set up for the obese person.
It's just not, and that is so sad to me. You know? For me, body movement was I've walked up bleachers because whenever I was £430 and went to Zach's ball games and went to Kylie's softball games, I couldn't walk up the bleachers. I would have to bring my own supersized, oversized chair to sit in, and all the other moms were sitting in the bleachers. And then there's Tanya in her oversized chair because she can't get up the bleacher steps. Literally, I couldn't get up. And that's so embarrassing for me. Like, I I'm not saying that I should have been accepted at £430. I mean, I need I needed to work on my health.
I wanted to better my health, but I've finally done the work, but I know what it's like. So if you're listening and you are at the weight to where you can't get up the bleachers or you can't fit in a booth or you you can't fit in the chairs. Trace and I have been there, and we've done the work. But how do you make yourself do it? Like, how do you set a goal and then you accomplish that goal? For me, it's just like we said in our mindset episode. You your inner fat b, she is gonna come out, and she's gonna be like, hey. Like, for me, this morning, I got my walk in. I didn't walk as long because I've got things to do today, but I walked some. But that inner fat bee was saying, uh-uh, girl.
Let's turn the TV on. Let's turn the TV on. Let's eat some donuts. Let's don't walk today. And I'm just like, you shut up. You literally, I I bet people in my driveway are looking at me like, who is she talking to? Because there is no one next to her, and I'm literally going like, uh-uh. You shut up because you were £430, and you didn't think you were worthy, and you didn't have confidence, and so we're doing this today. We literally are walking.
And even if we lose an ounce or if we lose £2, a little bit of steps goes a long way because, like, Teresa and I both started out. I'm gonna get fired up and worked up talking about walking, but we started out. I was at a 4th mile. I can walk 5 miles. I'm super proud of that. I can even run, and I know I probably look funny when I do run. My husband's told me. He was like, I don't know what you think you're doing, but that's not running.
And I'm like, it's running for me, Bobby, because I can move my body now. And for me, I take such pride in that. Like, with my kids, I would watch my kids play. It's it's such a bittersweet thing for me because I would watch my kids be on the floor playing, and I wanted to be in the floor playing with them. But I couldn't because I knew if I got in the floor, I could not get up. And now I can do that with Mila and Everly and Tuff. I literally get in the floor, and I will roll around with them, and I will get I bounce up quicker than they do. And for me, that's such an amazing accomplishment, and it's something so small.
It's not like I'm out running a marathon, and it's not like I'm out getting all these big muscles and things like that. It's the little things for me. It's the little things. Like, I can get in the floor and play Barbies with Mila, and we can have a good time, or I can lift her up. We have a little game we call airplane, and I can lay on the floor, and I can lift her up with my legs. And she's like, I'm flying, Jojo. I'm flying. I could not do that with my kids, And I don't know why that wasn't enough to make me change, but I finally made the change.
And so I just bask in, like, the glorious moments, like, the beautiful moments that I'm building with my grandbabies, and I don't dwell on the fact that because every once in a while, that negative me tries to take over and make me dwell on the fact of why weren't you the mom that your kids deserve? Like, why weren't your own kids enough to make you lose the weight? I don't know, but I did. I've done it now, and my now is what matters. Your now is what matters.
You know, I remember weighing £600, and I'm an auntie to a lot of nieces and nephews. Because of my weight issues, I was never able to have babies. I'm 45 now, so having my own babies, that's not in the picture for me. But I remember, being the auntie who the kids all would lay on my belly. They would lay on my belly and we would watch TV and we would eat. And I remember feeling so devastated and hurt because my sister, would not allow me to take my nieces and nephews out in public. I was only allowed to be with them at the house, and I would get so hurt because I felt like, well, I'm a teacher. I'm an educator.
I know how to take care of kids. I'm responsible. I'm a good person. But what my sister was so afraid of was, and I've heard you talk about this, was that, someone was gonna run up and snatch one of them, and I couldn't chase them, or they were gonna get away in a store, and I couldn't go after them. Or we were gonna be walking down the street, and they were gonna step into the street, and I couldn't run after them. And I remember so not so many nights going to sleep crying and also being angry at my sister, but and projecting it onto her that it was her fault because but she was being protective of her kids. And looking back now, I totally get it. Like, reality is that at that weight, at that limited of mobility, I could not have chased those kids down.
I couldn't have. I I remember, teaching a class one day and I fell, and I was on the ground for 45 minutes. It took the I had to wait in front of a class of 30 freshmen. I had to wait for 3 men, security and, staff to come and help me get off the ground. And so had one of the kids gotten hurt, had something happened, I couldn't have gone after them, But I remember being so angry and completely devastated, because I was not allowed to hang out with the kids. I wasn't allowed to do that. And then as my journey started to evolve and I started to gain my mobility back, one step at a time, like I said, starting out at 50 steps, a 100 steps, As I started to gain my mobility back, I was able to bring my nephew to the marina with me to go walking, to walk the dogs. I I started to be able to go to oh, god.
I remember the first time I went to his picnic lunch, I was still 400 something pounds, and I struggled every step of the way. I brought my King Kong chair. Well, that's what they call it. It's a King Kong chair because I knew I wasn't gonna be able to sit on the little plastic ones. Mhmm. But I remember struggling, but I was able to do it. My sister came so that, you know, I couldn't watch him by myself, but I was able to go and be a part of that. And that was such a huge, a huge motivating factor for me.
I wanted to be a positive role model, and I wanted to show my nieces and nephews that, look, hey. Your went from being super unhappy, super super, super depressed, super sad, and not being able to do all those things with you. To look at my has worked so hard, and now she can do all the things. And it's so crazy now because when I spend time with them, we're not sitting in front of the couch. We are running around. I play Nerf gun wars with them. Like, I'm chasing them around the backyard. I have all of this energy, and they can see how happy I am.
I'm not hyper focused on all the things I can't do anymore, and that's the beauty of this. We were talking a lot about this, the last time we were together that when you are severely overweight and and sedentary, everything that you think about is consumed with how difficult moving your body is. You miss out on the present moments because you're so upset, stressed, anxiety, all the things. I'm present in the moment now. Mhmm. I may I may have to fly upstairs a 100 times in a day to do something, but you know what? I can do it, and I'm smiling. And I can I can move my body with ease? It's taken me a long time to do that. But once you get there, you just I I you guys know I'm a cryer too.
And how many times have you seen me? Like, I just we're doing something every day, and I start to cry. And then, like, what's wrong with you? I couldn't do this before.
Crap.
I couldn't do Mhmm. Your life expands in so many ways when you get up off the couch, when you make yourself continually do it. You know, there's something so beautiful about saving your own life.
It is. And I wanna say as I'm watching you talk, Teresa, it reminds me of what people say about our transformation photos. So you went from you were talking about that dark place where you were in and people throwing food on you, and your eyes were your light was out a little bit as you talk about those moments because that's how we felt. And then as you got to talking about things, how they laid on your belly, you're still still a little bit dark. And then your smile, you I'm just I love you so much. I'm just watching you because you tell these these beautiful moments of how you went from getting food thrown on you and how I went from not fitting in a booth and being the biggest mom always and feeling so much. I felt less than. I wasn't less than, but I felt less than because of society and how society makes you feel.
And then we talk about our transformation, this transformation we've made, mind, body, and soul, and our light comes on. And your light just come on as you got to the end of your story, what you were just telling. And I love that about you because I'm the same way. I can look back on on photos like I'm thinking in my mind of Zach's graduation pictures. I have no light in those pictures. I have I'm blank, like, my face is blank. I have Kylie Mila was born, and I was I look at that picture all the time because I was at my biggest, and I was bigger than the hospital bed that she was in. I'm standing next to her in the hospital bed.
She's laying down about to give birth and it's me and my husband and her husband and we're about to have our first grandchild. And everybody's face, they're smiling. Every picture of all of these occasions that we have, everyone is smiling. And I have a smile on my face, but my eyes are empty. I'm empty. And but and I can look back on that picture now, and like I said, I'm bigger than the bed that she was laying in, and that's so embarrassing for me, but also at the same time, it's so empowering for me because I'm not now. That picture, I cannot tell you how many times I have struggled. I have been on the track, I have been in my house, I have been in my driveway, and I do not want to keep going.
I maybe have been 2 miles, and I know I can do a hell of a lot more than 2 miles. I can't. I will literally pull up that picture on my phone, and I will say to myself, mm-mm. No. And I will close my phone out, and I get it. And I'll bust it right there. I moved my booty Judy because that picture I know it sounds so crazy, and it sounds like, oh, well, that's good. Like, that's so good for me to hear, but how do I do it? That's exactly how you do it.
You empower yourself to keep going. You prove to yourself that you can do it just like Teresa and I. She started out at £600 having food thrown on her. I started out at over £400. Never have I had never exercised in my life. Never. And now, look at us. Every day, we walk.
Every day, we move our bodies. I can't tell you how many times. Honestly, it's so funny to say, and I'll bring it up, Teresa, but I've even counted the calories I burn making love to my husband. There's been times I've been like, you know what? I'm not at 10,000 steps. Baby, hit that bed. We're we're gonna we're getting the ventralator. He's like, oh, let's go. Yes.
We get to 10,000 steps today. We're doing it, and I count the calories. I'm not even kidding. I count it. Like, everything that I can do before that I couldn't do back then, I want to do it because it feels so amazing. And your face right now says, like, me too. Because I know you. We've talked I know the story.
Teresa's a freak. No.
So, you know, Tanya, oh my god, I love you. Yes. So if you don't know, I I I did not date I was not able to engage in, adult activities for more than 20 years of my life because I had Adult activities. Yeah. Adult activities. I had an apron I had an apron stomach that went all the way down to my knees. So, you know, having sex, things like that was impossible for me. And one form of movement that, yes, since I've had my skin removal surgery and I've started dating 7 months ago has been being able to be physically intimate.
And I swear I've lost, like, 40 or £50 since my boyfriend and I started dating because I'm, like, I'm making up for lost time. Right? I totally gave him.
I'm so sorry. And it's
the best feeling in the world. Like, you're talking about, like this is one thing I wanna say. I wish that we could take how we feel now, bottle it up, and give it to people who are at the beginning of their journey and be like, oh my god. This is how good it's gonna get, and this is what my Just wait. Just wait. Just wait. It's gonna get so much better. And so the me, okay, 600 pound Teresa.
I didn't know. I've never felt happy like that in my entire life. I never felt the freedom of being present in the moment. So what I had to do was every time my inner fat bee started to holler at me, I had to hold this image in my mind of this Teresa. Okay? And the way that I did it was I felt like, okay. I would imagine. What does what does your happiest Teresa look like? What does she feel like? How does she engage with the world? How does the world treat her? What are the tie what are the kinds of things that she does? How does she dress? How does she how does she how does she live her life? And every time I want to give up, every time I didn't wanna get up out of bed and move my body, I would visualize this version of me that you guys see. And I didn't know how to bring her about because I had never been this version of myself.
So I created it in my mind. I would journal it. I would I would create affirmations. I would visualize. I would meditate on her. And and slowly over time, she started to come to the forefront and my inner fappy started to go back here.
Mhmm.
And now I'm just at the place now where I am present in the moment. The glow that you guys see in my face, in my eyes is my heart and soul because I have healed from within the reflection. The the physical changes are a reflection of the internal changes that I have made. And being able to, yes, make love with my boyfriend twice a day, smashing every day for 7 months, that would that would not be possible had I not changed. Right? That's a form of movement that I I encourage and I support. It feels amazing, and I'm glowing because of it. I'm happy that I can do that. I I I used to go to bed every night crying and longing for that comfort, that closeness of the physical intimacy.
And I thought for sure I was gonna die never having sex. I'm like, this is great. I'm a die But She she move your booty, Judy, and your body's gonna be able to do a lot more things than you ever thought was possible. Right?
Yeah. For sure. For me, as far as sexual intercourse, as Tracy says, she supports it. You heard it right here, ladies and gentlemen. She supports sexual intercourse. I'm laughing at this entire segment right here. But literally, with my husband, we've been together since I was 15, even at 15. So I was already I was already obese.
I should've just had that actually. Let's talk about as an adult. Cut that part out. Anyways, as an adult and being a morbid obese woman, okay, being an obese woman, we literally had sex the same way. Always. I was a locked out kinda girl. I was a under the covers kinda girl. I was only take off what I needed to take off, which was the panties, like, leave as many clothes on as I could.
Honestly, that was me. I'm just, Teresa, you're laughing, but that's the truth. My son was laughing.
I'm laughing because I can I can totally relate to that?
Even though he was my husband, been together our whole lives, basically. We were high school sweethearts. I still was like, I don't even want him to look at me because I didn't wanna look at me. Now flip flop completely, I'm like nude before we even get to the bedroom. I we like the trail of clothes you see on the movie. That's me. Like, it's a trail of clothes and he knows what's happening and he knows it's gonna be all kinds of different ways that we've never done before. And it's a, like, I know it's a it's an adult conversation that we can have and not just get all giddy and laughing about it, but for real.
Like, I can do things in the bedroom that I never could have done before. I can do all the things that I necessarily have learned about but didn't know that it was for me because I just I couldn't do them physically. I could not move that way, and now I can. And so it that's just another way. That's another way you can move your body. For me, I started it also with walking. It's intervals for me. I was obese, and I could not walk a mile, 2 miles, 3 miles, 5 miles like I can now.
I started at 10 minute intervals a day, and I would walk around. I would set a timer, like Teresa said, I would walk around walk around my island, walk around my table, the whole thing for 10 minutes, and then I would sit and I would rest. And then maybe around lunchtime, I would do the same thing again. Around dinner time, the same thing again. And so that's how I started. I would do 10 minute intervals. I would walk until I couldn't walk anymore or the timer went off. Sometimes I didn't make it to the timer.
Sometimes I did. Now I don't have a timer. Now I get up, and I walk, and I wear my Fitbit, and I track my steps. And like I said, I'm getting anywhere between 10 to 20000, sometimes even more probably more this past weekend while we were in Houston. But it's an amazing thing when you start moving your body and then you actually wake up and you're that person that you never knew, that you never thought you would be, and you would be like, I can't wait to walk. Like, that was never me before, but it is now. And I think it's an amazing thing, and that is strictly from determination. That is strictly from willpower, which is what you have to have on a weight loss journey.
Whether it's being able to attend different events, weddings, birthdays, going to work every day, going to the grocery store, being able to get down on the ground to play with the kids, going for walks, having the ability to have sex and be able to freely physically engage in all the normal activities in your everyday life. All of those things are important, and you are worthy of all of them. We all are. Tanya and I both were, and I know I spent my whole life feeling like I wasn't worthy of those things. And, you know, moving your body. If you can start, if you can just start, find ways to track your movements, find ways to motivate yourself. Join a community, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, whatever it is. Find ways that other people are moving their bodies.
See what resonates with you and just start doing it. Learn how to battle your inner fat b because I promise you, even if you don't feel like it, you are stronger than that, Heffern. We we
And you will win.
You will win. Yeah. Over time, you will gain the momentum. You will gain the strength. You will gain the energy, the life force that will help you fight for your own life. It's when you start, you don't feel that momentum. Right? You don't feel that strength. You need to get the positive wave of life energy flowing through your body, through your mind, through your heart, and through your soul.
And before you know it, you're going to be doing all the things just like Tanya and I. Mhmm. We do in our everyday life. We this is not something that's unattainable for you because we have it does not mean that peep you know, people look at us
and they think,
oh, you're so lucky you're doing this. No. We're not lucky. We have fought like hell to save our own lives, and you can do it too. And that's why we're sharing because we want you guys to know every little detail, every little way that we have used things that we've used to help our lives, to improve our lives, to to get our booties up and moving with Judy.
Yeah. And it's obtainable for you. It's just willpower, you guys. Honestly, it's the old you versus the new you. It's for me every day thinking about my old ways, and I never wanna go back to that. And it's just being determined to prove to yourself that you can do it. It's a battle. Every day on a weight loss training for me, it's a struggle.
It's a battle. And, you know, who's gonna win today? Is it old you're gonna win or the new you're gonna win? The new you that can do it all. You can do anything that you put your mind to. Teresa and I are literally living proof of that. If you put your mind to something and you really want to achieve it, you can, but you have to be consistent. You have to stay consistent every day. For me, it was stop making excuses. I made a lot of excuses when I was obese.
You know, we're too busy, and we can't afford it. Things like I don't have time for that because I wanna spend time with my kids. And so it was a little bit selfish, I thought. It's not selfish to set aside time for you to work out because that is you setting aside time for you. And the more time that you make for you and the more time you make for your weight loss journey for you to obtain your goals, the more successful you are you are going to be on your weight loss journey.
Self love and self care is not selfish in a bad way. It is necessary. If you want to be an active participant in your life and be able to enjoy your loved ones, your family, all those things, you have to be a little selfish when it comes to to self care and self love. So we love you guys. We hope that in some way, shape, or form, we have shown you that moving your body is attainable, that it is possible no matter where you're beginning in your journey or where you are in your journey. Like, we've got you. We love you guys, and we are so grateful.
Yes. We are, you guys. When you when you lose your excuses, you find your progress. And so you can follow us on social media. I'm taking my life back at 42 on TikTok and Instagram, and I'm Tanya Spenglow on Facebook. Thank you so much for listening today. We'll see you next time.
Bye, guys. We love you.
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Love you.
