A mum-of-two who ate 5,000 calories worth of chocolate a day has transformed from obese to body builder – after fat-shaming HERSELF by posting a video of her “massive” belly online and inviting people to make comments.
The unusual method worked, and now Nathalia Teixeira has gone from 19 stone and a UK size 18 to 11 stone and a UK size eight .
The 29-year-old said she ate an “insane amount of junk food,” including fast food meals with chips for the first few years of her marriage, ballooning to nearly 19 stone and a US size 22 by May 2012.
After being too uncomfortable and disgusted in her skin to sleep, she got a personal trainer to kick her into action with an intensive routine, and began competing in body building competitions.
Now the PhD psychology student – studying at Plaza College, New York – wears a US size four and weighs 11 stone. Just 12 percent of that is body fat.
Nathalia, originally from Brazil but now living in New York City, said she has a lot of stretch marks, but they do not bother her, as they are part of her story.
She said: “For most of my childhood I was underweight as I was very active, always out camping and doing sports.
“I got married at 18 after meeting my husband Gilson, now 33, at church the year before.
“Gilson, who owns his own heating, ventilation and air conditioning company, is a very ‘indoors’ person. He likes spending time inside with his family.
“At the time I had just started working as an accountant, sitting down the whole day.
“All I was doing was eating and sitting. I would eat and eat and eat.
“My body didn’t respond well to that, and I started noticing the damage I was doing.
“Within a year, I was obese.”
She continued: “I wouldn’t say my family was the healthiest, but they didn’t eat like I did.
“Our meals would be okay.
“The problem was the junk food I ate outside of that.
“I was a chocoholic. I was addicted. I ate an insane amount of junk food and it was careless.
“I’d eat about 5,000 calories a day of just junk food, and most of that was chocolate.
“I have a lot of stretch marks now but it doesn’t bother me because they are part of my story.”
Nathalia, mother of Bryan, nine, and Olivia, six, reached her heaviest in May 2012.
She was not happy with her figure, health, or job, and wanted to stop complaining.
The young mum knew her husband loved her no matter what her weight was, but that it was hard for him to see that she did not love herself.
Nathalia has told of how the trigger to change her lifestyle was one night when she was lying in bed, and could not even fall asleep because she was too heavy.
She said: “I lay down in bed one day when I was 25 and I felt my fat falling down my sides.
“I was uncomfortable and couldn’t sleep because I felt too heavy and disgusting.
“That was when I decided to change.
“At the same time, I changed my body and I changed my career, giving up my job as an accountant to go back to school.
“It’s not just about diet and exercise. It’s about mindset, which is easier said than done.”
The biggest battle was giving up her guilty pleasure.
She told: “I gave up chocolate in May 2013 – I’d occasionally have some but I was careful not to fall into the same cycle again.
“The chocolate doesn’t control me now. It’s all about mindset.”
Nathalia bravely posted a video of her big belly online, alongside a pledge to change.
She remembers: “I put up a video on YouTube showing my belly. I did it to feel embarrassed and to show the whole world I was serious about my decision to change.”
The first seven stone she lost was by restricting her diet, with approval from a doctor, but her calorie intake was so low she couldn’t do any exercise.
She stopped the diet because she wanted to do Zumba and go to the gym.
Then, the challenge stepped up a gear.
She said: “First it was about losing weight , having more energy and feeling good in my skin – but then I became hungry for more.
“I thought, ‘I could take this a step further.’
“After I lost 100lbs (seven stone) I thought I could tone my body and become an athlete.
“I found someone through a friend’s recommendation, who was crazy enough to believe in me and train me.
“My coach Edson Prado, who has won Mr Universe twice, has transformed my body in a way I never thought possible.
“I threw up in the first five minutes of our first session, and he thought I was never going to come back, but I went back to him the next day.”
Nathalia admits she cried during every workout, but Edson never gave up on her and continued to push her.
The mum-of-two trained for nine months for a 13-mile Spartan race in September 2013 – and when that was completed, she needed a new goal.
Edson got her ready for the NPC body building competition, an international physique contest.
“I felt like I could do anything,” she said.
“I trained for a year and a half, seven days a week, doing two hours a day of weights with my coach, and I would do 40 minutes of cardio on top of that a day.
“I won sixth place when I finally competed in November 2014 in New York.
“Then in April the following year, I came third.
“It has been life-changing for me. I achieved what I wanted, not in a dream but in reality.
“I feel so accomplished and now I’m focusing on my studies.
“My son says, ‘Mum, I remember when you were fat and you weren’t happy’.
“Both the kids and my husband are proud of me.”
Courtesy of: Mirror