Additional info: "This is the story of my life. I started out very poor, and
very overweight. Through lots of hard work and determination
I overcame all of that to be the person that I am today. I
hope that you read all of it and enjoy my story! Thank you so
much for viewing my site. Many, many people have written me
about my bio. It seems that this is one of the things people
are the most interested in about me. Although it's kind of
embarrassing, I share it hoping that it will inspire someone
to strive to become whatever it is that they want to become.
I was born in Raleigh, North Carolina a few short years ago.
When I was eight years old I moved to Bell County Kentucky. I
was not prepared for the way Kentucky was, not that it was a
bad place to live, but I wasn't aware of all the home cookin'
that I was about to encounter! I had always been a slightly
overweight child and all the down home southern food that my
family started having did not help in the battle that I was
about to start. I never really paid any attention to kids
calling me names until I realized that the other girls didn't
look like me, I was always the tallest and the biggest! As
time went on and I became interested in boys and they didn't
give me any attention, I started to realize that the reason
they didn't like me was because by the time I was in the 7th
grade I weighed in at 175lbs!
I went into high school weighing that same weight, and even
though I was not one of the popular people, I wanted to be
very badly! So I went into the summer break determined to be
a new person when I walked through the doors the next year. I
worked hard all summer, but only made a little progress since
just about every day I was left on my own and didn't have the
willpower to resist all the food that was in the cupboards.
Still, I went back to school weighing 10lbs. less and I was
determined to reach my goals through the school year. I
finally started to come out of my shell and talk to people
and found that a lot of girls would only eat one meal a day
and sometimes even less than that. So I thought that if I
wanted to look like them then I had to do everything that
they did. It became a competition for me. I am very, very
competitive and I wanted to have extreme control over every
single thing that went into my mouth. At first, I felt very
in control and I lost weight; all of my new friends thought
that I looked so good and of course that made me want to lose
more and more weight. I didn't realize that I was on my way
to being in trouble. I pride myself on knowing that I am in
control of my life and that everything that you do takes you
one step to or away from your goals. By this time It was time
for summer again and I was ready to be a healthy person. I
wanted to really knock everybody out the next year, I didn't
want to be skinny, I wanted to be fit. I really didn't
understand everything that was involved in having that lean,
sexy body I wanted so badly, I just thought that you had to
run or do aerobics and you could look like a fitness model. I
started to work out and do aerobics with the morning T.V.
show. As summer went on I really didn't know what to eat, so
I ate baked potatoes and tuna all the time. But, through the
summer, there is always time for cake, cookies, Ice cream and
family get-togethers. My family was very poor, but we lived
on stuff from the farm too. That means stuff like whole milk,
real farm fresh eggs, bacon and all kinds of greasy stuff
with gravy on everything. All things that I used to love. My
parents aren't really into fitness at all and they thought
that I was just a normal girl. Somehow I still managed to get
down to 126lbs... I was on top of the world.
I pretty much stayed that weight for the rest of my senior
year, but little did I know that things were going to change
very soon. I was ready to enter college and with that came
all the cool things that a college town offers, things that I
had never had access to before. I loved all the fast food and
late night pizza. I fell into my old habit of eating only
once a day, and when I did eat it was all things bad. I just
didn't get it, I couldn't understand why I wasn't losing
weight on pizza and candy when I was only eating that one
time a day. It finally dawned on me that I was in such
misery. I was not prepared to deal with all of my newfound
responsibility. I decided to make a big change in my life to
work on myself. I took some time off from college and found a
job working in a local retail store. I joined a gym and for
the first time in my life I picked up a set of dumbbells. Of
course, I didn't know how to do anything with that, and was
too shy to ask for help since after all of my fast food
feasts I had gained up to 200lbs!! I tried aerobics again,
but felt out of place and it was to hard to follow the
instructors steps.
So, one day in November of 1995 I decided that I was at the
end of my rope, and the only thing left for me to do was
really learn how to take care of myself through a well
balanced diet, weightlifting and cardiovascular conditioning.
I knew that I had to get started and had a personal trainer
write out a program where I ate 6 small meals a day, I was
scared of so much food. So, he let me eat two protein bars in
place of two snacks. I also started weightlifting and doing
kickboxing three days a week. On my off days from doing that
I walked in the mall until it got warm enough to walk the
trail at the park. As I got in better shape I tried to start
jogging at least 1/2 mile two days a week. I set the goal of
3 weeks to start jogging the full mile. I achieved that goal,
and set the next one of running a 5k with one of my friends
from kickboxing. She was a track runner and in great shape.
When the day came I was determined to do it, and came in 24
seconds behind her! I was so proud that I had finished the
race. I continued with my kickboxing classes and became very
interested in the martial art classes, which were Jeet Kune
Do and Kali. For those of you who do not know what these are
the first is a self defense system that Bruce Lee developed
while he was here in the United States and the kali is a
Filipino martial art that deals with weapons such as sticks
and knives. As I got further involved in the martial arts I
became more and more confident. I even entered a Brazilian
Jiu-jitsu tournament where I was the winner in the women's
division. I brought the gold medal back to my gym. I felt
awesome. As I got in better shape and lost the first 50
pounds I had the desire to teach what I had learned. I felt I
needed to look the part, so I was patient, and continued to
watch what I ate and I learned as much as I could. The first
thing that I ever did was run the class through stretches. I
was hooked. One of the girls in our class did a lot of
pageants, and asked if she could take a couple of pictures of
me to a photographer. I was so excited that she asked; I said
yes right away. The photographer called the very next day and
we sat up a photo shoot. This became the first in a long list
of photo shoots with many different photographers.
Eventually, I ended up connecting with Rob Sims, one of the
most professional and most sought after fitness photographers
in the business. With his help and the help of publisher Bob
Kennedy I have been able to finally really get my career
started. So, I continue to train and work out, and l live my
life to the fullest now. I have now competed in two pageants
so far and I won the state title and placed top 10 at the
national pageant in Hawaii. I have been published in some of
the largest and most popular fitness magazines in the world.
I feel that my life is so full now and that I am truly
blessed by God."
Good luck, Tonya
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