Tanisha

I don't know if you guys have checked out the new show on Style, Too Fat for Fifteen: Fighting Back. It's based on the special Too Fat for Fifteen where this girl attends a school in North Carolina that focuses on weight loss. She has over I don't even know how much weight to lose and she's only 15...so it's a really intense special which shows her struggles. But she definitely loses the weight and gets healthy again!

But, anyways, the new show that spun off from the special just started this past Monday and I caught the replay of it later that night. I gotta say...it was a really good show. I felt inspired!! It broke my heart to see teenagers at THAT weight. All I kept thinking was, "I was a decent size when I was a teenager. Maybe not thin, but I looked good." and it's hard to think that some teenagers don't have that pleasure. One girl that really caught my attention was Tanisha.

She was easily the largest of the group at 510 pounds at only 17 years old. She was so large that when they took measurements, she was the only one where the tape measure wouldn't even fit around her fully. They said that was the first time that had happened in the four years that this school has been open. That completely just broke my heart. I can't even imagine how she must feel knowing that at 17 she's already reached a size like that.

Of course, the health problems that come from being that heavy are intense. She couldn't walk up the hill that they require students to walk up to get to the cafeteria (although, she mentioned she also has a disease where her knees both turn in--she's had many surgeries to fix it). But she could barely even get down the hill as well. When she went to play basketball, she had to stop after just 30 seconds. Before she started playing, she couldn't even walk across the full court just once. This is where I just completely fell apart. Even though it only took her 30 seconds of standing still and lifting her arms to have to sit down again for a little while, she went back into the game and tried again. And she even made a basket!! I knew...RIGHT in that moment...that if this 510 pound girl can motivate herself to keep going and try...then I can do it too.

Tanisha is one of the most inspirational people I've watched on television. I just have so much respect and care for her that I feel like I personally know her. I just want to give her a big hug and tell her that she can do it. She can lose the weight and become healthy!

If you haven't seen the show, you should definitely try to catch it. It's very powerful, especially for us battling to do the same thing that these kids are doing. There are lots of other teens that they're following on the show with other incredible stories of having to lose crazy amounts of weight at such a young age that are very inspirational as well.

And look out for more posts about Tanisha. I really want to follow her progress on here because she really did inspire me. In the first weigh-in they showed, she had gone down to 487, I believe, after 3 weeks.

If you have Style Network, definitely check out the show!!

xoxo