Mother of two drops 11st and becomes a dance instructor
Wednesday 18 July 2012
A 27-year-old woman who lost over 11st has said she is finally ready to begin her twenties.
Nyla Gibson from Houston, Texas, weighed in at 31st before taking part in ABC’s Extreme Make Over: Weight Loss Edition, and couldn’t even cross her legs. But with the help of coach Chris Powell she lost an incredible just over 11st in just a year.
At the start of the transformation, Nyla, who now weighs just uner 20st, admitted that she didn’t feel like she was in her twenties.
‘I never thought that at 27, I would look like this,’ she said.
‘I have friends who have waists smaller than my thigh.’
The mother of two has had a long history of weight issues - stemming from being abandoned at birth by her father - so was stuck in a rut of emotional comfort eating.
'You don't get this large by just liking food,' she said. 'This is a manifestation of issues that I am trying to deal with.'
Nyla would eat junk food regularly – at the beginning of the show, she ate 10lbs of crawfish and potatoes in one sitting.
But with the help of Chris Powell and the Extreme Makeover team, Nyla can now climb stairs and go for walks, which she was unable to do before.
It was a tough journey though and Nyla’s transformation had a rocky start, with her being unable to complete the work outs that she was given.
'Two minutes into the work out,' Nyla said, 'I was in full tantrum mode.'
She was also unwilling to listen to nutritional advice and would still eat junk food like pizza and ramen noodles when she got out of sight of Chris and the cameras, which meant that she failed to meet her first two goals.
However, Nyla’s turning point was when she met her father’s side of the family after the programme’s private investigators got in contact.
'I care more about this than I have cared about anything,' she said. But, she admitted, 'I never thought it'd be this hard.’
'I got to save myself, from myself,' she said.
And a year down the line Nyla, who loves to dance, has gone on to become a dance instructor at her local gym and is still shedding the pounds.
Although she didn’t meet her total target at the final weigh in, Nyla was rewarded for her hard work with a $50,000 gift certificate to help her buy the vegetables and healthy meats she needs to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Read more real life here: