Brittany Garcia reveals that accountability is the key to getting healthy.
Covid-19 disrupted
the routines of life in
unprecedented ways this
past spring. Closed gyms
were more than an inconvenience
for many gym-goers. It was a
disruption in healthy habits that
many had worked long and hard to
establish. But twenty-five-year-old
Brittany Garcia could not simply
sit back and wait for the virus
to end. Eighteen months earlier,
she had made the decision to get
healthy. Now, not even a worldwide
pandemic could sidetrack her from
that commitment. Not after her
change of lifestyle had resulted in
a loss of 205 pounds and a thirtythree
inch difference in waist size.
Brittany had struggled with
obesity her entire life. Genetics
seemed set against her. From early
childhood, she had been bullied in
school for her weight. But shame
does not empower change. The
constant negativity only helped
to produce a prison in her mind.
“Shame corrodes the very part of
us that believes we are capable of
change,” writes Brené Brown in her
book entitled I Thought It Was Just
Me: Women Reclaiming Power and
Courage in a Culture of Shame. It
wasn’t that Brittany didn’t care. She
had tried diet after diet only to fail
again and again. And each failure
only solidified her disappointment
and despair.
BY TERI R. WILLIAMS PHOTOS BY RUTH ENGLISH
Choosing Life
106 TOOMBS COUNTY MAGAZINE