By Wanja Waweru
Being renowned has more to it than just the glitz and glamour; there is also the unflattering aspect of having every aspect of your life scrutinized and denigrated by the same group of people who call themselves your supporters.
For vlogger Maureen Waititu, who has talked openly about experiencing melancholy and body shaming, this has been a reality.
Waititu claimed that she began gaining weight and that despite coming to the gym and working out, nothing changed.
“Four months ago, during one of my lowest I moments, I walked into @nairobibariatric at the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life. They held my hand helping me lose 22kgs so far through their advanced gastric balloon technology and now I am ready to share with you my journey with my followers,” Maureen said.
“My body has gone through so much in the last few years and at some point it just couldn’t take care of me – I did everything I could to stay fit and healthy. But no matter how many times I worked out or how little I ate, I kept piling on the kilos. My asthma got so bad, my back hurt and my ankles couldn’t support me making me sedentary most of the time and consequently gaining more weight,” she recounted.
She claims that she was simultaneously dealing with severe depression and anxiety, and the medication she was taking would sometimes have an impact on her, causing her to turn to food for comfort.
“The body shaming didn’t help either where people mostly women felt the need to keep commenting really negative things about my body. As some of you may know, I was also treating severe depression and anxiety for some time and the medication I was taking would often leave me not feeling like myself.
“Thus I’d look for comfort through constant snacking and eating – but I thank God that’s behind me now as I am fully healed and the happiest I’ve been in the longest time. Please stop body shaming people when you don’t know what’s going on with them,” she said.
Maureen has previously discussed her years-long struggle with weight reduction in interviews. She has discussed the weight gain she experienced after giving birth with Frankie Just Gym.
After slimming down, her fans flocked to her social media sites to beg her to reveal the secret to her weight loss.
