Photo: Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images
Tamara Walcottgoes to the gym after her kids are in bed 3 to 4 nights a week — and works out for 3 to 4 hours.
“It’s very structured,” says the Laurel, Maryland, mom of two of her training as a competitive powerlifter. “As soon as I get home from work, I eat something and drink a protein shake, and when I get back from the gym I go right to bed so I can wake up to get my son ready for school in the morning.”
Although it takes a lot out of her — “I’m tired of saying I’m tired!” — she says jokingly, she keeps her eye on the prize: “If I put my mind to something, I’m relentless.”
Learning to harness her own power was life-changing for Walcott, who grew up in St. Croix before getting married and moving in 2002 to Abington, Maryland, where she had two kids.
While she says she was always “big-boned,” it wasn’t until after her son was born in 2012 that she became a food addict. “I wouldn’t eat all day, and then I would eat at night when everyone was sleeping. That’s when I became morbidly obese.”
Meanwhile, her relationship was floundering. “The marriage was two ships passing in the night,” she says. She and her husband decided to split up.
Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images
“By the time the divorce was over I looked in the mirror and did not recognize who I was,” says Walcott, 38. “I’d poured everything that I had into my kids and into a failed relationship — I gave everything to everyone else and had nothing left for myself.”
In 2017, the property manager was 415 lbs. and was so upset with herself that she actually stopped looking in the mirror. “I wish somebody had told me, ‘You’ve got to be a little bit selfish to take care of yourself so you can take care of your kids.’ "
Something finally motivated her at the end of that year to try adumbbell class. By challenging her body and prioritizing herself and her health, she was able to lose 100 lbs. in 8 months.
Not long after, she moved to a different town, Columbia, and walked into a new gym, where people werelifting heavy weights. “They were screaming, they were squatting, they were doing deadlifts. And I just fell in love,” Walcott says. “I got a coach and decided that this is something that I wanted to do.”
From then on, she set her sights high. “Nothing or no one could have deterred me from my goal once I set my mind to it,” she says. “It was really empowering to take control of my life and do something that felt rewarding just for me.”
Of course she had some detractors. “In the beginning I would be in the gym working out at 10 o’clock at night, and my friends and family would call and you could hear them rolling their eyes: You’re in the gym again?” she says. “And I’m like, I’m here because I am trying to save my life.”
Looking back, she realizes she didn’t have to wait so long to make herself a priority. “I’d always played sports, but once I had kids, I just didn’t have time. With working a 9-to-5 job, the weekends were about taking care of my kids. At that time I couldn’t figure out the balance.”
“People would say, ‘You’re a mom now, you gotta focus on this, you can’t focus on that.’ I wish I learned earlier that I could still focus on my kids and not put myself on the back burner.”
She says she finally realized that pursuing something just for herself was enough of a reason to do it. “People don’t have to understand what your goals and dreams are. They don’t even have to believe it. They can think you’re going to fail but don’t give up. If it’s something that’s important to you, keep watering that seed and it’s gonna grow.”
It’s one of the reasons she is rolling out the Women in Powerlifting movement onher Instagram, which is meant to inspire women to give the sport a try. “We are paving the way for young girls in the future,” she says.
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In fact, her daughter Masjahlee, 15, started high school this year and actually called her mom from her first weightlifting class. “She was attempting her squat and she was the only one who had an idea of what it should look like and she wanted me to see it, so she was really proud,” Walcott says.
Her son Bryce, 9, is also one of Walcott’s biggest fans. “Even before I won the world record I would go to breakfast with him and he would tell people, ‘My mom is stronger than your dad!’ And now I’m like, it really can be true!”
As she continues to train for her next competitions in July and September, she is staying consistent and focused. “If you have a dream and you say it out loud and other people don’t understand it, it’s not for them to understand,” she says. “Just go ahead and keep pushing forward.”
source: people.com
