Asia Ford had always been overweight. She was even born 12 pounds. But she didn’t let her history determine her future. It was one night in her kitchen that changed her life forever.
“If I have learned anything about weight loss, it is that losing weight is a day to day and oftentimes an hour by hour journey,” Asia says on her GoFundMe page. “One that I have been on for 2 years. I have had many ups and I have had many downs. I decided to take control of my health once I watched my children’s father lose not one, but two of limbs due to diabetes as a result of his obesity. Every time we went to the doctor, my 3 children would worry about me. There is nothing like seeing the worry on your children’s faces and you know they are wondering, ‘will my mother be around to see me go to my prom, graduate, watch me get married, have my own children?’ On the path I was going, tipping the scale at over 500 lbs, the answer was certainly a no and I knew I had to change.”
Over the past three years, Asia lost over 250 pounds. “I didn’t want to die,” confesses Ford on a recent episode of the TDJakes talk show. “My ex-husband three years ago cut his finger in the kitchen and because he was diabetic it turned into an infection and he lost his hand to amputation. And my daughter, who thought her father was a hero, looked at me and asked ‘is daddy going to be alright?’ and I didn’t know the answer.”
After she found out that her husband was going to be alright after losing his limbs, Asia wanted to start something, but didn’t know what to do. So her co-worker got her in a fitness bootcamp when she was 507 pounds. She decided to run a 10K after the losing the first 100 pounds.
The photo taken at the finish line of the race went viral inspiring the entire city, even people across the country and the globe.
It shows Ford struggling to cross the finish line but fast forward to now and you may not recognize her.
“I’m over 200 pounds lighter, I feel a whole lot better,” said Ford when she finished the same race a year later. “I was what you call a closet eater,” confesses Asia. “I’d eat small portions at restaurants, but then knew I was hungry and would eat [later.]”
When describing her first 10K, Ford gets a little teary-eyed. “There was a moment where I put my head down and started crying, started to kind of tear up, within a matter of seconds my hand kind of raised and without even being able to see it, I kind of clenched on to this hand,” said Ford.
That hand belonged to Lt. Aubrey Gregory who got out of his car when he saw Asia struggling.
“I knew then we were going to do this together, I asked her I said do you want to quit and she said no and I said well, let’s go,” said Lt. Gregory. He had no idea that the Mayor had retweeted, reposted and that it was being shared around the world. He was just trying to help someone in need.
“You never know who’s going to lift you up and sometimes you don’t even know you need it and she was that, she was there and it was amazing,” said Lt. Gregory.
When asked what the first step in losing this amount of weight, Asia exclaims, “Love yourself.”
Right now, Asia weighs in at 258 and is looking to get to 170. Go ‘head Asia! We’re rooting for you!
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