For comedian, Chioma Omeruah, popularly known as Chigul, her ultimate aim of sweating it out at the gym is to remain healthy and not to trim down. She believes she’s naturally chunky, and sexy, the way she is.
I get attacked all the time on Instagram over my size, but as I have always said, it is late. So, if you attack me for being fat now, you came late. It is harder here and we are unforgiving. We know how to insult people, it is part of us. Of course, it gets to me
“I used to work out well. But over the course of time, due to health issues, I had to stop working out and I can’t go back yet. I am trying my best to stay fit, but losing weight is really difficult. Adding weight is not a problem. But I need to make sure I get well first so that I won’t put myself at more risk. I am very comfortable with myself, but I want to be healthy. I think I am naturally chunky and it is fine. So, it is not that I want to trim down deliberately. I feel I am sexy the way I am,” she says.
When she was in America, she thought there was much pressure to trim down until she came back to Nigeria. And back in Nigeria, she realised that many people wanted to be size 10 or smaller.
“I lived in America for 12 years and it was a lot of pressure to be slim. But I wasn’t as pressured in America as I am in Nigeria now. In Nigeria, I get attacked all the time on Instagram over my size, but as I have always said, it is late. So, if you attack me for being fat now, you came late. It is harder here and we are unforgiving. We know how to insult people, it is part of us. Of course, it gets to me. If anyone says insult doesn’t get to him or her, it is a lie. I try to stay away from insensitive people. I feel like I need to address it, but without insulting them. There is no reason you should look at my pictures and say something negative. I don’t really like to block and delete, but I do it very well,” Chigul says.
When you are used to eating in a particular way, according to her, it becomes really difficult to change. She says it can be easy for people who are used to dieting, but “it is not as easy as it seems.”
She says, “Sometimes, while dieting, I fall off the wagon and sometimes, too, I come up myself. It is a daily process. I don’t have a particular food because I eat everything, both local and foreign. I am a foodie, my challenge has been more of timing. A lot of time I work late and I still make noodles and egg. But I’m trying to stay away from late night food.
“I wake up pretty early; I may work out or not. I like to be up and doing, I am a
morning person.”
