Saying goodbye to 100 pounds

A healthy Camille Tirzah wants to share her success with others

By Matthew Sherman

The Lake Oswego Review, Nov 30, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Lake Oswego resident Camille Tirzah holds up a pair of jeans she wore three years ago. Tirzah lost 100 pounds and has recently started up a venture to help other individuals who want to live healthier.

Vern Uyetake

ADVERTISEMENTS

This is the time of year where a good percentage of Americans pack on the pounds in anticipation of their inevitable resolution to lose weight come January.

Lake Oswego resident Camille Tirzah tried for years to get healthier, reading every book she could find and trying multiple diets. As an educator in the Portland School District, Tirzah’s life was hectic and she found it difficult to find a consistent time to exercise.

There was also a great deal of uncertainty around her job status, which only added to her stress level.

“I was an educator during a time when the district was making cuts. I had some seniority but only to a point,” she said.

As a result, Tirzah was unhappy and overweight and she knew that she would need to make a complete lifestyle change to achieve her goals.

“When you’re a teacher and putting in 12-hour days and working on weekends, it doesn’t give you much free time,” Tirzah said.

Tirzah’s turning point occurred when she was at a friend’s house and met Victoria Johnson, a world-famous health and fitness activist and motivational speaker.

“It was really kind of a miracle. I had been praying for help,” Tirzah said.

Johnson mentored Tirzah and she began to see results. It was not an easy process, however. Not only did Tirzah make changes to her diet and increase the intensity of her exercise regime, she also started to look at her personal relationships and truly made living healthy a top priority in her life.

Tirzah began to add more nutritional foods, eliminating junk food from her diet, made exercising a main concern in her life and changed her entire outlook. She attributes much of her success to the fact that she actively sought to surround herself with nothing but a positive atmosphere.

“I had to eliminate anything that was a negative influence in my life because so much of becoming healthy is in your self-esteem,” she said.

In three years, Tirzah, now 47 years old, lost 100 pounds and now feels better than she has since she was a teen-ager.

1 | 2 Next Page >>