Ghana Samuda - Work hard...Get Better

When you're around her, you're bound to crack up laughing.  She's one of those infectious personalities, the genuine kind.  We run together, have worked out together, and we both looove food, so when I said to her, I want to interview you for my blog and she agreed, I chose one of my favourite spots in Kingston, Tea Tree Crèperie at 80 LMR.

Ghana walked in dressed in her office attire, I had to comment on how good she looked, AGAIN!!!

I told her I was famished (when am I not hungry?) and suggested the smoked marlin with cheese, which is usually a beginner's favourite.  I ordered a pot of tea to go with our meals, turns out we both love tea too.

Upon completing our orders I asked her Who is Ghana and who is she not?

I am a combination of contradictory things. I am reserved but I am outgoing, I am creative, disciplined, so much so that others may say I am obsessive.  I love to laugh, I can be very blunt, and so I try to temper that by considering how others may be affected by what I will say.

I'm not a hypocrite, and I'm not lazy- I may procrastinate but when I make up my mind, it's made up 100!

Do you have any nicknames?

Banana/Ghana-Banana/Friday/ Goodie

Have you always been athletic?

 I was never interested in sweating in school. I remember one day after PE class in second form, my teacher came to me and suggested I should try out for track and field, and he got the Track & Field Coach to also come and persuade me to try out and they were really on me. But I wasn't interested in any sports until the third year of my degree that’s when I really became interested in fitness.  I had this idea in my head of how I wanted to look, so I was always looking for what was going to help me look like what I wanted to look like, which was an athletic body type, I did Pep up gym, Spartan, and I did dancing.  I've always tried to be active, I would say I am pretty close to the image I wanted to get to now. Since I was 19 I have been pursuing that idea and now I'm thirty. 

Over the next few hours and some scrumptious crèpes and tea, she shared her journey to when she first recollected being active to now.

I did ballet for three months when I was younger after that I would just dance in the mirror. Then I went to a cousin's dance show, I was about 12 / 13 and I was blown away.  I didn't know that dance shows existed, I was in awe that these things happened. I told myself then, the next show I would be on stage.  I joined Praise Academy the next term and stayed with them for a year, Praise taught me to dance on a stage. During that time I started a dance ministry at my church, I taught myself and I taught others, which I continued for the next five years. 

One day we drove passed Ranny Williams and my mom saw the sign for Festival and she said, you know we should enter this, and we drove in and registered.  I remember we had to think of which pieces we could do and what we would call them.  My mom has always been a part of whatever I'm doing; she made the costumes at the time for the group.   When we went to church the next time we told the group, we were doing festival. 

We did it, I just wanted us to get to the final round, I was being realistic, we aren't professional dancers, we are not like the rest, we're beginners. I'm not thinking of winning.  One of the pieces got a gold medal but didn't get to the next round and another made it to the next round. We performed for the final round and I felt accomplished. As we were sitting, chilling and chatting with the other groups, They announced the winner of Best Contemporary Dance, Grace Missionary Church, I didn't hear it, others were jumping in excitement I was still shocked as there was particular group that I admired a lot and I thought they would win. 

I believe if you work hard at something, you will get better.  My dance company evolved from the group at church, which I started in 2007.  Two of the girls from the church group are still with me, they are principal dancers. I am committed to dancing.  I give it my all, though it consumes a lot of my time.

As I poured the next cup of tea, I shared with her some of my dancing-for-fun moments after a good laugh I asked her about running.

I started running in October 2014.  I had done Sigma before and didn't care about time or anything, but every time I heard about running, I remember thinking it must feel so good. If you were stressed it would just feel good to go run, it must feel freeing.  Last year I had health issues and during my recovery I was worried about how active I would be, so I just started walking.  I would be walking and the next time I would walk faster, I just wanted to be better. And then one day I just said I was going to run. I remember seeing pictures of Sonic's Steppers on Instagram and they were like everywhere and at first I was like, "What is wrong with these people?" Now I'm one of those people.

I worked out at home, while running, I got results, but not what I was looking for. And then there came a point when I was just running only.  I wanted to go the gym but couldn't afford to at the time.  We had a dance season for my Company and one of my friends had been asking me to dance in one of her pieces, I couldn't withdraw as I had already done that in the past and she was disappointed then. I was very nervous, as I was bigger than I was when last I was on stage.  So in March I got serious as I realised the show was approaching quickly and in the first rehearsal I was so exhausted, I couldn't breathe and I said this was terrible.  I would use this time to be prepared.  So I went to Pat and told her I needed her help to push me when I was running.  And immediately Pat was on it, as you know she is also determined.  That day I decided I was going to give it my all, this was April.  When May came around I started Spry and they taught me how to eat, I didn’t think I was changing, the diet was difficult.  I just told myself, I would stick with this no matter what.  I was committed.

During this time I was still doing dancing, rehearsals for the show.  I started to notice that I was able to complete an entire rehearsal and not be dead on the floor. I was getting fitter.  In the past when I was preparing for dance season, I would drop everything, because there was no time, but this time, even though there was no time, I was making time for running in the morning, work until 4:15, head to Spry for 5, then head to the studio for a class at 6:30 until 10. And I would head home  do whatever I needed to do for my family and start over.  My husband was understanding and he is involved in the company, he is very supportive. 

Back in February Craig had taken a picture of Shauma and I when we did a long run.  So for my birthday Shauna did a collage and that picture was in it. And I remember looking at the picture and wondering if that was how I still looked. So I asked my husband if he thought I lost any weight and he didn't noticed either, and so he looked at the picture and said yes you do look like you have lost a bit of weight.   But I kept looking at the picture and I asked Shauna to send it to me and  then I went to look for a more recent picture as I had wanted to see the difference.  So I found a picture from the Food for the Poor run (May 9).  I was in shock, I was way smaller.

Leading up to the show I remember I started eating poorly and I suffered from stress and bloating and I remember thinking I can't undo all my hard work. After the show I decided I wasn't going to stop I was going to keep going. So I decided to continue on my own, I started at Spartan and I knew a few people there and people started sending me programs. Then I started doing sessions with Joel and now I can say all of this has brought me here to where I am. 

Ghana shared some of her struggles with other people and their opinions of her journey.

There are a few struggles, as people watch social media or see me and try to sum me up. I work out with men, I snack occasionally, some people think I’m too muscular.  Some people think I did some gimmick to lose my weight, some think I am taking something to look like this and try to down play my hard work.  People are very critical and aren't very kind. And they aren’t very mindful of other's feelings.  But I know what I had to do,  I feel new, like literally a new person, my clothes fit me differently, I feel differently. New. I have this sense of accomplishment. 

I will say this, if you want to do something, go for it. Just make up your mind and just do it, no excuses.

You can follow Ghana's journey on IG @ghana_samuda and join our running club at Sonics Steppers Running Club @SonicsSteppers