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