Afrobeats artiste Teniola Apata, widely known as Teni, has disclosed that her difficult experience with COVID-19 prompted her to embark on a weight-loss journey.
The singer, famous for her hit song Uyo Meyo, shared this during an interview on Queen’s Mic.
Teni explained that she contracted the virus during the pandemic and suffered a severe bout of the illness, which eventually served as a turning point in her decision to lose weight.
“There was a year I had COVID. It was so bad. I couldn’t breathe. Yeah, it was really bad,” she said.
She explained that her mother became deeply worried about her health after that episode and moved into her house to help her recover and change her lifestyle.
“My mum was just like, ‘I’m sorry for you.’ And then my mum moved into my house. She started helping me with my diet and preparing healthy meals. She became that voice of reasoning and helped me kick-start my journey.”
Teni said her mother guided her food choices and stopped her from eating certain things, which helped her kick-start the weight loss.
The singer noted that once she started seeing progress, she became motivated to keep going, despite occasional slip-ups.
“When you start losing weight, you begin to see the progress and feel good about yourself. You tell yourself, ‘Okay, let’s keep going.’ Sometimes you fall off a little bit, but then you get back on track again and keep going,” she said.
She added that the transformation improved her performance on stage.
“I started to feel better. I started to move better during my performances.”
Teni has previously clarified that her weight loss, which saw her lose 75 pounds, was achieved naturally through diet and discipline, not surgery.