When Tasha Turnbull landed on Grounds in 1999 as a first-year student, she faced two big challenges.
First, the transition from a Norfolk high school to more rigorous classes at the University of Virginia was daunting. And then there was the food.
“You have access to all this stuff all day long, like it was a buffet,” Turnbull said. “There was breakfast, lunch, dinner, and then after hours you could just eat at a convenience store or on site. I just ate it all.”
It added up quickly. “I gained the freshman 50, not the freshman 10 or 15,” she said.
Turnbull left Grounds in 2002 with degrees in economics and African and African American Studies, plus a lot of unwanted weight.
Fast forward to now, and she’s shed 100 pounds. Turnbull has become an exercise and wellness icon in her hometown of Norfolk and just launched a nonprofit to help women in underserved areas take better control of their fitness, diets, health and lives.
None of it was easy, she said. But all of it was rewarding.
‘A Defeatist Attitude’
Turnbull’s first job after college wasn’t as fulfilling as she had hoped. She worried she wasn’t thriving personally or professionally and her weight kept climbing.
“It was very much a defeatist attitude,” she said. “I felt like everybody was kind of living their lives, and I’m just on the sidelines watching people live their lives.”
Turnbull says while new college students often pack on 10 or 15 pounds because of the all-you-can eat food options, she “gained the freshman 50,” setting up a struggle with weight that persisted after graduation. (Photos by Kristen Zeis)
She thought returning to school might pep her back up, so she earned a master’s degree in public administration from Old Dominion University. It didn’t help. She remembers thinking, “I’m going to have to do something to help myself because I am going to be 300 pounds before I turn 30, and nobody really knows how I feel inside.”
Then a military cousin invited her to work out at the gym on his base. “It was a very, very intimidating place,” she recalled. “There were no women there.”
She stuck with weightlifting because it made her feel powerful, both physically and mentally. It was hard to see results, because she’d spent decades avoiding scales. But after 10 weeks of workouts, she couldn’t resist and planted her feet on one.
“It said I had lost 12 pounds. And I was like, ‘This happened to me?’ I had always seen those before-and-after people on TV and thought they weren’t real. I had no idea I could lose weight,” she said. “I was so psyched. I was so proud of myself, and it just gave me the ammunition to keep going.”
‘Let’s See if I Can Make This a Business’
The weight kept evaporating. Others noticed and started asking her for advice. She loved talking about fitness and realized – with her degree in economics and her lifelong desire to help people – maybe she could turn her journey into a job.
“I have found something I truly like, so let’s see if I can make this a business,” she thought.
She became a fitness instructor and then a personal trainer at local gyms, all while holding down her day job. After two years, she opened her own fitness center in a Virginia Beach shopping center, but kept her 9-to-5 job as she built a roster of clients. A year later, she made fitness her full-time job.
Turnbull says it was rewarding to become a fitness instructor, and later a gym owner, but she really found joy in designing community boot camps and wellness events for women in and around her hometown of Norfolk. (Photos by Kristen Zeis)
Outside of her studio, she found joy in designing community boot camps and wellness events. Working with people in the community – especially those who couldn’t afford gym memberships, didn’t eat as well as they should and who battled health ailments like diabetes and high blood pressure – gave her a greater sense of purpose. Her accountant encouraged her to create a nonprofit.
She did. Her T2 Fitness company spun off the T2 Fitness Foundation. Now she works with community centers and parks-and-recreation departments across Hampton Roads to bring free 12-week fitness and wellness workshops to underserved areas and to people like Teri Rahming.
“I joined in hopes of keeping my goal to lose weight, but I was blessed with so much more,” Rahming, a T2 Fitness Foundation participant, said. “This program has given me the drive to live a healthier lifestyle. I understand now that eating healthy and exercise is important and a form of self-care.
Turnbull uses her community outreach to preach the importance of exercise, healthy diet and self-care. Her workshops and wellness events for women who don’t have access to fitness centers also focus on reducing blood pressure and managing diabetes. (Photo by Kristen Zeis)
“As Tasha says, It’s OK to show up for myself like I do for everyone else.”
Now, Turnbull is on another journey. She’s learning the nuts and bolts of running a nonprofit, like how to write grant applications and convince local governments and health centers to support her endeavor. “Sentara Health, they’re a big supporter of the program,” she said. “I feel like I can reach more people this way.”
