Josiane Nathalie Ymele, aged 46, Cameroonian of origin, has been plagued by overweight since her early childhood. Because of her physique, she suffered many mockeries when she was young in the schools she attended in Cameroon.
It is with a big nostalgia that Josiane recalls the taunts and one of the most painful episodes of her childhood. “I was in 3rd grade, in Cameroon, where I was born. During a sports lesson, we had to go around the stadium. I arrived last, two to three minutes after the one ahead of me. The students in the class were waiting for me. They were laughing and throwing all the nicknames given to fat people in chorus. The teacher was there but said nothing. And yet I had just done my best to get there. “An event that has deeply cut her confidence. And pushed her to take a radical decision. Indeed, Josiane Nathalie Ymele has decided to stop doing sport. To facilitate this decision, she met an understanding doctor who provided her with a false certificate of incapacity. A deception that her mother will only discover when Josiane was a high school senior.
Later, she settled in France, precisely in the city of Niort. In January 2021, Josiane was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Refusing to undergo medical treatment, her doctor advised her, as an alternative solution to weight loss, intense physical exercise and healthy eating.
In October 2021, she decided to embark on her natural therapy. Her diet consists of raw vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, starches, cooked vegetables, dairy products including yogurt and fruit. These ingredients have made up the bulk of her meals for over 9 months, which allows her to create a deficit of 500 calories a day, which facilitates the weight loss. As far as physical activities are concerned, Josiane does a lot of swimming, walking, running and exercises in the gym. Starting from 120 kg a little over a year ago, Josiane is now 96 kg. She does not intend to stop there because her goal is to reach 85 kg. Full of confidence today, she wants to take revenge on life and is actively preparing for the half-marathon of Coulée verte in Niort. Her diabetes has completely disappeared.
Josiane has a vlog on YouTube where she posts all the steps that allowed her to overcome her diabetes, including her physical activities, her diet, her daily meals and how to cook them. Today she draws 6 major lessons from her journey.
The first lesson is that whatever the difficulties encountered, changing her perspective on her problems jumpstarted something great.
The second lesson was that Josiane learned that failure is part of success because all attempts to lose weight by diet have failed and allowed her to set up this effective method.
As a third lesson, Josiane teaches us that you first have to be your own fan. As a fourth lesson, she teaches us that the transformation of our life is the transformation of the life of others. This is based on the positive feedback she has received since creating her vlog.
The fifth lesson is that no one is a prophet at home because those close to her do not feel impacted by the change. And finally lesson six is that you don’t have to have excessive ambition to achieve great things. Because, she says, at the start of her journey, she was not considering the half-marathon, but today she intends to participate.
The eighth lesson is that motivation is not enough to overcome, but routine is. According to her, motivation comes and goes but the routine remains and when the motivation goes away, the routine allows you to continue.
And as a last lesson in life, Josiane Nathalie Ymene lets us know that everything comes at the right time to who knows how to wait. Never give up on your dreams!
