Tina Thomas takes over Tecumseh

By Danielle Gagnier

Local entrepreneurs are gaining momentum in the business world.

Tina Thomas is the owner of her own weight loss company, Lose Weight With Tina. She started the company on her own in September 2014 and holds weekly meetings for her clients.  

Prior to starting her company, Thomas was an employee at Weight Watchers for over 12 years. After being let go, she realized her passion was helping people have the healthy bodies and minds they deserved.

“I have a passion for helping people not just lose weight, but I want them to get their control back and losing the weight is one way of them getting control back of their life,” said Thomas. “I don’t want them to just learn how to lose the weight, I want them to learn how to lose the lifestyle and the mindset.”

According to Thomas, her program is a common sense approach. The weight loss program is a calorie-based diet supporting Health Canada’s Food Guide. She said the diet focuses on allowing people to eat the recommended servings of each food group while also “teaching them how to be smarter and wiser and how to use their calories properly.”

Each session can be up to 18 weeks long, but shorter sessions are available. 18 week sessions cost between $160-$179 and costs are reduced for shorter sessions. During the session you keep track of what you eat every day and focus on eating certain amounts of carbs, protein, dairy products, healthy oils, fruits, vegetables and drinking at least six eight ounce glasses of water a day.

While searching for a job she would be passionate about, Thomas had a large number of individuals contacting her.

“What inspired me was how many people that went out of their way to contact me telling me I should start my own business,” said Thomas. “It was overwhelming.”

Although the majority of her clients are women, she enjoys seeing men coming to her program. Glenn Cousineau, who has been attending Thomas’s program for 55 weeks, has lost over 100 pounds.

“When I started this program I was 295 pounds, now I’m 190 pounds,” said Cousineau. “I recommend this program to everybody, even people that are not overweight because they can always learn what they should be eating and how to stay the way they are, but if they have to lose weight, this is the best way of doing it.”

The weekly meetings take place around Tecumseh because Thomas believes “in keeping community centres running.” Thomas provides her clients with different food items she recommends they eat, whether it is because they are low-calorie or high in protein. They also keep track of the weight they lose by weighing in at the beginning of each meeting. 

In her most recent session, Thomas’s clients lost a total of almost 500 pounds combined.