“Belizean Women Battling with the Bulge”

Lauren Burgess, the personality from the once popular Channel Five’s Lauren Dah Maaning Show is in the jewel and she’s got a message about a condition that is prevalent. Obesity increases the chances of heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and other illnesses among men and women as well as children.  Lauren now lives abroad but has been battling weight issues for years.  After losing family members to weight associated medical conditions, Burgess has decided to make a change and help other overweight women to do the same. That’s how “Belizean Women Battling with the Bulge” was born. Burgess is teaming up with the Ministry of Health to hold the three day workshop to address the issues obese women face and encourage healthy lifestyles.  News Five met Burgess at the IT-VET campus and she explained what they are hoping to achieve.

Lauren Burgess, Organizer, Workshop

lauren burgess

“The aim of this workshop one is to assist plus size women to really learn how to eat, to do exercises, how to take care of themselves mentally, how to kind of set up a support group for them after this workshop so they are able to work together, talk about their issues that they have that detracts us from losing weight.”

Delahnie Bain

“Why did you feel this was something that needed to be done?”

Lauren Burgess

“Girl, I think this was very, very important because earlier this year I lost two important members of my family—let me say there because two from diabetes and one from hypertension, which caused a stroke and he also died; very, very close family members. So I began to say to myself I need to take care of myself.”

Delahnie Bain

“And doing this in a workshop format, how do you think that having other women sharing their struggles and so on will help these women?”

Lauren Burgess

“Girl, they say there is unity in numbers, there’s strength in numbers. The more of us we can get this message out to, it’s like being ambassadors and passing out the message that you need fi be healthy, yoh need fi try lose some weight, yoh need fi be active, yoh need fi deal wid yoh stress in a positive way. Mr. Ken Vasquez yesterday did about exercise. Today we have Mapye Smith coming in talking about how you can dress and then she will also be doing—you know she’s a beauty consultant, a dress consultant so she’ll be doing that part. Today we have the Nurse Practitioner Murray, for the psychiatric. She’s talking about stress, anxiety depression and the different things that cause us to overeat. Then we have Ms. Robyn Daly, she’s from the Ministry of Health. She’s the nutritionist there and she spoke about how to eat and the different type of food that is important for you to eat, you know.”

Burgess says they hope to branch out and take the workshop to different parts of the country in the near future.