Popular comedienne-turned-actress, Chioma Omeruah tells Ademola Olonilua of the Punch about her ideal way of catching fun. Here are excerpts from the interview below
How often do you go to the gym?
At a point, I used to go to the gym regularly and work out with a personal trainer but over the course of time, because of my health issues, I had to stop working out and I cannot go back to working out yet. I am trying my best to lose weight but to be honest, it is very difficult. Adding weight is not a problem but losing weight is the issue. I need to get well first before I can get back to the gym.
Why do you want to lose weight, are you not comfortable with your physique?
I am comfortable with the way I look but I want to be healthy. I was not working out with the aim that I wanted to be smaller or be a particular size. I am naturally chubby and that is fine but I work out because I want to be hot and sexy. I want to look trimmer but the main objective is to be healthy.
So you don’t think you are sexy?
I am very sexy and hot right now.
When growing up, were you ever pressured to reduce your size?
I lived in America for 12 years and I faced a lot of pressure and when I got back to Nigeria, the pressure was even more. There are so many slim ladies here. Also I got dissed a lot on the internet especially about my size but I always tell them that they are late. Nigerians are so unforgiving and they are probably the best at insulting people in the world. It is our talent.
How do you handle such negative comments about your size?
To be honest, those insults actually get to me. What I have been doing lately is that when people insult me, I reply them without being rude. I try to stay away from insensitive people and whenever they make comments that I cannot ignore, I address it without being abusive with my words. Some people say that I am giving them five minutes of fame but I don’t think it makes sense to take time to look at my social media page, look at my picture, then make a negative comment. I don’t really like to block or delete people’s contact but I have blocked about two people in the past three weeks. I would not lie, there shall be more people I would block but I try not to resort to that. Some people actually apologise when they realise that they have been insensitive. However, there are some other people who believe insulting me would give them their five minutes of fame. I oblige them but I address the matter without being abusive.
So what do you do to keep fit since you cannot work out at the moment?
I am trying to diet but it is not easy especially if you are used to a particular eating pattern. People who are fit can easily tell you that you can do it but it is not as easy as it sounds. Sometimes I don’t pull through with my diet because it is difficult to keep up. I could get home by 10pm hungry and the next thing I think of is noodles. I just need to train myself. I was talking to my pastor recently and he told me to stop eating in the night.