Aida, who works as Chief of Staff for an American photography and software company, has not always been in such great shape. During her younger years while living in the US, she ate whatever she wanted and drank alcohol without restraint.
Her body has paid the price for these poor decisions made over the 16 years she was in the US.
“I established a good life in the US. I had a good job, a thriving business, but then I lost everything due to alcoholism. That is why I came back to Kenya. This is my eighth year sober after being a problematic drinker for 25 years. The only time I stopped drinking during these 25 years was when I was pregnant with my 15-year-old daughter.’’
But there was another ‘sin’ that held her back.
“After giving birth to my daughter in 2009, my doctor was concerned about my health even though I hadn’t developed any underlying conditions. I was severely overweight, weighing 96 kilogrammes with a height of five feet. Do you know how bad that was? The doctor recommended that I undergo surgery to lose weight and I said no.”
The doctor gave Aida six months to lose 10 kilos.
“That was the first time I joined the gym. I loved cardio and also starved myself of food, and within the six months, I had lost 40 kilos. I became too skinny, but I felt I had achieved the goal. Isn’t that what the doctor wanted? Then I thought it was time for me to go back to drinking and eating whatever I liked. And I began adding on the weight again.”
In 2016, she came back to Kenya and began her journey to sobriety. But it didn’t last long; nine months later, she relapsed.
‘‘The first time I got sober, it wasn’t for me. It was for my family, I had to repair my relationships with them. It’s a hard pill to swallow when it feels like you are about to be abandoned by your whole family. So I quit for them, not for myself. That’s why I relapsed.”
Aida Odongo performs the pull-up exercises at VMX Gym.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
Gaining weight in rehab
Aida lost everything she had worked on during her recovery back home, and with her family giving up on her, she checked herself into rehab. She had already put on some weight, but being in rehab accelerated the situation.
“At the rehab I was getting fatter, and this is what triggered me to start working out again this time with intent of achieving better goals. It might sound weird, but for addicts and alcoholics you either go two ways. Either you become skinny because you don’t prioritise eating or you will gain a lot of weight because you binge eat. Binge eating and binge drinking is part of that addictive nature that we have.
“For me I was getting heavier by day because I would binge eat and drink. So I started training while in rehab. I would get up early do some sit up, squats and things like that. What I never realised is that, that decision would actually help me stay sober until 2017. The more I exercised, the more I began to shun alcohol because you can’t work out when you’re intoxicated.
“The euphoric feel and the calmness and happiness that came after exercising, took over me. I no longer needed to battle hangovers, crazy headaches and that weird feeling in the stomach that comes when you drink too much.”
Competing in the Strongman competition
Riding on the euphoria, Aida set out to achieve a goal and prove a point to herself.
“I increased the intensity of my workout and became consistent. When I left rehab, I had one goal: to compete at the Strongman competition just to see how I would do. So I trained harder for the competition, and when it came, I was placed fifth at Strongman Kenya in 2019 and finished third at the Dubai Strongman in December of the same year.
“This was important to me because you can imagine, as an alcoholic, I had never finished anything. But here I was, I started and finished something. I don’t have to compete again because I have achieved what I set out to do.”
Besides proving to herself that she could do it, Aida was also motivated by other factors to enter the Strongman competition.
“I picked Strongman because I didn’t have to worry about my physique. All that was needed was just to be strong; being chubby wasn’t a big deal at Strongman. It is not like bodybuilding or CrossFit competitions. With Strongman, you have the luxury of eating anything. Your diet doesn’t have to be clean.”
Unknowingly, choosing Strongman tested her mental strength.
“Imagine lifting a 100kg stone. You have to move an 80kg sandbag. You have to do max deadlifts at 100 kilos in one minute. How many can you do? And the thing about strength is that today you can be strong and tomorrow you aren’t, and that takes a mental toll on you. You start questioning if you are getting weaker, and sometimes it could just be fatigue or a bad day.
Aida Odongo performs lunges with a 15-kilo sandbag.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
Getting toned
As Aida kept going, exercising as much as she could, getting eight hours of sleep and eating more proteins and minimal complex carbohydrates, her physique began to take shape.
“Like I said, achieving the hourglass physique was never my intention from the beginning. I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in December 2023. This shocked me because health-wise, I had gotten much better; I was working out a lot. I had been doing my blood work since 2020, and everything was normal.
“But with type 2 diabetes, the doctor told me, it’s 50 percent genetic and 50 percent lifestyle. My lifestyle had drastically changed for the better, so it had to be genetics and again, age also contributes to that.”
Nonetheless, the doctor insisted on putting her on medication because she weighed 80 kilos at the time.
“I said no. Of course, I was worried, you have heard of people losing limbs, becoming blind because of diabetes and things like that. But I was never going to take medication because with type 1 it’s insulin, with type 2 it’s lifestyle change.
“So I tweaked my diet. I cut processed and natural sugar, ate more protein and complex carbohydrates in portions and continued to exercise. I focused more on lifting weights, the weight started coming off, and I reversed my diabetes.”
During her research, Aida also came across something that caught her attention.
“I read something about body re-composition and how lifting weights and cardio help with that. So I lifted heavier weights and walked a lot, and with time my (hourglass) physique started to show.”
Aida has scaled down her workout sessions from five to three days.
“As I am getting older, I realise I am not recovering faster as I used to. Also, my daughter is turning 16, and as much as I love the gym, I want to spend more time with her. Now I train one day upper (body), one day lower and full body.”
