Actress and gospel singer Tamela Mann is on a new mission to embark on a healthier lifestyle for herself and her family, and she’s making her efforts public by signing on as a new celebrity ambassador for WW (the new Weight Watchers).
Mann, 52, says for her, the decision to become be the face of the new and improved WW platform was an easy one.
“I decide that this is the help that I needed, because I couldn’t do it my own,” she revealed. Her desire to inspire her husband, fellow actor and singer David Mann, and her children was the starting point and then she considered the other women who struggle with weight loss the way she has in her lifetime and how she can be of service to them.
“I prayed about it for a minute to make sure that I wanted to make this step,” Mann told ESSENCE in an interview. “Looking over my life and just thinking about everything, I was like, man, it would be great to be an encouragement to somebody else and not just to help myself get over this journey I’ve been struggling with my whole life, because I’ve lost weight and gained weight, and lost weight. I’m really excited about the lifestyle change and to be able to have people that you can connect with and who can coach you.”
Mann is a smart choice for the brand, which aims to make wellness accessible for all. In February 2018, WW unveiled their Impact Manifesto, which articulated WW’s new purpose (to inspire healthy habits for real life), and then a few months later in September 2018, they doubled down on their commitment to helping members live an overall healthy lifestyle as opposed to just dropping pounds.
I’m not just doing this for my family, I’m doing this for myself.
– Tamela Mann
“Tamela Mann is a wonderful addition to our WW family, as we build on our leadership in weight loss to become the world’s partner in wellness,” said Sherry Thompson, SVP of Community Engagement & Activation for WW. “WW aims to make wellness accessible to all by helping millions of people adopt healthy habits for real life. With Tamela’s help, we hope to inspire more African American women and their communities to live healthier by providing the tools, information and inspiration to get there.”
Mann has already been paired with a WW coach, and so far, so good. “I mean, our personalities match, and she looks like she could be my sister,” Mann told us. “For her to have gone through the same kind of battles that I’m dealing with, to me is an encouragement, because I feel like there’s somebody there to help me with what I’m dealing with. I just want to be healthier. I just want to have a healthier lifestyle. That’s why I’m really pushing and wanting to do this, and to encourage other people to do it with me.”
As a show of good faith to those who want to take the challenge with her and give WW’s Freestyle Program a try, Mann says “let’s go.” Anyone who signs up now using her official link, will receive a waived fee to join, access to one free month of membership and a complimentary cookbook.
Mann has a message for her sisters in weight loss out there that she wants to come across when they watch her on her journey. “First of all, they need to know that we’re not alone and you can still have what you want, within moderation,” Mann explained. “A lot of times what happens when we say diet, you can’t have this, you can’t have that, and you can’t do that. That’s not what WW is doing, and that, to me, gave me a little comfort there where I can kind of pat myself on the back where I don’t have to be pushed into a corner of a bunch of you can’t do and you don’t do this. It has to start individually with ourselves. I’m not just doing this for my family, I’m doing this for myself. A lot of times we’ll want to do everything for everybody else, but I want to encourage people to do it for them.”
Mann and her husband celebrated 30 years of marriage in 2018 and together they raised four children: David’s daughters Porcia and Tiffany, from a previous relationship; their children together, David Jr and Tia; and Tamela’s niece, Sonya, whom the couple also raised. They also have eight grandchildren.
Mann isn’t just investing her own healthier lifestyle, she’s investing in helping others look good on their fitness journeys with a new athletic wear line for curvy women. “I have a new line, and it’s new athletic wear that I can work out in,” she added. “Anyone can go to tamelamann.com and check it out. I started a soft launch and I’m adding more colors and more styles soon.”
Kudos to Mann for putting a healthy lifestyle first. We see you, sis!