In an upcoming appearance on the Tamron Hall show (Monday, March 28) to perform her new song “Positive,” gospel singer Erica Campbell talks about her recent weight loss, which she achieved through eating healthier and exercising. She shares, for the first time, that after trying to rush results years ago through a procedure that didn’t turn out well, she realized she needed to take her time and put in the work.
“I did have a surgery, it was lipo,” she tells Hall on Monday’s new episode. “I was young and really didn’t know the process of what you were supposed to do. I didn’t get the lymphatic massages you were supposed to get so my body wasn’t pretty.”
Campbell recalls that her body was fine before the surgery, she just wanted to shed pounds quickly after having her first child, daughter Krista, in 2004. But going under the knife and not properly going through the recovery process necessary for the best results did a number on her physically.
“It was really a bad situation. I was in a hotel room bleeding everywhere and they sent a nurse and some Tylenol,” she says. “Then I had another baby so I gained the weight again, so it was like, what was it all for?”
Thinking back on that time, it was well before social media and the influence of “snapback culture” were a factor. Once that became prevalent after she delivered her last child, daughter Zaya, in 2012, she wasn’t interested in taking part in it because of her past lipo ordeal.
“I don’t know that the snapback culture was so much when I had my first daughter, but after my last baby…absolutely. People were having mommy makeovers right after the baby,” she says. “I had already gone through this experience. It gave me results, but the process, I should have just worked out.”
And so she did. After a few years of going back and forth, the singer, like many people, was changed by the pandemic. She wanted to see changes within herself, as well as on the outside.
“I made a decision, even before I knew the Super Bowl was coming, I was like, I just want to change some things. So I’m going to change some things within my mind and my body. And what you guys saw was the result, and the response was great,” she tells Hall.
Campbell first showcased her results inadvertently while performing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” at the Super Bowl in February. She took to social media after her figure in her sparkly blue jumpsuit caught attention.
“THANKS FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT!! I need it!!” she wrote on Instagram at the time. She used the moment to also be of support to others.
“It is possible to do it. It is hard ! you will get frustrated , and It will seem like everyone is losing and your [sic] gaining weight WHILE your [sic] working out and eating salad. Lol sometimes the body doesn’t get the memo,” she said. “It’s emotional it’s mental but DONT QUIT give yourself time and celebrate the small wins, yes even 1lb. Do the work and be patient. Pray pray pray YOU CAN DO THIS!!”
Watch this conversation in full when Erica Campbell appears on the Monday, March 28 edition of “Tamron Hall.”