Tia Nunn is little more than half the woman she was two years ago, and that’s a good thing.
The 37-year-old Sooke resident weighed 360 pounds in May 2015 when she decided it was time to make the effort to get into better shape.
“I had been up to 390, I knew I had hit rock bottom,” she said. ” I saw a dietician and started exercising, started working out in the gym, so losing 30 pounds made me feel like I was making some progress. It had me feeling better and more confident,” Nunn noted in an interview with the Sooke News Mirror after a workout last week.
“I met Ellen Connor (owner of the Sooke Boxing Club) when I was working out at the gym and decided to take one of her classes. I was a little hesitant at first being a plus sized girl, but Ellen was totally amazing. Ellen and everyone at the club made me feel welcomed right from the start. There’s a real sense of family, everyone’s so supportive.”
A few months after that first class, Nunn told Connor that she wanted to fight. Nunn managed to lose 75 pounds before undergoing weight loss surgery a year ago, and close to 100 pounds in the year following the procedure.
“I boxed the day before the surgery” she said. “The surgeon told me I was his first boxer. People need to understand that kind of surgery is not an easy way out. It’s just a tool, but if you’re willing to put in the work you’ll get the results. I took a month off of training after surgery and then got right back at it, working hard.”
That included running the stairs at the Priory, where Nunn works as a health care attendant, and going for runs on her breaks to improve her cardio. She trains at the Sooke Boxing Club every day, sometimes twice a day when it fits her schedule.
“In less than two years, I went from hitting rock bottom to the best shape I’ve ever been in my life,” Nunn noted. “I couldn’t have done it without Ellen and boxing. She’s all about empowering women. I look at video of me when I started boxing at 300 pounds and I’m amazed. My daughter looks at old pictures of me and doesn’t know who that is.”
When she stepped into the ring for her first fight on Oct. 14, Nunn weighed 217 pounds. Although she lost the fight, Nunn is proud she lasted the full three rounds and is looking forward to the next opportunity to step into the ring. Although that depends for now on whether or when something comes up in her class, in the meantime she’s set her sights on West Coast Wonder Women, an event in April hosted by the Sooke Boxing Club.
“Ellen is making massive headway for women’s boxing,” Nunn said. “it’s the first all-female event sanctioned by the B.C. Boxing Association. I’m super pumped to be part of that card, it’s phenomenal.”
