Erica Campbell, of award-winning gospel duo Mary Mary, and her syndicated radio show, Get Up Erica!, says you have to take care of yourself no matter what. If you don’t, your body suffers and then the people around you, like your family, end up suffering as well.
It’s no secret that both members of Mary Mary have struggled with their weight over time. The ladies are each busy working mothers, on the road a lot, and having babies in later stages of life, when women’s metabolism slows.
Back in 2013, the gospel singer raised eyebrows when she released a promo picture of herself wearing silky straight tresses and a white, body-fitting dress that highlighted her bodacious body. Several social media users blasted the Christian star for looking “too sexy” to sing for the Lord and questioned the judgment of her styling team.
“Every time people talk about the backlash of the white dress I go, ‘what in the world?!’ ” Erica told the Tom Joyner Morning Show. “Yes I have curves that I didn’t give to myself and I didn’t buy; you would have to talk to God about that.”
Campbell addressed how she dealt with being called a “hoe” or “harlot” when the images of the dress came out.
“That comes with the territory. If you’re not ready for that, it can make you retreat and be like, ‘I can’t do this.’” She went on to call out gospel music as a genre for being overly conservative, adding, “Had any R&B singer had [wore] that [white dress], they would’ve been like ‘Oh my God! She’s so covered up’.” When further asked for a reason as to why she received unfair treatment, Campbell summed it up by simply stating, “Christianity has a problem with sexuality.”
Here’s more on what she said in regards to the subject in an old interview with Essence:
“This is about confidence and realizing that God made you and that you are beautiful just the way you are,” she says. “I think that young girls shouldn’t only get sexy images from people who are not proclaiming Jesus. But I am. And I’m cute too.”
But she should be proud of the body she has been given. She’s worked hard for it.
Addressing her own struggle with health, specifically high blood pressure and being told that she could have a stroke if she didn’t slow down and take care of herself, Erica says “If you are not healthy, then you’re not going to achieve anything anyway.”
“Most women are used to operating with a little pain or some kind of ache and we just keep it moving because we’re mothers or businesswomen or you’re in school trying to achieve something, so you just keep going. If you are not healthy then you’re not going to achieve anything anyway. If I have to stop to make sure that I am healthy, then that’s what I’m going to do,” she shared honestly.
Though Erica Campbell, the famous singer, songwriter, and reality TV star is always in the spotlight, she says…
… public scrutiny is not the reason she has chosen to lose weight and become more health-conscious. “I don’t wanna lose weight because I’m in the public eye,” she tweeted, “but because I wanna live for me for my family & to honor the life God has given me.”
She also has been working out on the regular and pushing to stay healthy.
NEW: Your New High Blood Pressure Diet
During her Twitter health talk, Campbell highlighted a quote from the Fat & Fatter documentary: “You don’t care what people say, you enjoy your food, but you’re eating yourself to death.”
Campbell told her followers, “If I don’t eat right I won’t live long or I live miserable due to health problems,” then admonished others by tweeting, “Let’s get healthy.. And Live.”