Mo’Nique is rewriting her fitness journey, and she’s bringing everyone along for the ride.
The 57-year-old Academy Award-winning actress and comedian is shedding her “big bone” label with a new platform dedicated to health, strength and longevity with Mo’Nique’s Movement.
During a September appearance on The Tamron Hall Show, Mo’Nique revealed the moment she had to question harsh truths about herself.
“I was out of breath by the time I got to the top of the steps,” Mo’Nique told Hall. After her assistant bent down to tie her shoes, the comedian’s husband, Sidney Hicks, posed a tricky question for her, “Do you think that’s cute? Is she tying your shoes because you can’t bend down, or does she think that’s something she needs to do?”
Ultimately, Mo’Nique confessed she couldn’t bend down comfortably.
The tough love wasn’t a one-off, particularly after a night when she filled her plate with everything on the stove. After he questioned what Mo’Nique was eating, she threw it all away and stormed off, promoting Hicks to deliver another stirring truth: “I can deal with you being mad, I can’t deal with you being dead.”
Those words were a wake-up call as Mo’Nique vocalized being around well beyond her seventies and eighties, still active with her husband. Previously, she documented that she weighed under 200 pounds for the first time since high school. Now, she’s not aiming strictly for “weight loss,” but embracing health and wellness.
“You don’t need a pill,” Mo’Nique told Hall. “You don’t need surgery, in my humble opinion. If you really commit, the weight will go away. That’s why I no longer talk about weight, I talk about health.”
To date, Mo’Nique’s Movement has a dozen full-length videos showcasing Mo’Nique’s workouts with her trainer, Dwight Holt Jr., and short clips aiming toward building consistency and inspiring others.
“You feel proud,” Mo’Nique says of her journey. “You feel like I am changing this for the next one’s coming. I have a daughter, I have two granddaughters. So you feel proud to say this won’t be.”
Check out one of Mo’s workouts below.
