Peloton’s Camila Ramón on Silencing Her Inner ‘Tia Toxica’ and Learning to Love Herself (Exclusive)

Camila Ramón says she gets “a little emotional” thinking about some of the messages fans send her.

The Peloton instructor — who is the first person to hold Spanish-only classes on the fitness platform — is beloved for telling her followers to tune out the body-shaming comments and “put on shorts.”

“Camila, I just want to let you know that at the age of 60, I’ve finally been able to accept myself and love my body thanks to your watches,” says the Miami-raised 31-year-old, paraphrasing what some fans are telling her. “I couldn’t ask for anything else.”

But while Camila’s Instagram followers may know that she once struggled to accept her curves, they may not know just how unhealthy her obsession with weight was. It included excessive exercise, skipping meals, and even taking supplements that made her feel faint. It was all part of her desperate attempt to fit into a perceived body ideal.

Camila has been a Peloton instructor since October 2021.

Courtesy of Peloton

“I would be overly restrictive, overly strict with myself, I would consume fat burners, things like that because I really wanted to fit in with the other girls,” Camila tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview.

From high school onward, the “girls” in question were members of her dance team. She says: “I looked in the mirror and I had wider hips. I thought there was something wrong with me and I would think, ‘Why can’t my hips look like other girls?’ It was very dangerous what I was doing at the time.”

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But Camila’s self-acceptance challenges didn’t start at school. Born in Argentina and raised in Miami, she remembers her relatives shaming her body, which affected her.

“That was probably one of my biggest struggles growing up, accepting myself and my body and loving who I am and how I look,” she says. “I think the images we see as Latinas, especially in Latin American media, are not conducive to celebrating body diversity, self-love, and self-acceptance.”

Peloton fans may have heard her refer to “your tia toxica” being the “toxic family member.”

Camila says, “As a Latina, when you go home and visit your family, there’s always one person who comments on your body, your relationship status. So it’s very common to hear, ‘You look a little fatter’ or ‘What about the boyfriend?’ Or ‘Are you going to eat it all? You shouldn’t be lifting weights. You’ll look manly.’ These types of narratives are very common.”

Camila during her dance team when she was obsessed with thinness.

Courtesy of Camila Ramon

While Camila says her mom didn’t make such comments, she says her mother was “always worried about her [own] weight” and would exercise “just to be thin”.

“That’s kind of how I grew up,” she says. That way of thinking was complicated at school, where, she says, as a dancer she was afraid of being put on “probation”.

Although this has never happened to her, Camila claims that some girls were kicked out of dance spots until they lost weight. To avoid that situation, the teenager skipped meals. In high school, she joined the track team because she thought running would make her “skinny.”

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When she was in college, Camila started bodybuilding, entering competitions that required her to look skinny. She incorporated supplements into her routine, such as fat burners, which promised to help her achieve her goals by raising her body temperature so she could burn more calories or by curbing her appetite.

However, they caused her so much nausea and “disgust” towards food that she did not want to eat. She was thin, but she wasn’t happy, and Camila says: “When the scale was at its lowest I was the most irritable, I had the most panic attacks in my life. When my body fat percentage was at its lowest and I should have been super happy was when I was training and I felt like I was going to pass out. I couldn’t finish my run or my workout.”

Camila pictured here in Miami in 2011 when she said she was skinny but not happy.

Courtesy of Camila Ramon

So she gave up. After college, tired of training, she stopped exercising for three years. She took the first step towards self-acceptance when she eventually returned to fitness and developed a different way of thinking. It happened nearly a decade ago when she stood on the Key Biscayne Bridge in Miami after a five-mile run as part of her weight loss effort.

“I got to the top of the bridge and cried because I was so frustrated with all the exercises I was doing and my body not changing,” says Camila. “Then I turned and looked at the ocean. I was looking down as far as I would go because it is a steep and long bridge. I said to myself: ‘How dare you be so ungrateful when your body is so healthy and your legs are so strong that they can carry you over this bridge!’ From that moment on, my mission was to just move to enjoy the movement. I said, ‘I don’t want to live like this anymore.’ I started doing things just for fun.”

Camila says the change in mindset wasn’t instant. Thirty-minute walks with friends and taking dance classes just for fun followed, but it took consistent work and daily affirmations to learn to love herself.

“I would look in the mirror and thank every centimeter of my body,” she says, even those parts she struggled with like her tummy – her “little pancita”.

“I would say, ‘I love you. You are a part of me,’ Camila remembers. “It was so healing.”

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Camila teaches Peloton classes in English and Spanish.

Courtesy of Peloton

Today, the fitness instructor does not weigh herself, does not skip meals and does not hold a child. She’s also curvier and happier than she was during her bodybuilding days. Camila says, “The best decision I ever made was to love and accept myself.” ‘

Regarding te tia toxica, she says, “When you can live in your body with joy and compassion and grace and confidence, no one can take that away from you. We have one body and one life.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, contact the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) at 1-800-931-2237 or visit NationalEatingDisorders.org.

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Source: HIS Education