Virgin Islands

Shallon Tagg
Mrs. Virgin Islands United States 2009 

I admired women I saw in pageants wearing their elegant gowns and posing in swimsuits.  They were beautiful, well spoken and incredibly talented.  In 2005, I tipped the scales at 309 pounds. I was pre-diabetic, had high blood pressure and was a candidate for a heart attack. I had a crazy schedule, poor eating habits, and too tired to exercise. A prisoner trapped in my fat, everyone had advice, but no matter what I tried, it didn’t work. When I heard from my doctors that my obese condition was life threatening, I decided for a change because my family’s need for a mom.  I consulted with my doctor and found a gym that I could stick with. A little at a time my diet changed and then my weight started to come off. We set goals as a family, shopped and cooked together, along with taking walks and slowly the weight came off.

I entered my first pageant on November 2006 and set a goal of 140 pounds by June of 2007. I enjoyed the complements and began appreciating what I saw in the mirror.