Teresa's Backstory

My name is Teresa Marie Gallegos, and my life’s purpose is to help others shine.

I battled obesity and depression for most of my life, and after losing my brother and my mother to suicide, my world completely unraveled. For years, I lived at over 600 pounds. Food became my safety, my coping mechanism, and the one thing that never left when everything else felt unbearable. Survival mode became my normal.

The catalyst for change wasn’t a number on the scale—it was the quiet, heavy realization that I was existing, not living. I had stopped dreaming. I wasn’t planning for a future because, deep down, I wasn’t sure I would live long enough to have one. I knew that if nothing changed, this is how my story would end.

In 2018, I made the life-saving decision to undergo gastric bypass surgery. That choice wasn’t about wanting to be thin—it was about wanting to live. I knew surgery wasn’t the solution; it was the doorway. The real work was learning why I had been using food to survive in the first place.

Through deep self-reflection, intentional inner work, and a focus on mental and emotional well-being, I went on to lose over 460 pounds. My journey has also included three rounds of skin removal surgery, which further taught me that healing doesn’t come from weight loss alone—it comes from compassion, patience, and doing the inner work long after the weight is gone.

Professionally, I’ve worked in special education with students who are severely disabled and supported individuals navigating substance abuse recovery. Those experiences changed how I see people—and myself. I learned that behavior is communication, that coping mechanisms are survival tools, and that healing doesn’t begin with willpower, but with safety and understanding. They helped me stop asking, What’s wrong with me? and start asking, What happened to me? That shift transformed everything.

For the past eight years, I’ve shared my most vulnerable and personal moments on social media, not for attention, but in the hope that my light might help others find theirs. I’ve worked with multiple health and wellness brands and have been honored to serve as a guest motivational speaker within the weight loss community, where I speak openly about mental and emotional health, body trust, and unsubscribing from diet culture.

I am the co-host of the Transform Your Life with Teresa and Tonya Podcast and the co-founder of It’s Your Time to Shine, a mentoring program designed to help people win their battle with obesity, heal from the inside out, and break free from diet culture for good.

I believe true transformation isn’t about perfection—it’s about healing, self-worth, and choosing yourself, one day at a time.