'A beautiful soul': Funeral held for baby boy killed in wrong-way crash on Highway 401
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
Omar Thaher couldn’t have imagined that one day he’d be helping others lose weight, with nearly half a million people following his own dramatic weight loss online.
For most of his life, he said “there was never a day where I was really close to a normal weight.”
The past several years have been a whirlwind for the young man from Mississauga, Ont.: Not only has he shed 104 kilograms but now, he’s paying it forward and coaching others on how to do the same.
“It was kind of more than a body transformation. It was a whole life transformation for me,” Thaher told CTVNews.ca in a video interview on Sunday.
“I would not have been able to lose the weight, if I first didn't lose the negative thoughts I had or the bad habits,” he said, explaining that years of eating unhealthy foods have been replaced by regular exercise and a more balanced diet.
In April 2020, he posted the progress of the previous several years in a TikTok video that has since exploded online, racking up 1.7 million views. Both his TikTok and Instagram accounts have become part-motivational vlogs, part-weight loss journals for his combined 450,000 followers.
Early on, dozens of commenters would ask Thaher for advice or tips and in the past few months, he begun developing fitness and meal plans for paying clients eager to embark on their own weight loss journeys.
“I'm grateful to be able to be in a position where I can provide value to people and help them with things that I myself once struggled with,” he said. “So it's a huge, positive feeling. It gives more meaning to my life.”
Thaher said he was overweight throughout his childhood and multiple failed attempts to get to a healthy weight left him incredibly disheartened. “There was like a lot of baggage that came with it and it was leaving weight on my shoulders,” he said.
But when Thaher turned 19 years old, “I really just got fed up.”
“I decided I had to really just go all-in on myself because beyond physical health, mentally, I was not doing well,” he said. Thaher began cutting down on processed foods and empty calories, eating healthy foods and hitting the gym.
“Now, there's a whole new challenge of actually making this a lifestyle,” he explained. “My focus right now is kind of just doing what makes me happy.”
Despite the definition in his muscles and his massive weight loss, he still has excess skin he can’t get rid of without surgery.
It’s made working out extremely uncomfortable and has prevented Thaher from wearing the clothes he really wants to wear. So now, he’s saving up for surgeries that could cost tens of thousands of dollars combined.
But for Thaher, it’s simply another challenge he’s taking in stride.
Although these days he spends hours consulting with people on their weight loss plans, his real passion has always been music. And he’s planning on releasing his own songs later this year -- something he might not have had the confidence to do before his transformation.
“I hope I can lead by example,” Thaher said. “If you feel like you can’t get a handle of your weight, or you feel like you don’t really see the light at the end of the tunnel, I want to say it’s there. You just have to stay consistent, stay dedicated and believe in yourself.”
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
There has been a "sophisticated" cybersecurity breach detected on B.C. government networks, Premier David Eby confirmed Wednesday evening.
Toronto police say a man was taken into custody outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion Wednesday afternoon after he tried to gain access to the residence.
U.S. President Joe Biden said for the first time Wednesday he would halt shipments of American weapons to Israel, which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah.
Dakota Joshua had a goal and two assists and the Vancouver Canucks scored three third-period goals to claw out a 5-4 comeback victory over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series Wednesday.
One of the Indian nationals accused of murdering British Columbia Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar says in a social media video that he received a Canadian study permit with the help of an Indian immigration consultancy.
Pfizer has agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits about cancer risks related to the now discontinued heartburn drug Zantac, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the deal.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault is defending his comments about a new history museum after he was accused by a prominent First Nations group of trying to erase their history.
Independent U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had a parasite in his brain more than a decade ago, but has fully recovered, his campaign said, after the New York Times reported about the ailment.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.