Tanisha Trout
Healing from the inside out, discovering purpose, and trusting God through life’s hardest chapters.
Becoming Resilient
January 19, 2026 | Austin Texas
By: Tanisha Trout
Childhood taught me many things, but the first lesson was that the world can be harsh and still hold beauty at the same time.
I was raised as the third of four children in the projects of Waco, Texas, and although our home was filled with love and protection, the neighborhood around us demanded a level of awareness most children are spared from. I remember coming home after our apartment had been broken into and watching my dad return after being assaulted. Those experiences forced me to understand the world far earlier than most children do, yet inside our home we were supported, cared for, and loved. It was not a lack of love that shaped us, but the environment we were growing up in.
Although we did not attend church regularly or talk much about God, faith was not discouraged. It simply was not part of our everyday routine. Still, there was a small white church on the corner that caught my curiosity. One day my siblings and I went inside for a Wednesday night service, and we kept going back. We sang songs, ate hot meals, learned that Jesus loved all the children of the world, and I began to feel a quiet pull toward God even at that young age.
As violence around us increased, my dad knew he needed to give us a better environment. He worked multiple jobs, and even in poverty, our home had love, structure, and protection. When my parents were both offered jobs in Killeen, Texas, along with the chance to move into a safe neighborhood with strong schools, they made the move. That decision changed everything.
Starting first grade in Killeen felt like stepping into a different world. We were no longer listening for gunshots or worried about walking outside. Food was no longer scarce, and without realizing it, that abundance led to a lot of unhealthy eating. Like most kids without nutrition education, I gravitated toward pizza, fried foods, and sweets.
By adolescence I became more aware of my body. With the culture of Seventeen Magazine and Abercrombie and Fitch everywhere, I realized I did not fit the mold. By sixth grade I weighed 205 pounds, and by high school I reached 276 pounds after many failed fad diets. Then during my senior year, something unexpected happened. I worked full time at Chuck E. Cheese, and with all the movement and structured meals, I started losing weight without trying. After graduation I joined a gym, made simple adjustments to my eating, and by the time I moved to Austin for college, I had lost 45 pounds and felt proud of myself again.
But weight loss alone cannot heal emotional wounds. In 2012 I met a man who seemed charming and attentive, and I convinced myself he was everything I wanted. I ignored red flags, and within months I found myself deeply attached to someone who could not love me in a healthy way. Our relationship unraveled through constant arguments, broken promises, and disappointment.
Then in March of 2013, on the drive home from a sorority trip in New Orleans, the car I was riding in flipped three times on the interstate. By God’s grace we survived. I walked away with severe road rash and swelling, but I walked away. I had no idea this moment would become a dividing line in my life.
While recovering, I realized I had missed my period. When the pregnancy test showed two lines, everything I had been trying to hold together fell apart. My boyfriend pretended to be excited, but emotionally he was already gone. When he came to Austin, it was clear he did not want to work, did not want responsibility, did not want to be a father, and did not love me.
The lowest moment of my life came as I knelt on the floor begging him not to leave, pulling clothes out of his suitcase as he packed. I was not only afraid of raising a child alone, I was terrified of becoming a stereotype I had tried so hard to avoid. But he left anyway, and when the door closed behind him, I knew it was final.
I walked through pregnancy alone, carrying fear in every direction. I even called abortion clinics because the uncertainty felt suffocating. But God is present even in the messiest chapters. In that season He spoke clearly to my spirit. If I kept my baby, He would provide for every need.
I had seen God move throughout my life, so I trusted Him. I attended prenatal appointments alone. God opened doors that did not make sense on paper. I received a remote job that worked with my college schedule while taking fifteen credit hours. I was approved for housing I should not have qualified for. Friends and family purchased everything on my baby registry. Provision met me everywhere I turned.
After finals that semester, where I earned a 3.8 GPA, I gave birth to my son in December of 2013. Holding him changed me in a way nothing else could have. Suddenly my purpose had a name and a face. Five months later I graduated Magna Cum Laude, and as I spotted my baby boy in the crowd wearing his “My Mama Did It” shirt, I whispered, “We did it, son.”
Shortly after, I accepted a job that changed our financial future. With stability in place, I decided to reclaim my health intentionally. I studied nutrition, learned about calories and macros, and lost 45 pounds before even returning to the gym. Once I did, I hired a trainer, fell in love with strength training, and watched my body transform. I shared my journey online and people began to follow along.
Then People Magazine called. They flew me to Islamorada, Florida for a photoshoot and then to New York for press, and suddenly I was sitting on national television talking about my journey and about the God who carried me through it. One of my favorite moments was receiving a video of my son watching me on Access Hollywood and yelling “Mama” at the TV. My heart could have burst.
In that moment everything made sense. The heartbreak, the accident, the pregnancy, the fear. None of it was meant to destroy me. It was the path that led me into purpose.
Today, God continues to pour into my family. In 2024 I married the love of my life, a man of God who protects, provides, and loves my son as his own. He is living proof of redemption.
To the woman reading this who feels afraid, overwhelmed, or unsure of her next step, please hear me. If you place your faith and trust in God, He will not fail you. Even when you cannot make sense of your circumstances, He is already working on your behalf. I do not know where I would be if fear had won, and I never want to know. I live every day with gratitude and confidence because the same God who met a little girl in Waco is the God who led me into abundance. He will do it for you too.
