Tracy Gaines, 37, of Atlanta loses 115 pounds

By Michelle C. Brooks

For the AJC

Former weight: 272 pounds

Current weight: 157 pounds

Pounds lost: 115 pounds

Height: 5 feet 7 inches

How long she’s kept it off: Over a year. She started in January 2007 and met her goal a year and a half later.

Personal life: “I am an information systems liaison for the government — which means I spend a lot of time sitting at a desk — and live in Kirkwood with Aubie, a 22-pound cairn terrier,” she said.

Turning point: “Ask any person who is overweight, and they will tell you they have started a zillion diets. The key to success for me was not what made me start, as I probably started 50 diets in my life, but what made me stick to it, which was finding a program that worked for me.”

Diet plan: “Travis Martin’s Thrive! Weightloss. For breakfast, I would eat Egg Beaters, toast with sugar-free jelly, and maple and brown sugar oatmeal,” she said. “Lunch is a turkey roll-up with light Swiss cheese, and dinner is chicken with vegetables.”

Exercise routine: “I was introduced to kettlebells by Scott Hines of Pro Performance in Rome, Ga., on a bet. He asked that I give him seven weeks using kettlebells,” she said. She discovered a kettlebell gym near her home in Atlanta, Gym Condition. “The combination of the diet and kettlebells worked,” she said.

Biggest challenge: “The biggest challenge has been just juggling real life,” she said. While she loves going out for margaritas with friends, sometimes she declines the invitation depending how well she can stay on track that day.

How life has changed: “I thought if I lost the weight, all of the problems would be gone. That isn’t true at all. They are just replaced with new problems,” she said. “My biggest struggle is with the way I am treated now versus how I was treated when I was heavy. Society treats people differently based on how we look. Although I may physically look different and I definitely have more self-confidence, there will most likely always be the heavy girl inside.”

Please share your success with us. Include your e-mail address, a daytime phone number and before and after photos (by mail or JPEG). Write: Success Stories, 
c/o Suzanne Van Atten, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sixth Floor, 72 Marietta St. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30303; or e-mail ajcsuccessstories@gmail.com .