The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sucess story
Gina Malik, 38. Weight lost: 70 lbs.
Former weight: 300 pounds
Current weight: 230 pounds
Pounds lost: 70 pounds Height: 5 feet 3 inches Age: 38 years
How long she’s kept it off: Malik started last summer and reached her current weight this month. “It is very slow, where for some people it comes off a lot faster.… As a mom, there is not much sleep, I am trying to get more sleep. I am still losing.”
Personal life: “I’m married, a stay-at-home mom. I have a 5-year-old and 3-yearold.” She lives in Roswell.
Turning point: “We had just moved here in 2016. … I have tried all the diets, I wanted to lose weight. I had even thought about doing a (gastric bypass). I am so thankful I did not. … When I started at One Life Fitness, I had a knee injury. I struggled to walk a cross the room. When my knee got strong enough, my trainer started me with squats. I hadn’t done them in 20 years since my college soccer days. … The weight loss has gone slowly, but that is the best part about it. My mom passed away in April. The weightlifting is what is getting me through — it pulls mymind away from it all. It is a true gift and blessing.”
Diet plan: Breakfast is usually an egg and Greek yogurt. She also has chicken broth with collagen. Lunch is a saladwith salmon, and dinner is stuffed peppers or stuffed zucchini.
Exercise routine: “In the beginning, I was coming seven days aweek. Now, I lift weights four days a week and do cardio and stretching. I got into
power lifting — I got into it with One Life Fitness. A year ago is when I pulled my first dead lift. I did my first competition in February, and I got two national records from the Global Power lifting Alliance.”
Biggest challenge: “I think being a mom we’re so conditioned to put every body before ourselves. There are amillion things every day in our lives for not going to the gym and not putting ourselves first. I always want to put my kids first, my husband first, they are so important to me. If I amnot healthy, I amno good to them.… Now, I don’t make those excuses … and I am so thrilled I changed it — my life is for the better.”
How life has changed: “I feel great, I feel healthy.… I can run with my kids and keep up with them — it is so life-changing. When we first moved here, I had that knee injury and I couldn’t go on my daughter’s first field trip, it was to a pumpkin patch, and I had to miss that — they are
my biggest joy. I ams o happy that my husband picked the gym, he hand select edit. They forever changed my life. … I can do a 314-pound dead lift and I lost weight doing it, but I am gaining beautiful muscles as well.”