CHARLESTON – Tracie Sword Johns, a legal assistant at Flaherty Sensabaugh Bonasso, has lost a total of 110 pounds, competed in a physique competition and made it onto the cover of Woman’s Day magazine.
Johns said she made the choice to change her life in 2013, after she had been very ill and had some major surgeries.
“My last surgery, a hysterectomy, lasted nine hours, I had three surgeons and they had to give me nine pints of blood,” Johns said. “I topped out at 253 pounds.”
Johns said she’d had a few health scares and had a stress test and was sent to have a sleep apnea test, when she decided she needed to take control of her life and get the weight off.
“I was sleeping with oxygen at 42, I had high blood pressure and high cholesterol,” she said. “This was not how I wanted to live my life.”
Johns started walking on the treadmill and lost about ten pounds, but wanted to lose a lot more, so she contacted a personal trainer a friend had been using and got started with her fitness journey.
“I’ve been with my personal trainer for three years and I’m usually in the gym 1-2 hours each day,” Johns said. “I started eating clean and buying more organics and monitoring all food.”
Johns said it’s been tough, but it’s been worth it.
Then, when she wanted to participate in a physique competition, she set up a GoFundMe page and that was how Woman’s Day found her.
Johns said when she went to compete in the competition, she was very nervous and was still not confident with her body.
“I was still insecure, I have scars and a little loose skin, but this was something I wanted to do,” she said. “And I did it. It was very hard work and in those days right before competition you take your diet down to next to nothing so you’d not holding water weight.”
Johns said age is just a number and to never give up on something just because you’ve gotten older.
“If you say, well I’m 50 and this is just how I’m going to be, that’s not true! You can change it and yourself,” she said. “You just have to set your mind to it.”