‘Secret eater’ takes back her life, one kilogram at a time
Janja Wills' weight loss and fitness journey started in October 2015. She hopes to enter fitness competitions soon.
“I took one bite of a bacon and cheese sandwich in October 2015 and I felt like I was going to have a heart attack. That’s where my fitness and healthy living journey began,” said a resident from Norkem Park.
Janja Wills (32) made the decision to change her lifestyle when she realised that her life was in danger.
She has been living in Norkem Park all her life. Wills started struggling with her weight from the age of seven. She played sports in school which helped her control some of her weight gains but when she completed high school, she started gaining excessive weight because she was not active anymore.
“I used to eat four slices of bread and a pack of bacon for breakfast every day before I realised I needed to change my lifestyle,” said Wills. “I used to be a secret eater. I never ate too much in front of people, not even my mother and father. I would only eat a lot if I was alone with no one watching me.”
The mother of one realised she was not feeling well and went to see a doctor, who told her she needed to change her lifestyle and that was when she gave her personal trainer, Marek Zadlo (28), a call to help her lose weight.
“She weighed 187kg when we first started working together,” said Zadlo. “She currently weighs 113kg and our current goal is for her to weigh 80kg, so she can go for surgery to remove excess skin. After her healing process from the surgery, we will start entering fitness competitions and hopefully, she can go international with it.”
She has one daughter aged six who she says is her inspiration to lose weight and keep healthy. She eats healthy and exercises.
What started off as just a walk around the block became a lifestyle. She also started going to the gym to speed up her weight loss journey.
“Janja is very open-minded and self-motivated and I think that is the secret to her success,” said Zadlo.
When asked if he enjoyd working with Wills, Zadlo said it was a breeze because she put in the work.
“I want to compete in fitness one day, I want to be South Africa’s number one fitness bunny,” concluded Wills.
