“I’ll be 50 in November and I’m fitter, healthier and more confident than I’ve ever been.”
I joined Unislim on the 15th of June 2022. My daughter made her confirmation at the end of May and we had photographs taken of us as a family. I got the photographs printed, and when I looked through them, I just went, ‘That’s not me.’ My face was so bloated. My weight fluctuated over the years, but I’d never been that big in my life.
I was also experiencing perimenopause symptoms and just reached a point where I knew I needed to do something. I started slowly trying to eat a bit healthier and about a week later, I got a text from Fiona, who I knew, saying she was now a Unislim leader and was starting a new class in Raheny and suggested I come down to check it out. I rocked up to the class and that was it – I was hooked!
I had been listening to the audiobook of Atomic Habits by James Clear, which is all about changing habits and introducing new habits to break old ones. I decided everything needed to change. I didn’t just want to lose weight, I wanted to change my lifestyle. I wanted to take control. As a mother of three girls, I was doing everything for them and my husband and put myself last on the list and I realised I needed to be a little bit selfish if I was going to make a real change.
When I started the Unislim plan, I took everything on board because it was so healthy, better than any of the other plans I had tried before, which were very restrictive. I’m a huge foodie, it’s always been a passion of mine, but I wanted food to work for me. I don’t do ‘diet’ or processed food. The Unislim plan is based around real food and encourages you to eat your meals. My typical day would start with a boiled egg, fruit, yoghurt … I don’t measure or weigh anything. For lunch, I’d have homemade soup with lentils or beans and maybe a toasted sandwich. And I’d have a snack in the afternoon. I plan our family meals for the whole week so I know what we’re having for dinner every day. And after dinner, I’d have yoghurt or a bowl of fruit.
Nothing is off the table, it’s how you plan it out. I’d make snack pots or bags of fruit for the week and a batch of soup. I’d never leave the house without food, whether it’s a bag of nuts or a protein bar. It just means that if I’m out and get hungry and there isn’t a healthy option, I have something to eat. I batch cook and freeze dinners, too, so I’m always one step ahead.
I started exercising regularly when I joined Unislim, and now I exercise five or six days a week. I have a fear of dogs so I don’t like walking outside – I get very anxious if I see a dog off the lead, so I bought myself a treadmill and rowing machine and some weights and keep it all in my shed. I go out there in the morning for 40 minutes and while I used to listen to audiobooks or music, now I catch up on episodes of my favourite shows on Netflix – something I don’t normally have time for. I’ve allotted that time into my daily routine and I enjoy exercise now.
I have osteoarthritis in my spine, shoulders and knees and used to get a baker’s cyst in the back of my knees, where the fluid would leak from my knees, and it’s very painful. Then I had it my shoulder and had to have injections. Since I started exercising, I don’t have that problem anymore. The strengthening has done so much that it motivates me to keep going. I also have a hernia in the top of my tummy and have Barrett’s esophagus, which means I get really bad heartburn, so fatty foods don’t agree with me at all and I can’t take any type of anti-inflammatory because it affects the lining of my stomach. So I need to keep myself fit and healthy.
It took about ten months for me to reach my goal – it was slow and steady, a pound or two a week on average. You don’t change habits with a drastic diet. Now, it’s all about maintaining a healthy weight and keeping myself fit and strong.
You have to get yourself in the right headspace when you start on a journey like this. The thing about losing weight is we often put it off, saying, ‘It’s not the right time.’ It’ll never be the right time. There is always going to be something, whether it’s Christmas or a birthday, and you have to learn to stay on your journey when these things come along, whether it’s thinking ahead before you go out or making a healthy choice for that one meal. I think we all tend to look for excuses – just bite the bullet and do it. There’s always going to be challenges or special occasions, but those things don’t have to derail your weight loss. You just have to learn to work with them.
I’ll be 50 in November and I’m fitter, healthier and more confident than I’ve ever been. And I’m a better wife and mum because I’m happier in myself. To celebrate my birthday, I’m going to New York with my sister, my eldest daughter and my sister’s daughter – they’re both 27. I’ve never been and we’re going to have a lovely girlie trip and do some shopping, I can’t wait. I just want to be a healthy, fit person. I want to be fab at 50.
