Moate slimmer says ‘never give up’ after losing three stone
After battling weight issues for most of her life, Deirdre Claffey says something “just clicked” in her head last September when she walked into her local branch of Slimming World in Moate and weighed in at over 15 stone.
Less than a year later, she now weighs 12 stone and has dropped a whopping three dress sizes, an achievement which is all the more remarkable given than we have spent most of the past year in Covid lockdown.
“I am the sort of person who eats for every emotion, so when lockdown hit I was suffering quite badly with anxiety and I said to myself this is going to go one way or the other, either I am going to keep eating and piling on the weight or I am going to do something about it,” she admits “and joining Slimming World was the best decision I ever made.”
Having battled weight issues for most of her life, she says she has tried “every diet known to man” over the years, but nothing seemed to work. “Your head has to be right, and if you have the right attitude you can achieve anything, and something just clicked in my head when I joined Slimming World” she says.
The vast majority of Deirdre’s Slimming World classes were over Zoom and while initially she didn’t like the online format she soon formed a strong bond with her fellow members and also with Class Leader, Sharleen Doyle, whom she describes as “absolutely fantastic and so supportive every step of the way.”
Not content with completely embracing the Slimming World eating programme, and cooking everything from scratch, Deirdre also decided to embark on an exercise programme and asked her brother, Derek, to devise a programme for her.
“I did it as much for my head as anything else, and Derek is a personal trainer, so he put a programme together and we turned a shed behind my parent’s house into a little gym and I have been working out there five evenings a week since last September.”
It helps that the whole family live in Mount Carmel Drive, with Deirdre’s parents, Pat and Eilish, living just up the street from where she has made her home with her husband, Anthony, and daughter, Chloe. “I didn’t have far to go to my exercise class” she laughs “so I had no excuse”.
Despite the fact that she has spent 48 weeks on the Slimming World programme in order to achieve her three stone weight loss, Deirdre Claffey says she never really felt she was on a diet, as there is no weighing, measuring and counting calories.
“I was always eating real food, and I still had a takeaway every Friday night, but I think the key is to write everything down, which is what I did and that way I was more aware of what I was eating and was able to keep track of my day.”
She is still trying to come to terms with the fact that she had dropped three dress sizes, and admits that it took her “a good while” before she began to notice her amazing weight loss. “I haven’t really seen a lot of people because of the lockdown, but now that we are all getting out and about a bit more I keep meeting people and they can’t believe it’s me because they think I look so different.”
Deirdre Claffey admits that bread was her “main vice” before she joined Slimming World, but she says she just ate everything “for the sake of it” and as she became more anxious during lockdown she really began to lose control over what she ate.
Part of the reason for her anxiety was the fact that her husband, Anthony, suffers from cardiomyopathy and she was “terrified” that he would catch Covid. “He has been hugely supportive to me during my weight loss journey, and I knew during lockdown that if I didn’t take control of my eating habits I would continue to pile on the weight and endanger my own health.”
As she comes to terms with her new slimmer self, the Moate woman is urging anyone battling a weight issue to never give up. “There is no easy fix, it is hard work, but it is so worth it, and the love, support and encouragement of my Class Leader and all the members in Slimming World has been the game changer for me.”
Lodged firmly in the back of Deirdre Claffey’s mind when she joined Slimming World last September was the thought of being able to celebrate her 45th birthday without having to worry about her weight.
Wednesday last was her birthday, and what better birthday present to give to herself than a whopping three stone weight loss. “Money couldn’t buy that feeling,” she says.