Kellie’s Weight Loss Journey
By Aideen O'Flaherty
A healthcare worker who returned to the frontline in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and contracted the virus, has spoken about her weight loss journey over the past year after struggling with comfort eating for most of her life.
Kellie Sweeney, 30, made a New Year’s resolution to lose weight and joined Karen’s Slimming World group in Lucan last January, after three previously unsuccessful attempts to lose weight, and at that stage had no idea of the obstacles that 2020 would bring.
When the pandemic started to reach Irish shores in March, Kellie’s partner started working from home and so could look after their two children, so the Kilnamanagh woman decided to return to the frontline and worked in a local nursing home.
As a result of this, she was regularly tested for coronavirus, and in early April she tested positive, but was asymptomatic.
Kellie then spent two weeks in the Citywest Hotel’s self-isolation facility, during which time she received the news that her mother, Claire Mills, had been diagnosed with end-stage lung cancer.
“When we found out that my mam was sick, me and my partner, Liam Gardiner, decided to get married so we could have a big day out for her,” explained Kellie.
“Me and my mam picked out my ring together, we sent each other pictures of different rings when we were deciding.
“When I went dress shopping, my mam was too ill to come so my mother-in-law came with me and we sent her a video of a dress, and we started crying.”
Kellie and her mam decided that this dress would be her wedding dress, but her mother sadly passed away shortly afterwards in July.
The dress, which was a size 14-16, was so tight on Kellie that she felt she couldn’t breathe, but she is now motivated to make sure that she can fit into the dress on her wedding day, which has been rescheduled for next May.
Kellie’s hoping to achieve this by building on the 3 stone weight loss she has achieved this year since joining Slimming World, and said that even when things got difficult, she enjoyed eating healthily and attending her Slimming World classes via Zoom.
“I was eating all of the wrong foods for so long that I’d forgotten what I should be doing,” she told The Echo.
“Slimming World told me how I should eat, and doing that, along with talk therapy, I learned not to ‘eat my feelings’ by comfort eating.
“I joined Slimming World last January, for the fourth time, and every time I rejoined Slimming World I was bigger than when I first started.
“This time, I learned to draw a line and take it meal-by-meal, and that just because I’ll have one meal that’s off plan, that doesn’t mean I should throw it all away.
“And everyone in Slimming World is on the same journey – you see other people who’ve lost a lot of weight and it’s very inspiring.”
Kellie decided to lose weight because it was affecting her energy levels and her self-esteem, and when the pounds started falling, she had a new lease of life and started to achieve the goals she’d set at the start of the year.
“One of my goals was to get into a size 14 coat that I wore a few years ago. I managed to get back into it this year and I was delighted,” she enthused.
“I wanted to get out of the obese category, and I’ve done that. So now I’m in the overweight category, and my next goal is to be in the healthy weight category.”
Reflecting on how she achieved her weight loss goals, Kellie said: “I realised that I had to change my lifestyle completely. I found meals that I love through Slimming World, and I want to eat healthily for the rest of my life.
“I never stop eating and I never deprive myself – I just make the right choices about what I eat.”
Having gone from 14.1 stone when she joined Slimming World, to 11.1 stone, Kellie is on track to fit into her wedding dress next year, and credits the Slimming World community for helping her to achieve this.
“The people in the group have been with me through the whole process – going back to work, getting Covid, my mam dying,” said Kellie.
“They also gave little tips and tricks that they shared with the group. I don’t think I could’ve ever lost the weight on my own.”
