Weight loss changed Ciara’s life

LAST year 26-year-old Ennis woman Ciara Finucane weighed a little over 27 stone. Over the years, she had unsuccessfully tried diet after diet in a bid to lose those elusive pounds.
However, it was a broken leg that finally gave Ciara the determination to get serious about losing weight. She has now managed to lose an amazing 10 stone in just 11 months and is determined to keep going until she reaches her target weight.
According to Ciara, losing the weight has been the best thing she has ever done. She now spends her weekends out having fun and buying clothes that, just a few months ago, she could never have fit into. Her friends and family all gathered in the Temple Gate Hotel recently to celebrate Ciara’s birthday and her impressive weight loss.
Ciara says she was never a slim youngster but it was the sad death of her father, Jerome in 2002 that led to her weight spiralling.
“I would say a lot of it was that I ate for depression after my dad died. I put on the best part of my weight after that and I worked my way up to 27 stone. We were very close. I was my dad’s little girl. I wasn’t working so some of it was down to boredom. It’s certainly easier to go on than to come off.
“I wasn’t really a sweet person and my sugar levels were below average, which the doctors couldn’t understand. For me, I preferred to eat Chinese and chippers and I mightn’t eat all day and then when I came to the table I’d have a big plate. Any chipper food you put in front of me I’d eat it and I’d go for seconds.”
When asked how she felt about her weight gain, Ciara reveals, “I was depressed off my head, I couldn’t get clothes to fit me. I stopped going out with my friends and I didn’t feel nice in anything I wore. All my friends would be going out in their skirts and nice trousers and tops and I couldn’t get anything like that for my age to fit me, so I just refused to go out. I was living in tracksuits the whole time.”
Ciara’s mother, Kathleen says her daughter often left shops in tears because she couldn’t find anything suitable to wear. Ciara says despite having lots of friends and a very supportive family, she was sometimes the victim of cruel taunts.
“I was called every name you can think of but I never let it get to me. I left them off because at the end of the day, I knew I would lose the weight and the laugh is on them now.”
Surprisingly, Ciara says she never considered herself “a fat person”.
“I just didn’t want to see it. It’s like that film, Shallow Hal. I always thought to myself that I had to lose weight and my family and friends were saying it to me for my own good but it didn’t really hit me.”
She continued to steadily gain weight until that fateful day when she broke her leg. Ciara recalls, “I broke my leg for a second time and I just turned to my mother and said something has to be done. I had to use a wheelchair because I couldn’t use the crutches, I was so heavy. I realised that this isn’t my life and it’s time to change.”
She heard about the Motivation Weight Management Clinic in Limerick and contacted Dani at the clinic’s Shannon Street base.
“I saw their ad on telly and I was like, this is it, it’s my last resort. I made the phonecall to Dani and they were brilliant. We were on the phone for an hour that morning talking about everything before I made the appointment and it was the best move of my life.”
With her mother agreeing to fund the cost of the clinic, Ciara set out to reach her weight-loss goal. She now describes those at the clinic as “part of my family”, explaining, “It isn’t about dieting, it’s about changing your way of life and I suppose there is a bit of counselling involved. They help you to change your mindset about food.”
As well as attending weekly private consultations in Limerick, Ciara had to follow a healthy eating plan, as well as listen to motivational CDs and read books. One of the aspects of the programme Ciara particularly found useful is the ‘jacket’ they place on you when you have lost weight.
“They weigh down the jacket with how much you’ve lost so you really get an idea of it, not just looking at a number on a scales,” she says.
She explains that even when you reach your target weight, the support continues. Ciara says when she first started the programme, she had no idea she would do so well. “At the start I was doing it to prove to my friends and family that I could do it because they were sick of me doing diet after diet and wondering how long it would last. Then after the first four or five stone came off, I was like ‘oh my god, I’m actually doing this for myself now’. This is the best thing I’ve ever done. I feel great and I’m out there living my life, which I never did.”
Ciara went back to school last year to do her Leaving Certificate at St Joseph’s Training Centre, having left school at 15. The centre recently presented her with an achievement award for all her hard work in losing the weight.
She is now studying hard and hopes to be able to work with others with weight problems in the future. “I’d especially like to work with young kids that are afraid to make that first step. If anyone knows what it’s like, it’s me. I was 25-years-old and 27 stone.”
Now that she has lost the weight, Ciara is thrilled to be able to go shopping with her friends.
“When it came to Christmas or birthdays I couldn’t get anything to fit me before, I was the biggest size in Evans and if I got any bigger I would have had to get my clothes made. Now I just love shopping. I can fit into clothes in town and that’s a real achievement for me.”
While Ciara has certainly achieved a lot these past 11 months, she insists this isn’t the end for her and she will continue with her weight loss.
“I want to lose another four stone and I’m hoping to be able to do that by Christmas. The journey isn’t over yet. I haven’t had a chip or a Chinese or chocolate or anything like that in 11 months. Even on Sunday my mother was doing a fry and usually she grills everything but we had people over for my birthday but I couldn’t even be in the same room because the smell made me sick. Don’t get me wrong, I will treat myself when I’m at my target but I’ll never go back to eating the way I did, never.”
She believes her father would have been very proud of her. “All he ever wanted me to do was to lose the weight. He’d definitely be proud of me.”
“I wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t for my mother, as she paid for the clinics and I’ve got so much support from everyone; my sister, friends and neighbours. My GP was great and everybody at the clinic have all been really supportive of me over the last 11 months and they have been fantastic,” she concludes.