Our candidate Edelle O’Brien from Caherdavin is now four weeks into her six week transformation, on the inside and out, with the Ultimate Health Clinic and personal trainer Dave Sheahan…
“Hello, it’s me again. This week I feel so good. Losing the few pounds last week was obviously a boost and it means that lifting all the weights and stuff with Dave is balancing out. I was worried that even though clothes were fitting better etc. that I would still weigh heavier. Worries over! I have to say that I don’t ever remember feeling this great. All my previous digestive problems have disappeared. I had lived in a world where I could not be too far away from a bottle of Gaviscon or a box of Rennie, in my car, my bedroom, even the kitchen, everywhere! Now it’s like freedom.
The girls in the UHC gave me a list of recipes this time for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Things like lamb, stir-fry beef and Spanish omelette (which I could live on, it’s yummy). Even, get ready for this, a fry on Saturday morning! I know it was turkey sausages and rashers but they looked like pork and taste really nice. More importantly it was a fry and it tasted bold! With my dinners I was not to have any carbohydrates after 3pm which I expected to be a nightmare. No rice? I stocked up on many many vegetables and I’d forgotten how much I love asparagus. I was allowed to have the Spanish omelette that has potato in it as a dinner and it saved my life. It tastes sooo good and is very filling. I decided not to change my breakfast from porridge because I am so used to it now I’ll be making it a habit to keep. The girls this week said they could see a huge difference in my face when I went to the UHC. After my massage I got to stay in the clinic while I waited for my colonic, and I actually fell asleep. So relaxing… I feel like it’s a haven. Then at the weigh-in I got quite a shock. I have been trying not to count weight loss because, for me, the treatments are making me feel so much better in general – “like a new woman!” – I feel amazing already after just a few weeks, so any weight loss is a bonus. But while I’m here, feeling all righteous, I have lost 19lbs altogether! It’s more than I lost in months going to other weight loss classes etc. but to be honest I don’t think I was ready then. This takes a lot of will power and hard work. If you’re not committed and ready to make the change it won’t work. Hee hee it feels so good writing down those numbers!
Do you know how beautiful the city looks when you are all bleary eyed and half- awake on a crisp (frozen) Tuesday morning? Well I do! I was up at 5ish to be in the gym at 6am. I expected to be nearly comatose but it wasn’t that bad. I am setting my alarm anyway so I set it a little earlier and I get up to go to the gym. Also I was home in time to get back into the bed for 40 winks before work! It definitely gives you more energy for the rest of the day. I can see how the gym could become addictive. When you can see the results it makes it all easier. With other weight loss programmes they recommend walking to gain points for food, boost energy, increase weight loss and muscle tone. I am not a very patient person and even though I was content to go along with that as it’s not too strenuous, with Dave’s programme the progress is faster. In 3 weeks my bingo wings are nearly gone, my training pants are looser, my jeans fell down in the airport as I mentioned last week and, one day I was running through a shop when my work pants slipped down and nearly took my knickers with them! Embarrassing I know but it’s all happening for the best reason ever.
With the interval training over the past few weeks I can feel a difference on the training pitch as well with my fitness and maybe the skill will follow some day! Things like suicide sprints and even the thoughts of a long match of forwards play doesn’t seem so daunting. On Monday evening after fundraising for Young Munster’s Womens XV I went to a flexibility class given by Dave himself. When this is all over I think I might even keep attending this class. It’s not easy by any means. I have decided he feels no pain as he is so fit. I thought I would have been fairly flexible – I so am not! The class is an hour-ish of intense stretching and I mean intense. Working your legs, hips, chest and neck. The neck stretch is great, especially after coming from the scrum machine. The most important thing that happened this week is… cue drum roll… I lost four inches from my chest, waist and hips, one and a half inches from my thighs, and ten and a half mills in fat! Pretty cool eh? I am so thrilled. I have never taken measurements before so it feels really good to not only see the difference, but to have physical evidence on paper is the way of the future!”