When people see I’ve lost weight the first thing they usually ask is if I’ve had help. “Yeah, I have a trainer,” I say. But that’s not the kind of help they mean.Some of them do ask the follow-up: “But have you been on any injections?” To which my response is: “No, I’m doing it the old-fashioned way.” Because I am, having lost about 15kg (2st 5lb) in the past year or so, without using GLP-1s and without putting my life on hold either.It started in April 2025. I was roughly 102kg in weight and, at only 5ft 2in tall, I wasn’t happy in myself. Because I wasn’t happy in myself, I stopped taking care of myself. I was getting too many takeaways, not moving my body – as in, I’d be lucky to take 1,500 steps in a day – and when I did cook, it was very much beige, freezer dinners. Then, I saw an online advertisement for an eight-week group fitness “accelerator”, run by a personal trainer for €99. So I signed up. It was a bit of a Hail Mary and I didn’t think it’d work but it has been life changing. I lost a couple of kilogrammes during those eight weeks, which also included eight days in Spain for a wedding, a few nights out and other general 26-year-old woman’s antics. Afterwards, I signed up for one-to-one training with the trainer, Jonathon Hickey, who has been my coach since. It doesn’t feel right calling him a personal trainer because I treat him as more of a life coach. My whole outlook on life, who I am and what I can achieve, has changed substantially throughout the year. In the beginning I struggled. I was cooking food that I felt was fitting into my “diet”, but I wasn’t really a fan of what I was eating. As time has gone on, though, I’ve learned to perfect a “fakeaway” and to just reportion my food so that I’m eating mostly protein and vegetables, with less carbs.Everything (most days) goes on the tracking app MyFitnessPal, to ensure I stay in a calorie deficit. I still socialise. I’ve discovered that West Coast Cooler is the drink for me – at 88 calories in a can of Sunburst – instead of a pint of cider or Guinness. I now also drink vodka soda water, no lime, just a dash of blackcurrant. And I’ll allow myself the odd glass of wine – just not as often. I also started working out at home, doing routines given to us as part of the programme, using the 1.5kg dumbbells I’ve had ever since a teenage health kick years ago. And, yes, I found them hard. I also started going for walks, taking the dog with me. We’d do laps around the green by my house, slowly building my steps up to 3,000-4,000 until we got to an average of about 8,000 – with a goal of at least two days a week at 10,000 steps. My current average, with a back injury, is at 6,000-8,000 steps – and that’s okay. Nobody’s perfect. That was something I had to come to terms with. Some days after finishing work at my (very sedentary) job, I wouldn’t want to go for a walk, work out or cook. That’s where a support system is key. I have great housemates and friends who motivate and walk with me, who weigh out dinner ingredients if we’re cooking together and, maybe most importantly, a dog who gets annoyed if she doesn’t get a walk. I also have the added advantage of being able to text my coach whenever – be it with a life update, a photo of the dog, an “I really don’t want to leave the house today”, or an “I’m going to Bingo Loco on Saturday”. There is also no point putting life on hold. [ How weight-loss drugs are reshaping modern life: ‘I’m paying €250 a month not to eat’Opens in new window ]I didn’t drink alcohol from the end of January to March but that’s because I was deep in the trenches of training for Battle Cancer, a fitness challenge I competed in with some colleagues and friends. That was a choice I made for myself because I wanted to do the best I could, for me and for nobody else. I’m in the era of putting me first, something I didn’t do for too long. Even a year ago, if you had said I was going to do a fitness challenge in the RDS, I’d have laughed in your face. Then, I probably would have cried. I never felt I’d be capable of doing anything like that. I’ve been bigger my entire adult life and, yes, I am still “bigger” but I’m not as big. And I’m happy. I’m working on myself, for me, while still enjoying my life, doing all of the things a woman in her mid-twenties should.