Here's Lucy - an OT blog

My name is Lucy Dillon. I was one of five leaders on this year’s Operation Transformation TV Series. This for me was one major successful journey and I am so proud of how far I have come. I won’t lie, it has been a hectic couple of months which included both highs and lows.

Everybody always begins with the question – how did you apply or get picked for the TV show?

Well, at the age of 24 I was feeling very low in myself, no self-esteem and no sense of feeling young. I knew I needed to act upon my feelings as I was bottling up my emotions over the passing my mam, Therese in 2012. Four years on it hit me with a bang. It wasn’t what I was eating – it was what was eating me emotionally.

Off I went and applied for OT, and little did I know I would be selected to attend the assessment day in Santry. From there on, I will never look back. There was tears, emotions and laughs throughout the day with 19 other amazing people suffering from lots of different reasons.

Onwards and upwards from that day on – the show began. Life changes started to take place which included ditching cigarettes, junk food, took up cardio and resistance exercise, trained for the Phoenix Park 5k and opened up about the passing of my mam.

 I dropped 1 stone 10.5 pounds. I feel AMAZING.

What next? For me, my weight loss journey is not over yet. I am to lose a further two stone in the next few months. I want to take my time, do it right and be able to maintain my weight loss as in previous years I would always gain the weight back on. I attend my local Park Run in the Blackwater Park in Navan each week and complete the 5k with a full jog. I have never achieved this before, it feels brilliant.

I am currently on the national VHI Herald team training for the VHI Women's Mini Marathon on June 6th. I will be representing the Joggers Category. I am to increase my fitness lever to jog most of the 10k. My chosen charity for this event is The Irish Cancer Society. I am very excited about this as I have never trained for a 10k before. It’s amazing what your body can do when you set your mind to it as we all have different goals we want to achieve. This for me is keeping me motivated.

I wish to encourage people to get active and lead a healthy lifestyle as people seem to think once you’re slim it’s all good or once you quit smoking you gain weight. YOU DON’T.

For anyone with any questions or wants to follow my plan and see my progress can check me out on Facebook at 'Love Lucy x' or on snap chat at lucydillon1