Health & Fitness Features

The three lads who bravely stepped forward for the potentially life-changing Weight Watchers Challenge have all put Week 1 behind them. Here's how they got on.

Joe Mulligan
Class: Ted Lavelle's, Achill Island
Starting weight: 21st 10lbs

I got a bit of a surprise when I got up on the scales and saw that I was 21st 10lbs. That was heavier than I thought. But it’s a starting point. The leader is Bronagh McNamara and she’s very good. I was a bit nervous going in to be honest, but she said to me, ‘The hardest part is coming in the door in the first place’.

There’s a good atmosphere, it was a good, positive meeting and everyone was in good form.

There was one man who had been going to a few meetings before and I think he was delighted to see me arrive. A third fella came along a bit later and that was the icing on the cake!

You get a tonne of information, and I’m just trying to figure it all out. As far as my eating habits go, I’m eating a lot of the same stuff as before, but maybe cutting down on the portions a bit, and I’ve cut down on dairy and bread too.

I got a bit ambitious at the weekend – I made a pot of soup for the first time in my life! My wife made a few too many Jamie Oliver references for my liking.

I don’t know whether it’s my imagination or not, but already I’m feeling better, I feel like I’ve more energy. I haven’t touched on the exercise yet, I’ll try to focus on the diet first to get that right. I never bought as much fruit as I did one day last week when we were doing the shopping. Sometimes I find myself getting a bit peckish, but to be honest I think it’s half in the head.

Darren Savage
Class: Carmelite Community Centre, Whitefriar
Starting weight: 17st 13lbs

Things went grand in the first week. I’ve been just watching my diet, keeping within the ProPoints™ every day. I had a 30^th birthday party to go to on Thursday night and I used up my weekly allowance there (the weekly Weight Watchers ProPoints allowance allocated each week in addition to the daily allowance).

They advise you to use up your full allocation from the start, or you might start losing energy or motivation.

The ratio of women to men at the class was a bit slanted but everyone there was very receptive and friendly, I was made to feel welcome and it wasn’t awkward at all to be honest.

Although I did get a shock when I weighed in. The scales at home was showing 17-3 but I was 17-13 when I got up on the scales at the meeting.

It was very interesting to see the different ProPoints value in different foods. They showed us two different breakfasts which both had the same number of calories – one an English muffin with blackcurrant jam, the other two slices of wholemeal toast, two rashers and a poached egg. And the toast, rashers and egg was fewer ProPoints than the muffin. I would have thought the scone or muffin was a healthier option but that’s not the case.

The team leader, Mary, was very good too – she emailed us a few recipes over the weekend too and I don’t think she was required to do that. She sent us on recipes for lasagne and a butternut squash and feta cheese dish too.

I’ll be trying to kick things into overdrive from now on.

Aaron Chalke
Class: St Mary's Parish Hall, Haddington Road
Starting weight: 15st

I was a little bit wary going in, and I was the only lad there for a while too, but to be fair to the leader she made me feel very welcome so I definitely don’t mind going back for Week 2. I’m comfortable enough with that.

I was a lot heavier than I thought when I got up on the scales – 15 stone on the button.

I haven’t made any huge changes to what I’m eating yet, it’s more of a gradual process, watching what I eat and figuring everything out. If I have something of a high ProPoints value once during the day now, I’ll make sure that everything I eat for the rest of the day is of a smaller value.

It was a massive shock to see how fattening drink is. I was out Saturday night and I used up all my weekly allowance on gargle.

I’ve been cutting down a bit on drink but you don’t want to turn into a hermit either. I’ve also been working to build up a few extra ProPoints by doing a bit of exercise. I’ve taken up running lately, so it’s an extra motivation to put on the runners and head out the door.

Check back next week to see how the lads fared out in Week 2. We'll also have healthy Weight Watchers recipes every week in our Health & Fitness section for the next three months. For more information on Weight Watchers, check out their website over yonder.