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A mum says her life “started at 40” after she dropped an incredible eight dress sizes in just four years.
Clare McIvor, who previously weighed 23 stone, decided it was time to make a change as she wanted to become a better role model for her children.
She joined her local Slimming World group in 2014 and soon started shedding the pounds, eventually becoming a consultant in 2017 and reaching her goal weight the next year.
Now, the 43-year-old enjoys an active and healthy lifestyle, which she says has transformed the lives of her and her youngsters, according to the Liverpool Echo.
She also continues to inspire others, working with 250 Slimming World members every week.
The mum-of-two said: “I still have to pinch myself sometimes to think of how far I’ve come. A friend of mine said about Slimming World and when I joined the class I was told in the very first session I could eat my favourite food, pasta, and lose weight – that was me.
“I’d written myself off a long time ago. It was only when my daughter started putting on weight at 13 that I decided to make that change.
“I panicked, because I thought she was about to live the life that I’d just lived. That’s what made me step through the doors. I’d tried everything.
(Image: Clare McIvor)
“When you have a bad relationship with food, it isn’t just a matter of reducing your calories and moving more. When it’s going on for years, there’s a lot of things to heal.”
As a way of combating her former food addiction, Clare makes sure to keep herself busy and active with activities such as running, cold water swimming, yoga and attending the gym.
She added: “That addiction is still there, I’ve just transferred it on to other things now. I think when you have an addictive personality it stays there, but mine is now on exercise and bettering myself.
“We all really need to focus on bettering ourselves. You need to be doing something during the week to make you feel good, to help keep you going through those next seven days.”
Before losing the weight, Clare – who is from County Antrim, Northern Ireland – said she was always exhausted, ate unhealthily and struggled to stay awake at work, and grappled with barriers being in place in public spaces.
She said: “I wouldn’t go to the toilet on any flight because I was petrified of walking up and down that middle aisle. It wasn’t about the fear of flying, it was about the aisle not being wide enough for me to not bang into every person on the way down and to be stared at by a whole flight.
I didn’t have a job promotion throughout my career until I lost weight. That couldn’t be a coincidence. I was always outgoing and bubbling, that was my mask, I had to have something.
“I wasn’t more confident when I lost weight, I was the same person, but they saw me as being more presentable for the firm. People who are overweight, especially morbidly as I was, as big as you are you’re invisible. You’re left out of everything, you’re last for everything – no wonder your self-esteem is at the floor.”
Clare said her children had “a very unhappy mum”, but she has since been able to turn her life around and regularly brings them on activities, joking that she even has more energy than them now.
“I cried all the time,” the mum-of-two added.
“But now kids have a healthy mum who’s on the swings with them now rather than sitting in the car exhausted watching them. I missed out on all those things when I was younger so I’m going to be the really embarrassing mum who does it all now!
“I want to enjoy the rest of my life as best as I possibly can. That’s what a lot of people aren’t doing, they close themselves off from the world and get stuck behind a wall of not moving. There’s more out there to life but we need to be happy and active to enjoy it.”
Previously working in the finance sector, Clare said she always knew she wanted a job where she could help people.
She continued: “I worked in finance and wasn’t getting anything from it whatsoever. Never in a million years did I think when I was going to lose weight it would end up being my career as well. Who would’ve thought I’d been in front of people giving them advice on losing weight?
“But now 250 members a week come through this door and I have a part in changing their lives. I just love that.”
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