Motivator Siobhan scoops top Weightwatchers award
WEXFORD’S Siobhan McGuire has been crowned Weightwatchers’ Leader of the Year.
Despite being in the role for just four years, she was announced the winner of the €3,000 prize at an awards ceremony in Dublin recently.
The mother of two daughters, aged seven and nine, runs Weightwatchers groups in Wexford town and Gorey.
She initially joined the organisation around the time of her 21st birthday in 2001, after reaching 12 stone in weight.
Her father died when she was 18, and she found she had to go home from college in Waterford each evening to care for her mother, and she developed bad eating habits.
‘I decided to join a class in Waterford as I was attending college there at the time,’ she said. ‘ This was the best decision I’ve ever made. The programme worked for me and the weight was coming off.’
‘I was starting to regain my confidence and was feeling better about myself,’ she added. ‘When I finished college, I started attending the Clonard class in Wexford town, which is now one of the classes which I run.’
‘I got to my goal weight after losing two stone,’ she continued. ‘Over the years, I’ve stayed at my goal weight. After each pregnancy, I returned to class and regained control of my weight again.’
‘I’m now a leader for nearly five years,’ said Siobhan. ‘It really is the most fulfilling job imaginable. It’s hard to believe that my job transpired from me losing my own weight.
‘ There are not many jobs that allow you to witness and be privy to somebody making the most positive changes to their lives, looking better, feeling better and getting healthier.’
She said that there is no better feeling than seeing someone walk through the door on week one, ready to make a change but quite apprehensive about whether it will work or not, and every week seeing them change in front of your eyes.
‘It’s really quite amazing and because I was that member, I know exactly how they are feeling and how fantastic it feels when they are successful,’ she said. ‘I give my classes and my members 100 per cent. I put a huge amount of effort and thought into my talks.’