New year’s resolutions can sometimes be cast aside faster than the Strawberry Dreams in a tin of Roses. However, for the leaders in Operation Transformation, the life changes that they set out to make in January are far from a whim. It’s the 10th series of the show on RTÉ One, which has now become part of heralding in the new year in Ireland. Dr Ciara Kelly is excited about the new series and the stories that will be told through the people taking part this year.

“We have some exceptional leaders this year. There are people with all sorts of different things going on in their lives,” she says.

This year’s is a broad group, including an amputee and a mother looking to reclaim her life after years of putting family first.

“Yvonne from Louth is a woman loads of people will identify with because she is someone who has spent her life caring for everyone else and is now coming into her own a little bit and getting her own life on track. I think she’s going to be really inspirational,” she says.

“I think that happens to lots of women in their 30s and their 40s: they have small children, they put on a bit of weight and they didn’t have time for themselves. It happens to loads of us.”

Meanwhile, the show’s resident dietician Aoife Hearne – a mother to two kids under the age of two – can empathise with busy families struggling to plan meals.

“Listen, you can’t do it all – not all of the time, at least. No one is superwoman or superman, no matter how it might seem,” she says.

“For me, on my first year on the show, I was newly married and had no kids. Now I’m married with two kids. Even how I cook has changed. It’s just about getting people to think differently. Cooking one meal for the family is something I feel really passionate about and it’s what happens in our home.”

Part of the team

Ciara and Aoife both joined Operation Transformation four years ago and have become firm friends since.

“I love Ciara – she’s my bestie,” laughs Aoife. “We just work really, really well together. I think we both really respect each other. We probably are more carrot and stick when it comes to encouraging people to make change, but in saying that I think we both recognise you often do have to be hard on people and honest with them.”

The pair are both passionate about improving the health of the nation and are proud of how the show has highlighted health issues linked to being overweight.

“The impact the show has on communities across the country is absolutely phenomenal and I love our campaigns and community events. It makes me proud to be a part of that. And I suppose I really feel, as a person, you get a lot back from that and that it’s worth all the effort,” says Aoife.

“It’s a small show and it doesn’t have a massive budget, but it does have an impact, more so than any other health campaign.”

Tackling obesity

Ciara thinks that more needs to be done to tackle the issue of obesity.

“I think we need to make the healthy choice the easy choice. Lots of people don’t even know what they should be eating. They are bombarded with health messages and they don’t know what’s true and what’s not true. Lots and lots of people don’t realise their kids are overweight when they are, so we are normalising being overweight,” she says.

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Operation Transformation has been criticised for being harsh on leaders and the infamous lycra wear when they are being weighed. What do Aoife and Ciara think?

“I think when you actually ask the leaders – and I’ve spoken to loads of the leaders about this – none of them seem to mind the lycra; it’s more of a construct put on them externally. That’s part of the show and part of what they signed up for,” says Ciara.

“They have a choice. Women can wear a crop top or a vest. There is a reason why they wear tight clothes – over the course of the two months, you can actually see their body shape changing. From a visual point of view – and it is television – it’s really good for viewers in terms of motivating them. They are very proud of their weight loss and proud of their new bodies too. They don’t seem that bothered about showing them off. It’s not about shaming at all – it’s about showing.”

Aoife agrees: “When we’re hard on people on the show, we’re doing it for a reason. Hopefully as the weeks go on, the reason will show, but it can be hard for them to hear the criticism”.

However, Ciara adds that Operation Transformation is not all about losing weight – it’s about encouraging people to feel better in their own skin.

“We want people to feel good about themselves, realistically in any size. Positive mental attitude is really important. Our role is to help them to put structures in place to feel healthy. It’s not all about the numbers on the scale. It’s about improving their confidence and self-esteem, and getting them healthy,” says Ciara.