Weight loss success stories – they’re kind of addictive, aren’t they? Those stark before and after pictures, the story of getting to that ultimate goal. It’s inspirational and often we read them and head off determined that one day we’ll do something like that.

But let’s get real. Let’s talk about what we don’t see. We don’t see the early morning sweating in the gym, the healthy salads when all that’s wanted is a carbonara, the days (or weeks) when you end up two steps backwards unable to see how you’re going to get back on track. This is why Trisha Lewis’s story is different. Trisha isn’t at her goal weight. In fact, she is only halfway there, but last year when she embarked on her journey to lose 14 stone, she put her life online, made herself accountable to her Instagram followers, determined to highlight the real-life obstacles upon the road to “beat the bulge”.

I’m not going to lie, I know I will be a nervous wreck on the day of the conference

She is also taking the step on stage at our Women & Agriculture Conference, to stand in front of 600 women for the first time and tell her story.

“I’m not going to lie, I know I will be a nervous wreck on the day of the conference. But I said yes for the same reason that I put my weight loss journey on Instagram. I wanted to see a real person, a real fat person lose weight. I wanted to see what they eat, what exercises they do.

I am determined to lose this weight and perhaps I can help people along the way

"I wanted to see practical things like how a fat person works out, how they manoeuvre their body, how they do different exercises with a big stomach.

"I am determined to lose this weight and perhaps I can help people along the way. When they see me do it, maybe they will do it too.”

A dark, lonely place

When we chat to Trisha ahead of the conference, she is in flying form and anyone that follows her journey online knows she is a fantastic fun person, great craic and genuinely funny. If you met Trisha two years ago however, you would have met a very different person.

I definitely thought it would be easier if I didn’t wake up

“I was in a dark place, an incredibly dark place. I won’t say I was suicidal; I don’t think I would have done that, but I definitely thought it would be easier if I didn’t wake up. It was a very frightening place to be.”

Trisha says she now sees that it was also a very frightening place for her family. “I have eight sisters and we all grew up together on a dairy farm in the Galtee mountains. How would I describe it? Loud, wild but the most fun.

"My Mam is the real woman in agriculture. She and Dad milk about 40 cows, but Mam is the woman driving it forward, her whole life is in farming. I am trying to get her to come to the conference but I don’t think I can pull her away from the cows.”

Family support

“My sisters and my Mam, they are great women who are a great support but back then, they were frightened for my future.

"They could see that I felt trapped and that I was carrying not just a huge amount of weight but also a huge amount of guilt and self-blame.

“Growing up, I had always been heavy and had a big appetite. But living out in the country, it’s not like I was going into the shop next door eating too many sweets. It was more a case of too many spuds or running up to Nana’s to have a second dinner.

“When I went to college though, that was when things really escalated. Lots of late nights, cheap food and not taking care of myself all had an impact. And then I started working in Jacobs on the Mall and used my career as an excuse; ‘Sure how could you lose weight when you were a chef surrounded by food all day?’”

That’s not to say that Trisha didn’t try different weight loss options over the years – crash diets, all the weight loss clubs, shakes, the lot. But it was a vicious circle.

“I’d hit a goal and I’d go back to my old way of eating and put back on the weight and then some.”

I cried the whole way home on Christmas Eve because I was convinced that was my last Christmas working as a chef

By Christmas 2018, she was 26 stone. “I really was at my lowest point. Those weeks before Christmas are very busy when you work in a restaurant but that year, I kept having to take breaks and sit down when I could.

"I cried the whole way home on Christmas Eve because I was convinced that was my last Christmas working as a chef. I love being a chef but I couldn’t see how I could keep going.

“Then the next day, I cooked the Christmas dinner, as I always had. My sister lives down the lane and the kids weren’t feeling the best so I said we would drop down the dinner to them.

I didn’t realise how frightening that experience also was for my sister, to see me in that state

"I am not joking, it’s a two-minute walk but I just couldn’t fathom how I would make it up and down and the lane so I hopped into my Dad’s jeep with my other sister Ann Marie. I got stuck between the seat and the wheel.

"Ann Marie, who was pregnant at the time had to pull me out. I made her swear not to tell the others, I was so embarrassed. But I didn’t realise how frightening that experience also was for my sister, to see me in that state.”

Turning things around

“This wasn’t the only moment that made me change my life around. There were other moments along the way that I am going to try and talk about at the conference, but the point is I knew something had to change.”

I have been very honest on Instagram and I’ll be the same at the conference

Trisha also promises to share the highs and lows of the journey, that incredible feeling when for the first time in 17 years, she flew on an airplane and heard the seatbelt click, without an extender and her hurt on another flight when a man took a picture of her to shame her in a Whatsapp message.

“I have been very honest on Instagram and I’ll be the same at the conference. I have lost seven stone and I have another six and a half to go but for me, it’s not the number on the scales.

"I have lost weight but more importantly I have gained something, a love for the feeling of being healthy.”