Why Why Weight Ireland® & What Makes Us Different?
If you haven’t heard of us already, we are a unique and multi award winning weight loss and fitness business. We are an Irish business and launched in 2012 and had members across the whole of Ireland, the UK, France, Spain, Switzerland, and Greece and even as far as the Cayman Islands, Australia, Canada and America. After initially being completely online we moved to open a physical building so we could offer an even more personal approach.
With the obesity epidemic in Ireland out of control, 2 out of 3 adults on the island of Ireland are now overweight, of which, only 40% of adults now classify themselves as being overweight. This indicates that thousands of men and women are still failing to recognise that they themselves are overweight, and are putting their own health at increased risk of Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.
A little about me and how it all started:
My name is Hannah Nolan. I was made redundant in 2011 and it was around this time that I reached my goal weight of 8 1/2 stone. During the previous years, I had gotten married, had two children, and moved house. My weight gradually built up over the years and when I was just over 16 stone I saw a photo of myself holding my son and I was so shocked; my skin was grey and I just looked ill!! I said enough was enough and decided to do something about my weight. I tried every diet and bought every gadget on the market to help me lose weight. Most things would work for the first couple of weeks but then either I’d be nearly ill from eating nothing or my weight would start to go back on. When we moved from Dublin to Tinahely, South Wicklow there were no fitness classes or meetings near enough for me to attend with 3 small children at home so I couldn’t get any advise or help from anyone. I had to do it alone.
A friend of mine suggested I keep a food diary to track what I was eating. I did this and started to write down everything I was eating and drinking. I was soon able to see patterns in my eating and soon my weight began to come down. I was still able to eat the foods I
enjoyed…just in smaller portions. I had also never exercised in my life so I began to go walking (previously, trying to put the kids buggy into the car boot made me out of breath). I started adding a few more minutes each time I went out for a walk. After a while I started to shuffle from electricity post to electricity post; and again, each time I went out I tried jogging to the second post instead of the first and before I knew it was entering my first race. Since that first day running, I have come fourth in a Full Marathon, won the Wicklow Novice & Intermediate Cross Country Championships, Wicklow Senior Road Race Championships and various other races around Leinster. (My goal is to get that sub 3 hr. marathon but at the moment I am training and trying to recover my form after a life obstacle, and that is trying to recover from Lyme Disease.)
While I got closer and closer to my goal weight the more and more I researched how to start my own business, as finding a job was seemingly impossible at the time. I was constantly being asked how I had lost my weight and people were asking for me to help them. It was at this time I decided to retrain in Fitness & Nutrition while I setup the business. I wanted my business to be everything that was real to life. Its not real life to be drinking shakes 3 times a day. Its not real life to starve yourself every day to lose weight and its not real life to live off meal replacements or even off a set food plan. They just aren’t sustainable. My business had to be different to everything that was available and with that thought, Why Weight Ireland® was born. I managed to sort out the business and paperwork side of things pretty quickly, contacted the companies I needed to help me develop my ideas and get them onto a computer, spend (invest) every penny I had and before I knew it Why Weight Ireland® was taking memberships and helping people lose weight and get fit.
Why Weight Ireland® offers people a real chance to lose weight successfully;
food & exercise diary, online fitness videos that people can do from home or even from their mobile devices, personal & tailored fitness plans and of course the important one…SUPPORT, and not just sending an email to an email address and receiving a reply in a week or so, every email is replied to personally and as soon as possible. I know how hard it is to lose weight and sometimes you are just wanting to off load or get someone to say, “everything will be okay, keep going”, and waiting a few days or even a week for a reply can mean the difference between success and failure. At Why Weight Ireland®, all emails are responded to as soon as possible and personally – NOT from a machine or an automated response.
With the success of the online business I was receiving a lot of enquiries from people looking to do private weigh-ins. With this in mind, I decided to open my first fitness studio here in Unit 2 Riverside Business Centre, Tinahely, Co. Wicklow. I offer various fitness classes for both adults & children. I offer free private weigh-ins and consultations for members of the diary and charge a minimal fee of €5 for non-members. (Far less than the hundreds some businesses charge for the same service).
With the new studio up and running this became my “little baby” and was taking all my time so I decided to let go of the online side of the business and keep focusing on the very personal approach of seeing people at my physical studio in Tinahely. I love the one to one nature rather than the online aspect of seeing and dealing with people. And it also allows me to continue my training which takes up a good piece of time and as well as writing articles for various magazines and also public speaking events, which I have done many for both corporate and community based events.
I train local national school cross country teams as well as various kids fitness classes, which I love doing as its great to see young children working out and being healthy.
I am very passionate about what I do and I believe in what Why Weight Ireland® stands for. I believe it offers the best services available and our member’s results prove it. My overall goal is to help people change their perception of weight loss and exercise, help them believe that it can be done and show them how to do it.
I have a lot of exciting things happening in the coming 12 months so a lot to look forward to.
It is hard juggling everything but I was always told ‘it takes ten years hard work to be an over night success’ 🙂
Check out and join me on our Official Facebook Page www.Facebook.com/whyweightireland