overweight <\/a>and she encouraged me to do something that might move my body a bit, but not necessarily for weight loss.<\/p>\n\u201cAt that time, I gave up alcohol for a month, I gave up cigarettes for a month and I decided I\u2019d go and do some swimming. I joined the gym for the first time ever. I went with the intention of it being a month-long reset, but now I go to the gym all the time, I don\u2019t drink and I don\u2019t smoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was doing all of these positive changes but I wasn\u2019t necessarily losing any weight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orla\u2019s sister works in the medical field, and suggested that Orla might consider bariatric surgery. Her first response was absolutely not, but after discussing it she realised that it may be the best option for her. She went into the Mater Private to have a consultation with the surgeon and any worries she had were immediately alleviated.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, you have the disease of obesity and it is not your fault,\u201d Orla recalled. \u201cIt was the first time that anyone had taken the shame and the self blame out of obesity for me. Self blame is the thing that blocked me from doing anything for a very long time. To have someone say, \u2018You don\u2019t need to blame yourself, it\u2019s a medical disease and we\u2019re going to help you with it\u2019, was the most revolutionary thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orla underwent six months of preparation ahead of her surgery, including talking to a psychologist, meeting her surgeon a number of times, meeting with an endocrinologist and a dietitian. The surgery went smoothly and now, five years down the line and 13 stone down, Orla is so grateful that she went ahead with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have so much more energy,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m able to run, for the first time ever. I\u2019m a teacher and able to have more energy with the children in my class and my nieces. I\u2019m able to explore clothes that I wasn\u2019t able to before. Before, there wasn\u2019t one item in the whole of Dundrum Shopping Centre that I could buy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a routine surgery recently and they were checking over results and said they were pristine. All my medical stuff comes back perfect. It\u2019s such a relief, for me and I\u2019m sure for my family and friends. It was something that I was worried about but it felt too overwhelming to know where to start so I buried my head in the sand a little bit. It\u2019s great to feel that\u2019s not a worry anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her weight loss has also had a positive impact on how she feels mentally.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen a huge difference in my confidence,\u201d she said. \u201cMy view of myself and how I allow other people to treat me has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Orla, she really wants to spread the attitude that obesity is a medical disease and should be treated as one.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would just love to totally take self blame away from anyone,\u201d she said. \u201cThere hopefully is a movement towards that, of people maybe having less judgement and understanding it better.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can follow Orla on Instagram at @orlas.operation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dublin woman Orla has opened up to RSVP Magazine about the turning point to shed an impressive 13…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[615,103,61,60,37825,2114],"class_list":["post-287578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-dublin","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-real-life","tag-weight-loss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Orla](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0_proxy-54.jpg\")
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