Weightloss Warrior


I have battled with obesity my entire life, after realising in my teens that I didn’t fit into the same size jeans as my friends.

After a health scare, I lost a massive ten stone (140lb) in 2010 with the help of Weight Watchers, and I celebrated by making a charity hike to Everest Base Camp, with a technical climb on Island Peak.

In my forties, I began an adventure with physical activity which saw me climb mountains (big ones), run triathlons, kayak white-water rapids and complete long-distance swims in rivers, lakes and seas. I even wrote a book about what I believed was my ‘cure’ – One Foot In Front Of The Other.

The weight loss remained for 6 years, before inexorably creeping back, in spite of my extremely athletic lifestyle.

In January 2019, a friend gifted me a membership to Slimming World, cutting through my denial and forcing me to accept I had a problem. I lost a sizeable amount of weight, and then the pandemic struck. I was terrified by the responsibility of caring for my 96 year old Dad alone – I was virtually housebound and unable to travel to swim in the sea, which was my one remaining exercise. I gave up and I gave in, and today I’m topping the scales at 25 stone.

I find every day a battle, and every food counter a war-front, knowing that being overweight is contributing negatively to my overall health, particularly as I get older. I’m at risk of diabetes, cancer and heart disease to name just a few. My skin has started breaking down and small cuts don’t heal as well as they do and tend to become ulcerous. My weight seems to have concentrated itself on my stomach, which sits on my lap, and is very sore where the skin attaches to the rest of my body.

Now I’m also fighting arthritis in my hips, but there’s no way I can have a hip replacement while I’m 25 stone.

There is a certain irony that I’m a member of the board of directors of ECPO the European Coalition for People Living with Obesity. It’s a charity working collaboratively across Europe to improve the lives of people living with obesity; through advocacy, policy and education.

Through my association with ECPO, I’ve helped spread the message that obesity is recognised as a complex chronic relapsing disease that increases a person’s risk of other diseases and comorbidities. However, I have never been treated for it! Now, for the first time ever I’ve arranged to see an endocrinologist, I’m seeing my GP, but also a dietician and psychotherapist.

I am determined to finally get my MIND AND MY WEIGHT under control, and get back out onto the hills in the future. There has to be more than ‘eat more and move less’ if I started gaining weight while still participating in triathlons and long distance swimming. So this is my new adventure. I’m setting out on a voyage to discover why my mind turns back to food when challenged, why my body stores weight even when I’m active, and what I can do to deal with that.

I’m going to record my journey – starting today – and have dusted off my old website to start cataloguing my new adventure.

Check out the WEIGHTLOSS WARRIOR page, on www.teenagates.com.

And join me online as I join the panel in the ECPO Patient Lounge on Weight Regain – on Tuesday July 6th at www.eurobesity.org

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I’m not going to kill my old stories about me – I’m going to leave them here below for motivation!

Pushing Boundaries 

Carrauntoohil March 2013

Beautiful Carrauntoohil, County Kerry

Teena Gates has earned a reputation as a ‘Weightloss Warrior’ as she continues to battle against obesity and struggles to maintain an active, healthy lifestyle while caring for #Dad(93) and #GoogleDog.

Turned ‘adventurist’ after losing more than half her own bodyweight on a journey from morbid obesity to Everest Base Camp, in her book One Foot In Front Of The Other, Teena candidly explores the mental battle that ensues in both losing weight and ‘getting off the couch’ for the first time at 23 stone.

Today Teena continues to push her own personal boundaries as well as motivating some of the largest corporate teams in the country with her inspiring presentations.

Women-In-Business2

The veteran broadcaster continues to climb mountains and travel on new adventures around the world.  She has kayaked white-water rapids on the Nile in Uganda, swum without a wet-suit in the icy Barents Sea between Norway and Russia; and camped on a frozen lake while hunting the Northern Lights by Husky Dog Sleigh.

Teena is encouraging a whole new generation to ‘walk their way back to fitness’  with her #GetActive campaign. She acknowledges that not everyone wants to climb a mountain; but she truly believes that we all have our mountains to climb, both in our personal and professional lives. How we prepare, plan and believe, is a measure of how we succeed.

What other people are saying

    • I watched a story being etched on a mountain in front of my own eyes, of how the will to achieve can make the impossible possible.  I looked at Teena’s fervour, flair, passion and conviction and knew I was looking at someone who had a goal and was going to achieve it, through the power of the mind, commitment, desire and the hunger to succeed.  Pat Falvey, Adventurer, Author, Film Producer.

    • The power of the mind and human spirit to overcome any obstacle, an astonishing story, book and person. A story that needs to be told. Ian Taylor (Ian Taylor Trekking)

    • What a remarkable story and what a remarkable lady. I can’t wait to see what other goals you take on from here. Tom

    • Every page of her book tells my own story. I can’t believe it. It’s like she’s sitting here beside me, feeling what I feel, and wishing what I wish. I’m going to make changes – from today. (FB Friend).

    • I climbed that mountain beside her, laughed when she laughed and cried when she cried. The red-dress will stay with me for a long time. Mary.

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Climb Your Own Mountain

2010 – Training for Everest/Hope Expedition

Hi, I’m Teena Gates, and my big adventure started in Dublin on a hospital trolley. Ordered to lose weight after a health scare at 23 stone, I ended up losing half my own bodyweight and trekking to Everest Base camp, discovering along the way that we all have our mountains to climb. I found that preparation and hard work were the keys to success. As Head of News at the award winning 98FM Radio, I often wrote about obesity but I never related the words to myself. The stunning photo above by our expedition photographer, Hugh Chaloner, shows my descent from Island Peak in Nepal @ 20,305 ft.

 2011 – Training for the Alps & Chernobyl Children International

In 2011 I found myself heading to the Alps and to the Irish Sea, in separate challenges to raise money for Chernobyl Children International. ATI ‘Adventure Training Ireland’ helped me make the Irish Sea Crossing in a very tiny 21ft boat.

2012 – Concern’s First Tri-Adventure Challenge in Uganda

Mt Elgon

The Irish charity Concern saw me travel to Uganda in 2012 for a multi-trip adventure that saw us climb an extinct volcano at altitude before cycling 200k to kayak a grade 3 rapid on the mighty Nile.

Liffey Descent, Dublin, 2013

Lucan3

In 2013, ‘Extreme’ Presenter, White Water Kayaker and Former National Freestyle Champion, Kipper Maguire challenged me to join him in a gruelling 40k cycle followed by the Liffey Descent marathon kayak race in Dublin for LauraLynn, Ireland’s only childrens’ hospice.

Hunting #NorthernLights by Husky Dog Sled, 2014

IMG_1529

2014 began with winter skills training in Scotland with Extreme Ireland – followed by an expedition to Norway to hunt the Northern Lights by Husky Dog sleigh.  The big challenge came in July, when I battled injury in time to climb Mount Elbrus in Russia with Pat Falvey Irish and Worldwide Adventures.

Summit Day, Mt Elbrus

Summit Day, Mt Elbrus

A few months later, I swapped ice for sun and found myself leading a ‘Travel Department’ team on a walking holiday in Spain, where we just couldn’t resist a hike to the top of Mulhacen, at 3.482 meters, the highest mountain of the Iberian Peninsula and, therefore, the Spanish mainland.

Topping Out in Spain

Topping Out in Spain

2014 was also the year where I struggled again with my weight and had to hit the diet sheets yet again with the introduction of my New Year’s Resolution #Fatburn2015.  My motto is to Dream, Dare and Do.  Put no limits on what you think you can achieve – if you want it, if you have the courage to go for it with no guarantee of success – if you have the plan to follow through – YOU CAN SUCCEED.  

 Teena rock

2016: I again lost my way and I found myself drowning in my ever increasing weight until in 2018, unable to ride my bike or climb my local Wicklow Hills, I made a New Year Resolution to return to the mountains. I had previously visited the DSPCA rescue shelter in Dublin to foster a Jack Russell to keep my 93-year-old dad company and ended up coming home with a five year old German Shepherd called Google! I thought I was rescuing Google, but I think in the end, she may have been rescuing me.

2019: This year has started with a blast, losing ten percent of my bodyweight, or 2.5 stone in two months, and getting evermore active in the hills with Google. The high-points have yet to come.

 

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