Operation Transformation review: Slice of success for Sarah with pizza treat
Sarah has already started to reap the rewards of her efforts on Operation Transformation.
According to some, the third Monday of January is the most depressing day of the year. It seems our five Operation Transformation participants were feeling that this week.
“You only live once,” says John as he sticks a packet of cakes into his shopping basket in the episode’s opening sequence. Poor Stefano is even cutting his cigarettes in half in order to make them last longer. To be fair, if everyone was asking us if we were hungry every minute, we’d probably be doing the same.
The 32-year-old hairdresser had cut down on his smoking with the aim of giving up completely. After returning to work for the first time since the series began, however, he found himself sneaking out more - and people noticed.
Nutritionist Aoife Hearne isn’t having a great week either. She was speaking with the leaders via Zoom during this week’s check-ins due to a positive Covid-19 test. She tells Stefano that he missed his weight target by one pound, but the experts aren’t disappointed. The Clonmel native says that he feels great. His waistline is shrinking, he has a “D Day” set for his last cigarette, and Dr Sumi Dunne is going to help get him there.
Elsewhere in Co Tipperary, super mum Sarah is equally determined. “Every time I’m not in the house it can’t break down,” she tells her family after she discovers they ate pizza when she wasn’t home. Her four children are devastated. Her guilty-looking husband Padraig sneakily tells the camera it won’t be the last pizza he gives them. Then, her Covid-19 booster vaccine knocks her off her feet for most of the week.
But it doesn’t make as much of a difference as she feared. Kathryn Thomas is in awe when she sees her. The mum of four has lost five inches off her waist so far and dropped another four-and-half pounds this week. And she’s been given the best homework of all time - she must eat a pizza with her family.
Our other leaders are also feeling tested. In Cork, Kathleen is joking about picking up bottles of vodka during her weekly shop - before getting a positive result on an antigen test. Meanwhile, young mum Katie is missing her parents, who have been in the US since the show began.
John seems to be having a great time doing his shopping at least. Watching him 'phone a friend' in Lidl was better than any episode of Supermarket Sweep.
All three celebrated milestones at their check-ins this week and like Sarah and Stefano, seemed to have kicked the January blues for now.
