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BACK IN 2016, TV3 presenter and newsreader Elaine Crowley took part in Celebrity Operation Transformation alongside Gerald Kean, Karl Spain and Brenda Donoghue.

In a recent interview featured in this month’s RTÉ Guide, 40-year-old Elaine expressed regret and said that if she was offered the chance to do it again, she’d turn it down.

The crew were great, but for me it wasn’t a good idea.

Elaine also said that “Psychologically, it can be quite damaging to be weighed in such a manner”, and that she felt increasing pressure as the series went on.

While I was in a good place mentally and physically when I was asked to be on the show, when I agreed I began to panic. Mentally, it knocked me back into binge eating. I thought “Well, I’m a fatty anyway, so I might as well binge.”

So I put on weight, lost it and put it all back on again. I wouldn’t put myself under that pressure or scrutiny ever again.

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The Midday host hopes shes can get a healthier message and attitude towards exercise and dieting across in her new TV3 fitness segment ‘Train with Elaine’. Explaining that many of us have “totally f**ked up relationships with our bodies and health”, she said that she is a “living, breathing example of that.”

For years, I hated myself for the way I looked. Now I don’t give a fiddler’s about that anymore. I’m grand, my body works and I’m healthy and strong.

Now my focus is on health, muscle, strength and fitness. It’s not about weight. I’ve been way skinnier than I am now and I have been miserable. I hope the message with  ‘Train with Elaine’ is that if you have a strong healthy body, your mind will follow.

Back in 2013, Elaine opened up to Irish Country Magazine about suffering with depression.

I was existing not living. I stopped socialising, I stopped going out and I was avoiding my friends and family. I was coming home from work, getting into bed and saying there until the following morning.

Elaine thanked her family and said she was lucky to have them helping her through all of her difficulties with mental illness.

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