Achieving my ideal weight with a nutritionist

I had my last baby in 2011. And I was proud of myself that I lost all my pregnancy weight gained in 2012 through sheer effort in diet and exercise. Yet within a span of merely two years, I packed 10kg back on and I started sporting a pregnant belly by the end of 2014.

In fact, my journey with Halley Medical Aesthetics started mainly because of the effects of my excessive weight gain over these few years. Although I’ve reduced my weight from 56kg to 52kg through exercise in 2015 and 2016, and I’ve also achieved a more sculpted look through freezing my thigh fats and knee fats at Halley Medical Aesthetics, I felt that I needed just a bit more help in getting back to being less than 50kg.

Well, as is commonly known, exercise is only one component of weight loss. Diet, in fact, is just as important. I’m not talking about going on crash diets; rather it is about eating the right foods for the body to lose weight, and to subsequently maintain the ideal weight.

During my recent consultation with Dr. Terence Tan during my CoolSculpting review session, he referred me to the in-house nutritionist at Halley Medical Aesthetics to help me achieve my goal as CoolSculpting is for body contouring and fat reduction, not weight loss per se.

Treatment: Quick Slim Programme

I met the nutritionist, Jean, in December last year for the first consultation.

She suggested the Quick Slim Programme for me. The Quick Slim Programme includes: 4 1 hour slimming consultations with qualified nutritionist + 4 doctor consultations + 3 types of medications for 3 months.

During the consultation, she took measurements of:

1. my blood pressure,

2. waist-line (no photo for the measurement as I was wearing a romper and I had to remove it so Jean could get an accurate reading) and

3. weight

After that, I was asked to complete a questionnaire to have an overview of my current diet.

With that in mind, she went into a more detailed analysis of my usual meals taken during the day – breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.

Based on the findings of my usual food intake, Jean advised me on:

• • quality and quantity of food intake – I should cut out deep-fried food like my favourite fried fishballs from Old Chang Kee, replace bakery buns with healthier, low-calorie options for breakfast for instance

• • Portion sizing – half the plate should be filled with veggies and fruit, protein like salmon should be about palm-sized portion, carbs like rice should be a quarter of the plate.

• Physical activity – I need to move more than I eat in order to lose weight. She explained the energy balance theory where the calories I expend through exercise must be more than the calories I consume from food in order for weight loss to occur.

Throughout the session, Jean was very professional and frank about my diet choices. Although she was forthright about what I should remove from my diet, she showed empathy. She also tried to offer alternatives or suggest that I could take certain foods at a lower frequency and have a smaller portion instead of cutting it out entirely.

I mean what’s life without some sweet food right? 😀

My task for the first month

For the first month, Jean prescribed four boxes of Optifast (a meal replacement product from Nestlé).

I was to replace one meal a day with Optifast. We agreed on replacing my breakfast with Optifast as it’s the most convenient meal to replace for me.

What is Optifast | Optifast is a meal replacement product by Nestlé prescribed during the Quick Slim consultations as part of the solution to weight loss. It is only 160 calories, yet offers 14g protein and most importantly, is nutritionally complete.

Optifast is a clinic-only meal replacement product that can only be consumed under the guidance of a qualified nutritionist or doctor. It is a clinically-proven meal replacement product to help with weight loss, improve health, and lower weight-related health risks.

There are a total of three flavours: chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. I opted for two boxes of chocolate and two boxes of strawberry. There are a total of 7 packs in each box.

I’ve never taken any meal replacement shakes before so I was initially apprehensive about its taste and how it’d hold up as a meal.

The Optifast however turned out to be really yummy, like really delicious chocolate/ strawberry milk. It’s really convenient too since all I have to do is to empty the contents into the shaker and shake and voila, breakfast is served and finished in less than a minute.

I totally had no problem finishing up the four boxes (28 packs). I alternated the flavours every day so I won’t get tired of it. The Optifast actually managed to keep me full for a few hours, so I’m really impressed. If I have too many hours between breakfast and lunch, I’d take a small snack of a slice of reduced-fat cheese or some fruits.

Besides replacing my breakfasts with Optifast, I’ve also tried my best to follow the advice Jean gave during the consultation. Together with regular exercise in the past month, I’m happy to say I’ve started to see some improvement. But I’ll only know how much I’ve improved after my second consultation.

Will update my progress after my next consultation with Jean!

 

Halley Medical Aesthetics

277 Orchard Road #03-15
Orchard Gateway, Singapore 238858
T: 6737 8233 | www.halley.com.sg

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