Beauty Talk Issue #3 - Post Partum Slimming (I Put Off 22 kgs in 9 Months! Proud Of It!)

Hi, after you have read through how I gained a 21kg from from pregnancy which I have posted in RSVP last month, I'm back with my slimming progress after I have given birth to Jayden Boy. 

Here we go :)

1^st month – Weight: 64kg. Confinement month. I was prohibited to step out of the house. The confinement lady Mrs Loh cooked a lot of heaty and fattening food, but my appetite has immediately gone back to same as before pregnant. Mrs Loh complained to my mother almost everyday, “Your daughter eat so little. She’s on diet so fast after delivery? My previous customer ate 1 whole chicken a day!” Goodness….

2^nd month – Weight: still > 60kg. Still on maternity leaves. Back to normal meals and diet. My weight somehow dropped a little as my water retention has dropped (no more swollen legs, scary). But still couldn’t fit my old clothes. I asked for company from my girl friends to shop around boutiques at Bangsar to renew my closet. There was nothing I could do for slimming first 2 months after delivery, as I went through c-section, so everyone was stopping me from slimming courses or traditional massage treatments. 

3^rd month – Weight: 58kg, and it just stopped there :( I was supposed to do something about it, but then realized that I had to spend most of my time with Jayden Boy.     Plus, I haven’t done up my action plan!

6^th month – Weight: 55kg. This time, it was really stagnant there and wouldn’t move at all. Still couldn’t fit myself to my old clothes. Many of you might think that 55kg is not a figure that should be worried about too much, but for one who used to be 47kg like myself, an increase in 8kg was considered a lot, for myself at least. My body shape was totally out. Sigh…Out of desperation, I called up the Cres My Slimming Room at Lot 10 for some advice, tempted to consider signing up for a slimming course. Why I chose Cres? Simply because they are using Cellnique products. I rely on Cellnique facial products a lot, and had no clue about which other slimming centres/products are better and reliable, so just made my choice based on familiarization. 

The friendly beauty advisor Hui Ling mentioned that my problem was not really serious, just need some toning and firming. Her suggestions:-

** Electropolysis – Aim to tone and rebuild muscles.

** Ultrasonolysis - Use of low frequency ultrasound waves to break down fats at the same time increase metabolism.

My total package charges was around RM1,600.00 which last about 10 sessions (if I still remember it correctly), a durations of 2 months plus.

** Meals – No strict diet needed, but have to cut down carbo intake. The variety of food intake was advised during my weekly visits. Sometimes she would advise to eat a lot of meat with small amount of rice/no rice for that particular week, as meat could help burn fat at faster pace. Other times she would ask to eat a lot of vege (selected), also with less rice, for the whole week. Some days I would go for normal meals, with grapefruit (which I find it a bit sour and bitter) after each lunch/dinner which help to burn fat as well. Out of all, I believe the main emphasis here is “LESS CARBO”….

9^th month – Weight: 46kg. Wala!, I was finally myself again! I am proud of myself!!

I passed by the Cres My Slimming Room at Lot 10 few months after that, and found that the shop has been closed, and space rented by a new facial saloon. Just got to know that there is one outlet opened in Gardens Mall.

Author’s note: 

I have been receiving the most frequently asked question by my peers, do slimming treatments really work? Would there be any re-bounce? Well, it obviously work well on me :) In fact the duration of my course, after every treatment session, I could still feel the treatment effect was still working for the entire week. And after I have completed the whole course in 2 months plus, I have lost 9kg! And my weight is still hover around 47kg currently, which is 5 years after I completed my slimming course with Cres.

Well, the question whether it works for everyone else, I strongly believe that it's about discipline. I was told by the beautician that in fact there are a lot a lot of ladies who have signed up slimming courses with beauty salons around the town, and there are a lot of them whom at the end commented and concluded that the slimming courses are not working for them even the most expensive course was subscribed. Their conclusion is "It's a waste of money". Normally all who signed up these courses were extremely keen, enthusiastic and determined at the beginning. They tend to follow exactly the instruction from the beautician. After a while, some of them still follow through and make it up, but some just loosen the spirit of it, and that's when problems occurred somehow. 

What do I mean? Normally upon signing up the slimming courses, the beautician would provide an advised schedule for the slimming sessions to the customers. For example, some courses require the customer to go through the treatment on weekly basis for the first few weeks, then followed by forth nightly until end of the course, which the time gap between one treatment to another is important. The persistence and determination has to be there! However, what my beautician has experienced a lot of her customers who were supposed to completed their courses for say within 3 months have dragged and lengthened their completion to 6 months. Some 8 months, and some even 12 months! Though the beautician might had made follow up calls to remind her customers for their next appointment, the feedback she normally received was they were to busy. 

In fact, slimming courses are designed by the specialists who has the relevant knowledge and specialties in this area. For every single instruction emphasized by the beautician i.e. timing, food intake etc has their implications which would have direct impact on the effectiveness of the entire slimming progress. Well, I guess I had been a good girl for the duration of my course (except I did sometimes still fell for my irresistible tit bits which is ok accordingly to the beautician), my slimming process had been so smooth. Cheers ;) 

Beauty Talk Issue #2 - My Post Partum Slimming Took A Little Longer (My Weight Increased By 21kg!)

Naturally, slimming is an issue bothering and wandering around my mind during pregnancy. One of the main negative points that cause us ladies to get worried about having babies is apparently gaining tremendous weight due to over eating to satisfy one's cravings that is so so so difficult to get rid of .....fats on waist, cellulite on thighs, looser and sagging butt etc.

I delivered Jayden Boy in July 2008. I still remember the first time when I went to the gynecologist, Dr Tan, for my check up and confirmed that I was pregnant for 7 weeks, the nurse at the clinic took my weight. It was 47kg (My height is 161cm). After that every time when I went for my regular check up on monthly basis, my weight gained pretty slow. When I reached my 6th month pregnancy, Doctor Tan asked me,"Are you on diet? Your baby is a little too small and you should start worrying a bit about it. With your baby's current growing progress, he (yes, it's a boy!) might later come out under weight to about 2.8-2.9kg, which is not healthy." My weight was about 55kg at the point of time.

And actually, some of my colleagues had just noticed that I was pregnant that time. One of the Finance Manager (whom I met in office every now and then, and already a mother of 2 kids) asked, "Wow, you are pregnant, wonderful. With this size, I think it's about 2 or 3 months right?" What! You must be kidding me. In fact, I didn't go on any diet at the point of time. My appetite was exactly the same as before I was pregnant, except that I was craving for sweeties a lot of time. I liked red bean soup or bubur chacha after dinner, and every morning before go to work, I would buy some sweet buns and candies (especially Mentos in berry flavours) from the convenience store opposite my office building and put at my work place for the convenience to satisfy my cravings for the day. Particularly, not to forget, my favourite sweeties during that time was the japanese mochi....mm....Everytime when I saw it 's sold somewhere I would surely grab a pack or two. Sweet sweet sweet stuff, sigh, I should feel lucky that I didn't get diabetic because of that. Anyhow, I started to increase my number of meals, and continued with the sweet stuff.

My whole pregnancy was smooth. My calcium level was good, sugar level was fine, and my baby was in healthy conditions all the time (even though there was 1 time I accidentally fell down from a staircase in my 5th month pregnancy, thank God for His blessings). I have asked the Doctor Tan (may be more than 10 times through out the whole pregnancy) whether I was having a healthy baby free from sickness especially down syndrome, she assured me again and again and again. She told me that if a baby has physical shortage or sickness, it can be detected via ultrasound screening which I was doing in every check ups. However if the baby has minor mental problem, it couldn't be detected via normal scanning.

For the last 2 month of my pregnancy my weight flew like nobody business. When I went for more frequent check ups as my delivery due date was getting nearby, Doctor Tan was surprised and asked "What have you been eating? Your weight flies so much,"

I went through my delivery via cesareans, and stayed in the hospital for 2 nights. I had to lie on bed whole day the first day after the operation, and managed to get up from bed to take a walk around the second day. I still remember when I was wandering around, some of the people thought that I was still pregnant and was waiting for delivery there....so sad...I started to get more worry and determined to find a way to slim down! I was 68kg in my 9th month pregnancy! A total gain of 21kg from my original weight! And my baby came out at 3.25kg, perfectly healthy weight. On one hand I was glad to be able to make it for my baby, but there was a feeling of guilt on the other hand, which I think only ladies could understand. Why? 68kg (total weight) - 3.25kg (my baby's weight) = 64.75kg (My weight!). Oh my God! 

7th month - 60kg

8th month - 64kg

9th month - 68kg!!!

Look at me I was so fat!

(to be continue...)

Beauty Talk Issue #1 – Express Dressing

How long do you spend on choosing, trying up different matches, and finally satisfied with your clothes matched every morning before you leave you home or the night before you go to sleep? This might be an issue hitting some of us who hope to get to dress up fast at any point of time and yet still appear to be fashionable and pretty anytime anywhere. 

Good news and thanks to the world of world wide web where handful of fashion gurus out there have shared their useful tips in express dressing. Some simple tips that worth a little of your moments for reading and sharing.
 
1. Choose clothes that mix and match easily
Whenever you decide to buy a blouse, skirt or pants, try to visualize your wardrobe to make sure that it matches and work well at least 2 or 3 other pieces in your closet. Apparently if you have a too outperform top that is not easy to be matched, the chances you will wear it is greatly reduced. And even if you have the chance to wear it but did not do a good matching job, you would look weird, and feel awkward. 

2. Stick with some primary colours
Choose 3 or 4 primary colours for clothings in your wardrobe, this will ease the mix and match process. Red, blue, green, black, brown, etc., are a lot easier to mix and match than buttercup yellow and tangerine orange. Sound a bit restricted right? But they will actually expand your wardrobe considerably, and also the potential to show your creativity coming out with different styles and feel from mix and match more pieces.

3. Go for classic styles pieces
Simple theory, basic clothing styles wear longer and mix easier than trendy, "of-the-moment" fashions. To make a difference, add some accessories to enhance you look. 

4. Choose clothes with easy maintenance
Buy clothes that you can and will maintain. If it's "dry clean only" or requires a lot of ironing, it will probably spend more time hanging in your closet that be worn on your back. This definitely against the concept of express clothing.

5. Go for quality clothing
Choose clothes at the best quality that you can afford, which will last longer, unless if you plan to wear the piece for only few times and throw or give it away.

In nutshell, to achieve express clothing, you don't need a lot of money or even lots of clothes, but a nice selection of well-chosen pieces and a little time and patience to discover great combinations that you can put to work in your closet. Cheers