Slimming Centres in Malaysia

*Tonight Mr. Hubs is offshore, hence I have been hogging the computer all night long. Muahaha. Esok mata lebam padan muka huhuhu.

I could have sworn that the SlimWorld website did not look like this before! It must be new, or I could be wrong. Anyway, I think it looks great. Wardina looks so HOT, in fact they all look gorgeous! I wonder why Amy Mastura is no longer one of the ambassadors...

I love their tagline:
"My work requires me to look good, and like many other women looking good means feeling good" quoted from Wardina I believe.

It may be apparent that I am a big advocate of slimming centres. Be it SlimWorld, Mayfair, London Weight Managment, Keep Slim, Busy Body, Marie France, you name it, I think they work provided that you:

• stick to a low calorie diet that is advised such as the Atkins low carb high protein diet or the Grapefruit diet. During this period you should not exercise because you will not have enough energy to do so on a low calorie diet.
• Go at least twice a week. If you take too long in between treatments, you will not see the results and this will only demotivate you. Plan ahead. The best time to go is during your maternity leave (for women who wish to shed pregnancy weight).

Remember, it is just temporary only. Once you have shed the weight, you can go back to a healthy high calorie diet and exercise a few times a week to keep the weight off. You can also wear Premium Beautiful for example to stay in shape. More on Premium Beautiful next week, insyaallah.

A dear friend who took up a slimming programme at Mayfair lamented today that she was not losing weight this week although she had not been consuming much food at all. It turned out that she had not had a single treatment at all this week! It is well known that by not eating the body will assume it is in starvation mode and will hang on to every bit of fat cell in the body. This is where the treatments come in and does the job for us. Go at least twice a week and insyaallah you could lose up to 1 kg per week.

So before I log off, I'd just like to take the opportunity to congratulate my friend Hanie for losing at least 13 kg so far at Keep Slim. Good luck for another 2 kg to lose babe. You look great! Congratulations and enjoy the new you ;D

Beribu-ribu Lemon

I went to SlimWorld with a RM2000 budget. Sebab masa tu ternampak iklan pakej sekitar harga tersebut. Boy was I in for a surprise!

Susah nak terangkan apa sebenarnya isi kandungan pakej yang ditawarkan kerana ianya bergantung kepada keperluan individu tersebut. Tambahan pula keberkesanan rawatan bergantung juga kepada komitmen yang diberikan terhadap penjagaan makanan. Jika anda betul-betul mengikuti diet yang disarankan, lagi cepatlah proses pelangsingan anda, lebih berbaloi-baloi lah investment anda. Kalau asik curi2 makan je, atau malas pergi buat treatment, maka lambatlah proses tersebut. Maka pakej RM3000 katakan, yang mungkin sudah mencukupi untuk sesetengah individu, tidak semestinya memenuhi keperluan anda.

So which package is suitable for you? It totally depends on your budget and target weight loss. However, obviously, lagi mahal pakej tersebut sebenarnya lebih menguntungkan. Walaubagaimanapun tidak dinafikan memang susah untuk mebuat keputusan kerana tidak tahu keberkesanannya.

Tektik yang digunakan untuk memancing pelanggan adalah:
*saya menjalani rawatan di Putrajaya Branch. Ianya mungkin berbeza di tempat lain.

1. Membuat background check pelanggan. Kerja apa. Suami kerja apa.
2. Memberitahu pakej kategori mahal. Ini untuk desensitize you. Yelah, 5 ribu tak la semahal 10 ribu kan? Pandai ko ye.
3. Meletakkan tawaran same-day offer. Ni mesti sebab dah buat background check aku nih. Kononnya hari ni aja offer, kalau datang next time or even next day tak boleh bagi offer yang sama. Yang ni memang mangkuk sebab dia tau suamiku outstation masa tu. What ever!

Pada mulanya (setelah di-desensitized-kan) saya telah mengambil pakej dalam sekitar RM4000 kerana tertarik dengan tawaran yang diberikan. Setelah menjalani rawatan, owh alangkah terkezutnya daku apabila mendapati ‘ampule ajaib’ begitu berkesan! Maka terjebaklah lagi dengan menambah beberapa ribu lemon, khas untuk ‘ampule ajaib’ sahaja. Padan muka, dulu tak nak amik pakej mahal sikit yang lebih menguntungkan!

Note that kalau anda bersalin normal, pakej seperti diatas sudah memadai. Tapi sebab saya c-section, maka lepas tu terjebaklah pula dengan pakej khas untuk perut yang menggunakan rawatan infra-red, rainbow treatment dan slimming mask. Hasilnya? OK la, berkesan, tapi menyesal ambik sebab patutnya kalau nak tambah pakej, amik je lagi pakej ‘ampule ajaib’ untuk keseluruhan badan termasuk perut!

So, what was the damage? Tepuklah dada tanya selera, nak badan cantik atau handbag cantik? Huhuhu…

(Kalau beli di KLCC…)

(Kalau beli obersea can get more value for money…hehehe)

Saranan saya, pergi lah slimming centre hanya jika anda benar-benar komited untuk menurunkan berat badan. If you are an average sized women looking to lose 10 kg, then sebagai benchmark, RM4000 can get you a reasonable deal *berpandukan harga lama, sekarang dengarnya dah semakin mahal :(. Jangan ambil pakej terlalu murah, tak berbaloi, lebih baik exercise je, lagi jimat.

*Slimming centres are for short term weight loss. A healthy lifestyle is needed for sustainable weight management.

The Slimworld Approach

*This was the approach catered for me. I was 58kg at the time. My height is 155cm. The approach will depend on the person's condition e.g. health/fitness history, obesity etc.

I went to Slimworld after 44 days of confinement. Do note that both of my children were delivered by C-section. This really affected the treatment approach; basically my mid section was initially completely ignored. So sebenarnya agak rugi di situ sebab they succeeded in tempting me to take the stomach package after the rest of my body dah kurus (although I was happy with the end results). Sebenarnya if I had known at that time that there were simpler and cheaper albeit slower ways to a slimmer tummy, memang tak perlu pun. Tapi masa tu tak tau, and alang2 menyeluk pekasam...So kepada sesiapa bersalin normal bolehlah concentrate on one package only.

Basically women tend to accumulate fat around certain areas of the body as illustrated below:
*Picture adapted from google. Click to enlarge.



Does it remind you of anyone?

"Tapi kau tak gemuk pun?"

Owh, ini adalah soalan biasa...Ada kalanya saya juga bersalah dalam memperlekehkan kerisauan wanita tentang masalah badan mereka. Maybe because women are so supportive/accepting of each other?

Tapi bukan ke prevention is better than cure?! Honestly, takkan nak tunggu sampai dah melarat baru nak terhegeh-hegeh? Habis tu nak tunggu sampai aku 75 kg baru nak do something about it? I have fat genes in me, so in short due to lack of health/nutrition knowledge, at 27 I was well on my way to obtaining the ultimate makcik body at 30! For those of you blessed with skinny genes, you are allowed to be smug bersyukur here.

The fact is that what a slimming centre helps the average woman do is eliminate the stubborn/hard fat that she has accumulated over the years in areas as illustrated above. And not only the subsurface fat, but those that surround and pad the internal organs as well. I lost 10 kg during the treatment. Although I accumulated 4 kg over the course of two years due to poor food choices, I did not see any substantial increase in inches, suggesting fat accumulation around organs. I am happy with my weight now, but I am currently focusing on decreasing my body fat percentage.

Of course there are other ways to losing weight, especially through a healthy diet and exercise. How many times have we heard that before? And yet women still have weight issues. Most of us weren't taught by our parents on how to live a healthy lifestyle. For me it was and still is a self-learning and self-discovery process...

*I will be addressing some queries regarding the diet and especially the $$$$$ in future posts... Stay tuned!

Slimworld ~ Sesi ganyang dan penderaan yang berkesan

As promised, here I want to give you some insight into my Slimworld treatment.

1. They will ask you to follow a low carb diet. No fruits allowed, no dark meet allowed, no sugar, no food and bla bla bla. Since this was temporary whilst the sessions helped to increase the body's metabolism, so I followed it more or less.
2. Makan kena berhenti sebelum kenyang. OK.
3. Kena minum 3 liter air sehari. I did this religiously.
4. No exercise. No complaints here!

Sessions included in no particular order:
1. Detox of the lymphatic system. Guna electrodes. Relatively tak sakit.
2. Body contour system yang seolah2 membuat 300(?) 900(?) situps or something along those lines. Guna electrodes. Relatively tak sakit
3. Sesi ganyang badan dengan tangan, menggunakan minyak ampule ajaib serta garlic oil. I swear that the effect was like dissolving the fat cells! Paling mencekik darah yet very effective! Sakit macam nak tercabut nyawa.
4. Sesi ganyang badan dengan mesin. Sakit juga macam nak tercabut nyawa.
5. Wrap dengan cling film and jemur dalam sauna for 20 minutes. Sakit tengkuk ooo dok dalam tmpt sempit tu.
6. Hot blanket.
7. Infra-red treatment.
8. Slimming salts and mask.

Of course each session would just be 2 or 3 of the items above. Tidak dibenarkan membuat lebih, I guess because they would rather not anyone dying on the premises. Owh, and be prepared to be black and blue all over for a few weeks.

So selepas pantang dan sementara masih cuti bersalin dan sementara sang suami outstation, saya mengambil peluang pergi 3 times a week. There would be a weighing session after each visit. Here you could see with your very own eyes the weight coming off slowly yet surely ~ up to 500g sometimes. There was evidence of fatty substance in the stool even, indicating elimination of the evil stuff.

The good news is that after a few read: many sessions, the body gets used to being beaten up and it doesn't feel so painful anymore. After further sessions the whole experience was rather pleasant and you could actually take a nap whilst diganyang. Ceh, masa ni macam pro gitu, no hal...

When Mr hubby came home, he was delighted with the outcome to say the least. Tau pun. Susah gila kot mula2 nak convince dia that it was going to be a whole lot of money well spent!

*Image googled

Slimworld ~ My Best Kept Secret

After 2 years, I have finally decided to sort of publically confess.

Pertama sekali saya ingin mohon maaf kepada sesiapa yang terkejut sebab by not informing/sharing I sort of lied by ommission. But I did it because I didn't really want people to judge me at that time.

"Gulliblenya minah ni, sanggup bayar mahal sebab percaya boleh slim, ceh."
"Ko tak gemuk pun? Apesal ko nak gi slimworld? Bazir duit je!"
"Ha? Slimworld? Tak mahal ke?"
"Kau exercise je lah, kalau tak kurus macam mana, buang duit je!"

Ini antara komen2 yang takut didengari...Biarlah rahsia, sementara masa menentukan samada usahaku pada masa itu boleh mendatangkan hasil.

Anyway, at that time, I had just finished the confinement period after the birth of my second child. Kebetulan ternampak advert dekat TV one day and thought, what the heck, I need to try this. Kebetulan husband pulak masa tu was stationed in Korea, so perfect opportunity to focus on myself. During the pregnancy I had made the initiative to keep relatively fit by going swimming. In fact I continued swimming until the final weeks. During confinement pun I tried to minimize eating fatty food and snacks, but choosing appropriate food to eat was still a huge struggle. Amende aku nak makan nih?! I had had enough of being frumpy! It was time for an intervention! Bersemangat waja betul time tu haha.

So on the 44th day after confinement, I drove over to the Putrajaya centre and took on the challenge. Oh the horror! Oh the torture! It was the epitome of No Pain No Gain!!! But that is for another day ;P More details later, I promise.

Meanwhile, kebetulan sesiapa yang join at that time dapat free tickets for a Gala Dinner with Slimworld Stars. Best sangat to be up close and personal with my fave celebrities. Check out the frumpy me in the pics *bracing myself*.

Slimword Ambassadors. From left: Wardina, Chinese celebrity sorry lupa nama, Datin Norjuma, Ziana Zain, Amy Mastura.

Amy was just oh so petite, pretty and ever so sweet!

Oops awkward pose, sebab ni semua curi2 tangkap gambar. Ziana nampak garang di sini tapi she's quite friendly actually. Check out her fabulous speedy ;)

Owh yang ni keterujaanku tak dapek nak dibendung lagi haha! I LOVE WARDINA! She is sooo tall, beautiful, extremely friendly and approachable!

So was I happy with the results? Heck yes! Alhamdulillah. The after pic below was taken a few months back with my weight at approx 52kg. Sebenarnya after 3 months of joining Slimworld, I was 48kg, whereby I lost roughly 10 kg. Ini bermakna, I managed to keep most of the weight off after I finished my sessions. Masa tu agakla risau dengan kekurusan yang melanda la pulak? The 4 kg increase was a cumulative effect from raya 2008 and 2009 kerana kemelantakan yang agak kritikal! In future posts I will share with you more info about mistakes I made in terms of food choices and lack of exercise that led to the weight increase. Biasala kan...ni semua trial and error! In case you have any queries about Slimworld, feel free to ask me any questions ;)

Before After