miemonique

Survival tips:

First of all – apply in advance, it’s a long lasting process, even though it’s in Denmark!

Be outgoing, positive and welcoming!

If you’re having a bad day, it is just too bad – you have to put it away and give your clients positivity and motivation, because that’s why they are here!

Be prepared of people to become very upset or even start cying, if they haven’t lost weight.

It’s what they fight for every week, so if you have not been in a situation like theirs, try to imagine how they feel and show empathy and figure out what can be done to move forward towards their goal.

Try every week to check up on any new research about food and nutrition, or if something is mentioned in the news, because the members will ask you about it, and expect you to know about it.

Be creative in your own kitchen every day, and take pictures to show the members.

That makes them believe that they can do it, as well and get them motivated.

Make appealing slide shows and bring vegetables, spices or whatever you’re talking about that given day.

It makes it interesting for the members, and those who normally don’t stay for the meetings, often does because they get curious.   

If you’re in doubt about something, ask your colleagues – they are there to help you :-)

... And at last; you just have to put up with ‘drudgery’ once in a while ;-)

Future tasks:

I believe that Vægtkonsulenterne puts too little focus on physical activity. So a possible task could be to do e.g. physical activity boot camps. Many members want to know how they can work out in an easy manner, without being a member of a fitness center.

Development of meal plans for online users – online users don’t go to a physical department every week, so they need new inspiration and motivation all the time, to hang on to the program. New meal plans, like the one I did – Fitness Week, makes them curious and continuous about reaching their goal.

Inspirational talks about psychological issues towards losing weight – I performed one presentation about what happens psychological wise when you go through a weight loss process, by using some of the knowledge and skills gained from coaching class, and this was something the members liked and wanted to discuss for a long time. So I definitely think that they miss some facts etc. from this perspective.

More focus on how to handle the members who for instance take some medicine which interferes with losing weight – they already have one disease to fight with, so when they don’t lose weight because of their medicine, it can be a very big setback for them.

Inspirational talks about the lifestyle diseases you are prone to get when you’re either overweight or obese. Many of the members ‘just want to be skinny’, but I feel that it's very important to clarify that it’s not only about being skinny, but also about what happens inside the body, which is actually whats the real issue.

I would happily recommend interning at Vægtkonsulenterne – my internship have helped me grow and made me reflect up upon how we can actually use the knowledge from the class room, in real practice. So, thank you, for an educational experience! :-)

Within the first week of my internship I got a task, which was to design a meal plan, that met all the requirements from the so called ‘kostprogram’ and I could only make use of recipes from Vægtkonsulenterne. Furthermore I should come up with a theme for the week, and also make kind of a sales speech for why this particular week plan is ideal to try out.

I should probably mention that this specific program, which is developed by Vægkonsulenterne themselves, is a unique program, where members are able to eat from all food groups, but they need to weigh their food and follow the guidelines within the program – this is fore example only to eat 3 fruit portions a day if you are a woman. Overall there is a lot of things which needs to fit together, and even though I know the program by memory, it wasn’t exactly easy to put this meal plan together.

I started out by brainstorming about what could be the main theme of the week. One of my learning objectives is to integrate more physical activity within the Vægtkonsulent concept, since a healthy lifestyle also requires regular physical activity. This is why the main theme of the week got the name: Fitness week! The guideline towards physical activity within this week ranges from 30-60 minutes a day. I also made a section where I described why it’s important to do physical activity every day and the benefits of doing it – both physical and psychological.

Some other thoughts about this week, was to include foods high in vitamins and minerals and thereby contributes to an efficient immune system, strengthen brain function and helps building up muscles. These vitamins and minerals are for instance vitamin C, E and most of the B-vitamins and selenium, zinc and calcium. I used a lot of knowledge from module 2, but I also needed to do some research, to find out what new things have been discovered within this field.

It took a long time for me to develop this meal plan – it was kind of a puzzle that wouldn’t fit together – again because all requirement in the program needed to be fulfilled. However, after doing a loooot of calorie calculations, both with help from the online recipe database from Vægtkonsulenterne and DTU’s foodcomp, I managed to make it all fit together, and the plan where ready to go online a few days after.

To make my idea more credible, I wanted to try out, the meal plan myself, and also get another perspective on it as well, which my good friend, Christina, signed up for. We ate according to the plan and did physical activity every day, and here is what came out of it:

Christina:

Lost 0.3 kg of pure fat.

Gained 0.3 kg of pure muscle mass.

Mie:

Lost 0.1 kg of pure fat (percent wise: from 31.1% fat to 30.4 fat).

Gained 1.3 kg of pure muscle mass.

Furthermore, both of our basal metabolic rates gone up. Psychological we both agreed that we had a lot more energy throughout the entire week and I slept all night long, without waking up in the middle of the night, which is a thing I am normally do.  

To some up, it was a good challenge and I feel like a gained a lot of knowledge about general nutrition but also learn how difficult it actually is to make an actual meal plan for a specific target group. Many things needs to fit together, and also you need to sell your idea to the audience, so they want to try it out.

Yesterday was my last day at the Østerbro department, so I decided to bring something delicious (which of cause fits the program!) for the members to taste and be inspired by. They have all been so positive and outgoing, and given me a lot of positive feedback, so it has been a real pleasure for me to be there, and in Lyngby for that matter. 

Here are the recipe for my delicious 'potatoe' cupcakes:

Carrot/ginger/cinnamon cupcakes: 100 g boiled potatoes 1 egg 20 g flower (wholegrain works as well) 30 g graded carrot 1-2 tsp. graded ginger 1-2 tsp cinnamon Lemon juice 1 tsp baking soda      

Sweetener (e.g. sukrin - natural sweetener)

Blend all ingredients' together and put into some cupcake forms (there will be dough for app. 4-5 cupcakes). Silikone forms are probably the best.

Bake the cupcakes for 30 minutes by 180 degrees, and let them cool down afterwards. At last, put on the cheese topping. 

Topping: 

40 g philadelphia light Graded ginger Cinnamon Vanilla seeds Lemon juice

Sukrin

Banana/coco cupcakes:

100 g boiled potatoes 1 egg 20 g flower (wholegrain) 1/2 banana 5 g cocoa (as dark as possible) 5 g graded, dark chocolate (min. 70%) Sweetener (sukrin - natural sweetener) 1 tsp. baking soda

Topping:

40 g philadelphia light Vanilla seeds Freeze-dried blueberries or raspberrys (powder form, if you got it at home, otherwise you can ad a little nip of cocoa instead, to give the topping some color and extra taste) Sukrin

Cooking days!

Todays healthy fitness breakfast and lunch + a big smile from me! :-)

Breakfast: 100 g of skyr with homemade 'müsli' mad of 30 g of oats, lightly toasted on a hot pan in sukrin (natural sweetner), cinnamon and 1 tsp. of sugar free jam. Let it cool down on some baking paper and then you'll have a delicious crispy topping.

Fitness week is in progress!

Before I can approve my ovn developed meal plan - fitness week, I must of cause try it out myself. I also need to have some other 'eyes' on it, which is why I asked my good friend Christina, to try out the plan as well.

At the office:

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I meet in around 9 am, at the office in Hellerup, called Egmont Publishing. On Mondays and Fridays we start out by having a meeting, all of us, about what is going to happen the upcoming week, how business is going and on Fridays, it’s typically about how far we have come, during the past week. We exchange ideas and give feedback to one another.

I have different tasks, so there aren’t really any ‘typical day’. Some of the tasks I have done so far are developing a meal plan for a week, with recipes from Vægtkonsulenterne, for the online members to use. The plan is called Fitness week, and it is basically a week where the aim is to get more energy, primarily from foods high in protein, vitamins and minerals such as B-vitamins, C and E and selenium, zinc and calcium. Besides from that, there is focus on daily physical activity ranging from 30 minutes to 1 hour, as well. The plan has not gone online yet, due to some technical issues, but everyone is very happy about it, and I’ve already been asked to do another one for vegetarians as well.

Besides for working on the meal plan, I’ve also done a lot of changes in ingredients and calorie calculations on recipes from Vægtkonsulenterne as well as typing them in to the database, so members can make use of them.

Next week I am going to a cooking/photo studio, to cook and prepare dishes from an upcoming cook book for children and youngsters, so the photographer can take pictures for the book.    

     In the field:

Every Tuesday and Thursday I am either on Østerbro or Lyngby, to meet, teach and motivate members face to face. We start out in the early afternoon, where members come and get their weekly weighing, and every 4th week a BMI measurement. Sometimes the weight has gone up, which often make the member very upset and sad, and it’s definitely in these situations, that I can use my coaching skills. After weighing all the members, I perform a inspirational talk, which functions as motivation and new ideas to the members to keep on going, until they reach their goal. My internship supervisor have from the beginning given me a lot of different topics, that she would like me to talk about during the inspirational talks, which I perform four of every week. I always make nice looking power points with pictures, tips and recipes, so the members feel that they go home with something. It's definitely a challenge to stand in front of so many people, but now that I have come to know that the members actually use and find my inspirational talks interesting, I find it very comfortable, and I have come to the point, where I don’t need any flip cards to remember what I should say during the inspirational talk, which is really awesome for me, since I am so bad at remembering when I get uncomfortable or nervous. Lastly, I welcome new members. We assign them into the system, and sit down and go through the program. This often take a lot of time, since it can be hard to understand and absorb all the new things which I sit an explain, so patience is a good quality to have in this situation :-)

Last week we where so lucky to have doctor Søs Wollesen, who have been a part of devleoping the program a long with several cook books, out with us, in the Østerbro department. She held a 2 hour lecture about menopause and hormones, which I found very interesting!

Inspiration is the key to stay healthy, so here you have some!

Breakfast pancakes with oatmeal, banan, cinnamon and skyr:

30 g of oats - mix with water and vanilla grains (pure dried vanilla, no sugar added!) and make it into porridge. 

Let it cool down and add a half banan, mash it into the porridge and lastly add some cinnamon and almond essence.

Fry it on a hot pan with a little bit of oil and use skyr mixed with vanilla grains and cinnamon as topping.

You can also make the pancakes with blue berries instaed of banana. It's the same point of departure as before. Use 100 g of fresh blue berries, but save half for topping, as you can see on the picture.

Chicken salad on wholegrain chrispbread (awesome and quick lunch):

Mix 50-100 g of skyr with lots of curry, salt, peber, bearnaise essence (or vinegar), a pinch of english sauce and chives.

Cut onion and reb bell peppers and mix it all (other vegetabels can be used as well, depending on what you have at home).

Add some left over chicken - i like it best if it has been boiled and not fried, but again, it depends on what you have in the fridge :-)

Tip; exchange chicken with 2 eggs, and then you have a nice egg salad!

Yesterday I went to the Østerbro department to be a weight consultant. First I was weighing members and giving individual tips and pep talks to those who needed a push in the right direction towards their goal. Here I’d really feel, that I could use the theory we have gained from the coaching and behavioral change lessons, in real practice, which means that one of my learning objectives are already in progress.  

Next, I had to give my own inspirational talk to all the members. Firstly I explained about myself, my education and what I was doing at Vægtkonsulenterne. Then I moved on to my own personal experience with Vægtkonsulenterne. As you guys of cause don’t know, I have had problems with overweight as well. Back in 2010 I weighed almost a 100 kilos and had a BMI of 31 (a healthy BMI should be between 18.5 and 24.9). This was of cause a serious problem, which I decided to do something about, so I became a member at Vægtkonsulenterne (later on, I also took the weight consultant education at Vægtkonsulenterne, and became a consultant myself). During my inspirational talk I explained about the challenges I had, but also how unbelievable fantastic I felt after losing about 30 kilos in total. I also talked about the disease related issues about being overweight and obese and about what to focus on when making a lifestyle change like mine. Lastly I had designed a 3 course Valentine’s dinner (which fits the program), for the members to make Friday when it’s Valentines day, if they liked. Below you can see an overview of the power point show I made for the inspirational talk (of cause I had to show some very uncomfortable pictures of myself, from before I lost weight).

Afterwards I was met with a lot of positive feedback (both from members and my internship supervisor, Pernille) and interest about my own weight loss process, which made me very happy :-)

Today i started my internship at Vægtkonsulenterne in Hellerup. Everybody seemed very nice and excited about having me there.

Even though I had to absorb a lot of information during the day, I also got my first task; designing my own one week food plan with recipes from Vægtkonsulenterne, for the online members to use on the website. I was told to think about a theme for the food plan, and tailor it with recipes which fit in with the chosen theme. I'm not sure about the name for the food plan yet, but it will be something like 'Energy week', where I will focus on recipes with foods, which gives an extra energy boost as well as encouraging daily physical activity. However, I will tell more about that later this week.

I am not only going to be at the office in Hellerup. In fact, I am going to Østerbro tomorrow, to teach and motivate members in leading a healthy lifestyle and focus on their weight loss, face to face. I have an education from Vægtkonsulenterne already, but since it's a couple of years ago I've been out there, a lot of different things have changed and new things have been added to the so called 'Kostprogram', so I am very excited to see what's new.

Stay tuned for more posts this week! 

Finding an internship may sound easy, but believe me, it has been a very difficult and long lasting process!

First of all, I weren’t really sure about what I wished to do, other than it had to be something where I could combine my key interests; healthy food, cooking and physical activity. I ended up by applying at several schools - both in Denmark and the UK, but with no luck. But then it striked me; why not apply for the place where I, myself, began my journey of changing my unhealthy lifestyle, namely Vægtkonsulenterne! So i emailed my CV and a specific tailored coverletter to my contact person, Pernille.

She replied quickly, with an optimistic view on the idea, which made me very happy, and after a week I went to the office in Hellerup, to have a meeting with them. During the meeting, we talked about my qualifications and what possible tasks I should and would like to do, during the internship period. A couple of weeks after the meeting, I received an email were they gave me a final yes and a warm welcome.

For more information about what Vægtkonsulenterne is, click on the this link; Internship place :-)

I start at my internship Monday, february 3rd, so stay tuned for more posts!