Planning Phase

Discuss about the Plan and Action Self Care Recovery journey.

Nurses who act as frontline workers of healthcare service delivery often overlook the issue of self-care, although it must be prioritized, as it is a crucial component. In order to conform to the self-care regime, it is further imperative for the nurses to make positive choices that are integral to harbor optimal outcomes. Relevant literature has supported that for the nurses, self-care is crucial in promotion of effective stress management thereby contributing towards a healthier work environment. Self-care is thus directly related with the wellbeing of the nurses (Johnson, 2016). In my journey for self-care in the form of weight-gain modality, I feel adoption of definite techniques will help me to better perform and enhance my work output as well.

I want to gain weight because my friends keep ask me why I am too thin, some of my friends tease me and I cannot work for long hour, may be because of my weight, my health condition is not good and I am not physically fit.  Before I started my journey I weighed only 37 kg. Right from the beginning of journey, I started doing push up, walked for 30 minutes every morning and afternoon (Evans et al., 2014). I started eating high calorie food up to 300 calorie. 
I started eating food according to my diet plan given by my nutritionist (Samuel et al., 2017). 
After one and half month journey, I weighed 41 kg and my goal was to reach 50 kg.    

It has been on my mind since quite a long time that I need to undertake proactive efforts so that my weight is in check and do not go up further. Recently I have lost considerable weight that in turn is hampering my daily living to some extent. I am keen on gaining weight and focus on maintaining an ideal body weight so that the adverse outcomes related to overweight and obesity do not affect by health and wellbeing. Weight management has been referred to as a crucial step of mitigating obesity issues and harbor optimal outcomes (Jensen et al., 2013).

In my effort to gain weight, I feel that I will seek active support and desirable cooperation from two persons, my mother and a nutritionist one from my family and another therapeutic practitioner respectively. It is imperative to receive support from the concerned persons who might help me in focusing and keeping the self-care regime as planned on track. Nutritionist will prepare for me a definite diet plan thereby aiding in my weight-gain strategy. Conversely, my mother at home will monitor my diet regime and ensure so that I comply with the prescribed diet plan by keeping a track of my daily food habits (Karfopoulou et al., 2016).

Action Phase

In course of my plan development, I plan to work specifically on my daily nutritional intake to transform my eating habit so that my weight is maintained at a steady level.

My goal is to achieve the desired level of weight-gain and maintain the ideal body weight necessary for a healthy living.

I aim to attain my goals through following a balanced and healthy diet pattern comprising of enough fruits and vegetables that will help in attaining the recommended levels of vitamins and minerals alongside incorporating foodstuffs that will help in maintaining the desired level of carbohydrate, fat and protein.

I will be seeking guidance and support from a nutritionist who will prepare a definite diet plan for me upon consideration of my health related parameters and other health associated criteria. The type and proportion of meal as well as frequency of dietary consumption will be categorically stated in the diet plan laid down by the consulting dietician. Further, my mother will also be responsible for keeping a strict vigilance of my dietary pattern whether I am abiding by the proposed diet plan (Anderson et al., 2014). The nutritionist will further check on my weight and overall health status during follow-up sessions. She will note down any deviation from my proposed diet plan that in turn will help in tracking down my progress.

In course of my weight-gain program, I might encounter certain challenges that will pose threats in achieving the anticipated outcomes. Considering the fact, that I am a not much of a big foodie who likes to gorge on foods quite often, it might be difficult for me at the first stance to act in conformity with the suggested dietary plan. The tendency to skip meals might hinder my compliance with the diet plan. Peer pressure might be another factor in case of social occasions to consume inappropriate food that do not really go well with the suggested pattern for dietary intake (Tylka et al., 2014). The caloric restriction might be particularly bothering all on a sudden considering that I was accustomed to a flexible diet pattern and resorted to binge eating to fulfill the hunger. It may be particularly taxing for me considering that I was accustomed to less eating and resorted to skip meals in order to remain thin as ever. It might be difficult for me to cope with this change in diet plan. However, I am sure that with the passage of time through inculcating the willpower as the driving force to combat the weight issues in a legitimate manner, I will be in a position to address the ensuing challenges in a befitting manner. Moreover, active assistance from the nutritionist and my family members will help me in achieving my goal properly. Motivation might be a crucial factor to help in maintenance of weight-gain in long term (MacLean et al., 2015).

Challenges

Each time I interacted with the supporters, I was infused with renewed energy and vitality to carry on my goals in a satisfactory manner. I received unprecedented support from my consulting nutritionist who lend relentless support and encouragement to follow the recommended diet plan that has the potential of keeping my weight under control allaying the possibility of overweight and obesity. The nutritionist made every possible effort to help me with the maintenance of my body weight within the ideal body weight range so that the chances of obesity and associated health hazards may be kept at bay and the skinny appearance of mine may be changed to a healthy weight-gain pattern. The cooperation and recommendations received from the dietician showed me the path that I should take to fulfill my desired objectives. Another supporter of my goal, my mother helped me to strictly follow the diet plan as proposed by the nutritionist and ensured so that I do not skip any meal. She insisted on carrying my own Tiffin comprising of home-cooked meals at workplace rather than consuming outside food. She rebuked me in case I showed any deviation from the eating behavior as expected out of me.

I did not gain any weight in the first week, but I put about 2 kg in two weeks time. However, my weight reduced by 1 kg in the third week because I was suffering from flu and could not eat much (Vandeputte et al., 2017). In fourth week I started eating serious mass gainer formula two times a day that gave me extra 2500 calorie per day (Orsama et al., 2014). This helped me put another 3 kg within 2 weeks. Now I weigh 41 kg and I am physically more fit than before. 

Almost one and a half months have passed since I have been introduced to the new diet plan meant for weight-gain and the journey has been quite an interesting one having considerable vicissitudes along the tenure. Right now, I feel more energetic at work without feeling fatigued and my anthropometric parameters have depicted that I no longer pose threat of being underweight as body weight, waist circumference, hip circumference and waist: hip ratio; vital markers for obesity have increased drastically (Katzmarzyk et al., 2013). Presently I feel a lot more confident and am in a position to work for longer hours at a stretch compared to what I used to feel before commencing on a definite diet plan. Lately, I am receiving compliments from my colleagues as it is visibly evident that I have put on a little weight. Strenuous work for short duration no longer left me exhausted and I am also having good night’s sleep devoid of any interruptions or other problems.

Supporters and Motivators

The journey was in conformity with the proposed plan and helped to attain the desirable objectives in a satisfactory manner without affecting the lifestyle in a major way.  

In course of the weight-gain program that I am going through, there have been a number of facilitators and barriers. First, complying with the prescribed dietary pattern has been a challenging task on my part as I felt difficulty to make myself acquainted with an altered eating habit all on a sudden (Partridge et al., 2016). However, both the nutritionist as well as my mother acted as immense sources of encouragement and support by making untiring efforts so that I may be able to abide by the recommended dictums and guidelines in line with my dietary pattern. During my self-care journey, I suffered from flu for about a week that eventually was cured by antipyretic medications and antibiotics, appearing as an obstacle to be consistent with the proposed diet plan. Whenever I felt reluctant to eat by considering it may add to my calorie count and be an unhealthy entrant into my diet, I became aware and instead resorted to having something healthy, mostly nuts, fruits to compensate my satiety and simultaneously conform to my diet plan. I made use of my will force to counter my meal skipping tendency and deranging behaviors that might be inappropriate and unsuitable for my proposed weight-gain program (Johns et al., 2014). Serious mass gainer was a bit expensive for me.  As I am working full time and mother of 18 months child, I did not get enough rest and sleep. 
Sometime I also did not get time to go for walk, did not get time to eat food in time. 
Sometimes I ended up eating junk food. Therefore, despite hindrances I successfully managed to overcome them so that no adverse outcomes might occur in relation to adoption of a definite diet plan.

Conclusion

The success of the self-care plan may only be obtained by virtue of resorting to definite strategies and proposed guidelines that are crucial in attaining the desired goals. In course of the journey, the family and other supporters play vital roles in ensuring recovery planning and service delivery. Identification of the barriers and facilitators of self-care journey might be another positive step towards achievement of success for the proposed program. Hence, it may be said a proper balance between self-care and effective support might pave the way for generating optimal outcomes through the adopted program.

Achievement of Goal

Reflecting back to the days that encouraged me to undertake on a journey where I had to follow a rigorous prescribed diet plan in order to gain weight, I feel that I have derived certain positive benefits due to such participation. The experience that I have gathered in course have been quite satisfying and enriching at the same time as I got to know about strategies and coping mechanisms that aided in accomplishing the pre-set goals of gaining weight and maintain an ideal weight conducive to good health and wellbeing. The prospect of behavioral interventions in long-term maintenance of weight-gain has also been a revelation for me (Dombrowski et al., 2014). The nutritionist prescribed me high carbohydrate, low fat, high protein diet as a measure to keep a check on my weight and I managed to gain 2 kg in one month by adopting this dietary pattern. Improved weight-gain maintenance has been reported in empirical findings on incorporation of high protein diet. Adhering to the recommended diet plan harbored beneficial outcomes that helped me to better adjust with the lifestyle that helped me to manage my weight without falling sick. I made it a mission of my life to attain my prefix goal of gaining weight through necessary dietary adjustments. Relevant research has revealed the efficacy of complying with high-carbohydrate or high-protein diet as recommended for the concerned person (Antonio  et al., 2014). Checking on my fatty food intake, I felt small but significant improvement in my health status, as I tend to have less craving for eating junk food. This is consistent with the work that stated long-term weight management is found to be dependent on the intensity of interventions associated with intake of low-fat diet (Tobias et al., 2015). The hurdles that I encountered initially, was quite painful in the first place but with the passage of time I was accustomed with the new diet regime and resolved to gain my weight in a healthy way by adopting appropriate measures that suited my purpose.

References

Anderson, J. L., Irons, V., Spear, B. A., Wallace, S. B., McCarty, K., Haynes, B., & Austin, H. (2013). Indirect Calorimetry (RMR) Utilized by the Registered Dietitian (RD) Improves Health and Behavioral Outcomes in Obese Adolescents Attending a Week-Long Residential Weight Loss Camp. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 113(9), A28.

Antonio, J., Peacock, C. A., Ellerbroek, A., Fromhoff, B., & Silver, T. (2014). The effects of consuming a high protein diet (4.4 g/kg/d) on body composition in resistance-trained individuals. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 11(1), 19.

Dombrowski, S. U., Knittle, K., Avenell, A., Araujo-Soares, V., & Sniehotta, F. F. (2014). Long term maintenance of weight loss with non-surgical interventions in obese adults: systematic review and meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials. Bmj, 348, g2646.

Evans, C. C., LePard, K. J., Kwak, J. W., Stancukas, M. C., Laskowski, S., Dougherty, J., … & Antonopoulos, D. A. (2014). Exercise prevents weight gain and alters the gut microbiota in a mouse model of high fat diet-induced obesity. PloS one, 9(3), e92193.

Jensen, M. D., Ryan, D. H., Apovian, C. M., Ard, J. D., Comuzzie, A. G., Donato, K. A., … & Loria, C. M. (2013). 2013 AHA/ACC/TOS Guideline for the Management of Overweight and Obesity in Adults. Circulation, 01-cir.

Johansson, K., Neovius, M., & Hemmingsson, E. (2014). Effects of anti-obesity drugs, diet, and exercise on weight-gain maintenance after a very-low-calorie diet or low-calorie diet: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 99(1), 14-23.

Johns, D. J., Hartmann-Boyce, J., Jebb, S. A., Aveyard, P., & Group, B. W. M. R. (2014). Diet or exercise interventions vs combined behavioral weight management programs: a systematic review and meta-analysis of direct comparisons. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 114(10), 1557-1568.

Johnson, G. (2016). Self-Care Activities and Nurse Manager Well-Being(Doctoral dissertation, Walden University).

Karfopoulou, E., Anastasiou, C. A., Avgeraki, E., Kosmidis, M. H., & Yannakoulia, M. (2016). The role of social support in weight loss maintenance: results from the MedWeight study. Journal of behavioral medicine, 39(3), 511-518.

Katzmarzyk, P. T., Mire, E., Bray, G. A., Greenway, F. L., Heymsfield, S. B., & Bouchard, C. (2013). Anthropometric markers of obesity and mortality in white and African American adults: the pennington center longitudinal study. Obesity, 21(5), 1070-1075.

MacLean, P. S., Wing, R. R., Davidson, T., Epstein, L., Goodpaster, B., Hall, K. D., … & Rothman, A. J. (2015). NIH working group report: innovative research to improve maintenance of weight loss. Obesity, 23(1), 7-15.

Orsama, A. L., Mattila, E., Ermes, M., van Gils, M., Wansink, B., & Korhonen, I. (2014). Weight rhythms: weight increases during weekends and decreases during weekdays. Obesity facts, 7(1), 36-47.

Partridge, S. R., McGeechan, K., Bauman, A., Phongsavan, P., & Allman-Farinelli, M. (2016). Improved eating behaviours mediate weight gain prevention of young adults: moderation and mediation results of a randomised controlled trial of TXT2BFiT, mHealth program. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 13(1), 44.

Samuel, I. O., Samuel, A. O., Donatus, A. E., & Stanley, E. (2017). Dietary Factors in Fasting Blood Glucose Levels and Weight Gain in Female Sprague Dawley Rats. Journal of Clinical Nutrition & Dietetics, 3(1).

Tobias, D. K., Chen, M., Manson, J. E., Ludwig, D. S., Willett, W., & Hu, F. B. (2015). Effect of low-fat diet interventions versus other diet interventions on long-term weight change in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The lancet Diabetes & endocrinology, 3(12), 968-979.

Tylka, T. L., Annunziato, R. A., Burgard, D., Daníelsdóttir, S., Shuman, E., Davis, C., & Calogero, R. M. (2014). The weight-inclusive versus weight-normative approach to health: Evaluating the evidence for prioritizing well-being over weight loss. Journal of Obesity, 2014.

Vandeputte, M., Couturier, B., Vandergheynst, F., Maerevoet, M., Jullie, M. L., Kolivras, A., … & Boysson, H. (2017). Weight loss, fever and arthralgia in a 43-year-old man treated for follicular lymphoma. La Revue de medecine interne, 38(9), 633.