She's lean

Compiled by PAUL YEO

Life-changing Education through Activity and Nutrition (LEAN) offers children a headstart to a healthier future.

IT is no secret that the incidence of obesity in children is on the rise. Children and teenagers are adopting unhealthy eating habits from an early age as family and individual eating patterns evolve. These days, the strong emphasis on academic achievement has transformed our children to “couch potatoes”, and this can inevitably worsen the problem.

With obesity as a prevalent health issue, especially among children, Sunway Medical Centre (SunMed) recognised the need for a programme to combat this rising menace. March 2007 marked the birth of SunMed’s LEAN Club for Kids. LEAN stands for Life-changing Education through Activity and Nutrition.

One of the participants in the second batch of LEAN Club for Kids is Ng Pek Yin. This tall, 14-year-old girl is a Form Two student and prefect in S.M.K. (P) Bukit Kuda, Klang. Along with 29 participants, Pek Yin joined LEAN Club for Kids last year.

Pek Yin enrolled in the programme after her mom encouraged her to do so. As an only child, Pek Yin is showered with all the love from her parents, and when it comes to food, she is privileged to savour the best there is. This, she feels, has led to her weight gain over the years.

When Pek Yin reached her pubescent years, she felt a need to lose some weight and even asked her mom for some advice. However, the pounds kept piling up.

After six months in the LEAN programme, Pek Yin lost a total of 9kgs. On top of that, she has learnt important lessons on weight management. With LEAN, she understands the concept of energy balance, ie energy intake and energy output. She has managed to discard most of her previous bad habits like having irregular meals, bingeing on carbonated beverages and fried and oily foods as she has learnt that all these foods contribute to excess energy intake, resulting in weight gain.

Apart from managing her food, Pek Yin is now actively involved in a swimming team. This highlights the programme’s emphasis of kick-starting an active lifestyle. She attends swimming practice three days a week and when the school holidays roll around, she swims five days a week to keep herself active and healthy.

Pek Yin notes that her favourite part in the LEAN programme happened to be the first component – a two-day camp. The camp is designed to introduce the all-important concept of healthy living through a series of medical, nutrition and exercise sessions, hands-on activities and games. She had fun with the activities during the camp, which included cooking sessions and games to teach children to make healthy food choices.

“I also learned that being super-skinny, like some supermodels, isn’t healthy. They just look malnourished to me,” explained Pek Yin.

LEAN Club does not just focus on helping a participant manage weight. It also tackles the underlying psychological issues of weight gain. It is important for participants to understand that the ultimate goal to being healthy is striking a balance between diet, regular exercise and a healthy dose of positive attitude.

A smile flashed across Pek Yin’s face when asked about comments by her family and friends on her recent weight loss. Pek Yin has received nothing but positive comments, such as

“You’re not so chubby now”, “You look good”, and many more. Because of the weight loss, she even has had to alter her school uniform to fit her leaner body.

With many activities keeping her days busy, like being a Girl Guide and an active member in the swimming club as well as the History and Geography Club, this shy and soft-spoken teenager can now breathe easy as she has finally figured out the secret to being healthy through the LEAN way.

Life-changing Education through Activity and Nutrition (LEAN)

LEAN Club is a family-based healthy living programme for children and teenagers that is sustainable, practical and relevant to Malaysian culture.

The aim of LEAN club is to help children achieve a healthy weight, to keep the weight off in the long-term, and to develop lifetime habits that will dramatically reduce their risk of diabetes, heart disease and other obesity-related illnesses.

It does this through:

· Empowering children and families with the tools of knowledge via interactive nutritional workshops,
· Promoting an active lifestyle by providing fun and varied exercise classes and fitness activities conveniently located at their school to encourage adherence.
· Close follow-up with professionals to ensure their physical, psychological and needs are addressed
· Lots of fun, friendship and camaraderie to make the whole journey that much more enjoyable.

The people behind the programme are a multidisciplinary team comprising of a paediatrician, dieticians, pharmacists, psychologists and fitness instructors.

The club forms part of Sunway Medical Centre’s corporate social responsibility programme, with free educational seminars and workshops aimed at providing early and preventative education against obesity among school-going children.

The centre is seeking like-minded organisations that wish to play an active role in encouraging healthy and active lifestyles among our youth, through funding/sponsorship assistance for:

· A multicentre epidemiological study looking at the prevalence of obesity and aetiology of childhood obesity amongst Malaysian children.
· Roadshows to all secondary schools in Klang Valley to elucidate the prevalence of obesity amongst teenagers and to educate them on healthier lifestyle habits.
· To set up LEAN CLUB facilities in secondary schools within the Klang Valley, with specially designed fitness activities for children with weight problems.

Information courtesy of Sunway Medical Centre