As a dietitian working at Simplyweight, I have been privileged to work with individuals who are on a journey to transform person health and improve their quality of life. Through my work, I have gained a wealth of knowledge and experience about weight loss, endocrine problems, and other health wellness as practical strategies that can be used to support individuals in their weight loss journey. 

Here in this blog, I will be sharing some of the most important things that I have learned during my initial time as a dietitian at Simplyweight. Whether you are just starting out on your weight loss journey or someone who has struggled to lose weight in the past, I hope that this information will be helpful, informative and inspire you to achieve your weight loss goals or happy living.

What I have seen in Simplyweight

My journey as a Specialist dietitian at “The London Obesity & Endocrine Clinic” of “Simplyweight” is very special to me as well as to the patients who came here for treatment. 

I have had the honour of witnessing countless individuals transform their lives through the power of healthy eating and lifestyle changes with help of a consultant and our multidisciplinary team. It has been an incredible journey to see patients not only shed unwanted pounds but also gain confidence, energy, and a renewed sense of self-worth.

Through my work, I have gained invaluable insights into the complex relationship between nutrition, hormones, and metabolism. I have seen firsthand the tremendous impact that making positive lifestyle changes can have on a person’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

At “The London Obesity & Endocrine Clinic”, we take a holistic approach to weight management, recognising that weight loss is not just about reducing calories and increasing physical activity. Instead, we focus on helping our patients to understand the root causes of their weight gain, such as hormonal imbalances, genetic factors, or underlying medical conditions, and work with them to develop personalised plans that address their unique needs and goals. We believe that everyone can deserve the best version of themselves so that they can live a healthy, happy and balanced life.

After being a part of the Simplyweight family, what I have personally experienced through my work is that weight loss is not just about willpower or restriction, but about understanding the underlying factors that contribute to weight gain. Such as emotional eating, hormonal imbalances, mood, sleep, environment, peers, unhealthy habits and there are more, each person has different underlying problem according to their situation. By addressing these factors and providing practical tools and strategies for sustainable change, I have seen patients (who are like extended family members to us) achieve remarkable results and maintain their weight loss over the long term.

What are the soft skills I have learnt in Simplyweight?

As a dietitian working in Simplyweight, there are several soft skills that I learnt to develop my professional growth and to serve selflessly. Some of these skills include,

Effective communication: As a dietitian, I have to communicate effectively with my patients, colleagues, and other healthcare professionals including physicians, phlebotomists and other staffs. I am able to work effectively as part of a team and be able to communicate and coordinate care with other healthcare providers. I should be able to explain complex nutrition concepts in a way that patients can understand, actively listen to patient’s concerns, and be able to provide feedback and advice in a clear and concise manner with the help of our multidisciplinary team.

Empathy: Being able to put ourself in patient’s shoes is an essential skill in any healthcare setting. As a clinical dietitian, I have been working with patients who are struggling with their weight or other medical conditions where empathy allows me to build a rapport with my patients to understand their unique challenges and needs. Patients with obesity and endocrine disorders often face complex nutritional challenges. As a dietitian,  I have to provide them with creative solutions to help patients to overcome their challenges and to achieve their health goals.

Time management: Effective time management is crucial when working in a busy clinic. I need to be able to prioritise my workload and manage my schedule efficiently. Initially, I struggled to manage time and was not able to prioritise the work. However, my team members taught me how to prioritise work and how to live a balanced and stress-free life, especially Kiruthika and Kala Rajeswaran. So I am able to adapt to unexpected changes in my day-to-day routine not only at work also in my personal life.

Attention to detail: As a dietitian at Simplyweight, I have also been trained by them for administrative and organisational work too. I have been responsible for scheduling appointments, maintaining patient records, and handling administrative tasks. Being detail-oriented is crucial to ensure that patient information is accurate and up-to-date. This is also very important for team members so that we are all on the same page and help each other during hard situations. This will be helpful especially in emergency, if one of our team members is not there we can still able to carry their work with the same attention and detail work and sail in the right direction without any problem.

Multitasking: Working as clinical dietitian in a clinical setting may be responsible for handling multiple tasks simultaneously. Being able to prioritise tasks, managing time effectively, and work efficiently is essential to providing high-quality service to patients. As mentioned above, we all pay attention to detail and fill the person’s work at the same time we also do other works. Everyone here in Simplyweight are well trained to multitask work with ease. 

Cultural competence: As a dietitian, I counsell patients from diverse cultural backgrounds. Understanding and respecting cultural differences and tailoring their approach to meet the needs of each patient are essential for providing high-quality care.

Emotional intelligence: Emotional intelligence involves being able to recognise and manage our own emotions, as well as understand and respond appropriately to the emotions of others. This skill can help you build stronger relationships with patients and colleagues. Initially, I struggled because I can understand and help others but when it comes to myself, sometimes struggled to cope due to my personal issues. However, I am doing well now. Thanks to Kala, Kiruthika and Dr Raj were always there to motivate me to improve my emotional intelligence.

What are the hard skills that I have learnt in Simplyweight?

As a dietitian working in Simplyweight, there are several hard skills that I have learnt to enhance my professional growth and patient care. Some of these hard skills include

Medical nutrition therapy: As a specialist dietitian in obesity, and endocrine problems, I have become more proficient in providing medical nutrition therapy (MNT) to patients with a variety of medical conditions. This involves developing individualised nutrition plans based on a patient’s medical history, lab results, and other relevant factors.

Nutrition assessment: The ability to assess a patient’s nutritional status is a critical skill for a specialist dietitian. This involves evaluating a patient’s dietary intake, physical activity level, sleep, hunger, medical condition, medication and other factors that may affect their nutritional health.

Nutrition education: As a dietitian, I have to provide patients with nutrition education to help them better understand how their health and diet intake affects their health. Which includes providing information on portion sizes, food choices, and meal planning.

Menu planning: In an obesity and endocrine clinic, we have to be responsible for developing meal plans for patients with specific dietary needs. This involves selecting appropriate foods and portions to meet specific nutrient requirements and dietary restrictions.

Medical education: Working in a clinical setting requires knowledge of medical terminology. As a dietitian, I have to be familiar with medical terms related to endocrine disorders and obesity, as well as other medical conditions that may impact nutrition. Research and data analysis is helpful for me to Stay up-to-date with the latest research and using evidence based practice is crucial in the field of nutrition. Being able to analyse research and data to improve my practice is an important skill which I have learnt from Dr Raj. So it is very useful for me to communicate effectively with patients and other healthcare providers. 

Also, I have learnt how to use different types of equipment and learnt their advantages. Which includes Doppler, Biothesiometer, Theragun, and Body composition analyser (BCA) and also learnt to interpret BCA.  Not only this I have also learnt how to put CGMS to patients, how to use it, advantages and interpretation. This is very useful for me to assess and analyse my patients.

Writing skill: My writing skills were improved after joining here. I love to write blogs but I am not too good and no one is there to teach me before. However in Simplyweight Dr Raj always gives me feedback and encourages me to write evidence based blogs. Kiruthika also shared a lot of tips to improve my writing skills. Zain was always there to provide me feedback on my writing skills to make progress on writing. My Writing skills developed very well after writing so many blogs. Need to make more progress and will keep doing it. My medical knowledge also developed while writing blogs based on recent researches.

Off camera narration:  I am the one who doesn’t know about the voiceover or narrating the script behind the video. The task they were given to me was challenging initially. However, I always love to learn new things so I gave it a try and it came out well too. 

Recipe writer: I am the one who never went out to eat food or cooks food in the kitchen, I always love mom’s food, and hate to dine outside. I only know how to taste the food and to check the quality. Initially, there was no problem for me so I wrote different recipes which I had eaten and made a few changes to my mom’s recipes. I have written more than 100 recipes but in between, I struggled because apart from Indian cuisine I only know a few western recipes and other cuisines I have not tried before. So it took me a lot of time to understand recipes, then I started to read about each and every ingredient’s taste, texture, smell and purpose and then I made changes in the recipes to create new recipes. Thanks to the Simplyweight team I have learnt this skill and it becomes more useful during my consultation.

Clinic management: Learned how to manage a clinic efficiently and effectively. This includes communication with staff, scheduling patient appointments, and medical records. Learned to schedule appointments efficiently and effectively, including how to manage cancellations, rescheduling, and follow-up appointments. I have also mentioned these points in soft skills for communication. Doing all these improves communication however, it is new for me to manage and monitor those tasks. I have become proficient in using medical software for patient scheduling, electronic medical record-keeping, and billing.

Learned to monitor and train new staff, manage staff, and to create a positive work environment. Also, I learnt about marketing and advertising strategies to attract new patients to the clinic. So that we can help other people too. I learnt how to solve problems quickly, and efficiently including resolving scheduling conflicts and handling patient complaints.

Conclusion

I have witnessed as a specialist dietitian at Simplyweight, as well as the key principles and strategies that have helped our patients who follow and engage well achieve their goals. I believe that a specialist dietitian in Simplyweight is a blessing and God’s gift to me. I am grateful to God and the whole team, especially the pillars of our clinic Kala Rajeswaran, Kiruthika, and Dr Rajeswaran are very supportive, and understanding and always treat all of us as family members including our patients. In other workplaces, not all but most people won’t help others to grow. I’m really thankful for this because my senior colleagues here are also very supportive, encouraging and help me to learn from my mistakes. Overall the whole team is supportive, and encouraging, and taught me to be disciplined (never and ever give up even if we fail so many times, they always taught me to keep on trying, that’s discipline or knowledge I have learnt from them).

I also knew that I wouldn’t get the same exposure, knowledge and support in any other workplace. This is a very special clinic to me because “if you are unique you are special but if you are not able to unite with others then you cannot win”. Here at Simplyweight, the way we are giving treatment is unique from others and we are united to work as a team to provide holistic care to patients. Our patients were united with us to achieve their goals as extended family members by being more receptive and engaging through our treatment is unique and achieves their desired goals.

Whether you are struggling with obesity or you are just starting your weight loss journey or have struggled with weight management in the past or another endocrine disorder or simply looking to improve your health and well-being, I hope the above information I shared will inspire and empower you to take control of your health and transform your life.

Click here to read a similar blog: https://www.simplyweight.co.uk/my-journey-at-simplyweight-so-far/

Varsha M,
Senior Specialist Dietitian, Simplyweight