weighed dietary intake

As part of an assignment, I have to collect a 3-day weighed dietary intake and today was the first day. It basically involves weighing every single thing that you eat/drink, detailed to the point of indicating the weight of the raw item, the weight of the amount consumed, the weight of the leftovers, the methods of preparation, and the brand/description of the foods (if it's a packaged food). If it is a composite dish, the weight and details of all the raw ingredients have to be recorded down.

It's such a hassle I barely even got through the first day. The worse thing is, the hubby and I had planned to make japchae (Korean glass noodles) for dinner and japchae has like 20 ingredients in it >.< We only realized this belatedly and seriously thought about changing our plans and just making something simple so documentation wouldn't be such an arduous process. But we were both craving Korean food (we even bought kimchee so we could have it with the japchae!) so we decided to just go ahead and cook it.

Big mistake. Lol.

Japchae itself is a difficult dish that takes quite a bit of preparation and having to weigh all the raw ingredients individually before and after cooking just made it so much more difficult. We spent 3 hours making the japchae in the end. It was quite an experience though, somehow we were so amused about weighing each of the raw ingredients that we had random laughter bursts during the food prep. And the japchae tasted so much better at the end because we had slogged to get to eat it. Plus, I'm proud to say that it tastes very close to authentic Korean japchae! It was a success!

But I think I would make something really simple for the next 2 days, lol. As I'm a rather lazy person, at times I was thinking perhaps I shouldn't eat anymore so I wouldn't have to weigh it and do all the documentation. I guess this 3-day weighed dietary intake can be an awesome weight-loss tool for those who are lazy like me. 

interpreting medical records

went through interpretation of medical records during the tutorial session for Nutrition Care Process today and just completed a quiz on the topic. all the medical terminology that i learned years ago is coming back to me. i actually remember most of the stuff, which is good. But i have problems with the medical abbreviations. There are so many of them that I would have to memorize. And the same abbreviation can mean different things so the context in which the abbreviation is used is very important. The biggest barrier to comprehension would most likely be handwriting. Some of the things in the progress notes/nursing notes are really illegible to me. No matter how much time I spend looking at those words I could never figure out what the person was trying to put across. I wonder, could all the various health professionals going through patient's casenotes actually understand everything? If yes, i need to get on that level quick.

driving culture

I've been in Australia for about 3 weeks+ now, going to be a month. There's still a lot of adjustment to make and I would like to highlight one thing that has been a culture shock for me - albeit a positive one I guess. Drivers here are so zen. The speed limit on most roads I've driven on here is 60km/h, even on the "highway" (it's called a 'highway' but it's really just a 2-lane country road to me), and drivers really keep to that speed limit and sometimes even lower than the speed limit. And the distance between cars is like one full car length or more. Then everyone maintains that speed throughout.

After a red light turns green and cars start to move, everyone also takes it easy. Even if there's a car that takes off 5 seconds later, there's no honking going on and people are just zen about it and patiently waiting for the other party to move off. In Singapore, within 2 seconds the honks will go off.

And when you signal to change lane, almost every single time the car in the next lane is going to let you merge in. No joke. Really.

Even when I'm driving in the city and it's rush hour and there's a traffic pile up, someone is still going to give way once you signal. When i get out of the car park i need to change 2 lanes from the extreme left lane to the extreme right in order to make a U-turn to get to the highway towards school, but the distance between the exit of the parking lot to the U-turn is quite short so i basically need to change 2 lanes at one go. That street that i turn out on is perpetually jammed up every moment, but i would manage to get out of the car park onto the street, and then signal right... wait in the midst of traffic until a space opens up, and i'll be able to change lanes again. No one honks even though i'm sort of holding up traffic in the lane i'm in due to the time lapse when i'm waiting for a space to open up in the lane beside me before merging over. It's all so peaceful even in the morning rush hour.

Cannot believe this is happening. If I were to attempt this in Singapore, i think the driver behind me is going to road rage on me.

So I guess driving here is really nice, especially if you are used to hectic and aggressive city driving. I really enjoying have the space and distance here, definitely missed all the space on the roads when I moved back to Singapore after being in the US for so long. I'm still trying to get used to the peacefulness and taking it easy mindset on the roads. i can't help but get nervous and feel guilty if i'm holding up traffic even though everyone is giving way. Must try to be zen...!

Simulation of opening of dietetic consultation interview

Did an opening of a dietetic consultation interview today, of course it was a mock-up in the clinical skills simulation unit but it was rather nerve wrecking. We were only given the know-hows the previous day and today we're going right into the practical. And the session is recorded down on video to be peer reviewed. The peer review part isn't that scary so I think the nerves are mainly due to our amateurishness and the fact that the session is going to be recorded on video. Although the opening was a maximum of 5 minutes, but nevertheless... rather anxiety generating. I'm still trying to process what happened because it all happened all too fast. Perhaps that was the exact intention the instructors had. Sometimes the more you think about something you sort of psycho yourself out of it or make yourself more anxious. And it's also good that we didn't have much time to prepare so we're able to see where we're at during the beginning with regards to counselling skills, then we could compare it where we are towards the end of the semester and see how much we've improved.

Counselling is definitely a skill that gets polished the more practice you get. When we're just starting out, we don't have the right "script" programmed in our heads and thus the whole process seems very awkward, like we're not sure what to say or what to do next. I think it's a very interesting class though, hope to get a lot out of it to be prepared for the 'real world'. I really like how there's quite a bit of practical components in the class so it's not just about theories on counselling but you're actually doing it and learning through that process.

Looking forward to one fine day where conducting a dietetic interview becomes second nature to me, so when I'm seeing a client I could be totally focused on the client and their issues and attentive to the client's emotions. When patients seek out a health professional with regards to their health issues they are usually full of anxiety about the consultation, worrying about their condition, and uncertain about what the health professional would say. It's such a stressful event for patients, especially if it's their initial consultation and they have yet to seize up how the experience is going to be like. At these times, if as health professionals we ourselves are anxious about our own performance with regards to counselling skills, we would be unable to give our 100% to the patient to help them.

Today during the simulation of the dietetic consultation, i felt that the entire time i was thinking whether i've covered all the stages of the opening and whether i was saying the correct things and asking appropriate questions... my focus was on myself rather than on my "client". Of course the "client" in the simulation was a classmate and i already knew what she was going to say since we were given a scenario and we've practiced the opening of the interview together before.

So the main takeaway from this activity is that... I need tons of practice in counselling skills!

Start of Semester 1

Semester 1 of the Masters in Nutrition and Dietetics started last week, and the first week was maintain introduction to topics, assignments, and expectations. I'm still trying to get used to the various terminology used here. What I've known as a "class" is now a "topic" instead, as an example of one of the academic terminology differences. And then for nutrition/dietetic course content differences, Australia uses kJ instead of calories, and it hit me that I never knew how many kJs are in a gram of carbohydrate, protein, fat, and alcohol. I only know the calories version that I learned from the US. Needless to say, I'm very confused and have lots of studying to do.

I already have some assignments to complete that are due soon. And have readings to catch up with. i ordered my books online so I'm still waiting for them to get to me.

My main adjustment is probably trying to get into "student-mode". Definitely feels weird to be a student again after I've been enjoying working life all these while. I perhaps miss my financial freedom the most.

Anyhow, I'm quite excited that school is starting for me. It's like a 'this is it, there's no turning back now!' feeling... and some closure feeling, like I'm finally finishing up what I started a long time ago. Although I just started and am no where near completion, but at least it feels like I'm a little closer to the end point. Or the beginning.

After a considerably long time, I'm back to what I started out with. Life's funny that way, isn't it.