Second time's a charm

MANILA, Philippines - A great first act is tough to follow. For actress and mother Dawn Zulueta-Lagdameo, however, nothing beats the thrill of being able to accomplish a feat that she has already succeeded at in the past, and to achieve it in an even better way than before.

After her pregnancy with her first child, Jacobo, Dawn proved that a mother can get a trim figure once again without resorting to surgery or crash diets. A veritable representative for the Yummy Mummy set, the actress gave credit to Marie France for helping her slim down after childbirth.

Now, four months after giving birth to daughter Ayisha, Dawn is in the middle of her second transformation: the Marie France challenge, with the tagline “I’ll get my figure back again. Watch me!” “I was thinking of having another baby,” Dawn says, recounting the birth of the “Watch me!” campaign. “I talked to the Marie France owners about how amazing the first campaign was, and so when I got pregnant the second time, I proposed, ‘Why not show that I can lose that weight again?’ They replied, ‘Really? You think you can do it again?’ ‘Of course, I can do it!’ And I did.”

While the objective is the same as the first weight loss campaign, this time around, there were changes that spelled a lot of difference: Dawn gained 40 pounds during her second pregnancy, tipping the scales at 165 pounds, 19 pounds heavier than her first pregnancy weight. For another, she developed hypertension and gestational diabetes, a condition that affects four percent of all pregnant women. “The sugar accumulated in my body attracted water, which also attracted fat,” she describes. “I was retaining water.” This complication threw a wrench into her weight loss program as, after the first five pounds she lost during her first week of treatments, the weight loss plateaued. “Suddenly, the treatments seemed to have stopped working: even if I lost the water retention for one day, or if I had a lymphatic drainage treatment, I’d gain back the weight 24 hours later. It was very frustrating. Every day, for a month, the scale never moved; the numbers didn’t decrease. Imagine how discouraging that was. ”

She gives credit to her medical team for helping her get more in tune with her body even while she continued her battle against post-pregnancy fat. “My endocrinologist and my OB-GYN have been there to help me balance my insulin level, along with my medication and maintenance.” Despite the physical frustration, Dawn understood that the weight loss challenge this time around was operating on a vastly different field. She says succinctly, “It’s my age; that’s the reality. A lot of women my age suffer from some kind of complication during and after pregnancy. The sad thing is, they may not even know that something in their bodies is not like what it used to be, and they just keep wondering why they couldn’t seem to lose their pregnancy weight.”

Her condition reinforced her long-held belief that personal health isn’t something for anyone, especially women, to take lightly. Dawn says, “My friends are already tired of hearing it from me, but I tell them all the time, ‘Take care of your health, have a regular checkup.’” She adds that women are sometimes not aware of their health conditions, and they end up expending money, time and effort on losing weight, only to fall short. “There’s something inside that is going against the tide, and they don’t even know it. It could be a thyroid problem, or even the beginnings of diabetes. So I do advise anyone who is going through weight loss treatments, or is thinking of getting one, to have their body checked to see if everything is doing fine. Take into account their age and whatever complications they have, and balance those with proper medical attention and weight loss treatment.”

Within the new parameters set by her health condition, Dawn became more conscientious about approaching weight loss in a holistic way: aside from working with her doctors, she also made the switch to healthier living. “I used to think I was already a health buff, but now I’m more conscious about what I put into my body,” she affirms. “I love food, but I watch my sugar intake and oil intake. I can eat that slice of chocolate from time to time, but not three. I haven’t cut out red meat from my diet, but I don’t eat it every day.” She also attends ballet class twice a week.

While being more vigilant in her lifestyle, Dawn also kept on with her Marie France treatments. “That is why I encourage people to get to know their bodies first and foremost, because going to the clinic is not that easy, and it’s time-consuming. Whenever I go to the Marie France clinic, I had to be put on the scale, which is not fun,” she says laughingly. “I also had to endure the cold wrap” — the Fat Mobilization System — “which I didn’t like very much. It’s a very effective treatment, though.”

It has been three months since Dawn began the second round of losing her pregnancy weight, and so far, so good. She has shed off 20 pounds and 30.25 inches — and she’s only halfway through. In three months, her waistline trimmed down to 30 inches from 37, and her lower thighs are svelte at 17 inches, compared to 22 inches from before. Dawn happily reports, “I’m losing weight fast. I used to come to the clinic every day for the first three months; now, it’s only thrice a week.”

While the “Watch me!” campaign had a difficult start, Dawn credits her family, especially her children, for inspiring her to keep on. She affirms. “I couldn’t play with my son the way I used to. I couldn’t even carry him up.” She acknowledges and understands the guilt that most mothers feel about taking some time for themselves, but she points out that for a mother to be able to care for her family, she must be taken care of, as well. “Even from when my son was born, I had to time my clinic appointments after I had breastfed, and then rush home in time for when he wakes up. There is the feeling of wanting to bond with your baby, and of wanting to lose weight at the same time. But since I lacked sleep, I grew to like my time in the clinic. It was the time for me to sleep and have other people do the work for me for a change. There’s a way of looking at it as having ‘me’ time and balancing responsibilities.” 

Dawn says she only has 20 pounds to go before achieving her pre-pregnancy weight, though she admits, “I’d be really happy already with losing 15 pounds. The 20 pounds is just for my work, since it’s true that the camera adds pounds to your face and frame. Otherwise, at 5’7”, I’d be perfectly content with 130 pounds.” When asked to compare how different the impetus to lose weight now is compared to when she was younger, she answers, “It’s very different because I was very thin, too thin, before I got married. That time, I wanted to gain weight naman, because I was only around 105 pounds; when there’s stress at work, I’d even go down to 95 pounds, which wasn’t healthy.” Body types and metabolism rates differ not just from person to person, but even within one person as they age. This is why Dawn espouses the importance of being in tune with one’s body, especially on matters like weight loss. “Marie France is really a great place for people — not just mothers and women but also men — who’d like to lose weight, because aside from their slimming treatments, they also have in-house doctors that they can consult with regarding the best way to approach weight loss.”

As she breezes through the halfway mark of her “Watch me!” challenge, Dawn is surer than ever that losing weight need not be a perilous, painful and self-depriving process. As Marie France has helped her slim down before, she’s confident that with their help, her next billboard will be another inspiring sight. “People don’t need to have their bodies cut or injected in order to lose weight,” she stresses. “I’ve always been afraid of tampering with the body in that way, and I know that with the services offered here at Marie France, there is an available treatment that can address whatever problem you have with your figure.” Given that, Dawn’s Act II seems set to be another resounding success.

Now and then

 Dawn has been able to tailor-fit her weight loss regimen with Marie France according to her slimmer figure. “I added some treatments, and I retained some to help keep my metabolism up.”

First three months

Fat Mobilization System. “The cold wrap — I’m not going to lie, it was hard. I had to find diversions to get through the 25 minutes of coldness.”

Nulegs Detoxitrim System. “This is lymphatic drainage for water retention.”

TriPollar Tummy. Reduces excess fat as it tightens and re-contours the skin to avoid sagging after fat reduction.

VeraPulse. “It helps minimize bulges and takes off cellulite. It’s great. I don’t have cellulite on my thighs anymore, just on my buttocks.”

Now

UltraShape. The first non-invasive breakthrough in body contouring that promises an average inch-loss of two centimeters in a single treatment! It removes fat cells and melts away body fat without the pain and recovery time of liposuction or other surgical procedures.

B-Shape. “It’s a new machine, and I swear, it’s the best. It’s what really helped me lose weight as fast as I did. It’s really good; I wish we had that machine before, when I had Jacobo.”

VelaContour. Eliminates remaining cellulite and smoothens body areas where fat is stored. It also improves lymphatic drainage and develops a visibly shapelier body contour.

Plasti-Dermi Treatment. Improves blood circulation and increases lymphatic drainage to eliminate excess fat naturally. It also preserves skin’s elasticity to prevent sagging after weight loss.

Endermologie. Reduces the hard, dimpled appearance of trapped fat (cellulite) in the arms, legs, abdomen, and buttocks.