Nursing Assignment: Self-Care Recovery Journey Report - Weight Gain

This nursing assignment is a self-care recovery journey report detailing a student's efforts to gain weight and improve their overall well-being. The report outlines the planning phase, including the student's goals, support system, and dietary plan developed with a nutritionist. The action phase describes the implementation of the plan, including challenges faced, such as difficulty adhering to the diet and the impact of external factors like illness and peer pressure. The student reflects on the experience, highlighting the positive benefits of the journey, such as increased energy levels, improved physical fitness, and the importance of behavioral interventions for long-term weight management. The report emphasizes the crucial role of self-care for nurses and the strategies used to achieve the desired outcomes.

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Nursing Assignment
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Assessment 2. Written Assignment. Self-Care Recovery journey.
Task 1: Plan and Action
Introduction
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.
Planning Phase
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

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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).
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

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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).
Action Phase

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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

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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.
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

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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.

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Task 2
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.

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