Heart to Heart with Dee Dee
 
 
 
“The death and suffering of my family traumatised me. It made me even more determined to adopt and pursue a healthier lifestyle to minimise my risk of developing heart disease and stroke.” 
 
Dee Dee (Abidah Mahmood), the cheerful and charming Go Red for Women (GRFW) Ambassador for 2008/2009 of the Singapore Heart Foundation (SHF), shares her family’s close encounters with heart disease and stroke, her own emotional and physical battle against her unhealthy weight, and her victorious journey to a healthy and confident her today as a credentialed exercise physiologist cum nutritionist and 24/7 health advocate.
 
How would you describe your lifestyle previously?
 
During my school days, I was never active in sports. Then, when I was working as a secretary with Banque Nationale de Paris, I led a sedentary lifestyle. My time spent back then consisted mainly of working in the office and when I met up with friends, we would normally spend much of the time getting together for food.
 
I have always been a food lover. My physically inactive lifestyle together with the accumulation of calories intake from food led to an increase in my weight.
 
What prompted you to have a healthy lifestyle makeover?
 
My weight problem really affected me psychologically and physically when my weight ballooned to a hefty 80 kg. With my height of only 1.55 metres, I was grossly obese and I could not fit into my clothes. Each time I looked at myself in the mirror, I felt depressed and could not bear to see my own reflection. It became very embarrassing shopping for clothes because just trying to fit into a skirt at XXL size was very traumatic.
 
To add to my list of health problems, my knees could not support my excessive weight and I had a knee replacement. My confidence was abysmal that there were times when I refused to go out and avoided meeting people.
 
In desperation, I took a shortcut to losing weight, expecting for easy solution and instant gratification by popping slimming pills and pursuing fad diets. As a result, I suffered from health problems such as gastric pain and I was always feeling lethargic, irritable and prone to sickness.
 
These fad diets also caused a yo-yo effect to my body, leaving me with more fat and less protein than I started off with and feeling even more out of shape than before. Then, I realised all these while that I had taken the wrong path. I eventually found the right solution to my weight problem. I began to adopt a balanced diet and a proper exercise regime.
 
What motivated you to stay on track?
 
When I started with my exercise regime and eating a balanced diet, it was not plain sailing. With my obesity and other health problems, it was initially difficult to follow even simple aerobic steps. There was even a time during my gym session that one of the guys mockingly told me to tuck my “shirt” in, in front of all the gym attendees. In fact, what I was wearing then was a tight body-suit and he actually meant for me to “tuck my bulging tummy in”. I was dejected and severely humiliated when everyone started laughing. This made me even more determined to prove to myself and to those people that I could succeed.
 
As I progressed into my exercise regime, I saw a marked improvement in my weight and health. All these positive results kept me more determined to press on. Due to sheer determination, I managed to overcome the hurdle. Subsequently, as I managed to achieve my desired goal, I began to influence my peers who shared the same predicament and I became an ardent advocate of a healthy lifestyle. With all the experiences that I had undergone, I became so interested in helping others so I decided to further my knowledge in fitness and nutrition overseas.
 
When I returned to Singapore, I started conducting classes, seminars, workshops and talks to educate others on the benefits of staying healthy in a safe and effective manner through proper exercise and nutrition. I really empathise with people with weight problems, as I was once in their shoes. Their determination to actively follow the exercise and nutrition plan motivates me even further in my quest to reach out to more people, to spread the message of the importance of having a healthy lifestyle.
 
You have a family history of heart disease. Who in the family had/has it and how has this affected you?
 
My dad died of heart disease in 2006 and my brother, at 49 years old, died from stroke last year. My mother is wheelchair-bound due to stroke, which is largely attributed to obesity. My sister and brother, meanwhile, have gout and hypertension.
 
The death and suffering of my family traumatised me. It made me even more determined to adopt and pursue a healthier lifestyle to minimise my risk of developing heart disease and stroke.
 
What encouraged you to be the Go Red for Women Ambassador for SHF?
 
As a firm advocate of healthy lifestyle through proper exercise and nutrition, the opportunity to represent and be the ambassador to one of the recognised bodies such as SHF will open more windows of opportunity for me to reach out to the community so that my experiences can be shared and the noble goal of a better and healthier community can be achieved.
 
A specially designed fitness video by Dee Dee is available at SHF for $15 per copy. The Dee Unravelled Fitness DVD contains a complete fitness regime including cardiovascular, strengthening and relaxation routines plus a music video single SATU. 
 
“As a firm advocate of healthy lifestyle through proper exercise and nutrition, the opportunity to represent and be the ambassador to one of the recognised bodies such as SHF will open more windows of opportunity for me to reach out to the community so that my experiences can be shared and the noble goal of a better and healthier community can be achieved.”