'What does it look like afterwards?' a twenty-something asked me the other day, referring to a mother's stomach after birth.
The answer: if you're a Victoria's Secret Angel and under 30, it looks pretty normal fairly quickly. But if you're like me - the average Jane, 42, and just had a third child - it resembles a fleshy, droopy pouch, spilling over the waist band. The 'mummy middle', as people call it, is fat, loose and distorted compared with the rest of your body.
Those photos in ads for stomach fat suckers suddenly seem terrifyingly familiar. And while your legs (below the knees) and upper torso might have slimmed down several months after birth, the middle is comparatively exhausted.
Well-meaning friends tell you to give yourself some time. But life is short, and with not a pair of jeans in sight, it was time to reclaim denim, bikinis and an aligned profile that hasn't been airbrushed with remedial underwear.
The Cambridge Weight Plan - from Britain but now in Hong Kong - appealed to me on many fronts. First, it's nutritious. Secondly, it was created by a team from Cambridge University for obese patients to lose weight quickly for safer surgery and a more successful outcome, so it's not a fly-by-night operation.
It's a range of shakes, snack bars, soups and porridges that can be taken solely for a limited period instead of food, or as meal replacements combined with a healthy diet. Once you've lost the weight, the products can help maintain the scale.
