Business Story: Adrienne Ngai, Registered Dietitian

by Dawid Furman

What’s your business and who are your customers?

My business is Pur Weight Loss, it’s about helping busy professionals lose weight in a healthy and sustainable way.

Explain your experience and how you use it to help clients.

I’ve struggled with emotional eating and weight for most of my childhood and young adulthood. It started when I went to school and was made fun of for my Asian lunch by my peers. I was one of the few ethnic kids in my class. It caused me to create an unhealthy relationship with food (not eating lunch) and overeating when I came home from school. I was eating away my feelings of not fitting in at school and being unheard by my immigrant parents about not fitting in. I was disconnected from my body and ate for comfort- except I didn’t know this at the time.

This continued onwards until I hit a breaking point in my first year of university. I gained a lot of weight (freshman 20, for me) and that’s when I started looking for a diet. I experimented with variations of low-carb diets on and off for years and my weight yo-yo with the diets I tried. It also caused nutritional imbalances and negatively affected my health, leading to a few ER incidents.

After many years, I finally struck a balance. I took a deep dive into my mindset and my relationship with food and used my experience and knowledge as a dietitian to create the healthy eating lifestyle I wanted to live. I stopped dieting, I healed my relationship with food, and my weight stabilized. I am now a happy, confident, fit and healthy person.

Now, I’m so grateful to be the founder and head dietitian at Pur Weight Loss. As a seasoned team of Registered Dietitians and nutritionists, we help busy professionals create a healthy relationship with food, lose weight sustainably, and empower them with the right knowledge, tools, and resources to continue their lifelong health journey!

What areas do you practice in?

Weight Loss, Emotional Eating, Mindful Eating, Heart Health, Diabetes and Blood Sugar Concerns.

Tell us about yourself. For example, what first got you started working on your business, and what motivates you each day to do what you do?

I am a Registered Dietitian with an MSc in Human Nutrition from McGill University. I am also a Certified Diabetes Educator. I have a BSc in Food Science and Nutrition, double Major, from the University of British Columbia (UBC).

I’ve worked in every field of dietetics- food service management, community nutrition, clinical nutrition, and now private practice. With my food science degree, I have worked in food safety and product development at Yves Veggie Cuisine and Sun Rype Ltd. Almost all of the jobs I’ve ever had have been food related because I love learning and trying new foods!

I love working with my Pur Weight Loss team of seasoned dietitians and nutritionists- we are always learning new things and ways to impart practical and fun nutrition knowledge to our amazing busy professional clients and social media followers!

I am motivated every day by our clients and my passion for food, nutrition, and health. I love creating healthy recipes for our YouTube channel, blog, weight loss program, and delicious food options to recommend to our clients. I love coaching our clients on how food and our mindset around food and weight can affect our weight, choices, and mental health- and how it can be improved! The results we see from our clients are amazing and keep me motivated to do what I love and help the type of clients that resonates best with our program and myself!

What’s your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

To be able to use my gifted skills, knowledge, and experience to help busy professionals improve their physical and mental health through dietitian expertise and coaching.

What’s one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Managing uncertainty. There are no textbook answers for how to run a business. I take calculated risks. Things will not always go the way you planned however, there’s always something to gain from it!