Its all about The Fork

CEBU, Philippines - You don’t need a fairy godmother or pumpkin to transform you into a Cinderella. It’s all about the fork. What you pick with your fork or dig your fork into is the same fork that will make you dig your grave and fork your way to a hospital bed. It’s all about the fork, not the pork.

Weight management is about fork management – err, that is – it is about knowing consciously which food to use your fork with. Your fork could be the source of your weighty problem. When we have a fork in our hands, we tend to think of only one thing – the pleasure of eating. That pleasure though, when done in excess or in indulgence, will end up somewhere else. You got it, excess food and fat end up and are stored in your trunk, tummy and waistline. After you’ve had your pleasure, you’re not going to like what you see.

In desperation, people go to a nutritionist and dietician and enroll in a weight management program. In desperation, the nutritionist or dietician is being looked up as a fairy godmother who can trim down that waistline with a magic wand. Reality is there are no magical or quick fix solutions to weight management. “It’s about discipline,” says Venus Kresner, a Cebu-based nutritionist and dietician. Venus took time to have a moment of chat with The Freeman to talk about weight management. Definitely you don’t have to be weighed down by the discipline that comes with having a desirable weight. While it feels nice to look desirable, it feels even more fantastically superb just to be in desirable health and well-being. Excerpts:

RUTH: Just exactly what is weight management?

VENUS: Weight management is about maintaining your desirable body weight. When you go beyond your desirable or ideal body weight and continuously ignore it, you become obese. A person is considered obese if he goes beyond 20 percent of his desirable body weight. An obese person is at risk of hypertension, diabetes and cardio vascular diseases. Hence in weight management, we want to put a person to his ideal or desirable weight so he can avoid getting sick or be afflicted with diseases.

RUTH: What are the cardinal rules in losing weight?

VENUS: There is only one cardinal rule in weight management — moderation. Weight management does not mean depriving or putting you into craving spells. Weight management begins by looking into the food history and eating pattern. I want to design a program that is near your prevalent eating pattern and then modify it. Excess fats are stored because of an eating pattern that has been the practice for years. As a nutritionist-dietician, I would just slowly change or modify your eating pattern for this to become your lifetime eating habit.

The problem with drastic changes in diet and eating pattern is non-compliance. Hence the weight program becomes ineffective. In weight management, eating should be a pleasurable experience. Afterall, eating is nourishment. I don’t deprive or restrict a client of his craving. Rather, I instill a discipline in an eating pattern to achieve the desirable or ideal weight. I will be the one to count the calories but then I plan meals together with the client.

RUTH: What do you consider in a meal plan?

VENUS: When planning meals or designing an eating pattern, three components are factored-in that is — exercise, food and environment. Exercise increases metabolism and so the food you eat must be those that will help increase metabolism, replace worn out tissues and help build muscles. A person who is into exercise without a nutrition counselor exposes himself to risks. The equation of exercise and food intake is this: the more food intake plus less exercise equals weight gain. Less food intake plus the more exercise equals weight loss. The risk of not incorporating nutrition and diet into exercise is that what you feed your body might not cope with the energy you are expending. And so the tendency is a person can feel sick while doing exercise or does not lose weight at all. For weight management to be successful, exercise must come with proper nutrition.

The other thing is environment. Most fat people come from a family where there are also fat family members. You will find out from their food and eating histories that they have lavish food on the table. While weight management must be sensitive all these considerations, the key is in discipline. If a person is not convinced about discipline in weight management program then it is useless to embark on losing weight in the first weight. Weight management is a mindset thing. If you want to lose weight, you must also condition your mind to lose weight which means subjecting yourself to the discipline and compliance.

RUTH: What is moderation? How moderate is moderate?

VENUS: Moderation means when you don’t feel hungry anymore just stop eating. This does not mean you will skip meals or deprive yourself of certain food. Don’t eat what your body cannot take. Portion control is key. Try eating in small amounts and choose only food less in calories. Remember, stored fats are so visible. Those fats will really show no matter what clothes you wear. More than the heavy appearance, it is your health from within that is affected with stored fats.

RUTH: Would you recommend fad diets like Atkins or South Beach Diets? How about slimming supplements?

VENUS: No to all. Fad diets are dangerous diets. These are either too high in protein or too low in carbohydrates and miss out on some nutritional components that a person may need. Slimming supplements are equally dangerous because it does not contain what it claims. Unlike if you cook from raw ingredients, you know what you are eating.

RUTH: How much weight should be lost for people considered to be obese?

VENUS: The ideal weight loss is one to two pounds per week. Beyond that, your body can no longer cope The goal to have a desirable or ideal body weight in weight management is not necessarily to look desirable but to be desirably healthy.