Barrio Fiesta lady fights fat
MANILA, Philippines – Sunshine Ongpauco Ikeda used to have a big problem, quite literally. “I looked perpetually pregnant,” whines Sunshine, which was why she used to be called Bun-bun.
Well, the bright and beautiful news is Sunshine doesn’t look pregnant anymore — she looks more like a fresh-faced college graduate, fashionable, comfortable in her own skin, and confident of how well she looks. This is a far cry from a year ago, when she struggled with her post-pregnancy bulk and overindulgence with her professional relationship with food.
It figures: Sunshine is the third-generation owner of the Barrio Fiesta chain of restaurants which conjure up sinful images of crispy pata and kare-kare. Sunshine’s father made sure she and her siblings immersed themselves in the daily operations of the family business. When she was eight years old, Sunshine was already on the floor, taking orders from costumers. At 20, her father handed over to her the reins of the restaurant. Part of her job was to test and taste the food and the sauces.
“Before I got married, I was really waif thin,” Sunshine looks back. Even if eating was part of her job, she never indulged. She weighed 115 lbs. at 5 feet and 8 inches. She even had modeling jobs. She got married at 25, and got pregnant at 26, and got pregnant again a year after. Everything ballooned from there, and from “Babe,” she became “Bun-bun.”
Everything changed when she started taking Xenical (orlistat). She started losing weight in the first month of taking Xenical, she swears it’s a miracle drug. Xenical acts like a sponge — absorbing the oil from the food and flushing it out of your system so you burn what fat you already have in your body. “You really see the oil coming out of you,” she shares. Seeing how much fat she’s eating has helped her control her portions again.
From 135 lbs, she is now 125 lbs., losing a total of four inches around her waist. She knows she has a long way to go before she gets back to 115 lbs. “But I’m really happy with how I look now.” And thus, she’s Sunshine again.
Xenical is a product of pharmaceutical company Roche and is backed up by 30 years of clinical research. It has been on the Philippine market for over 10 years. Xenical fights the three ugly signs of fat: Fat deposits, weight gain, and cholesterol, via its fat elimination action.
