A happy, healthy new you in the Year of the Fire Monkey

Probably on top of your growing list of New Year’s resolutions this year is to lose weight (as in many New Years past). Each year, you seem to pack on the pounds. And fat chance you’re going to succeed losing the unwanted flab this year.

Well, it’s time for a lifestyle modification, so says Dr. Monica Therese Cating-Cabral, consultant of internal medicine-endocrinology at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Bonifacio Global City. Dr. Cabral shares some health/wellness trends in the Year of the Fire Monkey as well as some tips:

• Move more to live long. Still one of the biggest health issues this year is preventing lifestyle diseases or non-communicable diseases (NCD) like cancer, diabetes, heart attack. According to Dr. Cabral, lack of physical activity increases the risk of dying of an NCD.

“We’re always using our gadgets,” Dr. Monica names a culprit. “We use it even at night, which breaks down our melatonin so we can’t sleep. We should stop using our gadgets at least one to two hours before going to sleep.”

• The combined use/abuse of tobacco and alcohol can dramatically increase one’s risk of certain cancers (particularly of the mouth and throat) and problems with the liver (cirrhosis) and digestive system (peptic ulcers, etc.). Medical experts urge the public to ditch the smoking habit — if you don’t smoke, don’t start! While there’s no verdict yet on certain drinks, like beer and wine, doctors and health professionals agree that having more than two glasses of either beer or wine can lower one’s resistance to illness.

• Going natural. More and more people will be eating more organic food and plant-based protein alternatives (vis-a-vis processed foods) to avoid chronic diseases.

• Let food be your medicine. People will be turning to natural remedies, such as food, to treat obesity and obesity-related problems. Of course, that’s already happening at the Cohen’s Lifestyle Centre that uses food as medicine to address hormonal imbalance that causes obesity (excess body fat) or overweight problems.

“We should watch out against being overweight, too, not just being obese,” says Dr. Cabral. “A lot of our young people today are either overweight or obese. It’s also dangerous to be overweight. We have to maintain a healthy weight.”

Dr. Cabral zeroes in on healthier food choices.  “Our young people — like those who work the night shift at the call centers — eat too much fast food,” she laments.

She then tells us what an ideal diet is. “It’s a balanced diet of complex carbohydrates like rice, pasta, bread as well as protein and an adequate amount of fats. Yes, our body needs fat to manufacture hormones. And there are certain vitamins that need fat, like vitamins A, D, and E.”

As for making healthier choices, we ask Dr. Cabral: Is quinoa better than rice? Is brown rice better than white rice?

“Quinoa is okay, but it’s also expensive,” she replies. “And if you eat too much of it, that’s a lot of calories, too. Brown and white rice are the same if you eat the same amount of calories, but of course, you have the fiber from brown rice which makes you fuller longer.”

She hastens to add, “Fiber should not come from bread or rice but from green leafy vegetables and eat less of the starchy ones like potato.”

What about juicing, which a lot of people have squeezed into their daily routine?

“With juicing, you’re taking fiber from the fruit, it’s like taking sugar,” Dr. Cabral tells us. “Better to eat the fruit itself.”

Frankly, says Dr. Cabral, the real world is not made up of 500 calories — and not everybody can walk 5,000 to 10,000 steps every day. “There’s no magic bullet. Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet unless it comes from healthcare websites associated with hospitals. And don’t get your health advice from your friend or relative.”

A lot of people have turned to Cohen’s Lifestyle Centre to find solutions to their weight/health problems — and have successfully lost the unwanted pounds and gained a whole new life.

“Cohen is actually a rapid weight loss and wellness program through nutrition,” defines Barbara Young, Cohen’s Lifestyle Centre CEO. “Rapid in the sense that on the first month, we average as much as 15 pounds.”

Barbara adds, “Generally, you have to be healthy to undergo the program. We do not recommend it for those who have diabetes, severe heart, liver or kidney problems, or those whose organ functions are already impaired. It could be too drastic for them.”

The Cohen’s Lifestyle Program uses scientifically proven weight loss and wellness plans based on the biochemical analysis of the blood as formulated by international specialist Dr. Rami Cohen.

It’s Dr. Cohen himself who personalizes your plan based on your blood test and medical history, which he thoroughly reviews.  But he does not look at your blood test the way normal laboratories do. He’d look at it based on how much your kidney can process protein and sugar.

“Some people are asking how come they lost weight on Cohen unlike before when they removed rice but still wouldn’t lose weight,” Barbara recounts. “Because the latter is not precise. Part of what people pay for with Cohen is the precision of how much the body needs. So there’s no guesswork, it’s individualized — it’s not one size fits all.”

How much weight should I lose?

“We will compute it for you based on your sex, height, age, and shoe size (bone structure),” says Barbara. “Being big-boned or small-boned is also part of the consideration.”

The program teaches clients the right cooking, eating, and sleeping habits to optimize the performance of organs vital for metabolic processes. No exercise, injection or pill intake are needed to achieve results — make that fast results (clients lose up to eight to 10 pounds per month).

Staring ravenously at the big fat salmon on my plate at Melo’s, I ask Barbara, “How does a Cohen meal look like?”

“A Cohen meal is basically comprised of a personalized weight of proteins and what we call sources of sugar,” Barbara describes. “Although you’re not allowed to take rice, bread, and pasta during the weight loss phase, your body is still getting your sugar or carbohydrate requirement from certain fruits and vegetables. So, you shouldn’t feel hungry. Nobody should be able to exist without certain amounts of sugar in the body. But there are different sources, the first source would be what we call the simple carbohydrates. The amount varies per person.”

According to Barbara, it’s important how you cook your food. Among the healthy ways of cooking are panfrying, broiling, boiling, baking, roasting.

Is salt a sin? “We do allow salt but not too much of it,” says Barabara, “Even the regular asin, the rock salt in the palengke, is okay.”

Barbara further describes the Cohen program: “There are three phases and as you go from one to the other, the list of foods you can eat grows longer — here, we will start introducing rice, bread, potato, pasta but in a controlled way so the body knows how to handle them.”

No time to prepare your meals? No problem! If there’s a wheel, there’s a way! Cohen continues to innovate as it introduces the Cohen Meals on Wheels, personalized and healthy packed gourmet meal sets (breakfast, lunch, dinner) delivered to your doorstep.

What’s the success rate of the program?

“Really pretty high,” goes Barbara’s instant reply. “I have yet to see someone who followed the program and did not lose weight.”

She explains, “Before you enrol in the program, we give you a free session explaining everything, answering all your questions so when you commit, you know what you’re getting into as against just being forced into it. We explain all the principles and what to expect. Kaya wala namang pilitan.”

Barbara is herself a walking advertisement of Cohen: She lost 46 pounds on Cohen — she went from chunky 180 to funky 124 pounds.

“Medically, you can already see an improvement in one week — in your skin, blood sugar, cholesterol, and polycystic ovarian syndrome (for women who are not able to have regular menstruation),” Barbara stresses.

Though Cohen seems to have predominantly female clients, it’s got a lot of male clients, too. And there’s no age limit. “We have clients as old as 65,” Barbara tells us.

What happens after the program?

“We teach you how to maintain your weight,” says Barbara. “You don’t need to re-enrol although some do, like those who were not able to complete the program because they got pregnant. When they’re no longer breastfeeding, they can go back on the program.”

Cohen clients swear that the effects of the program go beyond just losing weight. “You gain self-confidence,” says one client.

“We have clients who have gotten married,” says a beaming Barbara. “We have a lot of Cohen babies.”

Today, we meet up close and somewhat personal some Cohen clients who are now the biggest (pardon the pun) endorsers of the program.

There’s the dashing David Kahn, 32, IT specialist. Who’d think that the tall and dapper David, who now weighs only 154 lbs., was a hefty 339.5 pounder he could qualify for a sumo wrestler?

“When I was that big, I couldn’t even see my feet and tie my shoe laces,” confesses David who also suffered from sleep apnea (a sleep disorder where you stop breathing repeatedly).

What was the turning point for David? What made him embark on the road to fitness?

“Pardon my telling you this,” David begins to relate, “but my mom once told me, ‘How do you expect to have sex when you get married? You will crush your wife!’”

David shows off a humongous pair of black pants that was part of his old closet. “This could fit two persons,” he says with a laugh.

Indeed, the once-giant David did not just lose some unwanted pounds — he lost a person!

There’s the charming 23-year-old Jam Padilla, makeup artist/baker/choir teacher, who went from 194 to 117 pounds on Cohen.

There’s the gorgeous Carmela Tanjangco, 34, domestic engineer, who now weighs a slinky 105 lbs. from a chunky post-pregnancy weight of 127 lbs..

There’s the vivacious Tasha Santos who has trimmed down from 176 to 140 lbs. and can now wear whatever clothes she wants. The once retiring Tasha now wears her heart on her sleeve.

Also, meet working mom Sheryll Chua, 39 (146 to 112 lbs.); Eric Valera, 52, personnel director (235 to 165 lbs.); and Allan Elgar, 42, sound producer/guitarist (205 to 153 lbs.).

Surely, these happy Cohen ambassadors have proven that less is more!

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For more info on Cohen’s Lifestyle Centre and its personalized weight loss and wellness program, visit www.CohenLifestyle.com.ph, its official Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CohenLifestylePhil, and its Instagram account at http://instagram.com/cohenlifestyleph.