What Every Cohenite Newbie Should Know

Today is the day!!!  April 15, 2012 is graduation day.  That's a total of 93 days of the full Cohen cycle.  Of course, it could have been a couple of days less expect that I was abroad for 2 weeks and I kinda deviated from the Refeeding Plan.  During this entire process, there are a few things I realized about this plan that I think any new Cohenite must realize too:

1.  It is important to prepare your meals yourself.  Being the spoiled Pinoys that we are, many new Cohenites find the process of planning and preparing meals a pain.  True, it is a pain; especially if you are coming from the South Beach Diet where you can just call your favorite chef to prepare your daily meals and have it delivered in cute food boxes to your door step.  When you personally prepare your meals, you are conscious about the amount of salt and fat and other unhealthy ingredients that go into your meals.

I used to eat out every single day for the past 25 years.  Restaurants don't really care about the amount of salt or oil that goes into their dishes.  Actually, the more fat they put into their dishes, the more excited the customers get about their food.  Have you ever noticed how much oil goes into a typical Filipino dish?  How about a supposedly healthy dish that is topped with foie gras?  Remember that crunchy serving of bagnet?  How do you think it got that crunchy?

Personally preparing your meal also helps to tweak your mind into adjusting your meal portions.  When you weigh your beef, you now know what 150 grams of raw steak should look like.  It is definitely not the slab of meat I used to order at the restaurant!  And you know what, this new allowance is filling too.

2.  You don't have to eat until you feel like chocking.  The meal allowances are really just about right.  You get up from the table without that over-stuffed feeling.  It actually feels good!

3.  Meal planning is just a matter of organization.  Again, I emphasize that I never used to cook before Cohen.  I'm still not a good cook BUT now I know why I never got to cook in the first place.  It's not that I did not want to.  It's just that I did not know how to start doing it!

Pre-cohen, I would buy cookbooks and read through the recipes.  I would then mark the recipes I'd like to try and then list down ingredients to purchase for my meal.  The problem with this is that I end up with a pantry full of once-used ingredients.  There was no system to the entire meal planning process.  With Cohen, I was limited to just a few ingredients and I just worked all my meals around these items.

4.  Cooking doesn't have to be complicated.  Watching cooking shows on TV, you'd think that cooking required a lot of steps and a lot of ingredients.  Well, I learned that preparing a meal did not have to be so complex.  Take for instance breakfast.  You can simply take some yogurt, slice some fresh fruit, mix it in and you're done.  There is simply no reason to skip this meal!

I also discovered my best time savers:  onion powder and garlic powder.  Any good cook will always chop fresh onions and garlic.  Well, if you don't have the time, just sprinkle!!!

5.  Making "Baon" ain't so bad.  Actually, while we were travelling, it was great to have my baon.  Imagine how much was saved on meals?  This was my cheapest trip ever!!!

6.  Sugarless Gum is your new best friend.  I always carry gum wherever I go.  It's like my credit card, I never leave home without it.  Notice how your mind looks for food when you're idle?  When this happens, pop a piece of gum in your mouth.  I chew gum like my friends puff on cigarettes.  Best of all, my dentist approves of this!!!  Right, Bubut?

7.   When you finally lose all that unwanted weight, don't believe  when they say you lost too much weight or you look older.  Believe what my dear friend, Roz, said:  "Own it and walk that aisle".  Which aisle, you ask?  The one that holds size 2 or 0!!!

To that, I will have the chocolate bar I kept for just this special day!  Life begins at 44!!!  Cheers to you!

I'm Leaving On a Jet Plane

The biggest challenge of any Cohenite is getting on an airplane.  More so if it's a long haul flight.

I'm on Refeeding and this is tougher than the Eating Plan because meal allowances change everyday depending on whether or not yesterday's food combination made me gain weight.  Every morning, I always check my weight before preparing my meals.

Today, my flight is at 12:45 pm.  This gives me enough time to prepare my flight meals.  Even if I have requested for gluten-free meals on board, I'd rather make baon to ensure I stay deviation free.

I woke up at 6:00 am, weighed myself and prepared my breakfast.  Since today's meal allowance calls for an additional 80 to 90 grams of protein and another 80 to 90 grams of vegetables, I've decided to eat eggs and vegetables for breakfast instead of my staple yogurt and mangoes.  This way I can spread out the veggie and protein allowances over 3 meals instead of 2.  I should emphasize that at this point of the diet, I am overwhelmed by the amount of food I MUST eat.

 A flight from Manila to New York usually takes me 22 to 24 hours door-to-door.  This means I should prepare 3 meals.  These meals must not spoil easily, nor should it be saucy.  I will also need to pack these in light, airtight containers.  Good thing our dear friend, Anna Rod, gave us a set of 3 Lock & Lock plastic food containers that come in an insulated bag.  During my Dad's time, this would have been called "pimbrera".  Here's the modern-day pimbrera

Here is what I prepared:

Meal 2:  Thai Chicken Patties with Sautéed Veggies.  This is one of the simplest dishes to prepare, especially with a food processor;  and easiest to pack because it is dry.  Simply mince chicken in the food processor.  Chop  garlic, onion, fresh coriander and toss in with the minced chicken.  Sprinkle salt, pepper and cumin.  Mix everything and then form into patties that will fit into your food container.  I ended up with 3 flat sausages.  Grilled them and packed into a Lock & Lock with sautéed veggies.

Meal 3:  Seafood and Chicken with Sautéed Veggies.  I figured seafood will not sit in the freezer long enough for my return trip so I decided to cook all the remaining seafood in the freezer.  Good thing there was just enough to cover my protein allowance for the day.  Even better, at this point of the Refeeding Plan, I can already combine proteins.

I cubed some shrimp, squid and chicken.  Grilled and sprinkled with salt & pepper then tossed in some veggies.  I packed this in  Lock & Lock container number 2.

Meal 1:  This meal is the following day's breakfast meal.  I don't like eggs unless it's freshly cooked so I will risk packing yogurt.  I plan to pack the yogurt in the insulated bag together with my day's fruit allowance.  To ensure it's freshness, this insulated bag will also have blue ice in it.

Here's my airplane baon: 

And here it is all packed and ready for boarding 

Eat more, lose more?!

Oh yeah!  My goal weight was 112 lbs.  I started refeeding at 111.8 lbs.  After  days of eating more, to the point of force-feeding, I am now 110.6 lbs!  Have you ever been on a diet like this?  It's truly amazing!

Unlike the first phase of the Cohen Diet, the Refeeding (RF) phase is a little more meticulous.  Let me explain first how the two phases of this diet works.

When you first enroll in this diet, the Cohen clinic draws your blood and after about 2 weeks, they call you back to give you and explain your EP.  Quite simply, your EP will tell you how much chicken, meat, or seafood you must eat per day in combination with a specific amount of vegetables.  The mantra of Cohen is "your food is your medicine".  This means that if the EP says you must eat 110 grams of meat, you have to stick to this allowance.  Don't deviate by eating 111 grams!

So coming from the market, the first thing I do when I get home is to bring out all my little containers and then cut up my meats into the proper allowances, then label each container with the precise quantity of meat or chicken.  This way, when I have to cook my meals, I simply pull out the required quantity.

In the Refeeding stage, Cohen gave me a new plan.  This new plan is good for 18 days.  In this plan, Cohen increased my food allowances for each day.  It even added a couple more choices of fruits and some bread.  Again, I should not deviate from this plan.  If the plan says eat 145 grams of chicken with 140 grams of vegetables and a serving of mango and 2 crackers, I must eat ALL of these.  Medyo nakakalula.  Actually, in my Pre-Cohen days, I could have probably eaten more (hahaha).

The first thing I must do when I wake up is to relieve my bladder and then weigh myself.  I have to weigh myself everyday at, more or less, the same hour of the day.  If I had not gained weight, then I proceed with the day's new meal allowances.  These new allowances are an additional 60-80 grams of proteins and vegetables.  So when previously I would just store 115 grams of meat, now I have to cut up an additional 30 grams.  That's, if I had not gained weight from the previous day.

The preparation is a little more laborious but the weight loss just continues.  I'm now wearing my "tight clothes" that are now really loose. Yesterday, feeling really good, I decided to wear skinny white jeans to work.  Mind you, I had a shirt tucked in pa!  So I enter the office and then my mom takes a look at me and says, "sobrang payat mo na. Panggit na yan".  Hahaha.  This is the very first time somebody described me as sobrang payat!!!

Exercise, exercise

I love to exercise.  I have always kept some kind of exercise routine.  Pre-Cohen I would play tennis twice a week and jog on off days.  Tennis, to me, is not just a way to fight the battle of the bulge, it's also a very good reason to meet up with friends.  I've been playing tennis with the same group of "early birds" for a couple of years now.  Tennis is my excuse to meet up with Joel (before he migrated), Sharon and Mike and then have a good breakfast at Apartment 1B.

On the off days, I jog around Salcedo and Legaspi Village.  I love Makati in the early morning when it's quiet and peaceful.  No cars, no people, no pollution.  Jogging gives me a sense of peace.  It is my "alone time".

But ever since Cohen, I had to stop working out.  Not that I wasn't allowed.  I am allowed but you see, on Cohen, my daily calorie intake is very minimal.  Last month, at one of J's family reunions, I went to dinner taking along my baon.  I happened to sit beside a doctor and we talked about my diet.  He made some computations and said that I was taking about 1400 calories a day.  He explained that our bodies burn 1800 calories without doing anything.  So imagine if I continued working out?  I'd be soooo hungry!  So I decided not to workout while on Cohen.  So until I'm really done with Cohen, my gear will just sit around waiting

1st Refeeding

Reached my goal weight yesterday and now it's time to learn how to eat like all other human beings.  The Refeeding Stage is supposed to help your body adjust to more food in terms of quantity and variety.  It's actually a scary phase because after 2 months of structured eating, I am now entering new territory.  While preparing my meal, I keep reassuring myself to just trust the diet plan.

To speed up the weight loss during the Eating Plan, I decided to jumble my meals.  I would eat my dinner or lunch allowance for breakfast and reserve my breakfast allowance for dinner.  This way, I end the day with a light meal.  I read this tip in a Cohen blog.  It said that when you think you're not losing weight as fast as you expect, they suggest that you jolt your system by switching your meal allowances.

For the past weeks, that's what I've been doing so for my very first Refeeding Meal, I am having Chicken with Mango Sauce for breakfast.

Whoa!  This looks like a whole lot of food!  After 2 months of having baby meals, this quantity just shocks my mind and tummy.  To think, I merely added 20 grams of vegetables and 15 grams of protein to my usual allowance!

Well, to a new day, Bon Appetite!

March 15, 2012---Day 64!!!

This is it!!!  This is the day I reached my ideal weight:  111 lbs.

The next challenge is maintaining it!  Life is good!!!

Wansoy, Cilantro and Corriander

I think wansoy, cilantro and corriander are one and the same thing.  Don't take my word for it.  All I know is that a lot of the yummy Cohen recipes call for cilantro.

When I started on Cohen, this herb/spice (are herbs and spices the same thing?) was one of the first things I got at the supermarket.  Of course when I first got introduced to this leaf, I had to ask the grocery clerk if the plant I picked was the right one because there was another one that looked just liked it called Kinchay.

After almost a month and a half of using corriander, I finally told my mom that I was having a hard time keeping this leaf fresh.  I would put it in the refrigerator and it would just wilt in a day or two.  Such a delicate herb.

Then Mom, my culinary guru, taught me a trick.  She said all I have to do is put my corriander in a container and fill it with water.  Then with a small plastic bag, cover the leaves and then keep in the refrigerator.

Totoo nga!  It lasted a week.  Once again, Mommy knows best!