6 weeks ago, our Jacqueline Godwin started out on a public quest to realize a pair of personal goals: get in shape and lose some weight. It’s no mean feat for a 40-something woman, and as Jackie has found out, doing it in the public eye makes it even more difficult. That’s because when it comes to weight loss, Jackie’s business is everybody’s business and she can’t even sneak over to her neighbourhood chicken shack to maybe steal a snack on a breast and thigh because wherever she goes, you guys, her viewers are checking to make sure she’s not cheating on the diet.
But the scrutiny is welcome – in fact it’s the kind of thing that maybe all dieters should have – because it’s forced Jackie to live the rule of eating well and eating right. But in a society that craves sugar coated, deep-fried, and carb-loaded foods how does the dieter navigate the minefield of modern food choices? To find out how to shop healthy, Jackie took a trip top the supermarket with nutritionist Karen Rosito for this week’s battle of the bulge.
Karen Rosito, Registered Dietician/Nutritionist
“Being on a diet simply means that you are cutting down the amount of food you used to eat and you are eating different types of food, meaning that instead of eating fry jacks, you can now enjoy two whole wheat johnny cakes; it is a still a diet. You can enjoy a whole wheat tortilla with beans, it is still a diet but you are not eating two flour tortillas, instead you are eating one.”
The problem is I just do not know what to buy. So to make my next trip to the
grocery store or supermarket easier, registered dietician and nutritionist Karen Rosito accompanied me to save u supermarket where I discovered there are all kinds of foods I can eat that are affordable.
Karen Rosito,
“I wanted to particularly introduce the chick peas to the Belizean public because these are nice in salads, on top of salads because it is eaten out of the can. It is nice mashed, better known as Hamus, it is more like a Middle Eastern food. It is nice with whole wheat tortillas, it is nice with bread, and it is protein and carbohydrates. It lacks preservatives if you notice and it even has calcium. So if you eat a half a can of Goya, you literally get your amount of calcium, half of what you need, in a day.
Granola, if you notice, the brand is a local brand. It is excellent. It is oats, brown sugar, vegetable oil, vanilla and raisins. The serving of granola is half cup with a little bit of milk. And because it expands in the stomach, it makes you full.”
…and whether you enjoy eating oats as a cereal, snack or blended in a milkshake it is highly recommended.
Karen Rosito,
“And honestly, the cheaper oat meal is, the better it is for you because when it is refined and put in a fancy brand name package, it has to be expensive. But the cheaper oats, 32 ounces, 2 pounds 10 ounces is $6.”
And did you know that brown pasta takes longer to digest than white pasta? That means it is more healthy to eat.
Karen Rosito,
“I always encourage consumers to don’t always believe what you see on the label but this, you can’t lie on the nutrition facts. The big difference, besides the price, which is worth it, is the amount of fat. As you can see the ground beef is dotted with fat whereas the ground steak is 100%, exactly what they are telling you, ground steak.”
Also remember when shopping for vegetables it is the color that really tells you the number of nutrients contained.
Karen Rosito,
“If you are somebody that cooks a lot of beans, I would recommend the yellow or red onion for your beans and then this onion for your salads, anything you will eat raw because it has left of a sting.”
An did you know that garlic is good for just about every single ailment?
Karen Rosito,
“Garlic is good for every single cure. Garlic is a natural antibiotic. The only thing is to get the use of garlic, you have to eat a couple plugs every day. How do you eat a plug of garlic, and you know you will have garlic breath, you cut the garlic in three and you swallow it like a pill and you won’t burp it, you won’t taste it, you won’t sweat it because by cutting it you have already released the enzymes and then you swallow it whole.
This is actually fresh and the way to eat Romaine lettuce is with the stalks. You don’t throw away the stalks because although it is bitter, it is the best part of it. This is 100% more nutrient rich. People will tell you, especially kids adults, I hate spinach. Well you have no reason to hate spinach because spinach is good for you, it has a lot of iron, B vitamins, every single think you could imagine.
We have cocoa, we have beets, and we have more beets, and we have sweet potato. Now pound for pound, sweet potato is much better than rice in that it has more fibre and more nutrients.
If you must eat cheese, you try to have the cheddar type cheese with less fat or you try to have the low moisture mozzarella. The Western Dairy cheddar cheese, which doesn’t taste as creamy as imported cheese, but that is because it is really lower in fat. Light versus regular, so simply, if you have high cholesterol, you are simply cutting down on the fat by choosing the light.
If you are looking at fat and cholesterol then of course you will pick the white fish. But if you are looking at taste and nutrition it is the brown fish. As long as you keep to your serving, oil is oil. It yields the same amount of fat per gram. If you can afford extra virgin olive oil then of course but then there are other vegetable oils, a 100% percent like the Wesson brand, even our own Verena.”
And after picking up my choice of healthy foods it was time to hit the gym. I’ve been working out for two months.
Roberto Mariano, Gym Instructor
“So now it is time for her to gain muscle because if you notice she
has smaller legs because she lost the weight and so we’ve started to give her more weights. A lot of definitions have started to come out in the legs, this part of the muscles have started to show and this part of the muscle has started to show and by next week or the next two weeks when she comes back again you will see much more come up on the top part of her legs.
Jackie has to give me 50% of her time, I got to do 25% in the gym, Karen has to do 25% at the nutrition part so everything combined together makes you get 100% and that is why Jackie is performing so good."
And while I am very happy with my progress...there is no mistaking that exercise and diet have been controlling my diabetes and hypertension.
Kira Nu’man, Nurse, Integral Family Health Centre
“It seems like your pressure is on track. Last time you had 120/90 and now 120/80. It is perfect. And the last time, the sugar was at 78 and now it is at 71. It is a little bit low but still on track. Maybe now you can adjust your insulin intake, now that it is in control.”
Karen Rosito,
“As soon as the sugar is high, the exercise removes the excess sugar so she is really doing good. She has been totally consistent and committed. The sugar is a little bit low but that’s because I think the doctor will totally take her off the insulin now. So unofficially, Jackie is insulin free or will be after tomorrow because the insulin is lowering her blood sugar too low.”
I continue to get rid of the excess fat and I have actually gained two pounds of muscle mass in my biceps, triceps and legs.
Karen Rosito,
“As you remember, she started out at about 165 pounds, she is down today to 151 pounds. I really impressed this time because she has lost a lot
of fat and she has actually gained muscle. She is taking it in stride, she looks really well.”
And because the goal now is to gain muscle mass I have been placed on a higher protein diet.
Karen Rosito,
“Because right now what she is going to be concentrating on is to just build muscle mass. I want to take her to the perfect size, what we call in a perfect world, I want to take her to a 38 bust line, 28 inch waist, and a 38 inch hip with a lot of muscle. I want her to, she won’t look like a muscle building woman but she’ll really look very very healthy.”
Karen told the segment’s producer Alex Ellis how battle of the bulge has impacted other people’s lives.
Karen Rosito,
“We have had an increase of 70% to 80% patient load here at Integral, simply to do the weight loss program that Jackie is doing on TV. We notice that we people who we know can’t afford it are coming in to ask about the program to actually get involved.”
But remember it will take your personal commitment to let it all happen. Until the next battle of the bulge think healthy.
Tune in two weeks from tonight for a next instalment of the Battle of the Bulge.
