FASTING AND ABSTINENCE
As we reflect during this Lenten season, we can apply these practices to help achieve a healthier weight.
I have patients come to me after starting on IF who gained weight instead of losing it.
During the Lenten season, Catholics are enjoined to practice fasting and abstinence on Ash Wednesday and Fridays, but many people — religious or not
— take up this increasingly popular discipline during the year for their health rather than spiritual reasons.
One of the mainstays of good health is maintaining a healthy weight. If you are overweight or obese, losing five percent of more of your current body weight in one year has numerous health benefits and helps with reducing the risk of having high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes.
But losing weight is easier said than done.
The best way to take the weight off and to keep it off is a combination of diet, exercise and modifying one’s behavior. The simplest answer is to just eat less. Weight loss is directly related to the difference between an individual’s energy intake and energy expenditure. In other words, if you eat less and burn more calories than you consume, you will lose weight.
The recommended safe rate of weight loss is half a pound to two pounds a week. When you lose weight slowly, you are more likely to keep it off. To lose one pound in a week, you should cut out 500 calories per day. What does 500 calories look like? It is: 2.5 cups of rice, or 2.5 16-ounce bottles of regular soda (that you really shouldn’t be drinking anyway!), or four pieces of small pandesal, to give you a few examples.
We all want magical, instant results when we go on a diet. You start cutting back and you start to lose weight. But when the diet is over, you go back to your regular eating habits and, no surprise really, you gain the weight back. If one is to be successful in keeping the weight off, it has to become a change in the way you eat and, in your lifestyle, not just for three days, one week or six months, but for always. Fad diets don’t work because you cannot sustain a very low-calorie or highly-restrictive diet. With quick weight loss diets which include very low-calorie diets (less than 800 calories per day) or diets where you take only liquids or soup (remember the cabbage-soup diet?), you will definitely gain it back after the diet ends. Fast-off… Fast-on.
The fact is, when these diets are compared, the weight loss results are the same after six months no matter which diet was followed. What is common though for all these diets is cutting down on the number of calories consumed.
Gaining in popularity is intermittent fasting or IF. There have been other names and versions before, like the 5:2 Diet, or the After Six Diet. The latest reiteration is 16/8 where you fast for 16 hours and only eat during an eight-hour window period. This uses the same principle of starving your body and forcing it to use your fat as a source of energy instead, and thus lose weight.
I have patients come to me after starting on IF who gained weight instead of losing it. This is an example of how a little science in the wrong hands can be a dangerous thing. They followed the 16/8 regimen but ate a whole day’s worth of food during the eight hours they were allowed to eat.
Intermittent fasting only works if you eat less. It’s not the number or hours of fasting that brings about the weight loss — it’s the fact that not eating for 16 hours means skipping a meal and maybe a snack, and it all still boils down to less food consumed. And when you starve yourself for too long, your metabolism actually slows down and you end up even losing less weight.
As we reflect during this Lenten season, we can apply these practices to help achieve a healthier weight:
Fast — appropriately, for eight to 10 hours, and not more than 12 hours.
Abstain — from sugary drinks such as iced tea, soda, milk tea. Juice should also be avoided as it contains fruit sugar or fructose. It doesn’t matter if the juice is freshly-squeezed, labeled as unsweetened or no added sugar or called water (like buko water), organic or even if you picked the fruit and squeezed it yourself. If it comes from a fruit, it’s juice.
Be mindful — of portions and calories per serving, and eat to satisfy hunger and not out of boredom.
If you want to try a new diet, discuss this first with your doctor. You may be causing more harm than good if you have a health condition where some diets might not be the right one for you.
And don’t be disheartened if the weight isn’t coming off as fast as you would want. Remember that if you are overweight or obese, achieving a healthy weight is what is best for you. If you are feeling well and losing weight at an acceptable rate with healthier food choices and being more active, then you are on the right track.
Travelers and tourists go on holidays and vacations for various reasons. They go on hectic sightseeing tours. A number search for action-filled outdoor adventures such as sky and scuba diving, while others simply take it easy and lie around the beach. A team just wants to ogle at masterpieces in museums or watch Broadway and West End musicals. Some will experience one Michelin restaurant to another, or some shoppers do not miss a beat from one boutique store to the next. There are those that dream of being pampered at spa resorts.
Then, there are the pilgrims. Those who religiously go on pilgrimages to sites where they meditate and pray for self-discovery, give thanks for the blessings, fulfill long-standing promises and perhaps even hope for a miracle. Truly, there are many more reasons as there are sites all over the world.
Five Cebuanos speak on their hallowed sacred places that have rekindled their hearts and touched their souls:
MARILOU ORDOÑEZ
Ask me again and again and my answer will always be the same – the Holy Land!
I have been in the travel business since 1978 and specialize in pilgrimage tours to the many sites all over the world. I love them all -- but the Holy Land will always strike me as my best.
Walking on the path of Jesus and visiting the holy places related to the Holy Family open my heart, my whole being to all the graces that enrich my spiritual life. I returned home filled with greater desire to continue with my journey with God and Mother Mary for the rest of my life. Praise be to God!
MAROSE SOBERANO
Visiting the Holy Land has always been one of my favorite pilgrimages. For the second time, in November 2019, I once again felt spiritually boosted as I set foot on the very same path of our Lord Jesus Christ several centuries ago. Among the sites that touched me the most was the Cenacle, where the Holy Eucharist was first instituted. To be physically present where it began was a moving experience, most specially since I am a regular Holy Mass attendee. Although I was among several devotees from different countries deep in thought with fervent and reverent prayers, it was peaceful and tranquil that you could hear a pin drop.
ARACELI LLANOS
Lourdes, the once-upon-a-time isolated mountain hamlet with its natural and serene surroundings which some claim to be miraculous, is where I felt the loving presence of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It captivated my heart so profoundly that I found myself visiting the place several times over the years. I recall with special fondness the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, where thousands of devotees would join the procession of the Blessed Sacrament.
SHEILA COLMENARES
My introduction to Lourdes, I felt, was rather incomplete as I missed the Healing Baths due to time constraints. On my next visit, I made certain I would be the first in line. On bended knees, I immersed myself in the cool, clear waters, prayed and venerated at the statue of the Virgin. The experience granted me a sense of profound peace and inexplicably felt Her presence. It was an incredible journey, one that I will treasure for the rest of my life.
LUIS MORO JR.
In 2015, when I joined a Cebuano group for a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, I truly did not know what to expect. The Camino was difficult and demanding. This is where I began to understand the beauty of nature and learned to appreciate and respect others.
One of the best decisions I have ever made, taking the challenging journey was a way of self-mortification. It encouraged acceptance of myself as I experienced the trials. At the end of it all, it made me realize the importance of the Lord in relation to our lives.
And then, there are the pilgrims those who religiously go on pilgrimages to sites where they meditate and pray for self-discovery, give thanks for the blessings, fulfill long-standing promises and perhaps even hope for a miracle. Truly, there are many more reasons as there are sites all over the world