Victim of changing standards in fitness

Living in this generation can be tough if only for the fact that there is so much pressure about slimming and dieting.

Keeping trim, of course, isn’t exactly new in this society that had always encouraged vanity. In the time of our grandparents, they had calisthenics, light exercises that involve bending bodies, twisting to the left and to the right and probably a little jog in place. By today’s standards, that’s probably only stretching and warm-up for gym rats.

Men that time generally didn’t pump iron and pan de sal weren’t found on the abs, but on the breakfast table.

Sure, in the ’60s and ’70s, there was already Systomor, a gym operated by Tom Ortega. But it was for body-builders, who were generally considered freaks back then. Systomor, incidentally, also trained beauty queens, who wanted to be in real fighting form for their international pageants. Beauty titlists in those days – Evangeline Pascual, Agnes Rustia, etc. – were not sent to Venezuela (or is it Colombia where Stella Marquez Araneta sends her Binibinis prior to Miss Universe to train?), but to Escolta, where Tom Ortega runs his gym.

Women in those days actually had an easier time keeping fit. A little bending body here, a little stretching and pole twist (now they do pole dancing) and they’d get the curves acceptable to society. Thirty years ago, if you had a 36-24-36 figure (or statistics close to that), you were qualified to join Binibining Pilipinas. Being a little round then was still sexy.

But today, beauty queen bodies have to be toned and defined and lean. Just shows you how standards keep changing. Back then, if you had a Kate Moss body, they wouldn’t let you walk down the fashion ramp. They’d send you to Quezon Institute instead to get treated for tuberculosis.

Oh, what an easy time they had in those days. Ironically, even if the physical fitness standards weren’t as rigid then compared to what we have today, both my parents (it was really more my mom) still had problems keeping fit. At least, my dad worked on it by jogging from Folk Arts Theater all the way to Rizal Park and back every Saturday (and even Sunday at times) and later played tennis and was successful at having a relatively trim body. It was always his abs that were the problem because – coming from the Rice Granary of the Philippines that is the Central Plain of Luzon – he felt he was entitled to all the rice he could dump on his plate.

But my mother was something else. If only whining about being fat would cause you to lose calories, she would have been Chona Kasten. All she did was really complain. After that, she ate.

For a while, she took Ayds, a caramel candy bought from Mercury and Commander Drugstore that supposedly made you lose your appetite. That didn’t work, unfortunately because there was so much junk food in the house. And there were cakes every so often because my mom baked and even made her own pizza.

My parents’ biggest crime as far as I am concerned was the fact that they really fattened me up. Growing up, I was rather sickly. In second grade, in fact, out of the 10 months in the school calendar, I was only able to attend eight because in between I had the measles, chicken pox, the flu and mumps (it’s not true that you only get it once in your life).

When my dad brought me to our tailor once, he even made me swear – in front of the tailor and his tape measure – that I would try to gain weight. The clothes that were made for me therefore were a size bigger and I was supposed to fill them in with my plump body.

I did gain a lot of weight after that (I drank a pitcher of milk every day) and thanks to my parents’ efforts to keep me healthy, I now rarely get sick.

But then, as a result of my having been a bit fat in my youth, I now have trouble eliminating excess weight. As Dr. Vicki Belo once told me: "Never let your children get fat because they’ll have a lot more fat cells that they would carry with them to adulthood."

Today, family and friends think I am such a gym addict because I have to work out regularly. The truth is, going to the gym is a chore because who wants to sweat it out when you can just stay home and watch TV? Fortunately, the gym I go to – Gold’s – makes every workout session enjoyable for me because of the very efficient staff and the cozy atmosphere (and it doesn’t get too crowded there).

Basically, my problem is maintaining my ideal weight. With me, I go through the yo-yo thing. While I do manage to slim down, the weight automatically goes back when I go abroad or when I stop working out even just for a short while – and then I start all over again just to return to what my weight should be.

Starting last month, I began another mission to really trim down because I’m signing up – actually today – with a new clothing company called Jewels and I have to fit into their clothes. I’ve lost four pounds so far by doing three things: Exercising regularly (at Gold’s gym, of course), eating sensibly and having carboxy treatments at the Belo Medical Center.

Carboxy actually targets specific areas – in my case, around the waist because that’s where all my fat deposits are. What they do is they pump carbon dioxide into the target area and that makes whatever fat is there burst and you expel that through your usual bathroom routine. It’s really just a minor procedure that takes less than 20 minutes (in my case – I don’t know about the others) – no surgery, no downtime and it’s totally different from liposuction. (This is, in fact, what’s recommended for people who aren’t really all that big and are not candidates for liposuction.)

With carboxy and regular exercise, I really did manage to lose weight. To reward myself for all that effort, I ate, but I chose what I ate.

Unfortunately, I am a dessert freak and I’d kill for ice cream and cake. Just recently, I discovered that Selecta has come up with a new line that is all "lite." Selecta lite is 94 percent fat free and 35 percent less sugar and comes in different flavors: Double Dutch, Very Rocky Road and Cookies & Cream. I’ve tried all three and it’s just as delicious as their regular ice cream line – but less sweet (which is what I prefer).

Of course, even if that is lite, you don’t eat an entire tub of it in one sitting if you want to lose weight. But I swear, in this current slimming down program of mine, Selecta lite helps me keep my sanity whenever I crave for dessert.

I still have two more pounds to lose in order for me to achieve my goal. I’ve become a slave to my body, unfortunately – no thanks to the current physical fitness standards that require men to have six packs or even eight (I’d be happy with four) on the abdominal area.

And now, I’ve come to realize that in life, you have two choices: You either relish the crispy skin of the lechon and get fat or you relish the flattering comments from people about how your body looks so good.

I’ve made my choice. Have you?