THE long, food-fortified, festive Filipino Christmas season is almost upon us. That spells near-doom for many dieters and the near-death of all our best intentions.

If you are one of many who agree with Garfield, the famously cynical cartoon cat, who claims “Diet is DIE with a T,” then, losing weight is a losing proposition. Especially during the holidays when we tell ourselves, “It’s Christmas, after all.”

So, what can we do to minimize the havoc the filled-to-groaning holiday table will have on our systems? How do we minimize our post-Christmas guilt?

Patients come through the door in January, hanging their heads in full confessional mode. The top three offenders: fruit salad, leche flan and ube halaya.

What do I start to tell my patients in November? If you can’t lose weight, then try not to put on any more. (The same number on the scale next year? We will consider that a victory.) And, taste everything in moderation.

Nutrition crash course
To win the war, we need ammunition. The most important is E-D-U-C-A-T-I-O-N.

First, get a crash course in nutrition. There is no perfect food, we just have to figure out which are really bad and minimize our intake, and find out which have high biological value and try to take more of that. Kids are taught about nutrition and macronutrients using the concept of “Go, Grow and Glow Foods.”

Go foods are carbohydrates that provide energy to breath, move and live. Carbohydrates like bread, rice and pasta get a bad rap, but it is possible to have your carb and eat it, too, by choosing healthier options. Higher fiber versions of our favorites like whole-wheat pasta, brown or red rice (we compromise with my pamangkins by mixing white rice with brown, otherwise they won’t touch it) or if there is no better choice, cut down your portion size. You must have a carbohydrate with each meal, otherwise your body will quickly run out of fuel for the day’s long haul and you will end up hungrier that you would have been normally. And that usually results in eating more than you should.

Grow foods are proteins, which are made up of amino acids, nature’s building blocks that maintain our body structures, make up our chemical messengers, enzymes and assist countless other body processes. The essential AA’s are must-knows for your biochemistry exam and are lysine, leucine, isoleucine, valine, threonine, methionine, phenylalanine and tryptophan. They are essential because we cannot make them in our body and must source them entirely from food.

Whole eggs have a BV of 100, because it is a complete protein and contains ALL the essential AA’s in one neat package. Just the egg white packs in 88, not bad if you want to avoid the cholesterol. Whey protein also ranks 100. Cow’s milk is worth 91. Fish (83) is better than beef (80), which is better than chicken (79).

On the other hand, low BV foods come from plants, legumes, grains, nuts, seeds and vegetables. This is important if you are a vegan, because you will need to combine legumes with grains and nuts to be able to get a higher BV from what you eat to make up your minimum RDA for these essential nutrients.

Glow foods are fats, but also include fruit and vegetables. You must sort out the good fat (monounsaturated fatty acid, MUFA and polyunsaturated fatty acid, PUFA) from bad fat or saturated or trans-fat.

MUFAs come from nuts (walnuts, almonds, pistachios, and peanuts), avocado, canola and olive oil. PUFAs (including omega-3 fatty acids) come from the usual suspects like salmon, cod and other fatty fish, fish oil, corn, soy and sunflower oils.

How do you tell a fat is bad? That is easy, if it is solid at room temperature! Think butter, margarine, shortening. Some plant oils like coconut, palm and palm kernel oil are also high in saturated fat. Try not to use them at all.

Eating strategies
Second, regarding eating habits, it is never too late to change. Eating too quickly, carbo-loading, and skipping meals are cardinal sins that will sabotage you. High fiber food with a low GI index help keep you full, minimize the glucose and insulin surges after meals and help avoid the sugar crash which will make you want food again soon after you eat.

It also takes 20 minutes after eating for the signal from your stomach’s stretch receptors to get to the brain and back to tell you, you are full and have had enough. Eat slowly, chew food thoroughly and put down our utensils in between bites. See the side bar for how-to-eat-properly tips.

Get off the couch!
Third, most exercise gurus recommend you exercise 150 minutes per week. That is 30 minutes five times weekly. You can break that down further into smaller intervals and still get the full cardiovascular benefits. Wear a pedometer and try to get to 7,000 steps a day, on the average, most people take only half that number. Also, exercise should be something you enjoy, but is still practical, inexpensive and reasonable for your health, habits and budget.

Better than Christmas money bonus
Fourth, don’t fixate on the scale. Diet and exercise help weight loss, but it’s not about the number. The goal is to make your heart stronger, improve exercise tolerance and become fitter. Weight loss, as desirable as it might be, is the bonus. It is better than money!

Change for a better you
And the last thing, get into diet and exercise for yourself and your health alone. Trying to lose 10 lbs. is a short-term goal which you might achieve but will almost surely regain because you haven’t made the fundamental mindset change that is imperative for the lifelong struggle ahead.

We may never win the war, but we can win small food “should I eat that, or not” battles with ourselves every day. Every victory counts. We should never give up trying.