MANILA – Singer-actress Rachel Alejandro and her sister, Chef Barni Alejandro-Rennebeck, are considered pioneers in healthy food delivery service in the country, establishing The Sexy Chef as early as 2004.
It all started when Barni created the South Beach diet for Rachel, who admitted that she needs to stay in shape for her career in showbiz.
Barni, who is also a pre-school teacher, went on to sell bottles of basil pesto to her co-staff and friends. This expanded to a delivery service, health bars at Gold’s Gym and, eventually, what people know today as The Sexy Chef.
“Later on, we teamed up with Nadine Tengco, who is the nutritionist of ‘The Biggest Loser,’” Barni shared. “We knew that we needed to refresh the brand – ‘di naman pwedeng South Beach diet forever – and people have different needs. It’s not one-size fits all for everyone. You have to offer different programs, like some people want low-carb, or calorie control. Some are diabetic, and some women are breastfeeding. There are so many things so we decided to come up with all these programs with the guidance of a nutritionist. Doon siya nag-expand.”
Now, The Sexy Chef has menu options for people with different needs. Adjusting to trends, the delivery service also has meals combined with the very popular juice cleanses courtesy of Tengco.
“One of our best-sellers is a vegetarian program that is combined with a tummy-trimmer juice from Nadine Tengco,” Rachel said. “Another current trend now is Paleo.”
Serving an average of 70 clients and 200 meals daily, The Sexy Chef is set to launch a cookbook of healthy eats soon. It is also trying its hand on the hotel and restaurant industry through a partnership with Holiday Inn and Suites Makati.
The Sexy Chef’s signature dishes – from appetizers to salads, mains and dessert – will be served at Holiday Inn and Suites Makati’s buffet restaurant, Flavors, for lunch and dinner on May 23, 24, 30 and 31.
Recalling how the tie-up came about, Rachel said: “They said they could’ve gone to another company but they chose us because we’re the pioneers. So I guess that helps a lot. Our clientele here talaga are high-profile, a lot of celebs with diet restrictions.”
Barni, for her part, said the partnership aims to let people who are on a diet enjoy a buffet meal at a hotel. “If you’re trying to watch what you eat, this won’t stop you. Hindi siya off-limits.”
As experts on diet and weight loss, The Sexy Chef tandem shared with ABS-CBNnews.com some tips on how to shed unwanted pounds effectively, breaking down common misconceptions in the process.
Here are seven of them:
1. Starving yourself won’t help you lose weight.
To those who want long-term weight loss, crash diets won’t work, according to Barni. Chances are, they will succumb to binge-eating and they will get all the unwanted pounds back.
“Your body starts to store fat when it’s hungry so you have to eat at the right time. Actually, you should eat every two to three hours. You should always trick your body to feel full because the moment you starve, it starts to hold on to fat,” she said.
2. Fill half of your plate with vegetables.
Barni said it is important to always make the body feel full and satisfied without resorting to excessive eating. This, she said, could be done by eating a lot of vegetables.
“Half of your plate should be vegetables and one-fourth of it – about the size of your palm – should be meat. The remaining area could be for a small portion of rice,” she said.
Here’s another trick from Barni: use vegetables as “extenders.”
“Prepare brown rice and extend it with vegetables for the one-cup illusion,” she said. “The fiber from the vegetables will also make you feel full, which will help you avoid the tendency to grab something that is unhealthy.”
3. Stay away from processed food.
It is okay to have burgers, fries and soda once in a while as long as it’s in moderation, but Barni reminded those who are on a diet to stay away from processed food as much as possible as these will make things harder for them.
“It’s not just about the calories. It’s the recycled oil they’re using, and all the preservatives,” she said. “As much as possible, avoid canned food, avoid processed food, avoid fast food.”
“But when you’re on your way to the beach and there’s no other place where you could eat, that’s okay,” she added.
4. Add ‘fat-fighting’ ingredients to your diet.
Rachel and Barni have their go-to ingredients when creating diet meals for their customers. These items contain the “fat-fighting four,” which help speed up weight loss.
The Sexy Chef tandem advised those who want to slim down to look for ingredients that contain a lot of fiber, omega 3 fatty acids, calcium and vitamin D.
“For fiber, you think of whole grain and lots of vegetables. For omega 3, you could use fatty fish like salmon, and seeds in general. For vitamin D and calcium, go for malunggay. Calcium prevents the storage of belly fat and vitamin D allows the body to absorb more calcium. Actually, malunggay has all of the fat-fighting four nutrients. Kumpleto talaga siya,” Barni said.
5. Consider your lifestyle.
When it comes to dieting, convenience is key, said Rachel and Barni, who noted that most people fail to reach their weight loss goal because their eating choices do not fit their lifestyles.
Barni observed that some tend to go “extreme” by suddenly eating only fruits and vegetables after consuming rice and bread for years.
“They think na going on a diet is a one-time, big-time thing… I’ve seen it happen to so many friends. It’s not as simple as, ‘I’m gonna go vegan,’ or ‘I’m just gonna have fruits.’ It’s so alien to how they eat, or it’s not consistent with their lifestyle and how they work,” she said.
“Weight management is all about convenience,” she added. “Because at the end of the day, hindi ka tatagal eh. You cannot just throw it out the window and expect na mame-maintain ko ito.”
Having said these, Barni and Rachel advised dieters to eat all food groups in moderation and slowly adding more vegetables to their daily meals.
6. Don’t depend too much on exercise for weight loss.
People who want to lose weight should not depend too much on exercise, said Barni, as diet plays a bigger role in slimming down.
“It’s really 80:20, 80% diet and 20% exercise,” she said. “For me, exercise is something for maintenance lang talaga eh. Pero for weight loss, dapat talaga diet.”
7. Say ‘no’ to cheat days (unless you’ve reached your weight loss goal).
Cheat days will not work on people who are still far from their weight loss goal, said Barni, as these will only bring back the lost calories.
“Some people say they will diet from Monday to Friday, and then cheat on Saturday and Sunday. So whatever they lost in those five days, they will just get it back. They should give it two to three weeks to really diet so they could see the results. Kasi if they only do it for five days, that’s just maintenance. There’s really such a thing as eating for weight loss,” she said.
Rachel agreed, saying: “For me, you could cheat once you’re very close or you’ve already reached your weight loss goal. Lose it muna and then the cheat day could be for maintenance.”
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
