If you've never heard of South Quembot Diet then you haven't met Honey. I've met Honey and in fact have known her since she was little, and heard about South Quembot from her. It's really a play on words, for jologs who can't afford the real South Beach Diet, South Quembot is the answer. It will give you the same result as the real thing, less the cost.
For example, nuts, in South Beach, a fistful of nuts, preferably fresh almond, unsalted will set your body up for it's fat needs minus the calories, with plenty of fluids, preferably purified, unsalted and without the minerals, this intake will fool yourbody that it had been fed. For jologs, the problem would be, Aling Zeny's sari-sari store does not sell, on cash or credit, almonds. All the bottled water available in her ref are all mineral, including Wilkins! Even if you insist on buying bottled, Aling Zeny will inevitably ask, "mineral?", to clarify that what she's selling is what you're buying. Oi!
And South Quembot Diet was thus born from the mouth of Honey.
She asked me my diet and frowned thinking that South Beach will cost her. So we made a compromise to adjust it to the level where she won't have to feel she's trying at something over her head. Almonds and peanuts are from the same family of nuts, Honey and I are family, and so therefore, I am and so is she and so we are. Peanuts it is then! A fistfull, preferably boiled on site by Manong during traffic hours on EDSA, or Quirino and Vito Cruz on the borderline dividing Manila and Makati.
If Starbucks can do it, so can jologs. Bring your own plastic bottle. You can even chose your preferred brand, Absolute, Summit or One. Invest by buying your 500 or 330ml and when finished, find a place where there are water dispensers available to refill your plastic container. If you get stared down by other people, simply smile and say "slight lang". If there is an overzealous security guard who would dare try and stop you, again smile and say, "tapos na po General, sir!", and always say thank you, ambabaet ninyo before disappearing from view.
Fruits in the morning may be a problem for Honey because she wakes up at 6 in the evening to get ready to go to work, so she has to have her fruits in "our" moring where it is really morning, and in her upside down world that would be the evening because she would just be hitting the sack as we are getting ready with our day.
Vegies may also be a problem. Between 8 at night to four in the morning, the only vegetables she can get are spring onions in her congee or a piece of carrot and a couple of cabbage leaf in her noodles from chowking. If she prefers jollibee, then she ruins her chances of finding any in her diet, this place it seems has waged a total war on vegies.
Proteins are another story. This food group is available in the metro at all hours. They're so accessible, along EDSA, and in every corner of a neighborhood. Who has never heard of Isaw, Kwek-kwek or balot?
Now, like the real thing, South Quembot Diet, frowns on white carb. No white rice nor white bread. Noodles on the other hand may be used as a substitute. Choose your wild, Ate Shawie or Carmina Villaroel? What about Jam Pong?
No soda pops or anything that packs 6 tablespoon of sugar in a 150ml bottle, milk should be 98% fat free, although they're a little expensive as a laxative and fart maker. I suggest, calcium lactate tabs from Rhea, so much easier to drink without the side effects. Just remember to drink lots and lots of water to prevent any calcification in the body.
That was your partial South Quembot Diet from Honey. This will be a work in progress as we may have to put together lots more to complete a daily meal for 4 weeks, just like the real thing. And we may yet see the success of this diet and when we do, we shal conquer the world. Today South Cembo tomorrow the universe!
