Freego is bringing sexy back with the nationwide launch of “7 Ways to Sexy, The Freego Fitness Challenge by the Fat Kid Inside,” a 40-day fitness challenge in partnership with celebrity chef Erwan Heussaff and House of Pain training coach John Aquino.

Close to 90 Filipino women between 18-35 applied for the challenge, and from that seven finalists will be chosen to participate in the program this October. The winner will be selected according to weight loss (50 percent), overall performance (blog and journal entries, actual workout and diet) and online voting.

Eating naturally

Heussaff, author of the popular blog The Fat Kid Inside, who once weighed a whopping 240 lbs, will design the meal plan, while Aquino takes charge of the exercise program.

“I always tell people dieting doesn’t necessarily mean boring eating. I’m all for eating naturally, the way your body was supposed to eat, and that is a very sustainable way of living. I only push people to eat real food, that is the way I promote healthy eating,” Heussaff said.

For the seven finalists, Heussaff has prepared a natural diet, something the body, he said, is used to eating and digesting. There will be vegetables, fruits, nuts and proteins with very specific grain intakes.

Not all carbs are made equal, he said. Carbs aren’t just rice and bread only. Heussaff said carbs are one of the base macronutrients that should be a part of everyone’s daily diet. What counts most is one’s choice of carbs. Instead of starch, such as rice, a wiser choice may be low GI veggies.

The problem with today’s generation, he continued, is the consumption of too much processed food. The only reason people can eat cereals or bread, for example, is for that same bread or cereals to go through a certain food process that will make them ingestible to humans. Compare that to eating fish, where after it’s harvested, all you need to do is apply heat to make it digestible. In the case of sashimi and sushi, you even get to eat them raw.

“I just believe in the most natural and unprocessed way of eating… I want to show people that eating naturally and in proper proportion befits everyone. But if you love carbs, great, eat fruits and cauliflower,” he said, laughing.

Heussaff actually allows brown rice, he said, as long the body needs it and will use it, such as consuming it right after an intense workout.

Customized jeans

“7 Ways to Sexy, The Freego Fitness Challenge by the Fat Kid Inside” is based on Freego’s Super Shaper Collection, the series of customized jeans engineered and designed specifically for women to emphasize their physical assets and conceal the problem areas.

There’s the Buttlifter jeans, engineered to give bottoms a boost; Tummy Tuck, with a high-waist cut to push the tummy in and cover the stomach area; Skimmer, cropped at a specific length to give the illusion of longer legs; Shape Ups, with hip-shaping effects that highlight the body’s natural curves; Cosmetic, fuss-free without the creases or ruches; Slimming, with narrow front panels to slim down those thunder thighs; and Slounge, with silicone waistband so that it hugs the waist and the hips, lifts the bottoms, and gives women an overall sexier feeling.

Freego has always been known as the “sexy denim brand” among women’s jeans. The Super Shaper Collection, coupled with the fitness challenge, aims to make women become confident in their own skin and improve their overall lifestyle.

“The advantage we have is we’ve studied the different shapes of women. We have mannequins, Asian-sized mannequins between 5’ and 5’2”, and we note, for instance, the hip difference between a young mother and those who have never been pregnant. So what you have are designs that are fitted especially for the Asian body,” said Marty Tio, Freego VP for marketing.

For more info on “7 Ways to Sexy, The Freego Fitness Challenge by the Fat Kid Inside,” visit Freego on Facebook. Freego is available at all leading department stores nationwide.