At the recent Big Bite at Centrio Mall, I had only one carb item—Cucina Italiana’s rice ball. Definitely worth it. Yum!
That was my first “dessert.” For my entrée, I had Manoink’s grilled pork. For the main course, Stibs House’s pork steak and Hungarian sausage. For my second “dessert,” I had Vonchok Kabkaban’s pork barbecue.
Big Bite was a high-carb dieter’s paradise, since many stalls were selling carbs. Even the carnivore-looking ones had rice. So I put on imaginary blinders to give myself tunnel vision, helping me focus on red meat.
For Lent, Catholics usually give up red meat. And here I am, thinking this is the perfect time to finally avoid carbs. That has become my “sacrifice,” although the benefits I’m gaining in return have somewhat offset it.
Carbs are here, there, and everywhere. At Big Bite, the meat dishes almost always came with rice, and I had to ask the staff to leave it out of my order. They charged the same with or without the rice, and that was perfectly fine with me.
There’s this donut shop that offers sandwiches with tuna, sardines, or ham and cheese as fillings—the only food items allowed in my diet. I eat the fillings sans the buns. It’s like eating… hmm, air. Once the buns are removed, those fillings are merely “Feelings, nothing more than feelings,” as the song goes.
At a tea shop, I was allowed to order food from its sister company, a restaurant located on the ground floor, but there was a rule: I could order only one item on the menu—I think it was chicken pops. I wanted to protest: Why?! I don’t eat chicken anymore.
But I’ve learned to STFU—shut the f… up—when it comes to my diet. Traditional diets are still as strong as ever, practiced by most people in this oh-so-high-carb world, and explaining why I’m doing this would only elicit more questions from those who can’t fathom why meat is the better choice. They’re still stuck in the belief that carbs are the main source of energy.
And I can completely understand that. I used to be an emotional eater. My bedroom mini-fridge was filled with chips, nuts, diet soda, cookies, cakes, cupcakes, muffins, chocolates, and sandwich ingredients—wheat bread, mayo, cucumber, butter, peanut butter, cream cheese, cheese, strawberry jam, etc.
I always had stocks of diet soda and other drinks—coffee, chocolate drinks, milk drinks, and fruit juices.
Strawberry jam and cheese sandwiches, paired with hot chocolate. Cucumber and mayo sandwiches, plus Chippy Barbecue paired with Coke Zero. Pringles Sour Cream and Onion with Coke Zero. Peanuts—fried, boiled, roasted, honey-roasted, cracker-coated, etc.—and Royal Tru-Orange. Cake, cupcakes, muffins, and cookies with coffee.
I’d eat while writing, reading, working, or watching TV.
And at midnight, there would be “breakfast”—hotdogs, bacon, tocino, longganisa, sausage, eggs, rice, and diet soda.
I was eating at least seven times a day.
Nowadays, it’s twice a day—brunch and dinner. And I exercise while fasted.
It’s a 180-degree turn. No, not 360—that would only bring me back to how it used to be.
