If runners can have their running era, I, a carnivore dieter, am having my yogurt era.
Yogurt is a big no, of course. Last Monday, I started sneezing right after savoring a large serving of plain yogurt. Operative word: large. The medium and large sizes were the only ones with covers for to-go orders. And why settle for medium if there’s large?
My T-shirt sizes, though, have shrunk from XXL in January 2021 to S and even XS, thanks to a low-carb diet. Maintaining that is now my goal, along with lowering my blood pressure. And here’s hoping my yogurt era won’t derail my progress. Still, better that than my halo-halo era, when I taste-tested all the halo-halo in Northern Mindanao.
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Had I traveled to other regions in the Philippines back then, the taste test could have included halo-halo from Aparri to Jolo—and it would have meant saying goodbye to my low-carb diet.
Good thing I was finally convinced that Jacks Halo Halo has the best halo-halo. If it’s not from Jacks, I’m not touching it. If it ever decides to open branches in downtown and uptown Cagayan de Oro, in addition to its current location in Tablon, CDO, I’ll have to pray daily novenas to keep myself from indulging in its Taro-Ube Overload every day.
I do wonder why I’ve been craving yogurt these days. At least my favorite is plain, and at first, I wasn’t adding mango, blueberry, strawberry, banana, nata de coco, Oreo, chocolate chips, M&Ms, tapioca pearls, etc.—because then the yogurt would resemble halo-halo.
Still, plain yogurt is the better choice compared to halo-halo and even ice cream. Okay, that’s me justifying my yogurt era.
The morning after—or even immediately after—a plain yogurt treat, there I am, sneezing, which always makes me wonder if it’s worth it.
How long will this yogurt era last? My halo-halo era did end—much like my high-carb era, which ended in February 2022. The side effects proved not worth the indulgence.
Beef, pork, bangus belly, and salmon make up my current carnivore menu. Too bad my favorite restaurant, Roadhouse Cafe, closed its only branch in CDO. I had already memorized my favorites there: bulalo, sizzling pochero, beef kare-kare, sinugbang baboy, and lumpiang Shanghai.
And then SM Cinemas offered a perk for those who watched “The Devil Wears Prada 2”: the P250 limited-edition snack collection—a popcorn bucket with the movie’s sticker and a 22-ounce tumbler of Sprite or iced tea.
Popcorn is, and will always be, a high-carb treat while watching movies, Netflix, congressional hearings, and heated arguments.
The Philippines is definitely not a low-carb country. Filipinos will always eat rice.
My yogurt era has led to cravings for more carbs, of course. On Thursday, for example, I had a slice of chocolate birthday cake. I wanted to know if it was yummy—and it definitely was. But had this happened before my yogurt era, my curiosity could have been satisfied with just one small bite.
