My high school classmate’s younger brother happens to be one of the two low-carb doctors in Cagayan de Oro. Wish ko lang he’s my brother, too, so that each time I’m about to eat carbs, I can send him a photo of it and ask, “Is this allowed?” Haha. And when we’re dining with family and friends, we can stay in one corner with our lechon, dinuguan, bulalo, steaks, roast beef, crispy pata, etc.
I follow him on Facebook, though. Good thing he always posts his low-carb meals. I need the constant reminder.
These days, some people are losing weight through GLP-1 shots. Thus, there’s now an ongoing debate on social media, with people saying that Shevera users lost weight through GLP-1 and not through Shevera. Hmm.
After having been there, done that with weight-loss programs since 1988, I now know what works for me: carnivore and resistance training.
And Leg Day is my “favorite,” with the prone leg curl machine as one more “favorite.” I’ve been doing resistance training since February 2024—that’s two years and nine months now—and yet I still don’t look forward to using that machine. Will Leg Day ever morph into my real favorite? Hmm. Abangan.
I was always this damsel in distress, too weak to lift even a 10-kilo sack of rice. So strength training is more for ease in grocery-shopping than for joining a body-building competition. Only Hidilyn Diaz can be Hidilyn Diaz. Meanwhile, the rest of the Pinay population are playing pickleball in their pink skirts and with their pink paddles. Cute.
The best diet is the one that you can sustain and maintain. Same for exercise. Dieting and exercising for one day won’t make you healthy the morning after. Only flood control scams allow shortcuts. Health requires more rigid controls, and the regimen doesn’t stop once the goal weight has been achieved. It will simply go on and on for the rest of your life, which can be intimidating: for the rest of my life? How many years is that? If you’re in your 20s, that means decades of diet and exercise.
I’ve been dieting and exercising since the late ’80s. That’s four decades of on-and-off diets and workouts, with more “off” than “on.” There were years of no health goals whatsoever, resulting in weight gain galore.
And then the pandemic lockdowns. What to do? Eat, of course. Our village started a Messenger group chat for residents who have restaurants and grocery stores. They posted their merchandise and food items there, and we could order anything we needed—meat, fish, eggs, rice, restaurant food, bread, baked goodies, sushi bake, ube halaya, snacks, desserts, veggies, fruits, and so on and so forth, even San Mig Light Apple—with door-to-door delivery, so every night could be happy hour for us.
That group chat still exists today, and residents have continued selling anything and everything there, including real estate properties, houses, and cars.
So, yes, weight gain was easiest during the lockdowns.
Aside from eating, there was this painting app that I became addicted to, kind of an e-coloring book. As for Ms Behavin’, I was able to continue writing columns but eventually stopped for six months.
By January 2021, my blood pressure finally complained. Whew. That’s when my health journey began. Five years and ten months later, and here’s Ms Behavin’, always writing about diets. Switching back to politics soon? Hmm.
