Slenderella Mode: On!

Despite planning so many things to help myself be better, I always fell short and I always have an excuse to say. It was very funny, because I always had the heart to start minding the food I eat and to start moving to help myself be fit, but my mom actually overtook me and has been spending her entire mornings last week doing at least an hour of fitness stuff - be it walking, light jogging, or playing street badminton / tennis with neighbors she met one weekend morning.

Have you watched any of those Ana / Mia movies? I got to watch two on YouTube more than a year ago, and I agree with the string of comments on the movie clips - it always end with someone dying, which gives the complete turnaround for the main character in the movies. At that time, I was one of those who agree - that the storylines were predictable and very overused... but when it happens to you, you'll realize its essence.

I am not anorexic and I am not bulimic... but just like them, I am sick, although I am suffering from a different thing - I caught the laziness disease and I am too lazy to even bother about it. Last Wednesday, I met up with a friend for dinner, and he told me about his many health problems... and just last night, he sent me a text message to say that his blood test indicated a very high blood sugar level, about twice high as what the normal blood sugar level should be. This was my turnaround. When a person is dear to you and something bad happens to them, you are sure to be affected, and yes, I am very bothered about it.

When my sister came home with a kilo of roasted pork belly, it was just mom and I who ate it because my sister was so sick and tired about its smell that she didn't want to eat it anymore. Normally, pork fat makes me feel happy (weird and gross, but yes), but after eating one serving of it I started feeling headaches and dizziness, and I started feeling easily upset as well. I didn't have my blood pressure taken, but I knew I was having high blood pressure.

After not eating pork for how many days, my weekend became pork-ful again. Saturday breakfast I ate fatty pork adobo for breakfast, and for lunch, I ate Bagnet (boiled, baked, then fried pork belly) at the event my mom and I attended. Today, I ate another serving of adobo for my brunch and my body just couldn't handle it anymore... I was so dizzy that I ended up throwing it up.

Taking into consideration my friend's current situation, I just have to do something about it. I may be physically in a haze, but my emotions were clear - I have to wake up.


This week, there will be no pork... even the ground type. I will try to eat more fish, but will try to consume only the organic kind - no bangus and tilapia (and maybe even my favorite salmon heads) because these kinds of fish are cultured and possibly been consuming factory made feeds). If we could buy fish that were directly from the sea, the better. We still have a kilo of beef ribs in the freezer, but this I will eat provided I trim the fat off or let the sauce / broth go cold for a while to take out the hardened oil. Also, if we will prepare beef or chicken, it would be a dish that has at least one kind of vegetable.

Recipe for this salad will be shared on my food blog, Tara, Let's Eat! on Friday

Salad will also be a big factor in my diet for the coming days / weeks / months. I know my salad choices are always the typical ones - lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, and bell peppers, but I will try to search for more kinds of salads. Actually, I find salads very tummy filling. I guess the crunch in the vegetables and fruits allows me to chew more and tricking the mind into thinking I was eating more.

This week, I will try not to eat rice for dinner (will do during lunch) just to see if I can survive without it. This will be just an experiment... if I can form a habit, then good... if not, then I will go back to eating rice, but will portion it, of course.

As for physical activities, I told mom I will join them every mornings. Colinas Verdes no longer allows people to come in before 8am, so the best compromise was to walk and jog around the plaza. Who knows, I might also learn how to play tennis.

There will be three fitness challenges for me this month - squats, planks, and dumbbells - something I will do for the next thirty days. Aside from that, I will also do the set of Hip Hop Abs and Les Mills videos.

It will be a hectic day for me tomorrow, but as they say, the start is always the hardest. My mind and willpower is powerful. I can do this.

* Jenn *