Halo-halo

FOR a while there—up to Tuesday this week, actually—I was ordering halo-halo at every resto that had it in its menu.

Halo-halo is definitely high-carb. But it’s yummy and colorful and has many textures and flavors—who could resist that? Not me, said the foodie.

I’m a foodie. I love food. That’s how my weight soared to about 180 pounds during the pandemic lockdowns. Which then resulted to a higher blood pressure that required a higher dose of meds by January 2021.

“At first I was afraid, I was petrified,” as Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” goes. Afraid and petrified, I started praying novenas to ask God to help me find a healthy way to lower the blood pressure.

In January 2021, I began my no-red-meat diet because that’s the usual advice for the hypertensive.

It was in October 2021, while checking out my Facebook newsfeed, that I saw Dr. Josephine Grace Rojo Tan’s video where she shared this: “Tatlong taon na akong hindi nagsasaing. Hindi dahil tamad akong magsaing, o di kaya ayokong magsaing, but katumbas nito ay tatlong taon na rin akong hindi kumakain ng kanin.”

Three years of no rice? Hmmm.

That vid inspired me to watch her other vids, which led to watching low-carb vids of other low-carb doctors. I did that for almost four months. Because October had a birthday party in the family. November—two birthdays. December—Christmas and New Year’s Eve. January 2022—two birthdays. February—Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day. I ran out of excuses by the third week of February, so, I finally began my low-carb journey.

And what a journey it has been. I’ve realized istragol is riyal in the low-carb multiverse. I didn’t even like halo-halo during my high-carb days, but I was now craving for halo-halo while trying to stick to my low-carb diet. What the…?

Yes, it’s stress-eating. A lot had happened this year. But no matter how valid the excuse, my health condition will only get worse if I continue eating halo-halo and other high-carb goodies.

So, Wednesday was Day One again in my low-carb journey which seems to be a world tour now, considering the distance it has covered since February 2022—that’s two years and four months of watching Facebook Live videos of low-carb doctors, watching low-carb-fasting videos daily, checking out nutrition labels, reading books about low-carb and fasting diets, attending a low-carb conference here in Cagayan de Oro, and, of course, trying to avoid high-carb food. Operative word: trying.

A few months ago, I even switched to the carnivore diet, eating only beef, pork, fish, and eggs, which is primarily an elimination diet.

If the low-carb diet is like climbing Mount Kitanglad, the carnivore diet is like climbing Mount Everest.

I’ve been writing about the low-carb diet for so long now, I’m beginning to sound like a sirang plaka with this same topic over and over again. But this is one of the ways I’m reminding myself to stick to the diet. The more I write about it, I’m hoping the more I’ll stay with it. Operative word: hoping.