A diet phase: Day one

I gotta feeling my body is confused now: Ano ba talaga, Net? Low-carb? High-carb? Zero carb? Maybe carb? Perhaps carb?

And my answer to that is, I don’t have an answer. I don’t have any idea. I don’t know.

I do know that low-carb or even zero carb should be the answer. But once a menu is right in front of me, I see carbs: caramel macchiato, Spanish latte, sikwate, cheesecake, scones, leche flan, sushi, chocolate mousse, ube cake, sizzling binaki, etc.

Aside from the menu, there’s the food stall at the mall that sells puto, kutsinta, bibingka, nilusak, sapin-sapin, biko, suman, maja blanca, cassava cake, piaya, empanada, banana chips, cheese cupcakes, peanut kisses, binangkal, etc. Dropping by such stalls after the gym became a hard habit to break just recently. How recent? Hmmm. How about as recent as last week?

I think I had already tried all brands and flavors of banana chips, no thanks to the hard habit to break.

There are times when I realize that some recipes don’t taste yummy anymore if the rice is removed. Gyudon is one of them. I decided to stop ordering that. Ako na lang ang nag-adjust.

And then, there was that brunch at a resto where we ordered low-carb food: beef kare-kare, crispy pata, sizzling beef sinigang, and pompano. For dessert, we had the chocolate ice cream that had no added sugar. But then, we added halo-halo, puto maya with mango and Graham crackers, and ube turon. With that addition, the low-carb meal instantly morphed into a high-carb feast.

I was the one who added the high-carb desserts, prompting a friend to comment, Abi ba nako low-carb ka na.

Hehe. Sorry po.

Keeping quiet about my low-carb diet would have been the easier way to prevent people from commenting to me about it. But when I started noticing the perks I was gaining from it, I simply wanted to share them especially with family and friends who are already taking maintenance meds.

A silent mode for this diet would have given a new meaning to the movie title, “A Quiet Place: Day One.” Day One for the diet, that is. Or should the title be, A Diet Phase: Day One. Haha. If I’m feasting on high-carb goodies today, tomorrow will be Day One again in my low-carb journey.

Which reminds me of Bjork’s “It’s Oh So Quiet”: “Shh, shh/It’s oh, so quiet, shh, shh/It’s oh, so still, shh, shh/You’re all alone, shh, shh/And so peaceful until.”

Until the low-carb dieter is having a high-carb feast again. Which then reminds me of A-ha’s “Hunting High and Low”: “High/There’s no end to the lengths I’ll go to/Hunting high and low/High/There’s no end to lengths I’ll go.”

If sticking with the low-carb diet is difficult for me, it’s definitely more difficult for those who are trying it after listening to some avid dieter like, hmmm, me. I’m neither a low-carb doctor nor a low-carb coach. The best way to learn about this diet is to consult the experts like Dr. Josephine Grace Rojo-Tan, Dr. Brian Aubrey Castillo, Dr. Fi Atencio, and Dr. Suzeth Encarnado.