SOME people live their life like it’s a contest on who has the most expensive car, the biggest mansion, the largest collection of Hermes bags, etc. They’re always busy observing other people, they have no more time to take care of their own selves.
They should realize by now that they’re better off gauging their progress on their past self.
Still, there I was one Friday morning, throwing a tiny piece of garbage into the bedroom’s trash bin that was right in front of me. And that garbage still managed to fall outside of the bin, proving that I could never be like Mike. Basketball player Michael Jordan, that is.
My sports were volleyball and badminton, and I was never good in both. The only reason I became a volleyball player was my height. My mother kept complaining about the noontime practices under the sun, and to think that this was way before climate change said a lot about her foresight.
As for badminton, we played that at our driveway which had a rough wall that damaged our badminton rackets.
There was a time I tried pelota and my pelota racket always flew away, never to be found again.
Zoom to my present self and here I am, trying to play pickleball. But I end up playing pick-the-ball.
To say that I have absolutely no sports gene is an understatement. So true when I was a young one and still true now that I’m a young once.
Sports and the discipline they required could have helped me lose weight but my lack of talent in that department brought me to other weight-loss strategies: aerobics, step aerobics, yoga, weight-lifting, dancing, taekwondo aerobics, fiber pills, plant-based protein shakes, and all sorts of diets. Which resulted to yo-yo dieting and health issues.
It was only in January 2021 that I finally decided to focus on my health, thus, giving this journey a series of hits and misses since then. It began with no-red-meat and is currently on a red-meat routine. It began with fish-chicken-carbs-veggies-fruits-only and is currently on no-carbs-veggies-fruits. It began with two double-dose meds and is currently on one reduced-dose tablet.
Each of us has to learn what’s best for us because what works for me may not work for you. For example, I love to write, read, and collect piggies. Other people would rather bake, cook, and collect Lladro figurines.
Just because Jinkee Pacquiao seems happy with her Hermes collection doesn’t mean you’ll be happy, too, with the same collection. Wait… On second thought… Haha.
To stay home or travel. To go shopping or not. To eat out or cook your own meals. Life is full of choices, and your choices should always depend on your needs, not on your wants.
How to differentiate needs from wants? Hmmm. I wanted to try all versions of halo-halo. But I realized my body didn’t need halo-halo, it was always rejecting it by increasing my blood pressure and giving me skin allergies.
There’s one halo-halo here in Cagayan de Oro that I haven’t tried yet. Highly recommended by a friend. But I’m now afraid of its side effects, so, goodbye, taste test.
