THE carnivore diet would be a breeze if carbs didn't exist. But since they're here to stay, switching to carnivore is like trying to stop corrupt officials from raking it in.

I still have some plant-based items in my diet — plants that trigger knee and muscle pains, body aches, sinusitis, skin allergies, high blood pressure, and the blues. I’m hoping to finally transition to the carnivore diet next month, which happens to be the fourth-year anniversary of my lowcarb journey.

Hard lessons are still to be learned in this diet. I guess I’m not ready yet for the carnivore department. For now, that is. “When the student is ready the teacher appears,” as the proverb goes.

My lowcarb hits and misses have been an experiment, with this question always in mind: how will this particular food item affect my health?

Thanks to my latest experiment, I now know that nuts and dairy could cause weight gain. Inhale them and a minute later, I’m more than ten pounds heavier. That’s how fast the gain is. One minute my face, hips, and thighs are as slim as they could be, the next minute they’re as wide as the Grand Canyon.

I have new health goals for 2026, and let's see if the latest lessons learned will help me crush them.

Some nuts are allowed in the lowcarb diet, but the problem with nuts is no one can stop eating them, and I’m no exception.

The lowcarb community’s well aware that dairy can cause weight gain. But I still put cheese or cream cheese on top of a burger patty. My version of a cheeseburger sans the bun.

Since I’ve been eating peanuts and cashew nuts lately, with the macadamias waiting for their turn to shine, I’m now on the verge of throwing in the towel and saying, ‘Enough already!’

While writing this, I’m having lunch at the newly opened Lolika Dining Hall at Limketkai Mall. It’s surprisingly cozy for a mall food court. So tempting to stay here the whole day for brunch, merienda, and dinner. Some popular Cagayan de Oro restos will be opening here soon so that’s something to look forward to.

Limketkai Mall’s leveling up. If you’re in your malling era, this is where you can lazily lounge, meet friends, binge on yummy food, and grab coffee. And it’s got Fully Booked, one of the two remaining bookstores in Cagayan de Oro — the other’s Basa Books at Centrio Mall.

The bookworm has fewer stores to browse in now that Booksale has left the building. Okay. Not only the building. It has left the city.

National Book Store is still here but it sells more school and office supplies than books. Which is all good for fans who collect books and stationery. It has four branches in CDO: Limketkai Mall, Centrio Mall, SM CDO Downtown Premier, and SM City CDO Uptown.

Is collecting books and stationery as addictive as carbs? Hmmm.