IS Facebook as addictive as sugar? That’s the question.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I vowed to deactivate my Facebook account because it’s such a waste of time. Same for the carnivore diet—I’ve lost count of the number of times I pressed reset, refresh, and reboot.

Much like in February 2022 when I ran out of excuses—birthdays, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day—not to start the low-carb diet, here I am again three years later, running out of the same excuses not to finally become serious with the carnivore diet.

Testimonies on the carnivore diet have made me curious about its effectiveness but one has to stay with it for 30 days to see results. The longest I’ve had so far was three weeks, in October 2024. The trigger that made me go back to carbs then was the free peanuts at a Chinese resto. All it takes is that one small bite. It has been a series of reset, refresh, and reboot since then.

I watch carnivore diet videos daily as a constant reminder of its perks, with the yummiest ribeye as its top perk, of course. But steaks are not a must. Just have beef, pork, chicken, fish, seafood, and eggs that are cooked with salt and water, butter, lard, or tallow.

I never thought I could stick with the low-carb diet for as long as I have—three years! With some high-carb goodies inserted here, there, and everywhere, and topping that list is my new-found favorite halo-halo.

And to think I didn’t even like halo-halo when my diet was high-carb. It must be the feeling of deprivation—kawawa naman me, not eating carbs anymore—that must have led to this halo-halo obsession.

The gym had a Valentine pica-pica and I purposely ordered the yummiest Basque cheesecake from Coach Jowen Racines to make that as my last high-carb indulgence before embarking on my nth carnivore journey. It was definitely worth the carbs.

Some halo-halos are not worth the carbs, by the way. Halo-halo is basically ube ice cream with vanilla ice cream or milk, then add tiny bits, pieces, and scoops of leche flan, ube jam, saba bananas, kidney beans, macapuno, buko, jackfruit, suman, gulaman, sago, sweet potato, tapioca pearls, nata de coco, kaong, with the inclusion or exclusion of these ingredients depending on its seller’s generosity.

The best halo-halo is the one you prepare at home since you can put everything in it. Or go to a buffet resto that displays halo-halo ingredients you can choose from.

The problem with sugar and carbs is that it’s difficult to stop eating them. There’s no satiety point. One huge bag of potato chips while watching Netflix. The biggest popcorn size while watching a movie. Mindless eating.

And it’s difficult to adopt fasting in a high-carb diet since you’re hungry again after an hour. That’s why a high-carb diet may require eight meals a day: pre-breakfast (usually pandesal and 3-in-1 coffee), breakfast, morning snacks, lunch, afternoon snacks, dinner, post-dinner coffee or tea, and snacks while watching Netflix. Remove the pre-breakfast and post-dinner coffee or tea, and that’s six meals a day. And how do I know that? Because that used to be my diet.

A low-carb diet, on the other hand, usually has two meals a day (TMAD) and even one meal a day (OMAD).

A low-carb diet can also become addictive as you’ll go back to it again and again after experiencing its perks.