WHEN I was new at the gym, I was always amazed when gym classmates would be there on their birthday.

But on Monday morning, on my birthday, there I was at the gym, for the Zumba class and leg day.

Leg day. The most dreaded day. Those using heavier weights for their legs could hardly walk after. So, for that to be on my birthday, it was like punishment for the birthday cakes I’d be eating.

And then, there’s chest day. I look at my chest and wonder where that day went. Haha.

My upper arms and thighs still need lots of work. At my age, especially now that I recently turned a year older, a weight loss of 50 pounds, even if they were gradually lost in two years, could result to bat wings. Which I have. I don’t wear sleeveless dresses and tops because my upper arms are not the kind that behaves.

As for my cottage-cheese thighs, they have always been that way. That’s why I wear the Olympic kind of swimsuit.

Diet and exercise are forevermore, they can’t be stopped just because I’ve become bored with them. After almost three years of trying so hard to be low-carb and even carnivore, I’ve realized that a diet is more difficult to maintain compared to exercise.

For exercise, all I have to do is wake up early enough so that I can be at the gym in time for the Zumba class, group exercise, and personal training.

For the diet, if only I can close my eyes each time there’s high-carb food in front of me. My real test now in the diet department is to see if I can finally avoid ordering halo-halo.

I think I’ve already taste-tested the yummier halo-halos in this corner of the world. Those I’ve not tried yet I’ll have to classify them as not worth the carbs otherwise this search for the yummiest halo-halo will never end. As I wrote in a previous column, I’m suspecting it’s the ube ice cream and not the halo-halo that I’m craving for.

I had always loved the ube flavor for ice cream, candy, and baked goodies. And that’s one thing that I still couldn’t give up. Whew.

That’s ube as a flavor and not as a political color. The gym’s theme color happens to be violet and I won two violet T-shirts for the gym’s Christmas-party parlor game. I finally wore one of them as my post-gym top last week. Should I now wear green, orange, yellow, and other political colors to be fair to all political parties? Hmmm.

Now that my birthday is over, and the birthday cakes have been savored up to the last bite, I’ve already run out of excuses for any carbo-loading attempt to ease my cravings. I don’t want to wait for Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day, the two holidays that I added as my excuses in 2022 before starting my low-carb diet.

Anyway, I totally get it now, why people still gym on their birthday. There’s something about being with people who have the same goals: to be healthy, to stay away from maintenance medications, to have happy hormones. And to be reminded about that as you gym on your birthday can be the best lesson of all.