MY most favorite food: kare-kare.
My most favorite dessert: halo-halo.
My most favorite expression: haha.
The Pinoy is fond of combining the same words to form another word. For example, there’s my nickname: Netnet. My younger bro is Bingbing. Pinas’s president is Bongbong.
But kare-kare as my favorite food may morph into bulalo which is the safer choice—no peanut butter.
Halo-halo as my favorite dessert may morph into cheesecake—no sugar I hope.
Haha as my favorite expression may morph into ambot sa langaw unsay nahitabo sa uk-ok—the better way to get rid of flies and roaches. No need to use weapons of mass destruction: Baygon, Raid, bug zapper rackets, brooms, and slippers.
So, just because a syllable is repeated twice to form a new word doesn’t mean it automatically becomes my favorite.
That’s why my most favorite part of the Abs Workout is when the voiceover in the Muzak says, “15 seconds rest.” Which gives me zero chances at celebrating an Olympic success a la Carlos Yulo with “Gold (Gold)/Always believe in your soul/You’ve got the power to know/You’re indestructible/Always believe in, ‘cos you are/Gold (Gold).”
On Tuesday morning, though, there was no “15 seconds rest” because the Abs Workout coach was absent. I thought I’d heave a deep sigh of relief and say, Yay! No workout! But I was already ready to leave the house. Should I now leave, anyway, and buy groceries instead?
I look forward to the group workouts because that’s where I can gauge my progress. That is, if there’s progress.
Six months ago when I joined the gym, I was merely an audience for the group workouts, with my thought bubble going, Nope, I can’t do that.
When I finally found the courage to join these workouts, I remember a coach always telling me, Hinayhinay lang. Most probably because of my age.
It was only in July that I understood what he meant when my blood pressure was complaining again. Not because of the workouts, though. It was due to the constant “dapa” in carbo-loading. My body became confused: Ano ba talaga, Net—carnivore or high-carb?
The stricter the diet, the more I notice the side effects since I can now isolate their causes: must be the soya in the all-purpose cream, the sugar in the pork barbecue marinade, the batter and sugar in the sweet and sour pork. Always auditing the food intake I had the day before in analyzing the side effects that I’m experiencing today.
When I was a young one, I had diaries. Which I eventually threw away. Now that I’m a young once, I have logs for my food intake, blood pressure, and body weight. So, if you ask me what my weight is, I’ll say, Today it’s 127.49.
On August 4, it was 123.97.
On April 23, it was 122.87—my lowest so far for this year.
Based on all these logs for food, blood pressure, and weight, I can already analyze why I was craving for carbs, why the blood pressure went up, and why the weight increased. Although I always wish the weight gain is all muscles—I can dream, can’t I?
