WHEN I was still a high-carb dieter, I’d usually drop by a fast food outlet, resto, coffee shop, or convenience store to buy carbs — value meals complete with fries, diet soda, desserts, baked goodies, chips, cookies, nuts, sweets, chocolates, etc. — before going home.
Nowadays, I still want to do the same but what to buy or order? I don’t eat any of those anymore, except for burger patties.
The kind of carnivore diet that works for me has limited my food choices to beef, pork, and salmon. So, at the 74th anniversary of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club, I went for the meat, of course, most especially the lechon.
At my sis-in-law’s birthday dinner, I had grilled salmon, beef kare-kare, roast beef, crispy pata, sizzling beef tips, and kinilaw. And then for dessert, I had three pieces of quesadillas, a bite of spaghetti, a bite of ube ice cream, and knickerbocker. I thought I had already finished eating dinner, so, why did I end up eating carbs? Hmmm. Like what George Mallory said when asked why he climbed Mount Everest — “Because it is there” — my answer is, Because the carbs were there. Tsk tsk.
There were times when, even with the carbs there, thinking of their side effects was already enough to stop me from carbo-loading. But there are times when even that won’t work, no thanks to curiosity: I wonder if the knickerbocker is yummier now.
The same happened to the quesadillas, spaghetti, and ube ice cream: I wonder if they’re yummier now.
The morning after, I was absent from the gym not because of the carbs’ side effects, but due to sleeping late, at 2 am. Okay. Perhaps that was also a side effect.
I’ve been trying so hard in my health journey which began in January 2021. Had I listened to other people’s opinions on how to manage my health instead of listening to my own body, I would still be carbo-loading by now and dealing with uncontrolled blood pressure.
I do notice some people’s reactions even if they don’t say anything. It’s in the way they look at me from head to toe, as if assessing my progress through how I look now. From 180 pounds to 120 pounds. That’s a 60-pound loss. It took almost five years of trial and error in my personal health department, and that’s what people don’t see. And once they learn about my current diet, their answer is always, Di nako na kaya, I can’t do that. Oh. So, who’s forcing them to follow my diet? No one.
Diet is a personal choice. To each his own. What works for me may not work for you. But you’ll only realize that if you try my diet for at least 30 days.
There’s no such thing as a one-day diet or a one-week diet. You’ll start to see results only after 30 days.
Some people only see my shoes, though, complete with the question, What brand is that? And if I answer, I can already see the calculator appearing above their heads.
