SUGAR addiction is as real as the graft and corruption in Pinas’s flood control projects.
And stopping sugar addiction is as hard as finding the truth—and nothing but the truth—about those flood control projects.
Following the carnivore diet, or even the less strict keto diet, is made more difficult by the fact that I’m the only one practicing it in this corner of the world. My family and friends are all on the Standard American Diet, aka SAD. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re sad; they always look happy when they’re eating carbs. Which then piques my curiosity: how delish are those carbs? Are they worth it?
Christmas food gifts are usually carbs, with pork ham probably being the only meat in the mix unless someone is generous enough to send lechon.
My favorite gift to send this Christmas: Danish butter cookies in Christmas tins. Why? Because they’re delish, and the tin can be used as a container for office supplies.
As for the gifts I want to receive, I love what a friend said when asked about her wishlist. Her reply: Surprise me.
My most pleasant surprise has already arrived via the gym’s Top 7 award for 2025. That’s for attendance. I didn’t expect it at all since I wasn’t always in the Top 10 during previous months. I haven't even been going to the gym daily from Monday to Sunday. I’ve stopped going on Saturdays, preferring to stay home to rest or to have my weekly Artist’s Date or "me time."
The award was unexpected, but it convinced me that I’ve indeed done my best to keep healthy this year. For a while there, I was doubting my health journey and wondering if I was on the right track, especially as I was indulging in carbs again.
The advice from carnivore and low-carb doctors is to immediately go back to the diet at the next meal and not to stretch the high-carb indulgence to infinity and beyond.
The family’s noche buena and media noche will definitely have carbs: MiMo Cafe’s baked goodies and Coach Jowen Racines’s Basque cheesecakes. Plus pasta. And I gotta feeling my sis-in-law Popette will prepare buko fruit salad. Yum!
Christmas parties always have carbs.
At the gym’s Christmas party, I managed to avoid the carbs by going for the lechon first and getting taste-test portions of the other meat dishes.
By the time I was called as the Top 7 awardee, I was still eating and about to devour a slice of chicken cordon bleu, which then flew off my plastic-gloved hand and landed on my bag.
It took a while to remove the plastic glove, put the chicken cordon bleu back on my paper plate, and arrange the bag on my chair so the saucy stain wouldn't transfer to the seat. So, the emcee called my name again. It felt like winning a raffle: if the winner isn't there the moment their name is called, the prize goes to the next lucky person.
