It’s only now that I’m, uh, old that I’m prioritizing resistance training over cardio. When I was younger, it was aerobics galore—including step aerobics and taekwondo aerobics—with just a few sessions of yoga and resistance training thrown in.
Some people continue to tell me, “Please stop dieting, you’re slim enough already.” And I’m like, Whaaaaat? You want me to go back to 180 pounds and high blood pressure? That’s the eventual outcome if I put a halt to this health journey.
My yo-yo diets before February 2022 made me lose weight and gain it all back, plus more, once I stopped dieting. My pre-pandemic weight went from 150 to 160 pounds, or most probably even more, but I stopped checking my weight then, so how would I know? Only my old photos can prove how big I was. At least one friend did comment, “But you looked cute!” Okay. Fat and cute. I’m Chinese-Filipino, which makes me naturally cute, I guess.
The popular diet back in my younger days was low-fat, no thanks to the belief that fat makes people fat. And that remains the traditional diet even now, despite all the changes in technology.
When low-fat began as the preferred diet, there were no mobile phones yet. Our rotary phone even had a party line.
There was no email. Handwritten letters were mailed through the post office and we had to wait for weeks or even months for a reply—that is, if the recipient even wanted to reply.
No laptops and no computers—instead there were thick, huge TV sets that relied on antennas. We had turntables, vinyl records, cassette recorders, and tapes.
No Facebook and no social media, and then-President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. controlled mainstream media, so if Facebook and social media had existed then, they would probably have been banned in the Philippines.
Those were the days.
These days, most young ones don’t even know how to use a rotary phone, nor tell time through a traditional clock. But low-fat remains the mainstream diet. So people continue to eat all the carbs they want, and even switch to a vegan diet, believing that plants are the most nutritious foods that will keep them healthy. If they do eat protein, they focus on chicken, fish, and tofu.
At parties, everyone behaves like eating lechon is a mortal sin and only gets a small portion of it as an occasional treat. The majority of their plate is composed of carbs: pancit, sotanghon, spaghetti, cake, and kakanin. And they’d pair that with soft drinks, fruit juices, or iced tea. If the party happens to be lunch, they’d add coffee with everything in it.
And then they’d ask me about the low-carb carnivore diet. I’m the odd one out. My plate’s composition is the exact opposite of theirs. But a high-carb party is not an ideal venue to share carnivore tips. Still, I say bits and pieces about the diet while trying to guess what’s on their minds. I’m sure their initial reaction is also a “Whaaaaat?!” Much like how I react when they tell me to stop dieting already.
The carnivore diet doesn’t work wonders overnight. Don’t expect to be completely healed after one day—ano ka, sinusuwerte? Hehe. It’s one step at a time, one day at a time, much like everything else in life.
