Which way do we go?

THERE was a time when I’d stay home on long weekends. I wasn’t gyming then.

Now that I’m a member of a gym that’s open 24/7, staying home and not attending Zumba, belly dancing, and group exercise classes may make me feel guilty. Operative word: may. There’s a great possibility they may not. But it’s the body that will whine and complain: go to the gym already. And it does become a hard habit to break. Much like reading, writing, and spring cleaning which are my other hard habits to break.

But last weekend — part of a long weekend, with Oct. 31 Friday declared as a non-working holiday — I was into writing and reading. Because I wasn’t feeling well. The result of eating carbs as usual.

We now go to the cemetery days before All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days to avoid the traffic and rerouting of vehicles, with Oct. 31 as our last chance to go there. By Nov. 1, cemeteries have traffic rules that could boggle the mind, producing cartoon characters out of us as we ask, Which way do we go?

And then, on Monday, the day after All Souls’ Day, Typhoon Tino started to make its presence felt in Cagayan de Oro. I was gyming in the morning, and rushed out of the gym right after since I still had to buy groceries.

Rainy days and Mondays could be the perfect days to have hot choco and strawberry-jam-and-cheese sandwiches. Or sikwate and mango sticky rice. Coffee and biko. Champorado with bulad and boiled eggs. But these are all carbs. So, I had ox tail lauya for Monday’s brunch.

I remember when I was a young girl, during the days when I had no appetite due to colds, Mama would give me SkyFlakes with either Royal Tru-Orange or 7 Up. Those were the Food Pyramid days.

Nowadays when I’m not feeling well, I’d go on a 72-hour fast. Which I should have done the other weekend when my rhinitis appeared again after eating carbs: lumpia Shanghai and ham-and-cheese empanada at the gym’s Halloween party on Oct. 22, and ube turon and my most favorite bilo-bilo at Fat Chef the day after.

But a 72-hour fast that time would mean starting it on Saturday and ending it on Monday. But I wanted to go to the gym that Monday, so, I took meds instead. And immediately experienced one of the meds’ side effects: dizziness. Although it was slight — I was merely tripping on bath mats, and hitting my right foot on one of the bed’s feet — I was still alarmed, not yet realizing what was happening to me. It was only on Monday when I was already at the gym that I realized why.

And then, I had rhinitis again during the long Undas weekend, no thanks to carbs again: butter cookies and laing on Oct. 31. And the same thing happened: I wanted to go to the gym on Monday, so, I took meds instead of having a 72-hour fast. This time, I lowered the meds’ dosage to avoid dizzy spells. And it worked. By Sunday evening, I was able to attend my niece’s birthday dinner.

Listen to your body — this has always been the mantra of low-carb and carnivore doctors.