After the crabs and shrimps comes..

13 days to go and I'm at the end of my month and a half long vacation back home.After a month of scrumptious meals of crabs, shrimps, fresh fish, "pinakbet and "dinengdeng" and not too mention the vast range of fruits, I was confronted by the harsh truth of twelve pound gain. I thought I can rationalize my weight gain by telling people that I have eaten a lot in Mongolia to compensate for the cold weather, but the reality is that majority of the weight I incurred is while here at home stuffing carbohydrates from two and a half cups of rice in my mouth.

How can I say "no" if for eight months I was deprived of these guilty pleasures. Even the smell of a raw  fish  and the sight of crawling worms in a fresh "saluyot" is more inviting than the smell of mutton and a plate of potato salad.

Honestly, I am not fond of eating fish or vegetables before I went to Mongolia, in fact, I was  more of a meat-eater. I remember that every time my Lola would cook "pinakbet", I would choose all the pork ignoring the vegetables. But eight months is all that it takes for my conversion to the "healthier" side.

It's not that I abominate the Mongolian cuisine,I admit that I do have a few favorites like "tsuivan", "mantuu buuz" and their famous Mongolian barbecue.

Traditional Mongolian Barbecue served to us during our visit to Khonkhor, Bayanzurkh

But even a self professed meat-eater like me would not at all tempt  to devour this meat and bones since my palate still craves for the authenticity of Filipino dining: the saltiness in "dinengdeng" , the sweetness of leche flan and the warmth of having a family or friend join you in every meal.

A bountiful lunch of Dinuguan, Ginisang hipon, Pinakbet, Sinigang na Bangus and Rice with Manong, Mai and BIE

Now, I am off to trim down my weight. I am determined to because I can no longer wear my clothes and pants without the buttons popping out. But before reaching  my ideal body weight of 95 pounds, I need to engage myself in a serious workout. However, I'm not a sporty person nor a gym enthusiast: I'm especially lazy with exercises or having to strain my muscles.The only physical activities I had in the past were all mandated because of my P.E subjects. I once knew how to do karate chop and knife hand strikes as well as avoid violations in a basketball court- nothing more.

The moment I weighed in two days ago, I knew I have to work those twelve "nasty" pounds out with a sweat. Since I had no prior experience with work-outs, I thought I could shrug off the countless sarcasm from my two brothers just to ignore the harsh truth of physical torture:


" Ang laki ng tiyan mo ading, be proud. Unti lang ang may tiyan na ganyan." and 
"Balita ko magsasara lahat ng gym kapag ikaw ang gagamit."


So without any hesitation, I jotted  early morning runs in Roxas Boulevard into my vacation itinerary. I do hope that I'll stick to it no matter what.

My Day 1 run

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