When I grow up I want to....

BE A WRITER. Translating my thoughts into words make me happy. Its like food with zero calories. More pleasure, less guilt.

BE A DOCTOR because I get fascinated with the study of human biology. Its really an irrational love for learning about the human body. Maybe, I was born in love with human biology. Last year, I joined a free check-up drive and I was in charge of collecting vital signs. I experienced gauging pulse rates, blood pressures, body temperatures and respiration rates. It was heaven. I also experienced blood-typing people and participated in a mass circumcision drive in a public school here in Iloilo. It was the gory, less attractive area of medicine but it still bothers me that I enjoyed it as much as the other stuff. I fear blood but suddenly, being stuffed in the middle of minor surgeries, I forgot about fear. I love looking at humans as chemical creatures, after all, we really are just chemical. It is complex but nothing is incomprehensible.Thats the way (a-ha a-ha!) I like it. 

BE GOOD-LOOKING. This is in relation to my theory that every being is born beautiful, it is only the environment and the way it grows itself that affects how it looks a.k.a. beauty is not in-born but a product of effort and life itself. This theory emerged when I saw a collage of before-they-were-famous photos of beautiful people. I have only one body so I might as well treat it well.

And here I am working at number three.

Now that I have tried to summarize my goals into three, I hope I won't need more time to soul-search. I am tired of being un-active. I am tired of being uninspired.

Cheapest Treadmill

I just bought this health device for 45 Pesos (1 US dollar). With new batteries it cost P599.00, without batteries P45.00. The batteries(good brand) cost me P150. You do the math.

This little device is really cool because it can present your body fat in percent, calculate and scrutinize your BMI, show the calories you have and count the steps, distance and calories you burn every time you take a walk. All for the total price of P195.

Are the stores telling me to get up and lose all this extra fat that has been clinging on me?

I think so too.

Finally, something to do!

For a few weeks since the start of summer, my daily routine was suicide. Sleep, breakfast, sleep, TV, sleep, lunch, sleep, TV, sleep, dinner, Facebook until near morning. I knew after several months I could die of heart failure so I looked for something to do. Summer should not be paired with lack of activity.

I received a text message from my classmate that a tutorial center here in Iloilo will be holding review classes for college entrance exams. I'm an incoming high school senior and it was music to my ears. I was even happier that it was slightly far away from my school. Now I have to walk everyday and while walking, I can take photos of Iloilo. That is why I started this other photoblog. Check it out to see my photography!

Happiness is just inside of me that I finally found away to spend the summer without choking my arteries with fats!

What are Calories? White Rice are Bad Calories, Sadly

If you have followed the site I suggested in this article, you might have read that they enlisted white rice, a staple of the Filipino table, under the sources of bad calories. I don’t take my diet seriously but could it be that white rice is the cause all of my dilemma?

Let me lay down the facts I have collected over internet sources. Don’t worry about plagiarism, I’ll do in-text references with links.

1. What is a calorie?

A calorie is the amount of energy a 150 pound or 68.03 kilo person burns in a minute while resting (MrHealthy.com) and in every gram of carbohydrates you consume, 4 calories go with it too(Google Dictionary). So if you are 68.03 kilos and you eat 200 grams of carbohydrates, you need 800 minutes of rest to burn all that you consumed. Exercise speeds up burning which is a lifeline for the white rice lover, I think.

2. What are the nutritional values of white rice?

According to About.com, the nutritional value of rice is graded B. It has no sugar, no sodium, no cholesterol which is good. The problem is that it contains mostly carbohydrates and only about 0.03% protein. You get 52.3 grams of carbohydrates per cup of rice, only 0.6 gram of that is of dietary fibers which is sad. So you have 212.8 minutes to burn all the calories you just ate.

3. Why did I say white rice have bad calories?

Because it contains too much carbohydrates and not much dietary fibers, I suppose. An article said people should prefer brown rice which is as far as I know, richer in fibers. I don’t know where to grow or get brown rice here in the Philippines. How about food coloring? Does it work, anyone?

As you can see, my diet which is supposed to be something to giggle about took over me. Another second I was eating a carbohydrate enriched meringue and now I’m writing an article against white rice while trying to resist the temptation of eating ‘riced’ lunch. I have eaten bread already and this is not anorexia.

So so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, achoo! Its just today I realized the real lyrics were so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye. It sounded better when the last word was achoo. It was justifiable because I sneeze a lot during rainy nights. :-)…  (drooling smiley) Gooodbye!!! 

Fancy Food Forecast

It is very ironic that in the previous article, I have stated my goals of living a good life and implementing a diet and a few days after, I will be blogging about my mortal enemy, food.

For the past few days, I have been bonded to Coffee Break at Nelly's Garden here in Iloilo, thanks to my good friend which is an addict of the unproductive sitting down. When she invites me to sit with her at the cafe, she means serious sitting, the likes of 3 or more hours of resting on a chair.

Plenty of chairs to

fill up!

I am not the laid back type of person. Moving is a need for me which stirs up another irony of why I'm a few sizes above prime. Back to the story, so we would sit there for like forever. I get bored a lot thats why I end up eating some 'panini', 'sans rival', 'frappe' etc.

They all taste good but why do all their names sound French? Its like gay language in wrestling. Why can't they be called 'tinapay na may palaman' or 'palaman sa gitna ng tinapay', and 'kalabang araw', even 'meringueng naligo sa whip cream at mani'. By that, product comprehension will be easier and people can easily expect what they are getting.

Why don't I build a cafe with the menu I just produced above? Reason: It would be stupid because one of the few reasons why these cafes exist is their ability to elaborate a person's ability in fancy food talk. Who doesn't want a friend who can translate 'basil salmone terrine' or 'pasta jeux tu amor' into human language?

While I was sitting down at Coffee Break, I had a vision. The cafes of today are cousins of the typical Filipino 'tindahan' where the youth spends most of their waking times doing nothing. Cafes are for young professionals that love to get attention but I couldn't deny the fact that there are some other people who consider cafes as a haven for reading or reviewing or doing other mental work. I know its a 'chillax', laid back place and I am a fan of caffeine, but why stay longer than 3 hours? Is economy the answer? I would understand if the 'tambay' that comes with purchase is actually a fraction of the price. I guess so because I can't tell you Coffee Break is cheap.

BTW: I know cafe is spelled with the other e with the curved line on top but your not the one typing and at the moment, I am not in the mood to look for French letters. And if by any chance you drop by Coffee Break, grab a Sans Rival bar and any cold drink with lots of caffeine. You will thank me. :-)

Failing at diet,

Warped Opinion

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Dieting Filipino

I have cycles with weight. I get really heavy during vacations and a tiny bit slimmer during school days. Its summer so I'm expecting to gain weight but because this is for good change, I will try my best to trim down. One of the reasons I will be doing this is my hobby. I do photography and scary dancing. Both require a lot of moving around and carrying extra pounds for fats is not an advantage.

A gorgeous scoop of

Spanish Chocolate gelato

from Coffee Break in Iloilo City

(very inappropriate image for this post :-)

My diet plan is plain and simple. Theloseweightdiet.com is a website I found that is extremely helpful for freeloaders. It doesn't require a sign up nor payment. Its really cool and I learned that calorie deficit is the best method for me. I also learned that White Rice is a source of poor or simple calories which is not the best type of calorie there is. Being a Filipino in a Filipino family, my parents blame fatal diseases for refusal to rice so before I start avoiding rice, I will tell them that this is for my better health. That I will be controlling my appetite for the better so that they won't call emergency rooms behind my back. Filipinos rock...

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Growing Change Launch

I am very sorry that I haven't updated my blog for a few days already (I don't want to count because it makes me feel worst). So as a surprise to my readers, I'm creating another segment of my blog and I call it 'Growing Change'.

What is Growing Change?

Growing change will be the newest category here in my blog. It would be a collection of posts dedicated to my change for the better. I will be chronicling that events that will make me a better person. It would be not for boasting my evolution but a hopeful inspiration for those who attempt dieting and such.

So that is pretty much what this post is all about. I had a boring few days back and I didn't gain access to the internet in our rural home so I can't post any content. I love and miss blogging!

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And if you like what you see here, don't forget to share. Sharing enlarges your house in heaven! :-)