Back To The Beach (Day 98)

Nasa huli ang pagsisisi.

I’ve been eating a lot again lately. Sunday dinner was no different. We ate at The Gourmet Café at a Rockwell-ish mall called The Curve near Ikea. We satisfied our tastebuds with meat antipasta, veg-cream soup, baked shepherd’s pie, and chicken-pineapple adobo casserole (yup, amazingly they had adobo, a favorite Filipino dish). Like my friend CM once said to me while sipping nilaga in Singapore,

Ipikit mo mata mo pre habang hinihigop mo ang sabaw, parang nasa ‘pinas ka na, di ba?

The missus’ appetite was low so I had to lend a helping hand stomach. I had to finish it in aid of the old adage “madaming nagugutom na bata ngayon.” (as if makakatulong ano?)

Thoughts of Sunday after-Mass family lunches at Jollibee in Makati Cinema Square come into mind. I remember clearly during my early-teens when my 3 sisters would all order 2-piece chickenjoys each and I’d only order pancit-palabok with toast bread. Mom was surprised the first time I did this.

Yan lang kakainin mo?

Ahhhm. Opo.

Halfway into my palabok, my sisters, all being takaw-mata, would’nt or couldn’t finish the remaining 1pc chicken so they’d all look at dear old Kuya and say,

Kuya ayaw ko na. Gusto mo (nitong chicken)?

I guess as young as I was I had the gift of foresight. Yup I ended up eating 3pcs of chickenjoy aside from my original order. Well to my satisfaction hindi ako tinablan ng taba coz my metabolism was still high at the time (I was an all-around athlete: piko, tumbang-preso, taguan, taguang-lata, monkey-monkey, patintero, and of course that high-burning calorie game called TEX). I could swallow all I can eat and won’t feel guilty of gaining weight coz, tried as I would, I didn’t gain a single pound.

Ahhh yes, life was good back then. Of course it became a gamble on the following Sundays as my sisters’ appetites grew. So on the lean days (pardon the pun) I’d end up with only palabok and bread for lunch that I would crave for merienda at 3pm (ensaymada and Coke…mmmm).

Fast-forward to 2005 and I’m a hefty 176-pounder who can’t simply deny the penchant for food. As our previous houseguests here can agree, except for last Friday night where my homemade contribution of beef with brocolli was a disaster, ang sarrrrrap talaga ng mga pagkain dito! It is really hard to lose all the unwanted weight (40lbs to be exact, as was indicated in the ideal BMI for my height) but the important thing now is that I KNOW that I need to lose it.

Nope I’m not saying that I’m going to go on a son-of-a-beach diet again. I’m also not saying that I’ll be exercising everyday (I could hear the missus now saying “Yeah right” if I said it). What I’m saying is I’ll try to be MORE AWARE of losing weight while I look, sip, and gobble up the sumptuous food that’s on the dinner plate.

Or I can always try on the sauna-belt that the missus bought.

Yeah right.



Hmmm…san kaya kami kakaen bukas? Hehe.