Still a metal mouth

Because I am such a deliquent about going to my dentist to have my braces tightened (my last visit before yesterday was August 31) I have to keep these on for another 6 months.  I was hoping to be able to eat properly these holidays but I can't blame anyone but myself for the delay.  I am really looking forward to the day when I can brush my teeth and the brush glides across pearly whites.  Sigh.  Perhaps when I hit my 41st birthday? 

She said I am fat!

I know I gained some weight and last time I checked my BMI was still normal, but a nutritionist at Mercury Drug told me earlier than I am now FAT!  Sacre bleu!

I mean, ok.  I look at the mirror and I see the problem areas.  I even admit that I need to lose weight.  Ideally I would like to be 130 to 135 lbs.  But for a complete stranger to tell me I am fat ... maybe I have to be more careful about what I eat now.  After all, I'm at that age where losing weight is very difficult to do.  Exercise alone doesn't do it, that's for sure.

I even know what the culprit is ... Coca-Cola.  I remember a time when I was able to stay away from the soda easily.  But with this summer heat it just seems like coke is so much more refreshing!  So, as soon as I got home I pushed aside the soda drank water ... and water ... and water.

I don't think I can lose 15 lbs that quickly, but I hope I do lose weight ... and undesirable bulges.

When I get sick ...

I've been feeling poorly since Saturday afternoon but I thought it was just the heat.  I even went home early that day with the intention of sleeping as soon as I see my bed.  But after I took a shower I felt a little better, and went to sleep shortly after.

The following day (Sunday) I had some errands to run and since it was so hot I had a watermelon shake before going home.  When I did reach the house my tummy started spasming every few minutes.  I figured, it must be the watermelon shake on an empty stomach and so I ignored it.  Next thing I knew, had no appetite, I eat but I don't feel like I did and my mouth had a funny taste.  And again, I just ignored it.

Same thing happens the following day (Monday).  Again I ignore it.

Another day passes (Tuesday), still I ignore it.

Wednesday arrives and this time I was hurting enough to tell my mom about it and tell her I was feeling a tad feverish.  By 7pm I was already experiencing chills and I was having difficulty keeping my food down.  By the time I got home at around 11pm I was shaking and hot and dizzy.  I took a vitamin C capsule, a glass of water, and bundled up in a blanket and was immediately knocked out.

Morning comes (Thursday) and I can barely get out of bed.  My mom knocks on my door and gives me a glass of water and a couple of Transfer Factor capsules.  A few minutes later she is back with a cup of coffee and asked me how I felt.  By this time I felt much improved.  The fact that I was able to sit up was a sure indicator.  I was able to go down and join them for breakfast even though all I ate was 1/4 of an apple and even that I just threw up.  I just couldn't keep anything down.  I didn't think I would be well enough to go to work, but by afternoon my fever had already broken and after a quick shower I felt well enough to travel.  Mom says I must have a stomach flu or something.  It certainly feels like a flu.

It's Friday morning now.  My mom and dad have me popping analgesic and vitamin C and some Transfer Factor (morning and night) and so I feel well enough to being my old workaholic self.   After all, sick or not, I still have deadlines to meet.

I'll try not to overdo it.  Tomorrow (or I mean later) and the entire weekend are going to be hectic for me.

Weighing in

I weighed myself before all the Christmas feasts and again at the first week of March and I was shocked when I found out that I gained 20 lbs!   Noooooo!  The weight I put on really worried me.  I don't ever want to be overweight again.  Being overweight comes with so many problems.

And then things got hectic in school and I had so many papers to write.  The stress somehow made me eat less, and I made a special effort to limit my soda intake to 1 glass a day, I cut down on my rice and TRIED to cut down on my sweets.  I don't get 2 donuts with my coffee anymore.  I limit myself to one and I go for the healthier cinnamon apple filled instead of the sinful caramel apple pie.

Over the Holy Week I unintentionally dieted, too.  I was eating bread and butter for 2 of my meals on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  I say unintentional because I wasn't really dieting. The bread just happened to be that good. 

Today mom and I (and my niece, Tasha) went by Mercury Drug and I weighed myself again on the same scale.  Holy cow!  I lost 10 lbs!  Woohoo!  I must be doing something right.  I am going to start running again tomorrow.  Hopefully, I can go back to my ideal weight before the summer is over. I want to look good in a bikini again, even if I won't get a chance to get in one this summer. 

Supergirl moment, an accident report

I've thought about flying but not like this.

On my way to (grad) school this morning I road a 26 seater (12 on each side and 2 in front beside driver) Cubao-Divisoria jeep with license plate number TXC106. BIG MISTAKE! It was one of those tricked out jeeps with (usually) loud music playing, but not today.

There were only 7 of us seated at the back of this king-sized jeep. I started to feel apprehensive when the driver started weaving through light traffic at top speed, swerving left and right every few feet. I didn't think too much of it, though, because, well ... we all know how reckless these jeepney drivers are, right? I was seated at the end of the jeep on the right side near the exit with one hand holding the bar on my left (by the exit) and my feet braced against the floor. My right arm was wrapped around my backpack holding it secure.

With no warning the driver suddenly swerved to the left then braked HARD! One moment I was sitting braced at the end of the jeep next thing I knew I was sliding across the seat, my feet could get no traction, my hand got wrenched from the bar and I was flying across the jeep. I got thrown forward to my knees then I turned to my left to protect my bag (my netbook was inside) and I landed hard on my left hip and thigh. I finally stopped sliding when my head slammed into the back of the driver's chair and my face smashed into the speakers. And to put icing on the cake, all the other passengers (6 men and women of different sizes) all fell on top of me.

I (and the other passengers) complained at the driver for his driving and even mentioned our injuries. You know what he said in reply? He said that he was just avoiding a taxi that suddenly stopped in front of him. If he hadn't done that we would have been in a worse situation. Hello! In the first place, if he had not been driving so fast we would not be in that situation at all! If he weren't driving so fast there would not have been any need to brake so hard. If he weren't driving like a maniac and had not been tailgating the taxi, he would have had ample time to brake. No one would have been injured, and we would all have just complained about the reckless TAXI driver, not the reckless JEEP driver.

Since I was almost at school I decided to just continue on. I texted my classmate, Mark, to find out if he was already in school and he told me that he was at Chowking having breakfast with Andrea and Rean. So, shaking and all, I got off the jeep at Pureza to meet my classmates. I won't deny it, after I entered, greeted my friends, and sat down, I started crying quietly. In the jeep my fellow passengers told me the left side of my face was swollen so when I greeted my friends it was just a few minutes from the accident.

After I'd calmed down I went to the grad school building to attend my class. Yes, I actually decided to still go to school! I asked my classmates in that class if they knew where the clinic was so that I could get checked out. I told the doctor and nurse what happened and they told me that it is a medico-legal issue and I should get x-rays if I plan to file a case against the driver. Unfortunately, I was not able to get the driver's name and driver's license number, but since I was able to get the plate number of the jeep, it would be easy to trace the operator, at least.

Inventory of injuries:

• big bump on my head but my skin was not broken
• numbness on the entire left side of my head
• numbness on the entire left side of my face
• my teeth on the left side are sore
• my neck (left side) is sore but it seems to radiate to the other side as well
• my left shoulder is sore
• left side of my back is sore, lower back abraded
• left hip and butt cheek are sore, abraded and swollen
• both knees are abraded and bruised

I decided not to pursue the medico-legal case anymore, as the procedure is more of a headache than the bump on my head. But that doesn't mean I won't tell MMDA to watch out for him anyway. It pays to know someone who can do something about it. And, of course, blogging about it also helps. If only so I could blow off steam.

I got sent home early from school. Even though I was sore I went to see my professors to let them know I why I had to leave. I opted not to get the x-rays but went to our family doctor instead accompanied by my mom. He said I did not need them anymore since I had no nausea, I could walk and talk straight, and I could move my arm. I was just told to go home and rest. The doctor in the school clinic told me not to sleep immediately in case I had a concussion. I seem to be ok so I finally got to sleep at around 4pm and woke up at 7pm. Our family doctor prescribed expensive painkillers (ouch!) worth P50.50 a pop. It is supposed to be an anti-inflammatory, too.

The school doctor told me to take it easy and observe my injuries for 48 hours. Our family doctor told me to take it easy for 3 to 5 days. Good thing I swapped class schedules with a co-faculty at Benilde so I don't have to go to school until Thursday night.

Just had dinner and now I think I have to sleep again. The medicine they gave me is sedating, but it helps with the soreness and bruising.

For those of you who travel the Cubao-Divisoria route, DO NOT RIDE A CUBAO-DIVISORIA JEEP WITH LICENSE PLATE NUMBER TXC106. The driver will put your life at risk and won't even apologize about it.

Running With Friends

The runners at the parking lot sans Karen. She was still at the booths getting some stuff.  Hey, Rej! Why're you hiding back there?

The runners at Bona MOA waiting for  food and drink orders to arrive.  Hungry!

It was a beautiful day for for the Pinay In Action fun run at the SM Mall of Asia grounds. The race for the 10k and 5k participants started at 6:14am (behind schedule for both, by the way). The sun was out but it wasn't too hot. and there were LOTS of runners. Although it was an "all-women run" there were actually more than a handful of men who ran with us. Also children and pet dogs.

We [Karen (382), Oneal (511), Paul (512), Rej (510), and I (556)] have been looking forward to this fun run for more than a month and have been diligent in training for the event --- well, at least half of us, anyway. Like the others I was also supposed to run the 10K, unfortunately, I am still recovering from bronchitis and the doc advised me not to push myself too hard or I will suffer a relapse. 5k it is then.

In my opinion, we all did well today. We may not have been the fastest runners, but we all made it all the way to the finish line. Since I only did the 5k I finished first among us at 41 minutes and some change. The Yalies and Karen (who all did the 10k) finished almost 15 minutes apart from each other, with Paul in the lead at 1 hour fifteen minutes and some change. The PIA organizers told us to check the website for our actual times in a few days. I wasn't sure how they planned to do it so I just checked the big timer above the finish line as I was approaching it, hehehe.I took a peek at the tally sheet and I think I came in at the 300s. I didn't even realize there were that many people running the 5k! Perhaps that was a compiled list of all the runners for all 3 events.

At first the thought of running either the 5 or 10k sounded daunting but I figured, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Besides, I used to be in varsity track and field in DLSU (albeit a sprinter and jumper, not a long distance runner) so at least, I had some stock knowledge on running techniques. Those distant memories served me well. I knew not to push myself too hard, but not to relax so much that I forget that it is a race. It helped that I had an MP3 player strapped on my arm playing songs by Daft Punk, Missy Elliot, PCD, etc., to help me keep to a fast pace (whether walking or running).

I can't help but dream that someday more of our NWA friends would join us pursuing a healthy lifestyle. I know, I know ... baby steps! At least it is good to know that, for starters, there are 5 of us who are already practicing it, to this degree.

And while the race is over, this is not the end of our running days. We have decided to keep on running daily (if possible). Who knows? We may just join another fun run before the summer is over.