SUNDAYS are for staying home, sleeping, reading books, having brunch and dinner with family. That’s why it’s the best time for rain—no one is going out since even the ordered food can be delivered by Maxim.
During my high-carb days, a rainy Sunday afternoon was usually paired with hot choco and a strawberry-jam-and-cheese sandwich. Yum!
But now that I’m trying so hard to stay carnivore, a Sunday afternoon—with or without rain—doesn’t include snacks anymore. And the Sunday brunch would have grilled pork belly, kinilaw, bacon, ham, fried eggs, sweet and sour fish fillet, and the chicken, shrimp and squid from the pancit guisado.
In between brunch and dinner, there’s the siesta. With Babka, the MiMo Cafe fur baby, also having her siesta. Zzzzz.
It has been a mind-boggling, emotional-rollercoaster-ing, and stress-filled year. I don’t know if I could have coped only with prayers, reading, writing, and spring cleaning. So, there’s family, the gym, and the carnivore diet to help me wake up with a spring in my step.
I’ve continued listening to low-carb and carnivore videos “to remind you/Of the mess you left when you went away.” Er, to remind me of my deep why—why I started the low-carb diet, and why I’m trying so hard to be carnivore now.
This is a lifestyle actually, not a diet. It’s forevermore. And there’s the constant struggle to curb the sugar addiction since the Pinoy diet is mostly carbs—rice, pandesal, pancit, spaghetti, bam-i, palabok, batchoy, with the pancit or spaghetti even used as palaman for sandwiches.
Just roam around the mall and its carbs carbs carbs here, there, and everywhere: kakanin, banana cue, banana turon, banana chips, ensaymada, mamon, waffles, donuts, buko pie, durian pie, egg pie, pineapple pie, shakoy, siopao, cookies, pizza, cupcakes, cakes, all kinds of bread, etc. And they’re paired with milk tea, yogurt, ice cream, fruit juices, iced tea, soda.
Better stay home and have home-cooked meals. And make sure the kitchen’s cupboards and fridge don’t have carbs since the carnivore diet has further simplified the menu to this: just add salt, water, butter, and animal fats.
When I was still transitioning from high-carb to low-carb, I’d eat keto treats while adjusting to the new diet. That may not be the best advice for anyone who wants to try the low-carb way of eating because keto treats will only awaken their sugar cravings, as what they did to me.
Sugar intake inspires sugar cravings. All it takes is that one bite of any carbohydrate and I’ll be eating carbs again. Whew.
And carbs don’t even have to be sweet. Rice is not sweet. French bread is not sweet. Sourdough is not sweet. Which can be confusing to the dieter who thinks only sweet food can increase sugar levels.
Now that Christmas is almost here, expect more carbs as gifts, with the fruitcake handed down from generation to generation. No, not the fruitcake recipe, the fruitcake itself, which can be kept as a family treasure.
There’s this caterer, one of the family’s suki for our parties, whose specialties include our most favorite beefsteak, battered chicken, and potato salad. Once that potato salad is right in front of me, I may need a straitjacket to stop me from carbo-loading.