Tag Archives: health

Typhoon headed this way

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Typhoon Karding will make landfall in Bicol tonight.

This is the calm before the storm. Typhoon Karding will be making landfall tonight and I haven’t done any grocery shopping today ðŸĨī It will be rainy and windy as shit tomorrow until Monday.

While the eye will not be in Metro Manila, we will be around Signal #2 tomorrow as Typhoon Karding crosses Luzon to exit West Philippine Sea by Monday. Better charge laptops, phones, and electric fans.

Today was sunny and I thought it will stay that way all throughout today. So I took my time and cooked chicken rice for the first time on Instant Pot.

Who would have thought Hainanese chicken rice could be this easy?

You need 1) Instant Pot 2) chicken rice mix (I used to buy them in jars from Hi-Top Aurora). Prepare washed rice but only 3/4 the usual amount of water that you put when cooking using a rice cooker. Dump and stir chicken rice mix.

Wash chicken thighs very well, like there should be no trace of blood and impurities. Season chicken thighs reeaaaalllly well by scrubbing it with a lot of salt. Place them on top of the soaking uncooked rice. Place halved shallots and big chunks of ginger in between the chicken thighs.

Set Instant Pot on “Rice” mode. It should pressure cook at “Low” for 14 mins.

Watch some Youtube videos. Your InstantPot will be calling for you in about 30 mins. You let it be because you aren’t done watching some more YT videos. Then you realize electricity is expensive so you attend to your chicken rice.

Lovely.

I didn’t have to put the chicken in an ice bath to stop the cooking process because I was lazy. I didn’t have to rub sesame oil on the chicken skin for that brownish oily glow.

However, I missed the soup part. There was no way you can have soup this way. So you can make a soup batch by sauteing shallots and lots of red ginger (or whatever color you have) or galangal, add a chicken bullion cube and boil all these until the root veggies almost disintegrate. Add chopped green onions.

Instant Pot Chicken Rice. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Skin still intact even without the ice bath to arrest the cooking process. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

It was so tasty that I went over my one-cup-rice-a-day diet. I needed to walk 6-7km today to burn the calories but of course the weather didn’t cooperate. It rained heavily at 4pm just as I was about to leave. I waited and waited for it to end but nope, it only stopped when it was already dark.

No choice but I have to do indoor workout again.

Well according to my Oppo Band, my heart rate during my entire exercise session was around 125-136, especially when I was doing my weight training.

Not bad for indoor workout, almost 260 kcal burned, equivalent to a 5km walk under an hour.

My drinks with the friend is cancelled because he’s meeting his dad tonight so we arranged it for next week with more friends. I hope there would be no typhoon yet…Next weekend is our long weekend at the beach. âĪ

Far from being chill Friday

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Chamomile tea to calm my frayed nerves. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I edited a lot of stories today ðŸ˜Đ which left me mentally exhausted. I promised myself that I would walk 8k today but the weather had other plans.

It rained. 😑

But I needed to burn some calories or else I will become as big as a house again. Indoor workout again.

I need to shrink my arms and my pregnant-looking tummy.

I’m also cutting down on carbs. It’s hard though. I’m getting hungry at night.

My lovelies. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

If I don’t instill discipline in me, I will become that chonky Kimchi. It was so wrong to introduce her to snacks. Now she demands it in the morning whenever I come down to go to the bathroom. The leash I bought the last time was small so I think I need to buy the dog body leash for Kimchi and the normal cat body leash for Sushi. We need to train them to walk outdoors so they will be ready when we transport them when we move to our new house. Plus Kimchi needed the exercise.

Tomorrow I will have drinks with my journo friend who went on medical leave for three months after the trip to the ER. He didn’t know what was wrong with him when one day his BP shot up and he had to be brought to the ER. Upon arriving there his BP and everything else became normal. He says that his BP has become wild in the past few months… And he hates his job now.

Like zero fucks given to his job.

The last time we talked face to face he has been complaining to me about his direct manager and how he hates doing what he was good at before.

I told him he those are anxiety attacks and I was like that a few years ago. I frequently had palpitations, chest tightening and pain, and strong urge to puke. One time I was driving and I had one of those episodes that I willed my way into driving to the nearest ER. I thought I was having a heart attack. I was cleared when my ECG showed it wasn’t a heart attack; iy was heart burn/GERD. A friend of my sister said I had exhibited anxiety attack symptoms. That’s how bad my situation was when the girls’ dad and I had lived under the same roof but led different lives. When I had taken myself out of the situation, my anxiety attacks stopped.

I need to convince this friend that no job is worth dying for. He has to quit. He has been telling me over and over he wanted to quit and will just put up his own business (he’s loaded anyway). So pep talk is what he needed. I told him last Wednesday when we saw each other in BGC that he doesn’t look good and he looks like he needs to rest for a few months. His colleague (and also my friend) from the same media entity also quit recently and it seemed like he is burned out. He (second friend) told me he is just loafing around and will soon go to Peru to unwind. There must be something wrong with their management now, methinks. Reporters are just getting burned out at the same time. ðŸĪ”

It’s a terrible, terrible feeling. I had been in that position before. When stress and anxiety are taking a toll on your health, you should just quit. There’s nothing wrong with quitting. When the current situation is no longer working for you, cut your losses. Stop and reassess your situation, realign your goals if needed. Plan an escape route. After you have figured out what you needed to do and what you wanted to do, then re-engage with the world.

Your mental health is at stake here. This eventually would bleed into your physical health and all aches and pains will become psychosomatic.

As my sister said, quit while you still have your dignity intact. Because if you keep pushing beyond what your mental state can take, you will make a mess of yourself and destroy your reputation in the process.

Save yourself.

I am a living testament of quitting-before-I-fuck-up. So far it turned out pretty well for me.

So now I wonder if we can go to that wine bar we went to…

Smells Like Teen Spirit

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I like Tori Amos’ covers of well-known rock songs. She gives them more depth and female angst. Here is my simplified version of her Nirvana cover, Smells Like Teen Spirit. I couldn’t match Tori’s piano playing because I’m lazy and I want the easier way ðŸĪĢ

Smells Like Teen Spirit

On the perky side of life, here is my version of Sweet Child of Mine by Guns N’ Roses. A staple during my high school days.

I kept playing the piano to cool down after my 7+ km walk tonight. Yep I just rested for two days and back again on the saddle.

It took me a little bit longer today because I didn’t pressure myself. But I think I didn’t change my pace that much since I still average 15 mins per km.

When the girls were much younger, this path was their playground. They pretended to go on a journey, like in Pokemon, climbed trees and explored the winding paths. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I wanted to catch the sunset again. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Your guess is as good as mine

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Yes, I did say I didn’t want to post anything political or anything to do with current events but of course I couldn’t help it.

Who else could it be??? Like as if any Korean presidential candidate would be as brash as this… Or I could be wrong 🙄 But then the most obvious candidate is…TADAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!

Your guess is as good as mine.

Meanwhile….

The top rice importers in the world 1) China; 2) PHILIPPINES

And hellooooooo! Who is the concurrent agriculture secretary? The president who could not even make head nor tail of the economy and government.

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Bravo! Bravo!

And this government cut the budget for health; we no longer have budget for Covid vaccines and support for cancer patients. All went to the confidential funds of the Department of Education Secretary, who is the Vice President, and should not have confidential funds because what does she need “intel” funds for as education secretary? Then the office of the president has billions in unwarranted “confidential funds” that can be disbursed without state auditing.

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

*Sigh* I shouldn’t have clicked on Twitter. 🙄

My desk on Friday night chaos. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Been busy emailing people for meetings in Singapore in November so I can have my trip approved by London. Kinda stupid that I had to justify my trip to my own office. As if I’m there to have a holiday. 🙄 Good thing the people I reached out to were very willing to meet me and have already ordered their secretaries to send me an email invite to table the meetings.

I need to book my hotel and flights next week since the rates are already going up.

Because I was attending to these things, I wasn’t able to get off my table and to start walking again at 4pm. I opted to have indoor workout, which I’m not really a fan of. The usual core exercises and dumbbell workouts. Then stretches.

After planking.

I can’t NOT have exercise these days because I love home cooking. Just look at this!

Instant Pot 45 min kare-kare swimming in peanut sauce. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Fall-off-the-bone beef kare-kare in 45 minutes. This is part if the xxx number of kilos of beef I bought from my hometown. It’s cartilaginous but it just melted. The peanut sauce became peanut soup since it is pressure cooked, no steam escaped/no evaporation, hence, the sauce remained watery instead of transforming into a gooey sauce. I remedied this by plopping more Reese peanut butter…ah well. Lesson learned. But the kare-kare is excellent. *Chef’s kiss* 👌😘

And to cap off the weekend, here is 12-year-old Yoyoka, wowing me again with her wicked drumming skills in 1970s classic heavy rock. She’s just one year older than my girls and yet her mastery of the instrument is that of a 45-year-old professional drummer.

I’m glad that heavy rock is still alive and kicking in Japan and has not been swallowed up by Kpop/Jpop. Japan has always produced very skilled guitarists and bassists, especially women bassists, like Madoon who complements Yoyoka here.

Monoral was in heavy rotation in my iPod a decade ago.

https://youtu.be/k5X0gngUz4M

Speaking of bassist, the best bassist for me is Billy Sheehan >>> he’s a big part why I loved Mr. Big. He could make the instrument really sing and compete with the lead guitars in terms of melodies. And with Yoyoka’s drumming, it was ear candy.

My kids are starting to appreciate some of my music now that they started listening to Up Dharma Down and Radiohead. We’re on Spotify family plan so they have started to discover music on their own. However, I don’t think they’re ready for nu metal like Korn and P.O.D. but they have an entire lifetime of listening to discover those.

Oh Up Dharma Down…smooth jazz fusion music on a Friday night. I miss them and there’s a huge void when they disbanded. I’ve only seen them live once ðŸ˜Ĩ but Armi Millare is still there creating beautiful music and she provided me with the most poignant soundtrack of my life.

Pink skies

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UP Ampitheater. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Today I walked 7 km, 9447 steps, 317 calories burned = entitles me to two cups of ice cream. Wow. 7km for 2 cups of ice cream ðŸĨī No wonder it’s so easy to gain weight.

I walked farther this time because I want to watch the sunset from Quezon Hall.

It’s nice to be out again. My younger sister said it takes her 2 hrs to walk 6 km so she just uses the treadmill to exercise. But that kind of exercise bores me to tears, that’s why gyms don’t work for me. I need to be out. That’s why I loved football when I could still play because I could be out in the field, rain of shine, under the wide, wide skies…

Looking down University Avenue. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

It took me 1.5 hrs but it involved a lot of stops because I was replying to emails on my phone and I rested a bit here at Quezon Hall/Oblation to drink water and take a little breather.

Underneath The Oblation. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
It’s windy up here.

I feel good about myself when I walk or bike. I still can’t jog because of my busted knee. I need to see a doctor for this ðŸ˜Ĩ But for a 42-year-old woman, I look ok. I still don’t look old and wrinkled like leather like some people. My back though feels 50 years old 😆 My face looks puffier, so that means I gained so much weight ever since I stopped biking (when the heavy rains started). I have exactly 15 days to get in shape so I can dive two weeks from now. I have ruined my breathing because of the extra weight I gained but my stamina is still there.

Next time I will target 10km for 1.5 hrs or less. ðŸĪŠ

Because I wanted to see a pretty sky

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Somewhere in UP. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I felt stifled today, I don’t know why. Maybe the heavy rains of the past weeks had gotten to me so now I want to be out everyday. But I don’t have the car for a week.

So I walked.

Walking in my village.

I started walking from my apartment at past 5 pm. I didn’t care if I still had a pending edit; I just needed to get out.

The less busy street in my village. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

It was nice to be out today. It’s not hot and it’s not wet. Perfect.

No cars on this road! Perfect for ruminating
Disappointing calorie counter.

Look at that, I walked 6km for an hour and I only get to burn 273kcal??? If I use MapMyWalk by Under Armour almost the same distance is around 375 kcal.

This was in February 2022

So in a way I feel cheated because I should have burned more calories…

But the flipside of this is that this means I need to work harder to burn more calories—I would lose weight faster. 😂 So maybe I’ll stick to the Oppo Band health app.

I have enrolled in my insurance firm’s program that tracks all the healthy activities to gain points. I still have to figure out how the points can be redeemed and what would be the rewards. Like, would it lower my premiums? Let’s see if the insurance can recognize my wearable (the smart watch) and the statistics it is going to feed into my insurance.

So this is now the trend in insurtech: integration of all health data into their platform and incentivize the policy holder to live longer. The healthier a policy holder is, the longer the delay in paying the beneficiaries the benefits. Simple.

As I said several blog entries ago, I need to work on myself so I will live beyond 42 years old. I also need to lose my belly because I need to fit into a dress.

I need to reduce my calories, but the incentive to eat MORE has arrived. 😭

Instant Pot bought from Lazada. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

This dang thing is huge. I can cook a whole chicken in this thing. âĪ

I’m already planning dishes to cook in this. Tomorrow would be the Filipino menudo for only 10 mins (according to a recipe I found online).

Lalalala! I found a rotisserie (or fake rotisserie) chicken recipe… and beef and broccoli…

I’m getting hungry 😆