The holidays are finally here! And does this mean that my diet goes off on a holiday too? Hope not. But it really takes a maximum effort to straw out my willpower to say "No" with a heavy heart to those cakes, pastries and what-have-you-got-with-fat food on the table especially when the Family comes over for a get together or my little son takes my hand to peep in his favorite restaurant and end up - of course - dining there. Hello, Christmas! Why do you still have to come at a time when I'm trying soooooo hard to lose weight???

LIke there was this one time I was buying goods for people and clients. I ended up ordering an extra Toblerone Cake for take-home. But to make it less "evil", I had it post-made that I arranged with my Mom to pick it up for me. I don't want to break my heart when I see the neatly wrapped cake oozing with chocolate goodness looking back at me. Then, the worst part came --- the Toblerone cake of course, made its way home to our fridge and voila! After a hearty healthy breakfast on muesli and low fat milk, I ended up devouring a portion of that heavenly sin. It sucks to really have low EQ... Really. Really. Really sucks.

I had to double up my effort on burning 'em calories at the gym and bruised my knuckles so hard I found it now difficult to box better and get the best out of my Boxing sessions. Talk about noon time stupidity!

And then, there's this love affair with Rice. I swore off rice for like 2 weeks but now that i find time to be with my ever-rice-loving folks, I'm again falling into the trap of eating and savoring this grain. Help, anyone?? How do you wean off from rice... and ham?!?!?! Oh, that lovely, plump, delicious, juicy smoked ham of King Sue!! To lessen the guilt, I fry it with olive oil. Duh. As if, Angel... as if.

I've been scouring the racks of Fullybooked the other day and found myself engrossed and smitten with this book "Flat Belly Diet" and the "Abs Diet for Women". But I've been with holding my purse first to accommodate it in my bookshelf. Does anyone know anything about this one diet that claims to flatten the tummy? Or do I resort to liposuction in the end??

The ordeal is yet to start. Christmas and New Year festivities are about to begin and with a family that loves eating and myself that absolutely loves to cook and entertain... I wish myself goodluck.

Santa, if you can hear me... can you make my fats go away fast?

Merry Christmas, everyone.

I just completed Week 1 woohoo!!

And tomorrow, I'm on my 2nd week of living a healthier lifestyle.

There were a lot of challenges though for me on my first week... I needed to curb my cravings for sweets and it was sooooo hard to say "No!" to sodas especially when the gang goes to lunch on fastfood and there's no bottled water available :-(

And then, there's this insatiable insane lust for fried chicken. The Chicken Joy variety, the Kentucky goodness and of course, the immortal Chicken Nuggets. We had lunch the other day in Rockwell and we ended up at KFC. The smell of fried chicken is luring me just like how Bella Swan's blood attracts those brood of vampires! Arrrggghh. Did I resist temptation? I had to chant a couple of mantras before -- finally -- caving in to the oily madness that was KFC fried chicken. Ho ho ho! And guess what. I had a 2-piece chicken meal but to compensate for my gluttony for the fried devils, I only consumed half of the rice and no sidings. So much for self-control, Angel. So much for self-control.

Then there's the unavoidable soda. I tried to fast from it for the last couple of days but there are really times when there's nothing left to drink, I had to grab a Coke Zero or a Pepsi Max for myself. It's really very difficult especially when your lunch peers are not the "health-conscious" types and they'd perpetually laugh at your being "sassy" and you become the butt of lunchtime's table gossip. It's either I end up a loner munching on my perpetual salad and water lunch on the other end of the cafe or join in the bandwagon of sisig and beer bacchanals.

Speaking of beer... I had to literally slap myself so as not to fall victim to the woes of temptation known as Alcoholism on Friday Night or Days When Work Did Not Turn Out Great. There was this one time I was sooooo darn depressed with work that i had to drag my ever faithful drinking buddies and they ended up drinking the beer... and me indulging in the sinfulness of sisig, crabfat rice and Oysters Rockefeller. I was so guilty that I had to burn whatever amount I gorged in twice during my Boxing class.

The only good thing that ever happened for week 1 was that I, for the first time ever in my entire conscious life, was able to enroll in Boxing and stick to it. My previous experience before with going to the gym was a classic manana habit... then the momentum was gone and I was paying for classes I never get to attend to. Talk about the waste of money! Now, I'm actually enjoying and looking forward to my Boxing sessions. I've never felt this good about exercise and am quite positive about it. Hope I never have the plateau feeling again when it comes to it.

What I learned on Week 1: It's really very important to have encouraging lunch peers for you to stick to your healthy diet. It pays to have somebody with you who has the same goals and right mindset to keep your health goals on track.

The moment I had a whiff of the amazing smell of donuts the other day, I knew I had low EQ.

Praying hard for a stronger me on Week 2.

Woohoo!! I finally got that update I've been waiting for from the admin of this site, and yeah I have the shopping list in my hand already. Beat that. Hohoho. Tomorrow is Sunday, Grocery day. Heading off to the racks and raid 'em healthy quick!

I was very busy lately with work. Since I'm working in the field, and drive around a lot, I decided to tag along with me a tumbler of water. This is the first time I ever did it... ever in my entire driving career. It was weird when I had to tote it in my drinks compartment in the car but it was somehow a quick reminder to take a sip every now and then. The only downside is that because I had to park in places where there is a lot of sunshine, there was this tendency that when I get back to the car, the water is almost boiled off by Mr. Sunshine.

The first day I had this love affair with water got me so engrossed with restrooms coz I need to pee a lot --- which I normally don't do. The reason why I don't drink a lot when I work and drive is because I never really like having the urge of peeing and scramming for a nearby place to ease off the liquid I just took.

Which leads me to Pee Talk number 2.

I know that the amount of liquid I take in is equivalent to the amount of liquid I pass off as pee. And there has been a large difference for these past few days I've been on "water therapy". In a day I would only usually pee thrice ... morning, lunch and bedtime. I can hold off my pee for hours, and I think this could also have contributed to my bloatedness coz of the high water retention level. So when I got myself going on the water thing, lo and behold! I get to pee 5 times in a day now and my weewee color is not as dark anymore. Plus I get to feel refreshed too. Hohoho. How's that for a start?

And speaking of starters, I'm enrolling in a boxing class already on Monday. Yahooooo!!

Looking forward to a healthy and better looking me.

The Asian Philosopher Lao Tzu, has said" A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". (Yeah, it was not Confucius who said it, but a confused-shoes in the person of lao Tzu hihihi )

So, it will always be the first step.

Yesterday, when I chanced upon this site,  a flood of emotions and thoughts overwhelmed me... I was euphoric. Yes, because it was a Eureka! moment for me to finally have a site with Filipino members discussing about how to lose weight and changing into a healthy lifestyle. It's such a rarity, really. Then, I was ecstatic. Imagine, I can finally start on the journey of my weight loss, and I was really inspired when i was browsing through fellow Belles with real pics blogging and sharing their achievements! I thought, "Hey, I can do this! I need to do this!"

Then, I was apprehensive. A part of me somehow doubted if I COULD REALLY DO THIS? I mean, I live in a home with a family that eats a lot and has this appetite for anything oily and downright unhealthy. I admit that, yes. And then there were past attempts to be on a strict pesco-vegetarian fare but after the disastrous flood (we were affected by typhoon Ondoy and almost starved to death on our rooftops for 3 days) I had to literally eat whatever was served on the table --- beggars can't be choosers, right? So if the gracious host served us pork, to my aversion, I had to down that plate of pork adobo and rice. Hey, my stomach needs fuel. And so, that  saw the end of my pesco-vegetarian diet days. And the end of another dawn of healthy eating. And self-control.

When I woke up today, first thing I did was to check my e-mail. No diet and exercise plans yet in my inbox, but I was happy to find a few friend requests. Now somehow, the human nature in me found that social belongingness and even If I had doubts at the back of my mind, I knew I could do this. I know I have to do this.

This is a journey of my choice. And I will make it happen. I'm targetting March 2010 to a leaner, fitter and better Me.

It's always the first step. It will always be.