The GM (General Motors) Diet in a nutshell:

It is rumored as the diet that the General Motors Company set for its employees, but apparently there have been no official claims.  It's just a week-long diet- for the purpose of detoxyfying or "flushing out" whatever it is you need to flush out.  But it could reportedly make you lose 7-14 lbs too.  Ready? 

Prepare for 7 days of hell.

Under no circumstances should you consume alcohol during this time.  And water intake should be at least 2.5 L per day.

Day 1: All fruits.  No banana.  If you have watermelons and cantaloupes, capitalize on those.

I thought this was easy.  I had tried a high-fiber vegetable diet before and I actually adapted to it very well.  In fact, I liked it.  But when I actually got into the all-fruit first day, I realized vegetables and fruits were really different.  And my, what a BIG difference it was.  For this first day I was hungry the whole day, and felt very weak and light-headed.  Even if I ate until I felt my jaw would drop.  Also, since fruits were sweet, I had a constant craving for savory food and junk food!  In the end I cheated and bought myself a small pack of chips.

Day 2: All veggies.  One potato may be included in your breakfast.  Concentrate on high-fiber veggies.  Only olive oil and some vinegar may be used as dressing if you eat salad. 

High-fiber veggies would be the green leafy ones.  Of course I wolfed on my salad.  I LOVE SALADS.  However, I cooked my veggies with butter.  Like I learned in school.  Big effing deal.  Anyway, I liked this day because I love veggies.

Day 3: Fruit and veggie combo.  Still no banana.  No potatoes. 

It was only this day that I felt enough strength and energy to go for a workout and run though.

Day 4: Minimum of 3 glasses of milk, and at least 8 bananas.

This made me less hungry compared to Day 1. 

Day 5: Small portions of lean meat and cheese.  You can make them into sandwiches.  Consume a minimum of 6 tomatoes, and increase water intake by 25%.

Day 6: Unlimited amounts of lean meat, cheese, and veggies.

By this time, it was very similar to my usual diet that it felt normal.  However, by the end of the day I suddenly felt light-headed and when I walked a little, my lips apparently turned blue and just a little more would have caused me to collapse.  Fortunately I got home in time and lay down.  After which I ate a mango for dinner- since I wasn't in the mood to cook anything and I wasn't too hungry.  If this were my normal diet it would have been fine.  I don't know why this particular day though, I threw up. 

Now here were some factors:

• I slept until 5 am and woke up about noon for every day during this diet. 
• I nursed a sick boyfriend and maybe I caught his fever.
• By day 6, it was my 2nd day of menstruation.

Day 7: Brown rice, veggies and beans.

I figured I'd just go for rice because I couldn't find brown rice where I was at the moment.  It was 2 am- I still had an empty stomach because I threw up all the mango.  I ate chicken and rice.  I ended up throwing up again.  Dammit.

Conclusion:  You know, whatever factors caused the throwing up, I decided I didn't like this diet.  I'm a fairly active individual as of late, and not being able to do exercise because I felt too weak or hungry really annoyed me.  Besides, despite the strict following of the rules (except that small pack of chips on the first day), I lost only about 4 lbs.  Anyway, I don't feel too good about it because I only stayed inside the house, when ordinarily I should have been outside running or walking.  I was lying down all the time and now my muscles in my ass must have died.

My recommendation?  Don't do this diet.  It's stupid.  If you're already on a high-fiber, low-carb diet, stick to that and eat because it makes you happy.  If you're already eating a lot of high-fiber veggies (which I am), there's not much of a difference when you do this diet.  And you get too weak to do anything else.

References:

http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/~jajoo/gmdiet.html

http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2009/march/11/yehey/life/20090311lif2.html

http://www.healthmad.com/Weight-Loss/General-Motors-Weight-Loss-Diet.56927

In this day and age, it's a sin to be not beautiful.

Well, at that time I was sporting a huge pimple on my nose.  What a day.  But, when I thought about it, I kind of agreed.  If you guys don't remember, this had a lot to do about my thesis, and I actually hate having to argue about anything related to my thesis.  An online friend once tried debating with me about beauty and female oppression and I logged out.  Bullshit.  We were going around in circles, and a guy should never debate about beauty and fhis supposed female oppression with a girl.  A girl like me.

I went jogging today and kept thinking about what I was doing this for.  Recently I had been having problems about what kind of person I was becoming, so concerned about shopping, clothes, and being fabulous.  I once thought this Nike poster "Be Beautiful" showing women running was mean. Sadly I couldn't find that particular poster anywhere in the net.  It rubbed me in the wrong way.  Here was this universal concern about teenage girls and women not feeling good about themselves because of all these depictions of beautiful women all over the magazines, and Nike was like affirming this concept of beauty.  I thought, man, if I didn't get to look hot like that in them short shorts, what chance have I got?

The reason I started working out was because I was already having problems breathing, got tired easily, and wanted to just sleep all day. Back then, I had this mantra: die happy.  But when I started feeling the signs, I thought it might change to: die sooner.

Now that I actually started losing weight, I was loving the changes happening to my body.  In effect, I became very engrossed to looking better.  And I hated to admit, I thought about the Nike ad and then concluded, I wanted to "Be Beautiful" even more.  I repeat the quote "In this day and age, it's a sin to be not beautiful."  With all the pills and L-carnatine about, the gyms and videos, the cosmetics and lotions and random fruit extracts and animal placentas, brazilian waxes and spas, how could someone bear to be not beautiful?

Therefore, as a concerned individual aware of the averse complications of being not beautiful, one ought to have a kit with all instrumentations necessary to avoid it and improve physical appeal.  When I finally got my severance pay, I scoured the aisles of Watson's to equip myself for the journey to being beautiful.

Here are the stuff in my kit:

1. Neutrogena Ultra-sheer Dry-touch SPF 50 sunblock

Olay Total Effects Moisturizer

Scentio Milk Skin-refining scrub

Skin Food Black Sugar Scrub mask

Belo Pore-refining toner

Johnson's Baby Milk Lotion

- A few days ago, a friend texted me. "We're getting older.  Let's wear sunblock."  Truly, the piercing UV and heat rays because of complications from pollution would cause skin to age a lot faster. 

2.  Del Monte Fit and Right drink

Vitamin C

- I always thought I was eating the right stuff but my metabolism had to be enhanced.  Metabolism does change, and my mom's testimonial tells me Fit and Right should be effective.  And to further protect myself from disease I pop a vitamin C pill.  Plus, vitamin C helps in the overall health of the skin.

3.  Clean and Clear Speed Gel

Garnier Dark Spot corrector pen

- Like I keep in mind: I shouldn't have pimples like "other" people.  But I am prone to have blemishes easily, so I need that spot corrector.  I don't know if that works on eyebags.  There's only one thing I know for a fact that makes eyebags dissappear: concealer.  But I don't want that.  I want eyebags gone f.o.r.e.v.e.r.  For the record, I actually don't own a concealer. 

4.  Johnson's Baby Powder

Nivea Double Effect deodorant

- Beautiful women reportedly don't sweat.  And they have smooth underarms.

You know, this world lives on physical appeal, and acts based on judgements made by preconceived notions of it.  If someone tells me to disregard physical beauty, then he or she is telling me not to live in this world. 

Sirs, I am beautiful, therefore, I exist.

For a very long time, I had always been curious about what kind of life these "party-goers" led.  In conclusion my boyfriend told me: it's to get laid. LOL. led, laid.  What about the people who just wanted to have fun and dance?  What about the people like me?  I thought hours later, I knew a different meaning to the word "party". 

So here I was, just dancing in a corner, talking to a friend who recognized me in all the chaos and darkness, when this American guy just approached me and kissed me.   What the f*ck, man? was what I said.  To apologize he bought me a drink.  A vodka tonic.  He spouted some French stuff.  Sorry hun, I wasn't the type who swooned over French.  I happened to think the French language was gay.  Whatever.

I went back to my friends, when I thought, maybe I was too mean.  I went back to him and he was already talking to this girl.  I interrupted him, said that I felt like talking to him, and he got my number.  After which he asked me if I was horny. 

.

.

.

No.  I decided this was stupid, got out and bought myself an overpriced Bacon and Eggs breakfast, waited for the sun to rise, promised to purge all promiscuous fantasies I might have considered in my youth.  I was too good for this.

Speaking of legends, I forget if I ever mentioned that I also recently just appreciated Michael Jackson.  It was months ago when I was watching the American Idol auditions and someone sang The Way You Make Me Feel.  I realized the song was pretty cool.  And while searching for it, I stumbled upon a video of Britney Spears when she was still hot and virgin, performing that song with the Michael Jackson.  I went "wtf? When did this happen?"  Anyway, I ended up watching two whole MJ concerts, award shows with special performances by MJ, thank you speeches, etc.  You know, despite his pedophilia and horrible face, MJ was effing good in his time.  He was a pioneer, a genius, so bold and dared to express using his body like no other dance school had thought of before. 

Enough.  I won't fangirl.  But I do want to buy his concert DVDs.

Another MJ I loved was Michael Jordan.  I stopped watching Basketball when he quit, and that was before I even got to understand the sport.  However, recently, I had been watching games with Ron and I thought, this ain't so bad.  I seriously want to see Kobe and Lebron at each other's throats.  Although I'd want the two underrated players Dwight and Carmelo to somehow get spotlight too.  Whatever.  I still haven't come to terms with myself that I am watching NBA. 

A manga like One Piece Well, to be safe, I think there is no manga like One Piece.  However, just so you guys know, One Piece had grown to a proportion so big it had intimidated me for the longest time.  It currently has 542 chapters as of this week, and continuously churns out chapters every week.  The sheer volume of reading material for this graphic novel was enough to make me delete it from my hard drive.  See, I attempted reading this to satiate my curiosity as to why it was the number one selling manga in Japan, and why Naruto and Bleach never caught up to it.  But I ended up deleting the 4G++ (about 400+ chapters) that I just downloaded.  I downloaded it again, and this time I actually read up chapter 189, and I don't plan on stopping. 

So I just nailed two very hard exams, and I thought I had nothing to do than Youtube Katrina Halili and Hayden Kho's scandal.   I totally forgot that I had my keyboards brought in from my parents' house and I had a lot of piano sheets to study.  There are two guitars here that might be put to good use, and I haven't played my violin in ages.  I thought maybe I should get back to playing music sometime, rather than just sitting around overthinking about poverty and society's crap.

I just watched the Star Trek movie.  Gee, disregard the CG, it wasn't that stunning.  But the entirety of the film was very entertaining.  I actually loved it.  I want more.

Therefore this is just a random update to the people I care about.  Then I decided a split second later maybe I should include a little introduction first.

So, Baboysai's identity revealed! Not. 

Well to start it off, I graduated from the University of the Philippines, Diliman, with a degree in BS Architecture last April 2008.  However I did not pursue this as a profession because I realized I was not passionate enough for it to become my life.  I decided to take on a slightly wild and farfetched path.  No, not rockstar-ing (I wish).  Culinary Arts.  Sure I always wanted to cook, but I never thought in my early college years that I could ever enter the food business as a person behind the scenes.  Firstly, I loved attention, exhibition, and kick-assery.  Architecture would have fit the description, I suppose.  But my heart was not in it.  Yet my love for creation and urge to make people happy never disappeared.  As if by magic I was hellbent on culinary arts.  I was going to become a chef.  And I was not going to settle for anything less than first fifth place.  LOL I placed the bar a little bit lower for myself.

Even before starting culinary school my life had taken a lot of turns that gave me a lot of firsts and lasts.  From the hustle and bustle of Manila I came to Cebu to live in the island of artists, fashion, and the rest of the cool people.   I had a hard time adapting, even if I was speaking in my mother tongue, Cebuano.  Life here was hugely different from the metro.  I could not find any open coffee shops to soothe my turbulent emotions at any given 3 am.  People had time to do their laundry, or pick them up, but I could never, and will never have it.  But that was also what set Cebu apart.  It was a major city, alright, but people still had the time to lay back, relax, and bask in the island heat. 

In the period before school started, I also had my first immersion in work.  My mom thought I could never stand authority, given my personality.  And I believed her.  But surprisingly, I was a model employee without even trying.  Okay maybe I tried.  Just a little bit.  I also met new people who were very different from the usual fare I encountered in The University.  I had my ups and downs, friends and foes, and more-than-friends. 

By this time we would be moving into the falling-out-of-love phase, which was a first for me too, believe it or not.  But I pulled myself together and made a comeback in the love scene.  That didn't sound right, but you get my point. 

I met a lot of people from distant lands who were living in Cebu.  I heard them repeat it a lot. "My heart is in Cebu."  Whenever I was in Manila I always wished to go home and escape.  After I'd spent some time here, I grew to love it.  Coming back from my hometown was a new experience again.  It was my first time to "come home" to Cebu, and when I stepped on Cebu ground I really said to my self "My heart is in Cebu."

It starts when the professor tells the student, "Prove to me that there is no chair."  The student replies, "what chair?"  And everybody claps.  I admit, I could never have thought of that.  That was a finish that could be delivered in no other way.

I thought for that particular challenge, there was going to be only one answer.  And the student got it right.  He was in the right place at the right time, and everything just clicked.  If the professor chose to ask for a different thing, then maybe he could have gotten more varied, more interesting results.  And that was if he asked him to prove that the chair exists.

See, situations similar to that happen not only in the realm of pure logic but also in the realm of life.  To prove that something doesn't exist is much easier than proving its existence.  It's easier to deny than to accept that something is there.  The student could say "here's a tangible thing made of wood, nailed together by craftsmen who can testify that this is in fact, real."  But the professor could just say "I don't believe you."  Galileo was telling everybody that the earth was round, and they denied him, just like that.

I got tired of moving forward, see?  And I tire easily.  I need to cry more, laugh more, live more.  Despite the liberties I have taken, life is not as fulfilling as death.  I suppose. 

I am currently looking for the story of Momo.  Momo is a human who acts as a pet to a successful woman who came from the most prestigious school in the country.  He surrenders his human rights in exchange for the perfect pet treatment.  The woman is not satisfied by the men around her and finds that her only escape is in the relationship she has with Momo.  There may be expectations between a woman and her pet, but they are less complicated than those between a man and woman. 

I'm not saying I'm this woman or anything.  I certainly wouldn't want a hot younger man to be my pet with no sexual favors whatsoever.  But that isn't the point.

So anyway, Momo doesn't seem to complain about their odd relationship.  When asked why, this is what he says:

The kite is happy because it knows it is tied to somebody on the ground.  No matter how high it flies, someone will always tug it back.  That is why it can fly as freely as it should without any worries.

I don't know what that had to do with my life, but somehow it got stuck in my head.

I had never been hesitant to move.  Except when Pussycat Dolls' Buttons was on, and he was standing in the corner.  This was it.  The dancing queen, taking center stage.  I planned this strategy for days.  He was in my line of sight.  I had calculated the moves for the instant kill.  I was going to be ruthless, and he was going to be a helpless pawn.  But instead, I stood still.  The next thing I knew, he was right in front of me.  And I was trapped.  He looked at me with a blank expression on his face.  He didn't do anything, but that was my defeat.

The rules :

1.) Put the logo in your blog
2. ) Write five things you are passionate about apart from blogging
3. ) Tag 5 people on your lists and let them know you tagged them.

Right.  I don't really know if I'm passionate about blogging.  I mean, look at that logo. Passionate Blogger in curvy letters.  I had this idea that blogging sounded too much like fangirling.  But well, I do have a blog, yes.  In my vain attempts to keep it breathing, I realized it is what it is.  A way for people to know what I'm on about.  And those people care.  I'm good.

So after the long disclaimer, I shall move on to my passions:

. . .

Okay so I knew it wasn't that easy.  I need time to think about it okay? Like um.. I was supposed to buy myself this big planner as a symbol of my embracing of the adult world, that I accept my responsibility to take care of myself, and know where my last cent went.  I had written a few paragraphs that would soon be part of my book: "The Moving-On-To-Adulthood Chronicles" which I decided would be a story five years in the making, excluding the writing and editing and publishing parts, therefore accepting that I would officially reach adulthood in 5 years. 

And as usual, when I drink with my sister, we argue over big stuff like politics, agrarian reform, the future.  Just last week we had our usual bout, and she always, always made me cry.  Even at our twenties, she'd still make me cry.  This time we were talking about idealism, and ambitions, and dreams.  And I told her I was a coward for never having the guts to pursue my career as a performer/vocalist/whatever.  She said I was all screwed up.  If I didn't have the guts to go after it, then it wasn't a dream.  I think she misunderstood me.  She thought I didn't have the guts to go up on stage.  A band came up on stage when suddenly: 

Jango: You have no guts? Go up there and sing, prove to me that you really want it.

BB: You really think I can't go up there?

Jango: I'll ask them to make you sing, if you say it's your dream.

BB: I dare you.

She starts waving to the band and pointing at me, shouting my name.  In all that noise, the vocalist actually understood what my sister wanted, and called my name and asked me to sing.Well, with three bottles of beer I was pretty drunk.  I ended up explaining to the crowd that I was indeed drunk.

The thing is, I knew I had the guts to do it.  And I think I pulled it off, in that condition.  What I meant by being a coward was actually not choosing it to be my number one dream, not even trying to assert myself and get known, not trying to be discovered.  I didn't have the guts to follow it, stick to it, and trust it as if my life depended on it.  I kept it in the dark, suppressed, hoping that one day it would precede me in death.  That at some point at 57, while I'm filthy rich, I could honestly and peacefully say "It was never meant to be."

So I ended up writing none of the 5 passions I'm supposed to write.  It's hard, and I thought it's something I could have answered at 15.  Right now I can only afford to focus on one thing: The Culinary Arts.  And yes, I'd be running after it, desperately grab on, as if my life depended on it. 

From Aking.  I know you'll have it all someday. 

I tag: Rac, Leni, Bonnie, the storyteller, and David.  I'd like to hear what you are passionate about in life.  Seriously.  I know it's better to discuss it over some Belgian waffles and fraps, but we're kinda left with no choice.  Consider this a bonding moment, a mushy thing to do, once in a while.

Every so often probably after one busy week, like a week doing kitchen duty, or one big achievement, like college, I get into the days of instant noodles.  Back when I was in college, it didn't scare me.  I had excuses.  A tight budget, break from school, no homeworks, the heat.  At post-college, even post-break-up was not an excuse.  You might be tired hearing the same things.  Is she complaining about her break-up again?  On the contrary.  I got up to write today, to come clean.

What scared me about the Instant Noodles was that perhaps, after I had achieved some 10 lbs of weight loss and got used to it, my system had achieved "Normality" and got me back on the Instant Noodles diet.  Maybe my normality was the Instant Noodles, and the other stuff happening in my life were the phases.  Perhaps my parents were the root of all this guilt-tripping.  Even when I was ten pounds lighter, they were still not satisfied.  Then again, it wasn't them.  After spending days in bed, I realized it was simply because, I had no one to go out with.  I needed a diversion.

I had always wanted to join a sports club.  Primarily for health reasons, and also, to get a bigger circle.  To begin with, living a new life in this city, I had no circle at all.  Sure I had a cool monitor, a kick-ass PC, but I didn't play online games to at least have an online social life.  My circle involved only myself.  Me and my instant noodles. 

Me, and my instant noodles, and my sudden cravings for Piknik and cake. 

I decided this had to stop.  And I thought that one way of stopping it was to really accept reality, even in cyberspace.  It got me thinking how funny it was that cyberspace scared me, when I used to consider my life as an open book.  If I was to stop my craving for cake, I should be able to say that I had probably fallen in love.  A friend once told me that I should just accept that if I wanted a relationship so bad, I should be in one.  Was I so scared of being called a skank by getting in a relationship when I was not over my previous one?  Not over?  Really?

Being in the Instant Noodles phase probably signalled that I was getting too comfortable.  With what, I wonder.  The normality that I had achieved was probably being the damsel in distress.  I was back to having a messy room and my instant noodles.  Although my ambitions had changed, deep inside, I was still going to yearn for instant noodles, Piknik, and the occasional cake.  As much as I wanted to pull off being independent and grown-up, maybe I still wanted someone to rescue me.