My mother-in-law is still recovering from her hip and wrist injury at home. She completed her physical therapy exercises for her legs and her wrist therapy exercises will soon follow. We figured as we celebrate Che's birthday there, we could cheer her up a bit.
Another reason we planned on going out was because of the Pacquiao-Margarito fight. It's so refreshing to drive around during Pacquiao's fights.
There's no heavy traffic as most folks are at home watching or waiting for the fight. There's zero crime-rate as criminals are also Manny's fans.
Slimming Down and Losing Weight
The first comment I got as I step in my mother-in-law's house was that I slimmed down and lost weight. Even my sister-in-law and brother-in-law said that I looked much better and more fit now than before.
I was wearing the new green muscle-fit, muscle-hugger T-shirt that the girls gave me for my birthday this year, so that added to the illusion.
I have to admit that I started to look and feel better in the past few weeks. The exercises I do at home in my new physical fitness routine have shown positive results.
My mother-in-law added that my neck now looks more prominent. I suppose what she meant was that some layers of fat around my face, neck and chest areas receded and my neck shows up more.
Oatmeal and Oat Bran Diet
When asked if I was on a special diet, I just said no. That's because I didn't feel like I was on a diet that had caloric restrictions. Nopes, I don't count calories or food ingredient grams or stuff like that in my diet.
The only difference in my diet now is the addition of oatmeal and oatbran in more portions than rice. They're both carbohydrates, yes, but oatmeal and oatbran, especially, are higher in fiber and therefore healthier. The rest in my diet is mostly paleo in nature.
It's really the exercises that I do, I told them, which helped me slim down. And I don't say I lost a lot of weight, because I don't think it's that much. It's losing fat and gaining muscle.
This is because a more muscular body allows it to metabolize fat more. I don't attribute the more prominent neck with the trapezius exercises that I do, but it certainly feels that way.
The Pacquiao-Margarito Boxing Bout
For the second time, a Pacquiao boxing match was scheduled on Che's birthday.
The last coinciding boxing match was in Che's birthday last year in the Pacquiao-Cotto fight.
As I had expected, Pacquiao won the fight. It's amazing how he beat a much taller stronger fighter. At the end of the boxing match, Margarito was clearly outclassed.
I didn't expect the match to finish in 12 rounds, but it did. I also didn't expect us to be actually watching AND finishing the match, but we did. We were all amused how DH would do a short single clap while watching the fight.
As for me, I was mostly loud and giving some short commentaries - like "telling" Pacquiao to quickly get out of the boxing ring corner when Margarito had him trapped there.
Many years ago, I was a huge boxing fan and even dabbled into boxing as a hobby for cardio fitness and conditioning. In recent years, I didn't mind missing Pacquiao's championship matches, prefering the traffic-less drives.
But after installing the antenna for better TV reception, I did plan on watching this particular fight, but at a later time. I didn't expect to watch it at my mother-in-law's but we did.
Celebration at Home
On the way back from Makati, we passed by Festival mall to buy a Red Ribbon Rocky Road cake for Che. At dinner, we had some leftovers from the Makati lunch and so we no longer had rice.
We had Special White Puto, Chooks-to-Go chicken and bland-looking Pancit Canton.
The Rocky Road cake from Red Ribbon tasted really good. I normally just take half of the 1/16 piece of a cake as dessert. Maybe I was just too tired from driving that I felt a sugar urge, so I just took the whole slice.
My message was it's okay to indulge a bit (the 1/16 slice was indulgence enough for me) if it's "once in a while". An occasional piece of cake won't harm a regular fit and healthy diet.
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