March 18-20, 2011 is the 33rd to 35th day of Biggest Loser Challenge 2, Friday to Saturday.
“A Rewarding Weekend”
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| Karl n Me |
March 18, 2011, Friday.
My first son’s Pre-school Graduation Day.
I took again a leave at the office to celebrate my Karl’s Pre-School Graduation Day. He received an academic Excellence for their Level and as a mom, I am very proud of my son. I’ll be posting a separate blog for this occasion.
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| Friday Lunch |
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Senior Pedro Lechon Manok
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As per Karl’s requests, we ordered Palabok, Goldilucks Puto and Lechon Manok to celebrate this day. Before we went home from the graduation venue, we bought his gift, party poppers and balloons for the celebration at home. Together with his lola, lolo, our angels and the Kids, we ate and enjoyed lunch.
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| Pansit ng Taga Malabon Palabok |
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| Goldilucks Puto |
Lunch:1 plate of pansit palabok (Palabok, is obviously my fave!)
1 pc of lechon Manok
1 pc of Puto
Then in the afternoon, again, I ate palabok before hubby and I went to Fairview. We are scheduled for School hopping for Karl’s new school.
PM Snack:
2 platito servings of Pansit Palabok
While walking around our area, we came a cross a new bakery store name “Heavenly Baked”, so I went in and tried their corn muffin and a egg pie. Then hubby stopped on a sari-sari store and shared with me a refreshing Mountain Dew. I limited myself to up to 2 sips, before I forget that I’m on a diet. This is one activity hubby and I agreed to do, if we have an opportunity, we’ll try something new and we grade it. For the corn cup cake – 4, for the egg pie – 5. The mountain Dew – 10 – very refreshing!
PM Snack 2:
½ corn cup cake
½ egg pie
2 sip of Mountain dew
We were home before dinner. We had inihaw na tilapia and Singang na spare ribs, as again, requested by Karl. To prepare for my 5K run tomorrow, I ate a decent dinner to prepare my nourishment for tomorrow.
Dinner:
1 cup sinigang na spare ribbs
½ grilled tilapia with ½ cup pipino and vinegar.
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| Finisher's Certificate |
March 19, 2011, Saturday.
“Achieving my first ever 5K run.”
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| "COUPLE POWER" |
I woke up at 3:30 am and prepared for my first serious run today. I ate 1 slice of wheat bread with peanut butter filling and I glass of water before I left the house with hubby.
We arrived at The Fort by exactly 5am.
MEFP (Marriage Encounter Foundation of the Philippines) held its first ever fun run for the ME community. It is open for all members of the family. A 1K run for 12 years old and below, a 2.5K and 5K run for the adults. My hubby and I joined the 5K run, which is twice the 2.5K loop.
At first, I was hesitant if I can finish the 5K, but I challenged myself and still go for it.
The 5K gun shot started at exactly 7:30am. On the starting lane, I was on the 2nd line. But when the race started, most of them run past me. But I was not pressured, I plan to conquer my 5k low and slow…
It is good that I started slow. I motivate and talked to myself while I was running. I tried to observe other runners and enjoy the view around The Fort area and have fun as well. When I got the red and green band, indicating I had 2 loops, I was tempted to rest, but I got hold of myself and continued to run. I run past some old buddies who did a walk/run routine, while I did my steady pace.
By my last 250 meters, I felt a little difficulty in breathing, so I brisk-walked for 2 minutes and tried to gauge if I’m still ok. Luckily, I came across the last water station and gobbled up on a glass of Pocari Sweat (Event Sponsor!) and when I am on the last curve of my last loop, I was feeling ok. So I continued my run up to the finish line.
After 41 minutes and 32 seconds, I was able to finish my first ever 5K. Hurraahhh!
I have to thank this challenge for making me love running. If not for this challenge, I would not be able train for this run. 5 years ago, I was already running, but being married and having two kids and gaining my mommy weight, lessen my desire to run. Now, I realized that I still enjoyed it, and if I continue to train I would be able to join other runs such as this.
Running is a way of releasing the tension in your body. It’s a way of being fit and at the same time being sane. Hahaha.. I get to clear my mind while I jog. And be observant of the things around me. I tend to talk and push my self’s limit and motivate myself to conquer more and be better…
During this trying and stressful times, the best way to cope with problems and stress is to be physically and insanely fit. Most of the times, so many problems and stress gets the most of our sanity, thus we can’t think straight and more problem arise. Try jogging. Run your stress away. Running makes your heart pump more blood, more oxygen to your body, to your brain, thus makes you think straight and relaxed.
Ok, enough with relationship of sanity and jogging.
At around 8:30, hubby and I, headed home after the ceremonies. We took the bus ride from The Fort to Ayala MRT Station. Then from there, we bought 2 Jamaican Patties for our breakfast plus the bottle of Pocari Sweat we got from the run.
Breakfast: 1 Jamaican Patty
I realized, I was now feeling the very tired from the running activity. I felt asleep during our MRT ride and woke up at MRT North Station already. So tired, that I continued my sleep after I ate the patties, during our FX ride home. I remember a story from a 21K jogger friend, that he can sleep the whole day after his run. I figured, what I’m experiencing is normal.
My brother, who was visiting from Laguna, cooked a special sweet and sour tilapia for our lunch. While my mother cooked ginataang suso’. The tilapia and the suso’ where from our province, Isabela. I planned to sleep before lunch time, but the smell of the food, made me awake the whole time. Never got to take pictures though. I also ate the left over from breakfast, buro with matching nilagang talbos ng kamote and fried talong, also from Isabela. I get to eat authentic Ilocano foods only when someone brought one from the province. Thanks to my mother!
Lunch:
½ cup rice
½ cup ginataang suso’
½ pc of Tilapia with S&S Sauce
4 pcs fried talong,
1 plate of nilagang talbos ng kamote
½ cup burong isda
Dinner:
1 plate of S&S sauce with carrots and bell pepper and pineapple bits.
The sweet and sour sauce lasted through dinner, so guess what my dinner was..hahaha… the left over S&S sauce, No rice! I ate it all up, when my hubby asked for it, there was nothing left for him… So he just ate up a whole water melon for dinner.
After dinner, I wanted to stay up and wait for the “Supermoon”, but my body was so tired and my legs ached already. So by 9pm, I was counting snooze already…
March 21, 2011, Sunday.
“Passing it Forward – My first charity work, ever.”
When I received an invitation from one of my girl friends that they are feeding cancer-stricken Kids at ChildHaus, a temporary shelter for poor sick kids, I never hesitated to join.
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| my boys posed with the donated toys |
I thought, this is a good way of giving back for the blessing that I received for my 32 years of existence. And with help from friends, I gathered old toys and biscuits to give away for the kids. Thanks to Ate Glen and Miss Amee for the toys!!!
At around 11am, we arrived at the old QI compound in E.Rodriguez. The place was already deserted because the place, according to my friends, is being developed into a high-rise residential building. And at the back area, was a small building where Child Haus is situated and inside the building, the kids and parents are waiting for the program to start.
The program started with a song interpretation of some of the ChildHaus Kids of the song “I see you Lord”. I requested my friend Jen to take a video of the Kids, so that I could share it here (one of these days). I love the song! And seeing the kids singing this song, touched the very deep of me. Being an iyakin for even small things, I was teary-eyed. I tried to hide my tears by singing along with them, and observing on my other friends how they react too. Who would not be touched by these kids singing a song, so full of meaning...
As i took pictures of these kids, i am touched. I can never imagine the pain and challenges that they are going through, but i am hoping that even in this brief opportunity that we shared with them, they had forgotten the pain.
... and then came... our bestfriend, Jollibee to play with the kids, even the companions of these kids played with us. The toys were given as prizes and the what's left were given to those who were not able to join the games...
.. then we served lunch. Chicken and spaghetti for all... Plus, gifts for the kids. We took also this time to play and talk to the kids and take pictures with them..
Before we left, the kids prepared 3 song number for all of us. They thanked us for the food and gifts, but deep in my heart, i thanked them. 1. Just by being with them made me realized how blessed i am, with a healthy whole and normal body, for me and for my family. 2. They inspired me to be strong even when times are tough 3. They inspired me to seek strength in prayer 4. And they made me feel how much fulfilling it is to give and serve others.
When we left the compound, i uttered a short prayer for these kids. That they may not be shuttered by their illness,hence,make them strong. I also prayed that they may live longer and enjoy their life. I also prayed, that ChildHaus may stillcontinue their advocacy and helping these sick kids.
Being able to serve others is very fulfilling. I will definitely do this again...
After the charity work, my friends ate our late lunch at Shakey's. I gathered compliments from friends who were reading my blog and they told me i certainly lost weight. Which is good, but also, made me conscious to dive in on the Shakey's Monster Meals that we ordered...hahaha!
Late Lunch:
1/2 cup Carbonara
1 pc chx breast
2 pc thin crust pizza
3 mojos
1 glass water
No dinner for me tonight!
