crisn

Funny Love

It’s the time of the year again when the color red is all over. It’s Valentines week plus it’s Chinese New Year. Prices of flowers once again doubled, overpriced chocolates flood the shelves, couples here and there, and singles in despair. Love is in the air. (Did it rhyme?)

But how long does love last? How long does displaying affection in public remain appealing for lovers? How soon before all this romance start to wane off? Would this ‘heat of the moment’ gradually end when marriage starts? The fact is, the answer may be yes.

There is a saying that if love is blind, marriage is the eye opener. True? Time will come when couples snap out of their fantasies. Like it or not, marriage comes in a package, annoying individual traits and tough challenges included–kids for one. ‘And they lived happily ever after’ just so belong in fairy tales.

This doesn’t mean, however, that marriage is a trap. It may be a point of no return but not entirely likened to a deadly quicksand or I won’t even write this post and expect to survive a day more. Perseverance and understanding considered, there’s something that could make wedded life a bliss. In any case, let humor be among it.

Blessed are couples who make each other laugh often. Marriage is serious stuff but it doesn’t have to be serious all the time. Being too serious is boring and when boredom strikes, it normally spells bad options and you know what happens next. That is why laughter is key. Being able to laugh out loud loosens tensions, opens door to communication and could very well help preserve marriage. After all didn’t they say that laughter is the best medicine?

Happy Valentine’s Day wifey. I love you…and your shallow jokes.

***

As always been the case since Marcus arrived, our Valentine’s day dates already include a kid tagging along. Our date, his agenda. This weekend was meant for Black Panther.

Black Panther stood up to the hype. One proof: I was awake during the entire long film, thanks in part to the venti Americano. Behind the action scenes, this movie is trying to tell us something deeper. I cannot recall watching in the big screen something that has so much subtle messages in one story like this latest Marvel film. (But take note I’m becoming Dory.)

Unlike other superhero movies that are about fighting crimes and saving the world, Black Panther was more specific and relevant. It was about raising awareness that black minorities exist and that they are often oppressed whether they are in their own birthplace or in foreign soil. Whatever the reasons are, such oppression must come to an end especially for the sake of the young and innocent ones. I think our leaders could always do more. Sadly Vibranium is fiction and the misery of the black minorities is a fact.

Black Panther also delivers the premise that Hollywood isn’t all about good white guys all the time. I don’t know if there’s something political behind the story but Asians come next after the number of Wakandans and I think we could count the number of white guys who appeared in this film, Stan Lee included.

Then there’s the individuality aspect of the movie. There’s so much artifacts in Black Panther that address body shaming which continue to become more prevalent on social media. This superhero movie doesn’t only save the world but also seek acceptance of people with body piercings, lips with flat disc, erect nipples, and even backnes. To each his own. Now I feel like wearing sandals with my ugly toes exposed.

Our first Wing Stop visit and we love it.

***

Mood: 1/10 Honks! (This is Sunday. Sunny and sleepy.)

Blog Mileage

Update here, dump there, good posts, bad posts, anything goes. That’s what I’ve been doing regularly lately. There would be days I get stuck correcting or revising archives before I repost and there would be days I just copy and paste the article on its original timeline.

You see I’ve been busy. Running, working out, and writing have been fighting to get their own share of my time. For now I continue to focus on my goal to repost and will just worry about them later, hopefully ahead of grammar Nazis or just before Grammarly starts to force me to get its premium service. I just can’t let years worth of posts stay on my backup Word document which I saved prior to me messing up my site few years back when I wiped out several posts just because I forgot to pay attention to what I was clicking. Lesson learned: back up, back up, back up.

Today I reposted a couple more and I received a prompt from WordPress that I just hit 500 posts. Wow. And to think I’m just about to finish year 2008.

***

There are things that just can’t be part of my conscious effort to embrace minimalism. Writing is one as I now have drafts and doodling all over my phone, laptop, paper notebook, and some hang on in my head. This is one of those few cases wherein clutter is probably good.

Then there’s material stuffs. This week I gave wifey the approval to buy the TV she’s been wanting to have and been saving for. The least I could do on Valentine’s week is to give a nod. There’s now a giant Ultra HD Devant TV in the middle of our small house which made me realize 50-inch is the biggest we can get unless we hang the TV across the kitchen and view it from the living room. So far the Call of Duty and Fallout 4 games of our 9-year old son have been more gory.

***

Claimed our free Starbucks cake. Free always tastes better.

Wifey also got me a pair of new jeans while in SM San Pablo last Monday. This one is for the books as the last time I purchased a pair was almost five years ago. My existing pants are either tattered not by design but due to wear and tear and all of them, FYI, are a couple of inches loose already. I need a new belt next.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Cold Valentine’s Day weather.)

10K Result Is Out

My first 10K run result is finally available almost a week after the race. Quite, disappointing to be honest. I don’t know if this is normally how long it takes to be processed but I know Nat Geo’s timing seven years ago was out in about 24 hours. There must be a valid reason behind this delay and I would assume that maybe because this race was held simultaneously in three different places in the country?

The result made my day anyway. MyRunTime’s official race analysis shows that it was a good run for a first timer, not to mention my age.

If only there’s a podium for 163rd place.

To finish earlier than a thousand plus runners is a big surprise. I don’t care if I overtook youngsters or older participants who either joined the race to really race or just for the sponsors freebies. I don’t even care now if I forgot to get my finisher’s medal and shirt. This race result is more than enough. 163rd place is a win for me. (Gun time and chip time are better explained by this site or Runner’s World.)

So how soon would I be joining another event? Not in the next months. I am now planning to increase mileage slowly. 16K seems doable.

***

Mood: 1/10 Honks! (Short work week ahead.)

More Than Just Physical

What the mind can conceive, the body can achieve. It’s a twist to a quote by someone named Napoleon Hill (if Google is to be trusted) which everyone might have heard or read already. Such is cryptic however or sounds cliche, even irrelevant for anyone who hasn’t realized that at some point it has happened to them.

This concept became apparent when I started going to the gym. Like most noobs, I went to the gym without understanding fully what it takes to be there. I first set foot in a gym at Intel just because it’s free, cold, and equipment are mostly top of the line. I was there thinking I would lift whatever my physical strength allows me. If I cant, I won’t, I’ll just call it a day.

Few years later, I became more focused on strength training when we first learned about Marcus’ condition. It was something that we need to be prepared of, physically in one aspect. So I went back to the gym again. This time I paid some attention to my nutrition. I eat rice before each session and it was key to lifting relatively heavier weights. But other guys I see can do more.

I was back to the drawing board. Then I saw on YouTube about the mental aspect of lifting. It got me interested and excited. The last gym I had was few meters from our old home so I would time my visits when there are less patrons. I worked out noon time while Marcus is in school or after I have dropped him off. I gradually worked my way up the dumbbells and few sessions later reached the heaviest weights of the rack. True enough, I soon see myself bench pressing two 50-lb dumbbells. It gave me confidence to workout even when the gym is packed.

I haven’t gotten back to the gym for years but thanks to this free Kindle book by Dan Kavadlo, I continue to do my bodyweight workouts at home. Running too is now part of my training plan.

Time and again my body would make up alibi to stay sedentary. “It’s a weekend”, ” it’s cold outside”, “Netflix is calling”, ” bed is better”, and so many other temptations to stay put. Maybe it’s the body’s instinct to preserve itself from stress which is when it becomes more mental than physical. It pays to listen to your body but not all the time. You should know better.

Sometimes when the body says dizzy, you say 5K. That’s just what I did today. Same story as before. And guess what? In this dizzy state I broke my personal time. I’m now two minutes away from my sub 30 goal. See.

The leg says run, the mind thinks pizza!

***

Here’s a confession. I haven’t heard Sunday mass for a long time–me and Marcus. But this doesn’t mean I have become less(er) pious. In fact, it is when I workout and run that I pray more sincerely than when I’m in church. In training, I’m alone, focused, no annoying churchgoers, no distracting females who continue to play dumb by defying the church’s dress code. Oopps. Sorry Lord, my bad.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Getting gloomy, so it seems like ditching the Hot Air Balloon show was a good idea.)

Hot, Hot, Hot

Social media has all sorts of challenges. Anything under the sun, name it, it’s there. Most annoying lately is where people eat Tide pods. But I pick my battles and so far I have I tried doing a few. The last challenge I’ve been raring to take is this SamYang noodles challenge that trended few months back.

I always like watching people doing eating challenges–again, except stupid non-food feats. So when my wife asked if I could take the SamYang, I raised an eyebrow to make an arrogant statement. Definitely, I can do it.

Today, lunch was SamYang 2X. The noodles brand have ratings and what I had was half the one seen on viral videos. No sweat, I thought. One serving is 140 grams of spicy noodle that appears very similar to ordinary spicy noodles like chicken yakisoba or pancit canton only that SamYang has a more reddish color that seems to serve as a visual warning.

The first couple of bites were fine. But the spicy taste picks up in the succeeding intake, getting worse even before I reached halfway of my plate. Damn, it was hot. Wifey had a video of me eating SamYang and I’d pay her not to release it. I scrambled for two glasses of milk so I could continue until I finished everything.

Just imagine how the infamous 4X tastes. It must be super really hot but I’m up for it…maybe weeks from now as I try to neutralize the effect of a 500-calorie SamYang 2X and while I recover my dignity for crying over a spicy noodle.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (I cleaned my plate, FYI.)

Bite-Size Happiness

It’s hard to measure happiness more so identify where it comes from or what really triggers it. Everyone’s stimuli just differ from the others. Happiness could also stem from unexpected sources.

Believe it or not, mine came after a bite from a burger. Well, two bites to be exact.

According to wifey the last time we had a burger was in 8 Cuts Megamall way back in November. That burger wasn’t really expensive so price was not the reason we’ve been burger sober for that long. What deters me though from buying and eating anything that would be detrimental to my daily calorie goal was my ongoing MyFitnessPal entry. That strict. I rarely had cheat days but one happened yesterday.

Spaghetti for Marcus. I usually end up eating the meatballs.

I took Marcus out to see the world outside his Minecraft and Xbox games. He said he wants to visit his kois in Nuvali so we did it after lunch. It was a quick stroll and was on our way home before 4 PM. We brought home a Burger King Whopper Jr. for his mommy.

As I secretly ~~wished~~ anticipated, wifey shared the small burger. What I didn’t expect that such small portion would make my day. If my expertise serves me right I barely had 50g but it was like I’ve eaten a whole Whopper burger with its flavor overwhelming my taste buds. It was almost euphoria.

This doesn’t mean I’d be driving thru that Burger King again soon. MyFitnessPal shows the junior burger is 340 calories with 510mg sodium and that is something I avoid. But maybe yes I would heed wifey’s advise to have my cheat days at least once a month. I heard lately she mentioned Japanese buffet…

***

Mood:2/10 Honks! (Oatmeal for breakfast, please.)

I, Runner

“However you run, as long as you run, you are a runner.” Words of wisdom from an online article but whether the writer behind it was just meeting word count quota or an avid runner who knows what (s)he’s really talking about, I would like to believe that I deserve the title now. Even just for a day.

This morning I conquered what I’ve been preparing for. I’ve been running several 10Ks lately as tracked by my Garmin but haven’t joined any organized event to test myself how I would perform against others. So when I learned last December about Run 711 2018 I willingly let go of my precious 700 pesos to register.

A week of preparation, diet, cross-training, and mind conditioning paid off. The day prior to the race was most critical as I followed my plan based on tips I’ve read. I had carbo intake (thanks to wifey’s tuna pasta), performed light bodyweight exercises, and drank just enough coffee. I missed my weekend Fail Army viewing session with Marcus as I hit the sack earlier than usual.

I was in Alabang about an hour before the start of the race. Early morning was cold and I was a bit dizzy but the moment I heard go at 4:45 I ran along with the pack and surprisingly picked up the pace. My Vivoactive HR shows 1 hour 7 minutes when I crossed the finish line–a minute less than my fastest record on Garmin Connect. It made me feel like the race winner.

***

I am about to conclude that Run 711 is more organized than the Nat Geo Earth Day Run I attended seven years ago–yes, seven. Well, almost organized not until I realized that I was supposed to have a finisher shirt and a finisher medal. Pictures online and the race packet show that all finishers get one. All I got was a free paper fan, a Red Bull, and a Pocari Sweat. I bet the medal’s plastic anyway.

I didn’t have any picture except for this race tracker.

***

Official race time isn’t available as of this writing. Already had my Sunday nap but myruntime.com/connect still does not show my result. Nat Geo Run had its race result faster. By the way, I finished my Earth Day Run 5K after 41 minutes but I now cover 5K at an average of 32 minutes. Next goals: sub 30 5K and sub 1 10K.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Heartbreaking news and overeating.)

Bye Fat Wedding Ring

I recently read an article about someone trying to avoid taking sugar for a month and I immediately thought it isn’t a feat I would succeed at. An honest assessment. It was another challenge worth checking though. With the 711 run closing in I had my mind set to cut on more sources of sweets to lose a couple weight further this week.

So far I have resisted opening the packets of Swiss Miss that’s been staring at me every time I open my workstation drawer but that’s all about it. I have a sweet tooth and can’t imagine completely letting go of sweet treats. Me regularly digging in on the Kirkland candy jar for dessert just cannot be stopped–for now. But the fat loss seems to continue. Take note, fat loss.

My weight have been stable despite my caloric deficit diet. If the fitness articles I’ve read are correct, then there’s a good explanation for my current weight plateau. Some studies show that the intake of supplements and recovery food that follow after every workout is part of the reasons that there won’t be any movement in the weighing scale. During recovery the body absorbs fluids to help heal the stressed muscles that result to muscle growth one way or another. Makes perfect sense.

Will have the right ring size moving forward.

My current diet has one obvious effect, however. My wedding ring has loosened further. I’ve been wearing mine on my middle finger for years and even that can no longer hold it in place. If I don’t pay extra attention it’ll fall off down the washroom drain. Placing the ring on my thumb is an option but would look weird. So I’m letting go of it until I either have it adjusted or replaced. Today I will be using my wife’s ring with my name on it as she stays at home most of the time anyway. Nineteen years later, a wedding ring will be on the right finger.

***

On rare occasions our son steps out of the house at night. Tonight is one of those as we keep watch of the transition from blue to blood moon. Dear clouds, please don’t fail Marcus.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Survived mood swings. Must be the blue blood moon.)

Ten Years, 10K

WordPress says my blog turns 10 this month. Must be the domain marcuscanblog.com itself but actually I’m not so sure. Why? Two things do not add up. Firstly, my archive dates back 2006 while Marcus arrived November 2008. Either way I accept the nice achievement badge.

***

Run711.com now shows the respective routes of next week’s race. Personally, race is a strong word though in a sense may be correct if by racing it means beating nobody’s record but my own. We’ll see. Here’s the road to my first official 10K.

***

Mood: 5/10 Honks! (No run weather.)

Run the Talk

The time to run the talk is closing in. Last night I got my race kit and I’m excited seeing myself crossing the finish line. Last time I joined an official event was the NatGeo Earth Day run about ~~four~~ seven years ago and that was for a 5K distance. This year I’m in for my first 10K race.

Some bit of a challenge though as it looks like I have to cut more weight as singlet is a bit tight. The past days I was in the midst of free pizza and pasta served during a two-day planning session but I was able to resist the urge to eat. I took some bites just so I don’t appear as a snob.

Surprisingly I lost about two more pounds during this period. The absence of taking Swiss Miss and bananas must have helped plus me sneaking out to answer the call of my Garmin to move.

Race is on February 4 and start time is at 4 AM. Fingers and blackened toenails crossed.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Marcus’ first therapy this year. Last one was before Christmas.)