The Construct

August is marked by health issues – clear signs that I have taken very little care of myself. I have gained back all the weight I’ve lost during those bouts of weight-loss regimens over the past couple of years. Thing is, I’m already in my mid-20s and that’s the age range where it’s critical to get fit.

For the past seven months, I’ve been immersing myself into the whole making money thing that I’ve entered another phase of sedentary living. I practically spend all my waking hours in front of a computer even eating breakfast, lunch and dinner in front of the monitor. Sure, the money’s good from all the projects but August served as yet another warning that earning big bucks is moot if you’re going to spend it all away on health care.

So here I am again trying to re-assess my short-term goals health-wise. My stepper machine and sit-up bench are both gathering dust particularly because I’ve grown bored with them. I used to play basketball but since I don’t live in a secluded neighborhood where I can use the community ballpark by myself anymore, that too isn’t a viable option.

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Just this month, I’ve been in and out of clinics for a couple of ailments. I have to admit that I’m not taking pretty good care of myself recently. So much pressure to work and earn. So doctors got to love me since I’ve been handing them hard-earned money to write me prescriptions and I got to hate myself for that.

I had been experiencing some weird sensations in my ear and a trip to an ENT revealed that both of my eardrums were perforated due to a prolonged bout of allergic rhinitis. I’ve been under treatment for a week now. And just last Monday, I had to visit the dentist to perform root canal therapy on me due to an inflamed and infected tooth nerve due to a botched filling job by my old dentist.

Too bad for me, one thing that I don’t have is a health care plan aside from the government mandated Philheath and that you can’t seem to rely on for emergency procedures. I do have access to cheaper and free medical services from the UP infirmary but my past experiences have made me wary of defaulting to that privilege. The thing is, quality health care never comes cheap. Indeed, I have spent quite a lot on consultation fees and medicine these past weeks.

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Who said a career based on speaking doesn’t have hazards? For speakers and lecturers, contracting anything that affects one’s ability to speak is catastrophic. Sore throat and upper respiratory infections can render you useless. It takes quite a lot to shut me up but I guess one gets to meet his match once in a while.

In my case, it’s a canker sore (singaw). I do have a tendency to talk fast which means that whenever I speak, my tongue, jaw, and lips move quickly. Unfortunately for me, my folks never invested in braces so my teeth aren’t perfectly aligned (sungki). Never thought it’d get the best of me until I accidentally bit one of the plica fimbriata.

As with most oral traumas, it resulted in a nasty singaw which I have been nursing with a regiment of Betadine mouthwash for the past four days. I thought it was healing nicely until I aggravated it eating some muesli yesterday. I woke up this morning with it hurting like a real bitch.

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Save for November of last year when I purchased a beat-up car, this month has got to be my most expensive month in cumulative expenses. Not that I’m complaining, it’s so just not me to spend close to not saving a single centavo of my earnings.

Anyway, I’ve been hankering about getting back into shape this year. I started the year out with a 1400-calorie-a-day-diet and 30 minutes of basketball everyday. That made me lose 10 lbs in 10 weeks. Since I’ve been going about it on my own with no supervision from a dietitian, I was diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia, apparently, due to my lack of meat. Ever since then, I started to up my calorie intake – the side-effect of which was that I started to balloon again.

That worried me since I’m trying to be really conscious about my health nowadays. Having feasted on pure fat and cholesterol (those sisig feasts at Mang Jimmy‘s back in college and the greasy Teriyaki Boy food I get to chow down every week) could surely have clogged some of my arteries). Not to mention a gut that sticks out.

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Aside from my raves on 300, I could otherwise summarize it to one compound word – beefcake. Those sea of ripped muscles and eight-packs surely is a sight to behold. I bet eight packs are the primary considerations for the movie. I am overweight as of now. And I honestly felt really bad about my out-of-shape self watching the movie.

While there are get-the-fat-out-quick methods, (visit a place like this San Jose liposuction clinic) I’m no fan of surgery done to myself. So I’d rather stick to good old diet and exercise. I did it back in college and I’m willing myself to do it now.

So far, my exercise regimen consists of running laps around our village’s basketball court, some drills, and shooting a minimum of 200 jump shots. It’s enough to make me sweat like hell. Then I realized, no part of it really targets my abs (I’m lazy to get flat on my back and do crunches). And all those food trips really took a toll on my gut. Hehehe.

Come to think of it, ab exercises are the last thing that’d put more stress on my bad knee. Yeah, ab exercises starting tomorrow! Harhar.