29 Days

Almost a month now since I stopped eating meat. The sight of it virtually turns my stomach, so no, I don't really miss it at all. I have been eating shrimp along with my vegetables, a bit of kani in sandwiches, and squid only once. Have yet to really eat fish coz I'm still reminded of that eel they hooked to the wall and skinned semi-alive and still twitching in that darned Julia Roberts movie. I'm in love with fruits; especially bananas, mangoes and strawberries. I drink a glass of fresh orange juice at least thrice a week for breakfast. And oatmeal and tofu are my best friends.

I am plagued by my conscience for eating so many darned chicken/pork/beef dishes in my 27 years of existence. And I'm sincerely hoping that a month from now I still feel like this.

Consequently, I also stumbled upon this study hailing the health benefits of being a pescetarian as opposed to other diets. Here's the abstract:

We combined data from 5 prospective studies to compare the death rates from common diseases of vegetarians with those of nonvegetarians with similar lifestyles. A summary of these results was reported previously; we report here more details of the findings. Data for 76172 men and women were available. Vegetarians were those who did not eat any meat or fish (n = 27808). Death rate ratios at ages 16–89 y were calculated by Poisson regression and all results were adjusted for age, sex, and smoking status. A random-effects model was used to calculate pooled estimates of effect for all studies combined. There were 8330 deaths after a mean of 10.6 y of follow-up. Mortality from ischemic heart disease was 24% lower in vegetarians than in nonvegetarians (death rate ratio: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.62, 0.94; P < 0.01). The lower mortality from ischemic heart disease among vegetarians was greater at younger ages and was restricted to those who had followed their current diet for >5 y. Further categorization of diets showed that, in comparison with regular meat eaters, mortality from ischemic heart disease was 20% lower in occasional meat eaters, 34% lower in people who ate fish but not meat, 34% lower in lactoovovegetarians, and 26% lower in vegans. There were no significant differences between vegetarians and nonvegetarians in mortality from cerebrovascular disease, stomach cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, or all other causes combined.

Thirty-four percent is a huge difference from 26% isn't it? Just as well, since I cannot go entirely vegan what with my love of sweets, breads and pastries (meaning they contain eggs and dairy). With members from both sides of my family having had heart problems, I think this dietary choice would really be beneficial for me after all, don't you think?

Dreaming

Just wondering... if you dream about someone you haven't seen (nor even had any contact with) in MONTHS for five consecutive nights, what does that mean? Does it mean that you miss that person? Even though you could count the times you actually talked to each other by one hand? I'm kinda getting weirded out here...

Just tinkering

Like I said, Genrou and Hiei were recently serviced and reformatted so now I'm installing some fun stuff. Got this firefox add-on called StumbleUpon and I'd been stuck sitting in front of Genrou since. Here are some of the more interesting sites I well, stumbled upon:

Color & I - an online personality quiz

Fontso - a free fonts download site

Classic Cat - a directory with links to over 4800 free to download classical performances on the internet, sorted by composer and work





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Now playing: Fahrenheit - Only Have Feelings For You

Napagastos ng wala sa oras

Coz I had to get my computers serviced yet again; Genrou (my desktop) needed a new power source and cmos battery and Hiei (my laptop) had that nasty virus removed. Didn't cost too much since instead of going to the shop I had Kuya Noel's friend service the computers here at home; so he got his service fee, free lunch and mirienda... hope it was worth his time. He's okay. Except that he smokes so now my room reeks of it.

I recently signed up at writers.ph as a freelance writer. Hope I get accepted. Will blog about it if I do.

Didn't go to my review class again today. *Sigh* I really should add more hours of review per day since I don't have that much time till I have to take the exam.

Today I ate oatmeal and banana for breakfast, tofu cheese kani and nori sandwich for lunch, a serving of mixed vegetables for dinner, a glass of banana milk shake for snack, and just around 5 glasses of water. Have to up my water intake. And need to exercise!

Seems I'm becoming a pescetarian

Since B-kun died I've been squeamish seeing/smelling and have therefore totally avoided eating any animal food that has red blood and vertebrae. The very sight of people eating anything still attached to bones is nauseating; so I haven't eaten any red meats, poultry and fish ever since. Eating eggs is up for debate though because I avoid eating it when it's obviously a dish with egg but I don't mind it when it's incorporated in bread or other pastries. Dairy's not a problem because they don't have to kill the animal just to get milk, so I'm okay with butter and cheese. Shrimps and squids are okay as long as I don't see their heads and eyes. Same as with crabs. And I'm okay with mussels and clams. Vegetables and fruits, of course, are totally fine. So yeah, I guess I am a pescetarian. It's only been 24 days so far though, but I wanna keep up with it. Let's see if I can keep this up for the entire Lenten season at least.

Mom's getting worried about me not eating anything. It's kinda hard for her to shop for what to cook on a daily basis because the rest of the other people in the two households (ours and Tito Toto's coz they eat lunch and dinner at our place) love to eat meat. We are Kapampangan after all. I insist on having no red meat and innards anywhere near the vegetable dishes she serves and everyone else complains that the dish tastes bland. But I won't go near anything seasoned with red meat or anything that's been cooked with it.

I've gone back to eating a bit of rice. Around 1/4 cup's worth for each meal. Hate the feeling afterwards though coz it's like having a brick inside my stomach. It's just heavy.

Yet despite this kind of diet I haven't lost a single fricking pound. I'm not really doing it to lose weight although I thought that this would be an advantage, but no, it hasn't happened yet. Maybe part of it is coz I stopped taking those contraceptive pills my OB-GYN gave me. My monthly menses haven't come since I stopped them (no, I'm not pregnant). And I'm kinda expecting it but it still sucks that my forehead is breaking out with small pimples every now and then (they don't last long and are usually gone overnight) since I stopped taking the pills. Guess I need to continue drinking those pills again. I'll start them Wednesday next week so I won't get confused. And I guess I have to start some sort of exercise program. Hmmm... wonder if the Fitness First here can help me with strength-training? Must ask when I go there this weekend.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Hallmark made holiday or not, hope your hearts swell with the joy of love today and the rest of the year! ^_____^

Waaaaaaiii! Kawaii!!!

Waahhahahaha!!! Don't you just wanna pinch their cheeks? They were sooooo cute as kids!

Got this pic of Peter and Paul from Camille's friendster photo gallery. Couldn't resist grabbing it and posting it here in my blog coz the twins were just too cute for words when they were little. I'll try to find that pic of the three of us playing under the coffee table. I know it's somewhere in this house.

*sigh* I miss those two