Worth the wait. :)

Hahaha... I can't help it but to share this exciting feeling of simply eating ribs. You can see how happy I am right?? Well, the baby back ribs is just a bonus of God's overflowing blessings, tangible and intangible. I really thank God for giving me an opportunity to write about His amazing love. I hope that He will continue to touch everyone just like what He's doing to me. Knowing that there are few people who reads and are blessed, and moved with my posts, I don't claim anything for that, for all of Him (yes all!) deserves all this glory. Can't wait to write for more. 'Till my next post. :)

Taken by the sweetest, smartest sister anyone could have; at Burgoo using my trusted phone. :)

All I can say is thank You..

For what transpired 365 days ago...

...I’d like to say thank You.

Clueless? Hehe.. As much as I want to give you an idea, I still care about the person involved, so divulging everything would be a strict no-no. But if you wanted to know how I was exactly 365 days ago, you might want to click here.

To describe it in two words... Messed up.

But this post is all about giving thanks. Yes. Thank You. I can’t imagine myself saying these words, nor will I say them as genuine and as heartfelt like now.

I now came to this point where I remember my sister saying these words to me, a few months ago. “Ate, pag dumating ka na sa point na you’ve moved on... Ang sarap ng feeling.”

So this is the kind of “feeling” she’s talking about. Now I get it. If I hadn’t, then this post would just be simple trash. So there. Hooray! Ilabas ang confetti! Hahaha! J

This is no make-believe. I’m just very grateful how God orchestrated everything. I know this is His plan. When I was out there compromising, taking matters in my own hands, He intervened. For me to be stripped away from something I thought I needed but eventually realized I don’t; something I wanted but later on, found out otherwise. He apparently saved me. Just like what He always does. Maybe others think it’s a coincidence, well I think NOT. He saved me, and helped me understand, and helped me go through.

This is why I can say He is REAL in my life. I know that it is not by my might, or willingness that got me where I am now. He provided a way out of my misery. Even if some changes happened in me from that certain experience, I'm still thankful. I have never been this happier and excited for true love.

This is the main reason that I can’t seem to contain any anger, or even beg for the unrequited love. I know for what happened, for things that I had difficulty accepting, I am very and sincerely grateful.

God reminded me this verse. This verse is so familiar that it sometimes loses its pith. But God is faithful to reveal His word in different situations.

Psalms 37:4 “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

First is to delight in His will, then comes the desires. Non-interchangeable.

So what I do now is wait. It’s not an easy thing to do. But God provides the strength. The thought that He wants the best for me and how His love for me is exaggerated, by dying on the cross for me, makes me cry. I know in His time, that man will come. All I have to do is to wait, trust, hope and more importantly, delight in Him.

P.S. I’m looking forward for a celebratory day tomorrow. Can anyone suggest where can I find delicious and affordable baby back ribs? Hihihi! J God bless everyone.

(c) google.com

Random thoughts on losing weight

Warning:

I am not a nutritionist or a food dietician and doesn’t recommend you to try any of these as long as your health requires special attention other than the tips and procedures to be mentioned. These are tips and realizations which I consider helpful and effective in me. Neither I have a super-model figure like the latest Transformers 3 leading lady, but still, I will not withhold this knowledge that I gained as I go along the process of losing weight.

+++

I have a lot of friends and co-workers who noticed the sudden change of my weight and since I have been asked how I did it, I decided to compile some of the things I learned/realized on this course.

For starters, I have to say that for the past years, ever since I graduated from college, my life has been ultimately sedentary and I am a consummate eater. My family and friends can attest how much I love food. That’s the reason why I gained 14 pounds over those years. I was weighing 53kg and before I knew it, I was already weighing 60kg. Though my body has always been in the slim category because even toddler days, I was never a chubby kid; yet, as I have noticed, as I age, I’ve been accumulating pounds that made me almost reach the overweight class. Intermittently, I have noticed clothes starting to shrink, I can see side bulges and enlarged tummy that I didn’t have before. I easily pant when long stairs and minor physical training challenge me.

Sometimes I resolve to do temporary preventive measures to avoid gaining more. I join aero-dance, badminton, swimming BUT inconsistently. I would eat right for a while and then I’ll go back to my usual routine. I would make up excuses for me not to change. Even if the scare of diabetes and other ailments acquired due to obesity are known to me, I am unmoved nonetheless. My lifestyle remained the same.

Until one day I got sick. I was suffering from LBM that I had to eat only Skyflakes and stirred Coca-Cola for one day. Oh boy spell torture! hahaha! I got fever and I was really weak that time. I vomit and moved bowels more frequent than usual. When I got better, I decided to weigh myself and found out I LOST 2 POUNDS JUST FROM BEING SICK. My officemate even noticed it that in just one day of absence from work, my body was a bit smaller and my office uniform became a little loose.

That’s the start, I said to myself. Even though it’s just 2 pounds, I would do everything not to regain them anymore. However, I wouldn’t recommend that for you to initially lose weight, you must drastically get sick nor gave you an impression that you have to be sick in order to start changing your lifestyle. Being sick is not a funny and a happy experience. The thought of going back to Skyflakes and Coca-cola again is just downright scary hahaha. It’s painful and frustrating to see everyone enjoying delicious food while you’re stuck with biscuits and whisked soda. It’s just that for me, an opportunity came during my "sick days" and from there I made a commitment that I would definitely get my act together and figure out how I would lose some more.

This brings me now to things that might help; thus, I wanted to share...

DECIDE. Everything comes to a decision. Decision, that is not tainted by emotions but the absolute desire that the routine has to stop. Once you've made a decision, it would only be natural for you to commit to it. This is also the time that you have to set goals. Decide how much weight you want to lose. Set goals. Specific, measurable, attainable, real, and time bound goals.

STAY WITH THE OBJECTIVE. Define the purpose of the action and you'll be surprised how it will affect your journey on losing weight. Eliminate the mindset that you have to be thin so you can be beautiful. I've always been a believer that a person is beautiful any weight she/he is. That's non-questionable. The person is not ugly, he/she is just unhealthy and it's imperative for us to realize it. For some this maybe for self-esteem issues, to feel good which isn't totally wrong, but if we objectify with wrong motives, we might end up getting frustrated, hence making our actions/methods futile.

KNOW THE BASICS. This blog will not endorse any pill, tea, clinic that will help you reach your goal. Personally, I appreciated the natural way of losing weight for I know the effects and results will be long-term. It might sound cliche but it's true that eating right, exercising, loading up water and getting enough sleep are the basic ways in losing weight effectively and safely. To be honest, I find the first two really really hard to do. As in CHORE!!! hahaha!

EDUCATE YOURSELF. As soon as I started to get serious on shedding off pounds, I decided to study and learn different ways on effective weight loss. Being a netizen for more than 8 hours a day really helped on educating myself. Just like what David Bonifacio said, internet can be a powerful tool in stocking up knowledge on diet and different exercises. Maximize it. Also, read fitness magazines and books. Invest in them. Talk to people who have the same passion and who could empower and will not confuse your goals. All the more you would be dedicated and inspired.

PUT EVERYTHING IN BALANCE. True enough, losing weight is difficult. It sometimes gets boring and annoying that is why commitment really has to make a big part. The technique I can give you is to put everything into balance. Remember the saying "No work and no play is no fun?" something like that hehehe.. Well, it's true. Whenever I have a week-long diet, I decided to make Sunday my "cheat day." A day when I can eat my favorite blueberry cheesecake, have an iced tea, no exercise and simply bum around. hehehe. As long as you're still doing it on moderation, cheat day isn't wrong. This is the time you let yourself enjoy the platter, but don't eat everything in the buffet table. Don't refrain yourself from enjoying great food. The worst thing on depriving yourself is that you will tend to eat more than you've actually wanted.

So there guys, I do hope that I have helped you somehow with these tips I shared. Again, all from a non-expert viewpoint; this is just me... (All glory to God) now eleven pounds lighter, trying to impart information.

God bless. :)

Have Your Way...

I got this song from Yeng Constantino's site. I'm moved by the lyrics.



Have Your Way by Britt Nicole

Why can’t you just intervene,
Do you see the tears are falling?
And I’m falling apart at the seams,
But you never said the road would be easy,
But you said that you would never leave.
And you never promised that
this life wasn’t hard,

But you promised you’d take care of me,

So I’ll stop searching for the answers,
I’ll stop praying for an escape,
I’ll trust you God with where I am,
And believe you will have your way,
Just have your way,
Just have your way,

My friends and my family have left me
I feel so ashamed and so cold,
Remind you take broken
things and turn them into beautiful

So I’ll stop searching for the answers,
I’ll stop praying for an escape,
I’ll trust you God with where I am,
And believe you will have your way,
Just have your way,
Just have your way,
Even if my dreams have died,
Even if I don’t survive,
I’ll still worship you with all my life,
My life

And I’ll stop searching for the answers,
I’ll stop praying for an escape,
And I’ll trust you God with where I am,
And believe you will have your way,
Just have your way,
Just have your way, yeah

I know you will,
don’t forget,
You love me,
Have your way, Yeah

Thank You God for letting me encounter this song. You are amazing indeed.

Oh yes I'm rich.

Okay, please don’t get me wrong with the title. This post is not to broadcast or brag my status in life, or my bank account savings. This blog entry would be something I aspire telling to people and I do hope by this blog, every idea that first popped on your head about my blog title will be cleared.

So let me take you back, maybe 8 hours before I got the urge to write this. I was about to write a blog nowhere near this topic, but it turned out that this post is quite necessary. I suppose my “drafts” can wait due to the pre-emption of this blog.

This is initially derived from one conversations I had with my friend over YM.

Friend: Di ka pa ba napapagod magtrabaho?

Me: Napapagod na ren. Hehehe. Pero di pwedeng di ako pumasok. Lagot. :)

Friend: Hehe, buti ikaw hindi mo naman kelangan magwork. Mayaman ka na eh.

Me: (smiling and laughing after I sent a lot of laughing emoticons) Yes I’m rich.

Friend: Wow...

Ang yabang lang ng dating no? Hahaha! But just to assure you, our conversation ended amicably. I just want to specifically indicate what triggered the urge to that response.

Lately, I’ve been dubbed by officemates, some close friends, as “anak-mayaman”, "sushala" (urban lingo for sosyal or sophisticated) “silent-millionaire” and the like. There were banters that I took as purely joke and harmless like, “Kumakain ka pa ba sa foodcourt?”, or “kumakain pa ba kayo sa mga ganitong lugar?”; places pertaining to karinderya, fishball stands, street food, etc. Honestly, I really don't know what made them think that, maybe because I'm starting to take a bath everyday, use a comb, and brush my teeth. Hehe. :P

Yet apparently, I gave people a wrong notion that I do not have to work for money and that I’m lying in bed full of blue-shaded peso-currency containing 3 national heroes on its face value. I feel that I’m giving impressions that my status in life is class this or class that. that I easily get what I want without even breaking a sweat. Whenever I hear something like that, I just smile and chuckle. I really didn’t mind. But as it frequents, I thought maybe it’s time to straighten up things and answer them in blatant truth.

So once and for all, Yes. I am rich. I am anak-mayaman and I was a silent-millionaire.

Hep hep hep... That's not the kind of "rich kid" I'm talking about.

I am rich not because of my savings in my bank account, or because of the kind of house that I reside in, but because God gave the strength for my parents to provide an average shelter, a sufficient clothing and food that sustains us three times a day. I am rich because God blessed me with parents who are not just loving parents, but God-fearing people who simply put their trust in the Lord when it comes to their finances. I am rich because God blessed me with mentors that I came to know through books, blogs, podcasts and smart conversations; who taught me how to manage my salary better. I am rich because through God, me and my family are physically healthy. I am rich because I know a lot of people cared and loved me for ME. I am rich because I have a few yet real friends in my life. And last but not the least, I am rich because I have a Father in heaven whom I know will supply all my needs according to His riches and glory; a sovereign God who can provide not just on money matters but in every aspect of my life where I lack; it’s because my Father in Heaven, my source, is unlimited, and knows no bounds when it comes to my needs.

I don’t know how others would define the word “rich”, but as for me, this is how I know my treasure. I hope with this short post, I am able to uplift any downtrodden spirit and negative mindset that they are born poor, hence they will die poor. That money is hard to come by, or that they’re only destined to work and work and work for money lest everything earned won't be enough. I wanted to break mindsets that are consumed with wrong perceptions about getting “rich.”

So my friend's last message at YM really had me overjoyed. She said, "You made me smile, sana lahat ng nakakausap ko araw-araw ganyan." I never knew that the sudden change of response would actually help inspire others about what God is doing in our lives. It is not restricted to financial provision only, but because of His love and grace, we feel overflowing. God is really good.

With all that being said, I’m a silent-millionaire no more. :)

2 Corinthians 6:18 "and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty."

P.S. If you want to learn more about biblical finance, kindly visit Pastor Chinkee Tan's site and Podcast of Pastor Dennis Sy about Overflow-Provider. God bless.

Love is indeed sweeter when the right guy comes..

I admire Sophia Bush. She's just an inspiring lady. I can still remember back then how her divorce with Chad Michael Murray became the hype, yet I never heard any negative comments from Sophia about her ex-husband and even to the girl Chad is engaged with. As a matter of fact I can still remember reading one of magazine's article, wherein her story was the main feature and she said "I still care about Chad. I will never bash him."

Now I can say from a minute of googling her pictures with her latest beau, it seems that she's genuinely happy, a better person than before, and found the man that seemed treating her right and taking good care of her. Well Austin Nichols seemed like a great guy. (feeling close? haha!) I'm just really happy for her that she found love, never gave up and bounced back. Makes me excited to experience falling inlove the second time around. :)

Cute couple shirt. hihihi! this is subtle yet sweet "cheesyness". haha!

I love this picture. Yet I still don't know if this is just a photo of one of their shoots at One Tree Hill. Kakilig pa ren eh. hehe! :)

I'm just happy seeing women who underwent a big heartbreak, yet managed to still be hopeful and trusting. I for one believed that good things come to those who patiently wait. Not just simply waiting, but waiting in the Lord is a must for me. Waiting that will renew my strength and will not make me despair. :)

Take it from Rowley...

I watched the Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2 Rodrick Rules. I love both films, I picked bits and pieces of good moral lesson on every character played. However, one character just keeps shining. My sister and I just love this huggable human being in the name of Rowley Jefferson. If there is one advice I could give to students who will be entering their first or another school year, this would be it. Zooeymama! :)

"My mom said JUST BE YOURSELF and EVERYBODY will LOVE YOU!!!" - Rowley J.