Introducing...

Alastair Espinosa Rieke.


He is 8 years old, part Burmese and Abyssinian AKA he fancy. Alastair was the son of an English duke. He pissed off his family somehow, so they sent him to the island of criminals (Australia). He befriended an aboriginal tribe and became a proper bushman. Okay, I totally made that up. The actual story of how Alastair came into our lives is kind of long and exhausting. I cannot imagine how anyone would easily give up this handsome chap. He is kind of like a One Direction song ("sleep all day and party all night"), and when he hears dogs barking, he GROWLS.


Today is day 19 of my second round of the Whole 30. Today is also the 3rd day of the 30 Day Abs Challenge.


I have not had a flat stomach since I was in the 4th grade. The schedule looks intense, but I am actually excited and happy to do it. Who am I?!


My running has not been as frequent. I run for half an hour without an incline at a speed of 4.5. Today I cranked up the treadmill gradually until 5.0. It was too much, but I still felt good doing it. I cannot run in silence, or talk on the phone, or watch tv (like what I have observed of others). I listen to music. So here is my cardio playlist:

1. Azealia Banks - Licorice
2. Kylie Minogue - Change Your Mind
3. Kelis - 4th Of July
4. Peaches - Boys Wanna Be Her
5. Thunderheist - Jerk It
6. Azealia Banks - 212
7. Flosstradamus & Kid Sister - Luuk Out Girl
8. David Guetta - I Just Wanna F
9. Peaches - Mommy Complex
10. Disclosure - January
11. Sebastien Tellier - L'amour Et La Violence (Boyz Noize Euro Mix)

Obviously, I do not listen to the entire playlist (because it is longer than 30 minutes). One day, I will be able to. My cousins Lei and Z are avid runners. They invited me to join the 30 Runs In 30 Days group. I wanna do it for the free swag, but I am too embarrassed to post my 2.20 mile run. Next time na lang.

This blog is so 2013.

My uncle rang me up the other day and told me he was reading my blog. I was mostly embarrassed with how much time had passed between the last post and today. Not much happened since then (understatement of the decade).

I completed a Whole 30 and lost a pant size, or so. Whole What? Whole 30. Possibly the best diet, I have ever been on. For me, it was easier (and cheaper) than being a vegan and gluten-free. The stricter the diet, the easier it is for me to follow (like that time I got my gallstones and went on an extremely low-sodium and low-cholesterol diet). If I had gone to boarding school, I would not be wasting my life working in retail today. I am getting ahead of myself. What is Whole 30? It is clean eating: no sugar, no grains, no dairy, no fun. I suppose it is similar to the Paleo diet, but stricter. My Whole 30 meals consisted of sweet potatoes, apple sausage, fish, cauliflower rice, guacamole, steamed asparagus, chicken cutlets, thin steaks, spinach, apples, bananas and a ton of eggs.

Some days were definitely hard. I craved cheeseburgers, nachos, tacos, pizza, pasta, ice cream, cookies, donuts and everything else bad. Then I would look in the mirror and remember why I started this. Well, Lena is mostly to blame. She is more hardcore than me. I never read It Starts With Food because I was too busy bingeing on episodes of Shameless and Arrow (in the absence of quesadillas and grilled cheese sandwiches). There was no cheating during the 30 days. It was totally worth it because my face doesn't look as fat as it did 30 days ago, my skin has not broken out and I have a lot of energy.

After the 30 days (four days ago), I had a bite of red velvet cake - which tasted like chemicals, two bites of a chocolate chip cookie and cheese in my In-N-Out protein style double doubles. Lena and I decided to do another round of the Whole 30, which at this point, is not very difficult. I think I have come to terms with breaking up with cheese. It makes me bloated. I will miss you, brie.

We started going to the gym regularly to do cardio for 30 minutes. If you know me, you know I do not run. I always had a doctor's note excusing me from running the mile in P.E. And my parents like to make a big deal out of my asthma - which I totally grew out of. If I am out of breath, it is because I am out of shape. But I have been running. On the treadmill. For at least 25 minutes. At level 4. Last night, I ran for 20 minutes at 4.3. I could have gone longer, but the gym was closing. So, I took a selfie.


We plan on adding toning exercises during the second Whole 30 session. I feel like I am going to plateau soon with only doing cardio (like how I plateaued with dieting alone). I do not think my back can handle any lifting, so I am not interested in doing crossfit.

Why am I Whole 30-ing? Because I am sick of being fat. I am not getting any younger (although a cashier at the mini mart did not believe that I was over the age of 21). And my boo is younger than me, so I have to work harder at keeping in shape. The initial reason for doing the Whole 30 was to look less chubby at my cousin's summer wedding. But Lena made a beast out of me and I am turning this into a lifestyle change. Plus, I want to be the hottest one at the wedding.