My Crazy Relatives: I Confess: Twelve Pounds

For those of you who didn't grow up in the islands of Micronesia or the Philippines, you might be crinkling your noses and cringing at the sight of this photo.

Manang Nina, Bohol

Because no where in these modern, sophisticated, "cultured" cities will you have your neighbor bring you the choicest catch of the day, and then proceed to butcher it on your lawn.

And I start with this photo to make a point about health and the waistline.

Waistline?! you gawk.

Watch and learn, Grasshopper...

One of the best things about Truk and Bohol/Cebu is the fresh food from the ocean. As I've mentioned before, whenever I go home I eat fish for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Except, of course, when we can't help but eat out...

Sunburst Restaurant, Cebu

Mmmmm, the kare-kare is my bain!

Max's Restaurant, Manila

The most popular place to be, akin to Costco, they have the same pizza!

S&R Wholesale, Cebu

In which case, Yours Truly doesn't eat the most desired crunchy chicken skin, she sticks to the veggies in the pot of kare-kare, and she eats only a half a slice of pizza and forego the chewy crust.

For the most part, this is breakfast, lunch, and dinner. With water.

Home cooked lunch, Cebu

It's hard at first, what, with everyone else's heaping plates, and the constant meriendas day by day, by day, by day.

Another good thing about being on vacation at home is that you don't have a schedule. No deadlines (except the airline check-in when you finally leave for reality). So you have all day to exercise, whenever you want. Yours Truly chose dawn, the coolest, quietest time of the day when the aroma of dinner on the stove is not distracting. Then again, the stench of frying buwad is like crack to an addict.

Truk

And when you gather up a posse to run a road race with you, you can't help but set the example by preparing for the event.

2012 Alphonsian Run, 15km later.

15km = 9.3miles

But it doesn't end when you leave the islands. The McDonald's in the Narita airport in Japan serves a burger that is unlike any Big Mac you'll ever have in the USA. I'd like to think that it's because their cows are raised with strict standards (Kobe? I don't know...) But instead of diving into a fat juicy burger the minute she steps into a foreign country, she opts for the local fare.

Narita International Airport, Japan

So what that the formerly snug fitting pants now hang off her tush like a sack of potatoes.

Guam

The point I was trying to make, Grasshopper, is that this is what it would look like under all that cloth. I'm not saying that that is Yours Truly, but that THAT is what could be under the potato sack excuse of a pair of pants, twelve pounds lighter.