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Published: August 8th 2007
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You are not writing that! Healthy Eating and Work on a Slow Monday With all the feasting we’ve been doing, it’s no surprise that our bodies beg us for vegetables and healthier options. Lucky for us, we’re staying at the right place. My mother, Tita Reena, and Xandra are all pranic healers and the last two are certified trainers in this form of CAM (complementary and alternative medicine). In keeping with their beliefs, they eat mostly vegetarian foods, with the occasional sprinking of certain kinds of fish and seafood (but certainly not eel, which is a bottom-dweller and has no scales and thus has absorbed dirty energy). The higher level that you “vibrate” on, the more vegetarian you are. There is no way I can do justice in explaining pranic healing, which originated from the Philippines, so I won’t even try. As a future physician trained in Western medicine, I am outnumbered in my family when it comes to health, and it is often a struggle to make sure that they get the medical care that they need in conjunction with the pranic healing that they practice. In the U.S., my mom and I can have one-to-one discussions (arguments) about her health conditions, but we usually
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You sure you wanna include that in the blog? reach compromise since she takes all her medications and she practices pranic healing. But I’m on their territory now, so I only volunteer free medical advice when asked (that is, of course, unless I really get worried). But a great advantage to being in this household right now is that healthy food is on the table. Put me in a restaurant, and I will be too weak to resist Filipino dishes that I can’t get in the U.S. It’s just not the same. But put some red rice (rice with more fiber), mixed vegetables in kare kare sauce, okra, adobo made with veggie meat (soy and gluten substitutes), eggplant, and yam leaves on the table with some good sauces (calamansi and soy sauce), and I’m in business. Breakfast is oatmeal plus or minus eggs cooked to order. Lunch and dinner each consist of two to three vegetable dishes and rice, and depending on whether or not Oliver is home, there’ll be one dish with meat or chicken. Leroy seems to like all the dishes (except okra and eggplant), and I’m definitely feeling better.
After breakfast, Leroy gets to sifting through the thousands of Boracay pictures that we have. I
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De que estas hablando, Meli? pull out my research and keep working on my presentation. This is not easy to do… when on vacation mode, everything takes twice as long to produce and it’s quite painful. But I just have to keep trucking. I have to enjoy this vacation - we all know what awaits us when we return! Just the prospect of internship year is enough to remind me to savor no-alarm mornings and leisurely meals.
To Robinson’s Galleria for Dinner at Café Mediterranean In the early evening, we head to Galleria for a doctor’s appointment and dinner. Everytime I return to Manila, there are more malls and more things in malls. The MedCentral at Galleria has a little room labeled “Emergency Room.” They have health packages so that you can get most of your care here. Health care at the mall - the doctors come to you! If there is anything you need to buy or do in Manila, the mall will have it. International faxing. Prepaid cards to load your cell phone. Health care. Grocery stores. This is great for the locals as is it supremely convenient, but it can definitely give an antiseptic feel to the city. The chaos and smog of Manila can turn many tourists off, and that’s why many quickly leave the capital for islands or smaller towns in the provinces. I don’t know if traffic can be worse anywhere else than it is here. But I know that when I’m in it, I can’t wait to get to the mall, where it’s air conditioned and I can walk around without getting run over, breathing exhaust, or getting a thin layer of dirt stuck on my skin. And yet, I also can’t stand going to the mall because they are all the same. I love being in places where you can walk a neighborhood and experience a place on foot. I’ve often wanted to check out Manila and get to know it better, but much the way that Los Angeles’ sprawling expanse is unwelcoming to visitors, Manila’s traffic and maze of roads makes it less accessible to me. And the heat. It’s really hard to enjoy a stroll under this kind of baking heat. In the end, what I love about being here is that it’s where my family is. Manila is not nightlife or shopping to me. It’s certainly not the red light district or the riding in jeepneys. If I were a tourist to this country and not a balikbayan or VFR (visiting friend or relative), Manila would be different to me. She would be something to be explored. I would eat the street food and take the jeepneys. I would visit every historical site and stop by the important neighborhoods. Instead, I look forward to seeing this family member or that old friend of my mom’s.
Well, tonight, it is about food again. Dinner will be at Café Mediterranean, where we are addicted to the garlic sauce. The creamy white sauce packs a power punch and pretty much tastes good with everything, in my opinion. After browsing in some bookstores that distract us on the way to the restaurant, and after expending much energy in diverting Terran from his obsession of going to the store with the big giraffe (Toys R Us recently arrived in Manila), we sit down to dinner. Jamie and Vit are visiting her mom at a nearby hospital, so they stop by to hang out with us. Leroy loves his Moroccan fish and I like my chicken kebab. Today was pretty much like any regular day, and it is something I sorely needed. Research work is getting done, and I didn’t eat like a pig today. Kudos!
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