Guimaras Grime

Department of Tourism's poster picture of Guimaras before the oil spill.

Guimaras' coast line after the oil spill.

It's been more than two months since the tragic oil spill and yet according to Greenpeace the MV Solar 1 continues to sit in the bottom of the ocean, leaking an estimated one ton of oil every ten days. Before the spill the seas of Guimaras was teeming with fresh fish, shellfish, and lobsters. This is extremely frustrating, the environment is deteriorating by the minute and the livelihoods of the people in the area were destroyed. To make matters worst the spill continues as you read this post and the people responsible for the clean up seems to be taking their sweet time in dealing with this gargantuan environmental mess. I strongly encourage everybody reading this post to take an active part by supporting Greenpeace's effort to convince Petron to respond with more urgency.

No Pain No Gain

First semester is over! I am already done with cramming and research papers for the time being. Last Wednesday without anything to keep me busy I noticed the weighing scale idly tucked under the coffee table. I ambled toward the scale and confidently weighed myself. The scale reads 165 lbs! I cant believe my eyes I gained 5 solid pounds. I realized then that I have not gone to the gym for almost 2 months. I am only 5 feet 10 inches tall, my ideal weight is only 155 lbs and according to the weighing scale I am 10 lbs overweight. It's official I am old, fat and ugly! I can't do anything about being old and ugly because it is basically due to the rule of nature and genetics respectively. But my being fat, I can still do plenty about it. I have always strived not to be fat. I remember when I was still working in an IT company my average weight is between 170-175 lbs. I always go to the gym during that time basically to prevent adding any more poundage on my weight. However, eversince I went back to school I have resolved to lose more weight and gain more hard muscle.

The following day I decided to head to the gym after my afternoon siesta. I immediately headed towards the treadmill for my cardio, before my hiatus I can usually stay running under level 8 for more than 60 minutes, but this day I was already huffing and puffing after 4o minutes under level 7! I am fat and ill fit! Peter, my Taiwanese and St Benilde educated gym buddy immediately went beside me when he came to the gym. Peter and I signed up in this gym almost the same time and we later became friends. However, if you will see Peter and I together you would conclude that Peter had years of head start compared to me, especially now.......I look lousy and awful. Peter is kind enough to tell me that I dont look fat at all.

After my miserable turn on the treadmill I went to the shower/locker room to change my shirt because I am already soaking with sweat. I decided to do chest and biceps for my weight training. I exercised my lower chest first with dumb bell fly, I started with 20 lbs the lightest and 60 lbs heaviest in 3 sets with 15 reps. I used to do 70 to 80 lbs in this exercise. The next two exercises I did were wide grip barbell flat bench press and inclined barbell bench press for my middle chest and upper chest respectively. The heaviest I was able to lift is only 70 lbs a very poor comparison to my previous 120lbs. I completed my chest exercise on the nautilus with butterfly.

Next on my gym agenda were biceps exercises. I only did two exercises for my biceps. My first biceps exercise was barbell curls and the second was alternate dumb bell hammer curls. I intend to focus more effort on my biceps in my next visit and I am getting pretty envious with the gains Peter have achieved with his biceps. I then concluded my visit with abdominal crunches. The very next day I feel sore all over. I promised myself to never go on a long hiatus with my fitness regimen ever again.