Sunday, August 23, 2020

Quarantine Stories Part 5

 Some bad news: I stopped exercising for about a month or so. It started when I badly strained my left shoulder. I'm not sure how it happened; I think maybe I had the wrong form in doing some push-ups during my high intensity interval training (HIIT) workout. I thought it was just minor so I still exercised the next couple of days and I realized I was making it worse. I decided to stop doing HIIT and focus on yoga instead but even the yoga exercises involved moves that resulted in more shoulder pain. I decided to stop all my exercises until my shoulder pain disappeared.

It took about two weeks for the pain to be reduced to a point where I felt I could exercise again. I was about ready to work out again when I suddenly got hit with really, really bad stomach problems. I had to take a couple of sick days and even then, my stomach was still acting up. It took 6 days for my stomach to get back to normal. But by then, I had so much work to catch up on that I couldn't find the energy nor the focus to exercise. Towards the end of this week, my shoulder strain has almost fully disappeared (there is still some niggling pain but I think it should still be okay to exercise), my stomach is back to normal, and I've almost caught up on work. My target is to start exercising again tomorrow. Wish me luck! 

Sadly, I've gained weight and inches around my waist because of my lack of physical activity and because I haven't been eating healthy. I did get a free Oreo cheesecake that I won from a Cafe Perene weekend raffle and I did get to eat a few slices of their other cakes. I also tried some other high sugar treats that I will write about in my next post. I also purchased Irvin's Salteg Egg Potato Chips at the supermarket. I was actually surprised to see it there because normally, you can only buy it from Irvin's stalls in Megamall or in BGC. I guess because of the pandemic, they needed to make their products available in supermarkets to move their inventory.

Speaking of trips to the supermarket, I made a couple of changes in my standard shopping list. First, since the Spam with less sodium continued to be out of stock, I decided to try Tulip Jamonilla with 25% less Sodium. Thankfully, I did because it tastes like Spam but it's cheaper. I plan on buying Tulip Jamonilla from now on.

I also recently switched to Sari Roti sliced bread. I actually prefer the taste of Gardenia and it's also cheaper but the problem is that before I get to fully consume even the Gardenia half loaf, mold would start to grow. I'd often have to toss out a lot of bread which is very wasteful so I decided to try Sari Roti. So far, I've noticed that molds would form a lot less slowly on Sari Roti (it's only happened once and it was on a loaf that was 4 days beyond the best before date). I also tried the Sari Roti double soft bread which is a lot better but also a lot more expensive so I'm sticking to the normal variant.

Oh and one more thing: the supermarket I go to now requires people to fill out an information card before entering. I assume this card is for contact tracing. With new Covid cases still piling in daily, new protocols are being put in place to try and keep people safe. It's tough but we don't have a choice except to adjust and find a way to manage in these very trying times.

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