Previously, in an episode of “Chenylity”

“While she manages Source of the Force as they resume their regular  Friday stint in Casa Nami, Chenyl runs into a high school friend,  Frederick,  in the Makati hotspot. Fred brings with him a crowd to celebrate his despedida, among them is a guy who catches Chenyl’s eye and eventually comes up to flirt shamelessly with her.

This leads to a run-in with her old flame, who brings with him an apology…and a desire to be friends again.

“I don’t want to fight anymore…”

Another guy expresses his mixed emotions as he watched her in action on “the field”.

“That was the first time I actually saw you in The Game. I’m proud of you, Vixen…and just a bit jealous. You did great tonight. ”

The episode ends with her band’s drummer almost getting into a fist fight with the bartender.

What does the next episode hold for our heroine? Tune in next week.”

……

Is it just me, or is my life becoming more and more like a TV series???

Musings While Listening to Muse

I went on a catch-up date with a friend yesterday.

While I was waiting in the nurse’s station for her to finish her shift, I just observed quietly the environment that I left. Not much has changed really.

I couldn’t help but feel, more than ever, how blessed I am. All the choices that I’ve made so far have been for the better.

By day, I work for a company that really takes care of its employees. My boss is a brilliant woman, and is appreciative of my talents and efforts. More importantly, she gives credit where it’s due. I’m currently working with one of my best friends just a cubicle away from me. The rest of my colleagues are some of the smartest, most wonderful people I’ve ever met, and it makes working everyday easier. I see none of the dirty politics and needless, destructive gossip that I used to have to endure.

By night, I manage bands. Pro-bono most of the time for now, but I really don’t mind. I get to move around the industry, discover new music, meet people and go to events when I’m not managing one.

I’m learning so much, from business, to people, to music, to technology and everything in between. So many new experiences, so many opportunities.

Oh, and the clincher here is that I actually have the TIME and energy, not to mention the money to do all this, and still be able to chillax with my friends and loved ones after a hard day’s work.

The only hurdle now is to make my parents see that this IS the right path for me. Once I convince them that everything I’m doing has a point, and that I’m not just wasting my time, everything will be golden.

I am going places. It’s just different from where I initially planned on going, but this new destination will be so worth it.

The Non-Diet

College life was not all fun and parties for me. Long hours were dedicated to classes, hospital duties and even more studying at home. I think I dealt with all the stress by eating and sleeping a lot.

Unfortunately, as exhausting studying can be, it doesn’t burn as much calories as I hoped it would.  I never had the time nor the energy to work out either so I just packed on the pounds and never lost any.

During my brief stay in Canada about a year after college, my then-boyfriend cheated on me, which eventually led to our breakup. No, this post will not be about that. The point of the story is, I thought that the best way to get back at him (and rebuild my shattered self-esteem) was to become as hot as I possibly can.

That "before" dress is deceptive. I look about ten pounds lighter in that dress.

Let it be said however, that I can’t ever stick to very strict dieting. I’ve already tried sticking to specific diets, and it works for a time, but after a while, I get bored and I go back to my old eating habits. I’m also terrible at math, so diets that involve calorie-counting aren’t very appealing to me either.

With a bit of research and my background in the medical profession, I came up with my own personalized eating discipline that just might be helpful to some of you who are allergic to the word “diet”.

CHENYL’S NON-DIET involves:
1. Fiber
- Complex carbs take longer to digest, which helps you feel fuller for a longer period of time and stave off cravings. I also have this theory that because complex carbs are harder to digest, the body uses more energy. Ergo, you’re actually burning calories while you’re digesting.

Breakfast!

2. Green tea
- Green tea has two helpful weight-loss substances: caffeine and L-carnitine. Caffeine boosts the metabolism and has a mild diuretic effect which is actually pretty good for your kidneys. L-carnitine, on the other hand, helps transport long chain fatty acids into cells and convert them into readily usable energy.

3. Substitution
- This is basically going for the healthier choice without compromising taste. Here are a few examples:

Mustard instead of mayonnaise. Spicy food (including mustard) kicks up metabolism. Plus, mustard pretty much has zero calories.
Water instead of soda. Sugar-free, fat-free and keeps you hydrated!
Brown instead of white. This means choosing whole grain option in breads, pastas, rice and even chips instead of the regular variety.
Baked/grilled/boiled instead of fried
Tomato or olive oil based pasta sauce instead of cream based

4. Water
- It’s no question that water is important for a lot of reasons. I want to stress on this though: When your body is deprived of water, it tends to go on self-preservation mode and retains as much water as it can. It’s like the body is saving up water because you’re not getting enough.

Drink enough water, and you’ll actually end up flushing out toxins, excess salt and all that bloating.

5. Junk food
- I kid you not. I do not believe in depriving myself of the good things in life, like chips and instant noodles and sweets. I refused to give them up altogether, so what I did was control my intake as much as I can.

- Quick chocolate fix: Dark chocolate, or chocolates in bite-sized packaging

My personal faves: Meiji Black, After Eight Chocolate Mints, M&Ms Dark, Hershey's Special Dark

- Junk food of choice:  multi-grain chips
- Dip of choice: Salsa. Tomatoes are always good for you, salsa is spicy (which also boosts metabolism) and…well. Salsa’s just plain yummy.

Tostitos Multigrain chips and salsa in mild

Okay, honestly, this post is more of a review and a reminder for myself. I have so much going on in my life right now, and health and fitness has taken a back-seat when it used to be priority. I’m aware that I’m not exactly fat, but I’m not very physically fit either. I should be careful, lest I go back to my old college weight, and I really don’t want that to happen.

I’ve already signed up for a four-week promo with Fitness First. Together with the exercise that I’m bound to get at the gym, I plan on following this regimen that I came up with.

The new fitness regime begins tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Cake2Go Served Me Lies

Anyone who knows me well knows that I like my sweets. Dessert is sacred to me. I don’t mind spending a little extra money for quality dessert, as long as it’s worth it.

That being said, I’ve always been intrigued by Cake 2 Go. I mean just look at this flyer:

Look at all that promised yumminess and tell me you’re not tempted either. The prices seem pretty friendly too, at around 400-600 a cake. Seemed like a good deal, yeah?

Since it was rainy and petiks all of Sunday, we just decided to stay at home for Mother’s Day. I’ve had this mad craving for cake since Friday so I thought of just getting a cake delivered as a Mother’s Day present for my mom and Tita Ging. It was a chance to finally try Cake 2 Go.

The consensus was that everyone wanted the Oreo Cheesecake. So I called up the nearest branch, which was in Banawe, to have it delivered.

They refused to deliver ’cause 1) they said that the minimum required for them to deliver was PHP 600 (Oreo cheesecake was about 400+) and 2) they said Oreo Cheesecake is one of the cakes that they do not deliver because it melts easily. (That should’ve tipped me off right there.)

I was a little ticked-off also that they refuse to deliver because we didn’t meet the minimum. One of Cake 2 Go’s selling points is that they deliver, so it’s less of a hassle to get good cake. My house isn’t that far from the branch, it’s just that it’s a little rainy and it’s a hassle to get out of the house. At least they should’ve put a disclaimer on the site or their flyers. But okay, I let that slide. Even fast food joints have minimums that we have to meet, right?

So I just sent my brother out to buy the cake instead (an extra PHP 60 for the trike ride). I was already positively wiggling with excitement when he got home. I will be eating cake! YAY!

Expectation

But instead I got this:

Reality

Not sure if you can tell by the photo, but that is not cheesecake. It’s not even cake at all. It’s vanilla ice cream with a thin Oreo crust, pretending to be cheesecake. WHAT IS THIS SORCERY

Maybe it’s my fault also for not asking what the cake is made of. But HELLO. It is called Oreo Cheesecake. It doesn’t really take a genius to figure out what it should be made of.

I didn’t finish eating my slice. Seriously. I felt betrayed. Sure 400 pesos isn’t that big, and it may not be a big deal to some people, but to me dessert is SRZBZNZ. I could’ve spent the money getting something more worth it, like maybe a cake from Dezaato Pan (about a block away from Cake2Go, Banawe). Or Reese’s Ice Cream.

I IZ NAT PLEASED

Maybe it was just ill luck and timing. Maybe I just ordered the wrong thing. Honestly though, I am not too keen on giving Cake2Go another chance. Not if I’m paying for it.

I.B.A Reborn as Source of the Force

I once mentioned that I’m sidelining as a road manager for a couple of bands. One band is Stories of Now, which I like to refer to as the kuya band. They just recently got into The Jack Daniels Set’s final seven, and will be touring with six other bands. All in all, I’d say their career is pretty smooth sailing (fingers crossed!) so far.

Their little sister band is what I’m actively handling. I.B.A is an electro-pop-punk band that’s been on hiatus for some time. They recently got a new drummer, a new guitarist, and pretty much a whole new sound so we all thought it was only right to debut as a brand new band. After much debate and consideration, we finally decided on naming the new band “Source of the Force”. Yes I know, we like our geekery. Shut up.

The re-launch of IBA as Source of the Force happened last Friday, May 6,2011 at Casa Nami.

Poster courtesy of G Protacio. Clicky on photo to visit his blog.

I’d say the debut/re-launch was a success! They played a six-song opening set before Stories of Now, featuring covers from bands like Panic! at the Disco, No Doubt, Muse and Paramore. It was a pretty short set, but you can expect more to come on future gigs, they’ll be adding more covers and tightening up their original songs.

A very proud stage-ate I was. The set wasn’t perfect, I know, but the glitches were minimal and everyone, both the band and the audience alike seemed like they were having a really good time. That’s all that matters, really.

Can’t wait for the next!

To watch out for other gigs, Like the Source of the Force Facebook page by clicking here.

I am a marked woman

I always said I liked tattoos, but I didn’t want to get one because it was so permanent. I never even thought about how painful it would be to get one. I thought very little about the fact that I might not be able to donate blood anymore, or worse, contract a blood borne disease. All I cared about was…what if I wake up one day and realize that I don’t like it anymore? Or whatever I imprinted on my skin isn’t really “me” anymore? Hassle, pare.

And think about it, how would it look like when I’m all old and wrinkly and saggy? Nyerk.

But so much has already changed for me these past couple of years that now I find some comfort in minor things that are constant. Before I knew it, one random day I just said, “Okay. I want to get inked.”

With that, my kaladkarin friend and I set an appointment at Gene Testa’s in Robinson’s Galleria so I can get this on my skin:

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good"

Any close friend of mine would know where that line is from. If you don’t, shame on you, our friendship is a lie. Hahaha!

In fairness, it wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be. I saw episodes in Miami Ink where clients would pass out from the pain, so I kinda expected tears or at least a heavy stream of curses and complaints. Not bad. I also expected the pain to be like a series of needles poking at you continuously, but in actual, I think it felt more like my skin was being burned.

I am LOVING the tattoo so far! I think even when I do get all wrinkly and saggy, I can still say I’m a badass grandma.