Things I learn while exercising
Back in 2010, I underwent an intensive medical checkup. The results were, well, alarming, to say the least. My doctor, who knows me inside-out, literally, was very pragmatic. “You’re not going to quit drinking, are you?” he asked. I just looked at him. “And you won’t stop smoking?” I held my breath. “Then how about shedding a few pounds?” I managed to heave a sigh of relief.
Phew. That, I could do. After all, I did it once before in the 1990s, dropping 100 pounds after two years of dieting and exercising only to regain all that weight and then some more, a few years later.
Heck, if I could do it then, I could do it again. And I have.
Seven years later, I’m now 80 pounds lighter. I also managed to kick the smoking habit. (Let’s leave the drinking alone, though. There are some things a man should not live without.)
Thankfully, my grandmother’s house on Urgello St. and my office on P. del Rosario are close to the Cebu City Sports Center. I had no excuse not to go to the oval and walk at least five kilometers a day, every day for the first two years of my life-changing journey. That was then. I now jog. Five days a week at the very least. Along the way, I’ve seen and heard many things. Someone told me about a girl who would not stop crying and rolling on the ground after her phone was stolen. Apparently, she didn’t know about the locker at the entrance of the facility or didn’t read the warning about leaving things unattended.
There was that time when a local chief execu- tive regaled teachers, who were gathered on the soccer field, with several songs. I still remember the look on their faces when he yelled out to them, “Do you love me?” in between numbers. It was a jaw-dropping moment. Believe me.
Just recently, I heard that Cebu City Councilor Jerry Guardo was in the building. Mind you, what I will share now is second-hand information because I wasn’t at the meeting between the Cebu City Sports Commission and the suspended legislator. But here’s what I got while I did some stretching along the sideline.
The gathering had something to do with Guardo’s pet project, the Cebu Sports Tourism.
He wants to make Cebu City a mecca for athletes and sports enthusiasts. But to make his dream a reality, he needs the sports commission to approve the project’s P98-million budget. Or so I was told.
Several eyebrows were raised. Not hard to imagine, considering the commission’s budget for its grassroots program is reportedly around P5 million. And so he was turned down. For now.
For those who don’t know, Guardo was given an executive function as co-deputy mayor for sports with Councilor Jun Gabuya after he defected to BOPK.
He left Team Rama because “he was dismayed when Team Rama officials failed to addressed the issue that one of his partymates pushed for the implementation of his three-month suspension without pay” over his failure to submit required documents when he was still barangay captain of Sambag 1.
Hmm. Did I just segue from my battle against the bulge to local politics?