I remember a cartoon I watched when I was young.  It was entitled "The Secret Wardrobe" which was an adaptation of the book by C.S. Lewis entitled "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe."  It was a story about a couple of kids who went into a magical closet and found themselves in a strange new world.  This is what I felt like yesterday.

My wife and I have been having trouble with our clothes lately.  As we lost weight, we found ourselves not fitting properly into our clothes anymore.  We look terrible wearing very loose clothing and we are having great difficulty finding what to wear.  I find myself switching between a few clothes which used to fit very snugly before but are too loose now.  The problem is that we also do not want to buy new clothes yet since we know that at the rate we are going, the new clothes will also not fit us in about three to five months from now.  By then we will be in our ideal weights so we plan to splurge on shopping when we get there.

Last week, we finally decided that we are moving back to Los Banos (more about that in a later blog).  We have to move out in about a little over a week from now.  There was too much to pack and we didn't know where to start.  We realized that it would be difficult to bring everything with us so we opened our closet to look for things to give away.  There we stumbled upon our old clothes - about three boxes of them.  We packed these clothes years ago to give away to people soliciting for items for rummage sales.  They never got picked up by the people who asked for them so they were stashed in boxes and hidden to be long forgotten.  We have long ago given up the hope of ever being able to fit in to them anymore.  Some of them were just there to serve as momentos of the past, much like photos in a photoalbum.

We sorted through the stash, with all the dust being released into our room.  It was fun because they brought back memories of times long ago.  We were like in a different time and place.  I saw the polo I wore when we went with some family members to visit a hotel in Cavite a few months after our wedding.  There was the very first shirt of UP Angkan ng Mandirigma. Also the black cut-offs I've been looking for for a long time.  We found Michelle's body fit clothing which she used to wear before we got married.  There was the dress she wore after the reception of our wedding.  There were the clothes which we used to wear on long hikes as we did environmental consultancy work to save up for our wedding.  There were clothes we liked. There were clothes we didn't like because they fit terribly before.

Until...we tried fitting some of them.  Lo and behold, most of them fit perfectly and even better than before.  Daring the possibilty of getting allergies with the dust covering our bodies, we started donning shirt after shirt, pair of pants after pair of pants.  Michelle is now able to wear her 2001 outfits and I go back as far as 1998.  That sure solves the wardrobe problem.  Thank God we didn't throw them away.  Who ever thought that we would fit in those clothes again.  Now its the larger clothes we're giving away!

Nope.  This is not a typographical error of "Marital Infidelity".  I really meant "Martial Infidelity".  You see, during the course of my lifetime, I've studied and dabbled in several martial arts.  I don't mean infidelity in a bad way.  It's just that I never got to stick to just one art.

When I was in High School, I kept asking my Dad to send me to a martial arts school.  He said that he would once I got into college.  I was in 3rd year High then when I got tired of waiting and said that I would train myself physically so that when I got to college and into martial arts, it won't take long for me to progress.  The first thing that I practiced was how to do the splits.  For months, I have been practicing my stretching every time I got the chance.  I was sort of out of my mind since oftentimes I would just throw my leg up on a window sill in the hallway and start stretching (embarrassingly, oftentimes in public).  I had the last few inches to conquer but I got stuck in a rut and I could conquer the full splits.  It was on a Christmas party when one of my classmates spiked the juice (I don't drink alcohol) that I got tipsy and tried doing the splits. Lo and behold, due to the numbing effect of alcohol, I was able to do the full side splits.

Jump forward to college. My Dad said that he would enroll me in Karate if I got into the Dean's List.  First semester in college, I missed my a few decimal places.  My Dad didn't give in.  The next semester I made it and he got me enrolled summer.

My first sensei was Reynaldo Dandan.  He mainly taught karate (Shotokan and Shorin styles) but was actually a master of several arts.  He was 4th Dan in karate, 1st Dan in aikido, a master in cinco teros arnis and he also studied judo and jujitsu.  Being eclectic, he taught me the foundations of what I believe in today - that there's no such thing as the best martial art. You have to find out what works best for you. 

From day one, he impressed me.  I witnessed him sparring with a Tae Kwon Do practitioner who was also one of his students.  The taek guy was taking karate to improve his hand skills and he was preparing for a taek tournament so he sparred with Sir Rey.  In karate sparring, we usually use controlled force but the taek guy was punching and kicking full power.  Sir Rey then had eczema all over his hands and feet which were sore all over.  It had been there months since so he had difficulty working out and he gained some weight.  He also had difficulty moving because of the sores.  The taek guy never laid a hand on him. He smothered the full blows with ease.  It was an impressive sight. The taek guy was flying all over doing flying spinning flashy kicks.  Sir Rey never jumped or did flashy things and he was controlling all his strikes so as not to hurt the guy.  The Tae Kwon Do guy never had a chance.  I'm not putting Tae Kwon Do down. Neither did Sir Rey.  He was also a fan of Tae Kwon Do Master Hee Il Cho.

Sir Rey and I became close.  He had a falling away with his top two students and I was left as his confidant.  I progressed quickly in his school - Phickaju (Philippine Combat Karate and Judo) later to be renamed Phijukado (Philippine Judo Karate do).  I remember that he was very surprised when he saw me.  I was a white belt then.  It was break time and he temporarily dismissed the class.  During the break, I got two chairs and did full side splits suspended between the chairs.  I wasn't boasting.  Everyone went out and I wanted to practice on my own.  But Sir Rey and his other students came back early and walked in on me.  They were shocked.  Of all the black belts that he had, only one of them was able to do that.  It was then that Sir Rey saw my passion to learn and he would often take me aside during breaks or after class to teach me more techniques.  We had a lot of adventures together which would take too long to retell in this blog. His was a commercial school (he lived, ate and breathed martial arts) but he would often teach me and devote time with me way beyond what I was paying for. There was a time that he offered to teach me for free but I declined since this was his bread and butter and during that time he was not that well off.

I was promoted ahead of a lot of students who were years ahead of me in seniority. When I was a green belt, the senior black belt student that time sparred with me and he couldn’t touch me. Unfortunately, he got scolded by Sir Rey because of that and they also had a falling away. Sir Rey later wanted to promote me straight to black belt a few months after that. He wanted me to skip the brown levels (there were three in his school). I believed I was not yet worthy of that level so I declined the promotion. I’m not sure but I think that insulted him.

During that time, I had already also been a member of the U.P. Shotokan Karate Club (more about my adventures there in my next blog). There were a lot of members there who were a lot better than me who did not have a black belt yet. Sempais Ansel Cabrera and Nonoy Maza during that time had purple belts and the late Sempai Ruel Sullano and Sempai Chris Cobacha had green belts. This gave me the wrong notion then that Sir Rey’s standards were low which is why I declined my promotion. How ignorant I was that I hurt my first martial arts teacher. I should have realized that the two arts were different and that though in the standards of a purist karate school, I was far from deserving of a black belt, from the perspective of an eclectic school, I probably was since I knew techniques that others in a purist karate school had no knowledge of during that time. Moreover, it later became apparent to me that the Sempais I mentioned were actually deserving of second and first degree black belts already. It was just that being students who lived on the allowance of their parents, they didn’t have the money to take the exams to get promoted. The exam for First Dan in JKA before amounted to US$200 which was quite a sum already then for us students who had very little money to spare. UPSKC was not a commercial club and all of us trained for just a paltry semestral membership fee.

Going back, what Sir Rey did then was to award me with a brown belt but he also gave me an honorary black belt. This belt I wore whenever I was tasked to teach techniques to the black belts.

Sadly, Sir Rey and I also had a falling away. Daddy was very strict when it came to my academics. If my grades fell below his standards, he would tell me to stop all my extra curricular activities. Karate was one of my first activities to go. I had no more financial support to train so I had to say goodbye to my training with Sir Rey.

However, I was able to train underground (from my Dad that is) in UPSKC. In my next blog will be on my experience there. Aside from the great training and the brotherhood and unity, one of the main reasons I trained there with my father’s consent was that it was credited as P.E. for me. I was in the varsity team. Also, it didn’t cost me much. I could pay for the dues with my allowance. Sensei Tom Cadatal was very intellectual and scientific in his explanations. He was great teacher but he had this one thing that I didn’t approve of. His pride in JKA and in the Shotokan style caused him to put down other karate schools and brand them as “lokal”; not “local” in the sense of being situated in the Philippines but “lokal” in the Filipino sense of not being of high standards and quality. Of course there were commercial schools out there which were in there just for the money and churned out black belts like pan de sal in a local bakeshop but not all other schools were like that. Unfortunately, Sensei Tom spoke with such blanket authority and some of my other brods in UPSKC, who I won’t mention by name, got into the same habit.

You see, Sir Rey and Sensei Tom were actually friends. I asked permission from Sir Rey to train under Sensei Tom first so that he won’t have any sore feelings. There was a time when one of Sensei Tom’s blue belts who happened to assist in instruction during that time, spoke during one of our membership orientations in UPSKC. One of my classmates in Phijukado attended and was interested in joining. When my UPSKC brod asked who among the orientees had previous martial arts training, Jeffrey, my Phijukado classmate, said he studied under Sir Rey Dandan. My UPSKC brod didn’t know that Sir Rey was Sensei’s friend immediately said, “Rey Dandan, ah lokal yan!” Jeffrey went to Sir Rey to talk to him about this.

With some bizarre twisted way, I got promoted to blue belt and my UPSKC brod got promoted to brown belt. As a matter of fact, he gave me his blue belt since he didn’t need it anyway. This brod of mine and I shared general physical features. We both were short, dark (and handsome) and had a military (hint hint) haircut. We were both officers in ROTC. Jeffrey described to Sir Rey the person who said that he was “lokal”: short, dark, had a military haircut, had a blue belt and assisted in teaching. Sir Rey in his hurt drank a lot of alcohol and mustered up the nerve to talk to Sensei Tom about the incident. When he walked in the dojo in Baker Hall, I just happened to be assigned to lead the warm-up exercises. There I was: short, dark, blue belt, military haircut and assisting in instruction. I stopped the exercise; I stood up and bowed in respect to him. My UPSKC brods were wondering who this person was that I would stop warm-ups just to pay respect. It was then that he saw me and wrongfully concluded that I was the one who said the nasty things about him.

Later I visited him in his house with my brod Jerome Arpon to clear things out. Jerome was a witness as to who the person really was and that it was may first day that day to wear my blue belt. I reasoned with Sir Rey that Jeffrey knew me and that if I were the one who said those things, Jeffrey wouldn’t need to describe me. He would simply mention my name. I also talked with Jeffrey to talk to Sir but in his hurt, Jeffrey’s words fell on deaf ears. He had been hurt by three of his black belts and closest friends. He saw me as just another one of them who left him. He even thought that I brought Jerome there to help me intimidate him. His first black belt did something like that and attacked him. Of course, he beat them all up.

For years, I’ve tried to be reconciled with him. He was reconciled with his first two black belts who did so much more to hurt him. Why couldn’t he forgive me who actually didn’t do anything to him? Was he hurt more? He went to Saudi to work and whenever he visited the Philippines, I tried to visit and reconcile. I, myself, was really hurt. This was my first martial arts instructor and one of the best martial artists I’ve ever met. In terms of skill, only Coach Sonny Mejia among my instructors comes close to equal his skill, versatility and experience (more about Coach Eric in a later blog).

Nine years passed before Sir Rey finally forgave the sin I never committed. It was like it never happened and we never talked about it again. We practiced occasionally together. He even taught my judo and LESKAS brod Nguyen some techniques in cinco teros arnis. In his age, he almost exclusively practices aikido and jujitsu now since it is easier on his body. He still practices arnis whenever I’m with him. He is quite surprised that I still know all the techniques that he has taught me. There was a time that I helped him apply for a job and I gave him some money as well. He went to his hometown in Pangasinan to apply as a P.E. instructor.

 

(From left to right: Master Reynaldo "Sir Rey" Dandan, GM Benjamin "Mang Ben" Luna Lema, GM Torrefranca, Master Ericson "Coach Sonny" Mejia)

I don’t see him anymore. It has been two or three years since we last trained together. I don’t have his number and since I moved to Calamba, he doesn’t have mine. I wonder what has happened to him. I hope he is doing well and if not, I wish I would be able to help him. I might try one of these days to visit his old house near IRRI and ask his former neighbors if they have any idea where he is.

Sir Rey, just in case I don’t see you again, at least I’d like to honor you here. Thank you for being my friend and mentor. Thank you for being my first teacher in the martial arts. I’ll never forget you. God bless.

 

(To be continued: Martial Infidelity part 2: UP Shotokan Karate Club)

What a weird day I had.  We woke up around 7:30am and prepared ourselves so we could leave by 8:30am for Fitness First Alabang to work out.

My program for the day was to work out the muscles on my back and legs as well as my biceps.  I added some abs workout as well since it has been over two days since I've worked out my abs.

I was finishing my leg workout when I started getting dizzy.  I've been dizzy on and off this past week.  Whenever, I stand or get up from bed, I get whoosy and disoriented.  By the time I made it to the third floor for my cardio workout, I was very light-headed.  Michelle went ahead of me there because I was a little slow today and she really wanted to spend a lot of time doing cardio.  She took a quick look at me and mentioned that I was very pale.  She insisted that I go down and just take a rest instead.  Being a little hard-headed and not wanting to back off after a little challenge, I continued on the treadmill for about 20 minutes.  I stopped when I realized that my heartrate shot up too much and I had barely expended much effort.  It was a sign that something was wrong.

I excused myself an went down to rest.  I went to the personal training station to get my weight and body fat percentage.  I lost about another 1.5 lbs.  Something then caught my eye: a sphygmomanometer.  The trainor there was kind enough to take my BP. I mentioned that I was on medication for hypertension so we both expected a high reading.

Ironically, what made me dizzy was not high blood pressure but low blood pressure.  The reading was only 90/70.  It was stil in the normal range but for a person who is used to having borderline hypertension, this was way too low.  Joel, the trainor, had me rest and had me come back after about twenty minutes.  He had me drink lots of soda (oh, the dreaded fatenning soda) to boost my energy.  Later, the reading went up to 100/70 and then 110/70.

I cancelled my appointment with a friend.  We were supposed to play a financial board game called Cashflow 101 by Robert Kiyosaki and then teach financial literacy and principles to teachers in the school he owns.  I visited my doctor instead.

Well, the doctor read my BP at 110/70.  He had me cut my medication in half.  I told him that I had lost over 5 lbs, maybe even 6, since I last saw him.  He said that medicine dosages vary depending on the body weight of the one taking it.  Since I lost some weight, the former recommended dose may be too high for me already such that my BP is being lowered below normal.

Hahaha.  Who would have ever thought that after being diagnosed with hypertension over three months ago that I would be back to see my doctor for low blood pressure.

Thank God for a gym with good facilities.  The trainor said that if they had not taken my blood pressure and found out that it was too low, I might have fainted or collapsed.  I just can visualize now what it would look like collapsing with a heavy barbell falling on me and pinning me down.  I wouldn't be a pretty sight.

Anyway, I'm home now. I need to sleep early too to prevent low blood pressure.  They say lack of sleep can cause low BP.  That's it for today.

Ernie signing off.

I've read about blogs for some time now but have never had the time to create one.  Everyone's into it so I might as well try having one.  Some see this as exhibitionism but others see this as a way to express yourself.  Why not both? Hehe.

It's been over three months since I've been diagnosed as having hypertension.  I had been a borderline hypertensive for years now with my blood pressure topping at 130/90 but over three months ago, I began hitting 140-150/100 and I'm just 33 years old!  I had my blood analyzed and I was way over in my cholesterol and triglycerides.  Good thing was that my uric acid was still in check.  I can't bear it to cut down on my munggo,  he he.  The normal cholesterol levels should be in the 100-200 range.  Mine was about 270!  I had constant headaches and spells of dizziness.

So, three months ago, I made a firm decision to change my lifestyle.  Like what I usually do in other things in my life, I set my vision high.  I did not just want to get my weight back to normal, but I wanted to be in my best form and have the best physique I've ever had in my whole life!

Of course the challenge was that I was 205 lbs at that time.  My "ideal" weight based on some popular standards is 130-140 lbs.  In other words, I was 65 lbs overweight. My dad used to tell me that it was like carrying the weight of a child with me everywhere.  My body fat was at 31.6%  Whoah, about 1/3 of my body was made up of fat! The healthy fat levels? 18-24% only.

My business partners saw this as a challenge also.  Being one of the key partners in our business, they wanted me to live longer (of course, aside from the reason that they love me as a friend).  So they set up a challenge: lose 15 lbs in 3 months (i.e., by August 15).  If I hit the target, I get P20,000 as a reward.  If I miss, I lose P20,000.  The same went for Ed, one of my partners. We were on the same boat in terms of being obese.  Our company took care of our enrollment in Fitness First (more about that in another blog).  I started working out 3-4 times a week for 2-3 hours a session. I changed the way I ate.  I'm not on a starvation "diet", mind you (More about my diet on another blog).

The good thing is I got my wife, Michelle, in on this thing with me.  Of course, she didn't want to lose the P20,000.  But more than that, she didn't want to lose me to a stroke.  What's even greater is that we get to spend lots of time together.  I used to leave early for work and arrive in the evenings.  Now we go to Ortigas together and work out together. We spend lots of quality time with each other: the drive to Ortigas, the workout and the drive back.

(These were taken last year but this is was what I looked like 3 months ago.)

(Some pics of me today.  Notice the cheeks.)

Fast forward to today. I'm down to 27% body fat and 183 lbs.  I've lost a total of 4.6% body fat and 22 lbs.  Well 22 lbs. from the time I was diagnosed with hypertension.  When I weighed in for the challenge, I was down to 200.5 lbs already.  So, for the challenge's sake, I've lost about 17.5 lbs already.  I've hit my target a week before the final weigh in.  Losing between 1-2 lbs per week.  So I'll be sure to hit my target in about 8 months from now.  My wife is also in better shape than she has been.  All our clothes are loose.  We're still hesitant to go shopping because we don't want to waste money on clothes that will be loose again in a few weeks.

We're planning to give away some of the clothes and to have the others repaired.  We have no plans of going back to our old selves.

I'm still far from my goals but just taking this time to look back inspires me.  If I made it this far, I know God will provide me with the strength and discipline to make it the rest of the way.

Again, looking back, I just wished that I made this decision to take my health seriously a long time ago.