Diabetic Hobbit

I keep telling everyone, whether they want to hear it or not, that J.R.R. Tolkien must’ve met Filipinos and eaten with them to have come up with the idea of hobbits. He must’ve experienced a ‘Pinoy fiesta’ and seen first-hand how we love to eat — and talk about food while eating.

I really believe that we, Filipinos, are the original hobbits. 😉 Second breakfasts, or what Pinoys would probably consider as ‘merienda’ (in this case, a morning snack), sound perfectly logical to us. And by breakfast we usually mean fried rice, fried meat/sausage/fish and fried eggs. Of course, if by some great fortune that pancakes or bluberry muffins find their way to our table, we summon the fortitude to give them equal space in our bellies. It is this same fortitude that allows us to make the tough choice for ‘merienda’ between spaghetti, ‘pansit’ (Asian noodles), burger, rice cakes, porridge, lumpia, ‘turon’ (fried banana rolled in brown sugar and tucked in lumpia wrappers). Yes, sandwiches are also acceptable if none of the above can be obtained.

I won’t even try to start with lunch, dinner and dessert — too long for this post — but I think you can already get the irony of the blog title. I come from a genuine line of Pinoy hobbits, a clan of great cooks and trully masterful eaters, who also happened to have diabetes run in their blood. We are genuine carb-lovers — even fanatics, you could say — so isn’t it the greatest irony to be struck with a disease, the boundaries of which, are defined by the food you eat or not eat?

That was one of my first thoughts when my doctor confirmed end Janaury that I was diabetic. I thought it was like telling a hobbit to stay away from food. It’s like telling Americans to disown burger and fries, or telling the Dutch to shy away from liquorice, or Mexicans to stop eating burritos. It was a contradiction in terms other than ‘military intelligence’, but more tragic I thought.

Ok, I know I’m exaggerating. 😉 I know better now after fanatically researching about diabetes that it’s not a death sentence to eating, just to indiscriminate carbs-loading and binging. Uhealthy eating, thus. Still, the irony doesn’t escape me. For one who loves to cook and is uber-crazy about rice, pasta and pizza, I now have to break this habbit; to unlearn my relationship with food and forge a new history with it. And it’s all easier said than done. Especially when your mind thinks you’re 19 and immortal, but your body’s 36, enmeshed in mortality, and acts like a stranger.

A diabetic hobbit: I like it because it’s ironic and also funny. It’s a joke, but not a mean one. It allows me to make fun of myself. It’s just a fact that underlies the conflict I’m experiencing, and my musings on what diabetic hobbits like myself would do to make their journey not only more bearable, but more pleasurable.

Honestly, I’m not reallly sure what this blog will become. I’ve been diagnosed with Diabetis Type 2 last month, and I just wanted to be able to express my feelings, questions and musings about it in a more tangible way. I’d like to chronicle my day-to-day experiences living with this new ‘label’ attached to me. It’s all very new and I’m in the process of getting to know it better. And I do want to know it, because this one will be keeping me company for the rest of my life I guess. But although I want it to be a quiet companion, I want to be at peace in its presence. From hereon, I hope to chronicle the journeys of this diabetic hobbit.