I was the youngest in a family of nine. With four boys in the family, mealtimes were a battle for food. I had to put as much as I could on my plate, or else my brothers would gobble it all down and none would be left for me. So, I grew up with terrible eating habits. That’s not even counting the loads of junk food I devoured, liters of soda I drank, and, by college, the hundreds of meals I had skipped to make up for all my mistakes. My idea of fitness was to starve myself so that I would look fit. Exercise and sports were not in my vocabulary.

My sis and I (we were the youngest 2 siblings!) at the Alaska Milk Day run

Fast forward to the present. I’m a mom, a marathoner, and a health coach. Needless to say, I’ve learned about the importance of nutrition and exercise. More than that, I try to instill the same healthy lifestyle with my children so that they adopt it early on and they won’t have to go through the struggles I went through.

Here are five habits that you can apply in your own homes to have a healthier family: (more…)

Do you dare to run your first (or 2nd) marathon at the 8th TBR Sun Life Dream Marathon?

Online application opens on August 8, 2016 at 12:00nn at www.thebullrunner.com/dream.

You have a whole month to ponder over this. In the meantime, read the following to help you decide:

15 REASONS TO RUN TBR SUN LIFE DREAM
WHAT TBR DREAM ALUMNI SAY ABOUT THE RACE
RACE RULES & REGULATIONS
HOW TO JOIN

Hoping to have you run your first (or 2nd) marathon with us on February 19, 2017!

I came home the other day to find a little package from Huawei, its new lifestyle and fitness wearable smart-device for sleep, health, and fitness tracking: the HUAWEI Band.

The HUAWEI band tracks daily activities, automatically recognizes walking and running, and calculates calorie burn.  It is encased in a scratch resistant steel body and topped with a OLED touch-display.  Its design is based on a minimalist and ergonomic Nordic design concept.  The comfortable diamond-patterned strap is available in three colors – black, cream and white. (more…)

After Vancouver Marathon, I was quite happy to goal-less for a couple of months until marathon training resumed for the next goal: Florence Marathon in November.  But, before I could even utter the words “off season,” I was invited to join the Sun Life relay team for Cebu Ironman 70.3.

I realized I had less than 2 months to build my speed up again.  Panic mode!  Oh, and I had to heat train! Double panic! (more…)

Last week, I finally learned what the fuss was about over the Nike+ Run Club (NRC) every 7:34PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Nike Park in Bonifacio Global City.  

After a quick sign in with the NRC Pacers (some of whom were familiar faces in the running/ triathlon community), we wasted no time in breaking into groups and getting started.  There was a 3k, 5k, and 10k group at various paces.  I joined the 5:30 min/km pace group for the 3k run because I had already run that morning. (more…)