Thoughts on mortality, bulalo on my rice and my unhappy liver

"I've been in denial that I am already over 40 by eating like I was 14 years old."

That's what I answered my friend, EJ, when he asked me what happened to me. Today was my first official visit to a work site (a seminar we were holding at the Linden Suites called "Developing Customer Service Superstars" with EJ McKnight. No, he's not the brother of the singer, Brian MKnight....).

I am actually just 42. But I have been quite remiss in taking care of my own health. I've been taking care of business, taking care of my wife, writing books, taking care of our new baby, Joshua, taking care of other stuff.... But when it comes to my health it's really a simple formula for me. Eat what you want in moderation. So far, that has been good in keeping my weight in check, but not for my liver and stomach. When I go out with my Godsons -- Matt, Bam, Bruce -- and my Goddaughter, Chava -- I eat what they eat. Pepperoni Pizza, Sisig, Lechon, Crispy Pata.... When I go out with my Dgroup boys, we pig out on Bulalo. Sometimes, I ask the waitress for an extra serving of bone marrow fat to spread out on my rice.

My simple remedy would be to double up on my supplements to "burn" the extra fat. But that seemingly doesn't work. Duh....(But wait. My wife takes care of me and doesn't have any pork in the house. We eat just fish and chicken and veggies. The only thing is that we have nasty-to-the-liver sleeping habits. It's lights off usually by 1am or 2am.)

My antibiotic-pill-popping days have also come to haunt me. When I was in Ateneo, living in the dorm, I would just pop my stash of antibiotics when the first threat of a cough or cold would come. Never mind if it were just viral. (And you know you are not supposed to take antibiotics for the flu. But I did it all the time.) My liver, I imagine, wasn't very happy with that.

Now, I've been sick and trying to recover for the past two weeks. I have stayed put like a hermit in our condo. I had sleep hyper hydrosis. (That's super sweating it out in the night during my sleep. Think of 5 pajama changes in one night.) I had cough, headaches, LBM, clogged ears... But what worried me were the night sweats because the headaches and cough did come to pass.

My blood analysis shows that my liver is not functioning like it should. My spleen is also affected. And there are other page long details that would bore you.

I changed my diet. Went to a clinic for detoxing. I also went on a fasting and cleansing program for the past 7 days ... and I feel much, much better.

The point is...I am 42 and I have to start practising what I preach and write about in my book, The Heart of Healing. The Lord is continually trying to teach me humility and I am a hard headed student.

Faced with the prospect of getting worse and yes, maybe a shorter life span, thoughts of my lessons to my Tuesday group come back to me...

"What would you do if you had two weeks to live?"

I then ask my group to come up with a list of at least 12 things. Then we study the wisdom in the book of Ecclesiastes.

I have my list tacked on the cork board fronting my desk. Time to read it again, just in case. I don't plan to go anywhere, but it's not a bad idea to live your day as if it were going to be your last. Because, as one wise man once said, "someday it is going to be."