Must stop doing that.  Making the cheater day such a big goal, that is.  But on the other hand, that’s it’s purpose – to get me through the week without cheating.

539 in 31 minutes on the elliptical this morning.  Got out of bed and went straight on it, before Ruth was up.  This gives me time to cool down before my shower.  My low number this morning is a result of reading my iPad while on the machine.  The normal book reader makes it easy to turn pages, just a tap, but the PDF reader is a total pain in the butt, with the page refusing to change unless shrunk to the unreadable size, and then difficult to resize to a readable size again.  I really hate the PDF reader, but I’m reading Jerry Coyne’s “Why Evolution is True” and it’s on a PDF.  I wonder if there’s a program someplace that can convert a PDF to an e-book format.  Probably.

Anyway, that’s the reason for my lower number.  And I always get a lower number when I read while working out on the elliptical.  No problem.  I’m sitting here dripping sweat.  My heart rate was sufficiently raised.  And I got through the exercise time without feeling it was a total waste of my time and boring.  Good enough.

Off to make breakfast now.

Breakfast once again reheated skinless chicken breast, brown rice, leftover green veggies, with a splash of soy sauce and a dollop of cottage cheese.  Very good.

I went grocery shopping on campus before lunch and picked up some mushrooms, Chinese greens, broccoli, a cabbage, and two bananas.  The bananas didn’t last until lunch time.  They were a snack.  I put half the cabbage into the chicken soup stock so lunch was chicken and cabbage soup, augmented by a bit of wild rice.  I added a spoonful of cottage cheese, just because I could.

Ruth cooked up a great stir fry of tofu, broccoli, and Chinese greens all simmered in the whey left over from last night’s cottage cheese production.  A bean salad with tomato made a nice side dish.

Spent the evening practicing music.  Played “Country Road” and “Four Strong Winds” with Ruth, plus the tango.  Worked a bit on Devil’s Dream for the fiddle.  Checked out some learn to play banjo videos on Youtube.  And another strictly kept day slips by.

I’ve let the water consumption fall off a bit. Haven’t been paying attention.  But I’ll have some now.  Then bed.

Straight on the machine again this morning.  Felt crappy and low energy, and was surprised when I managed to do 581 again in my 31 minutes.  Exactly the same as yesterday.

Elaine has signed on to the program.  Welcome Elane.  Now we need your weigh in information, measurements, and thoughts.  You say your birthday is in just one month.  That may be enough time to lose a few pounds, but it’s not enough to do the full program.  The full program, to get you back your girlish figure, would take 11 weeks.  So I’m hoping you will stick with us past your birthday.  Maybe arrange for your birthday to fall on a cheater day.  What’s the point of doing this if we don’t do it right, eh.

Once I get down to the weight I want, I’m going to try to make permanent lifestyle changes to keep myself there.  For now… on to the goals.

Breakfast this morning is again a bowl of Chinese greens poached up with half of the previously cooked chicken breast, a bit of juice form that breast, and some previously cooked brown rice.  A dash of soy sauce and it’s been quite tasty.
I say poached rather than fried, because I add a bit of water at the start and let it mostly steam away as the greens cook.  This time I left quite a bit, because the greens were obviously cooked.  It’s delicious.

Ruth isn’t as strict on the program as I am, so she’s still eating muesli for breakfast.

In the title of this, I called it the half way day.  Halfway to the next cheater day.  But I wonder about the wisdom of making the cheater day such a big reward, and so extreme.  I think I should try not to pig out so much on my cheater days, and not treat them as a binge, but just as a day when I can be a bit more relaxed and have coffee and such.

Must hit the shower.  Classes in half an hour.

Okay, another day strictly observed.  Nothing to drink but water. Nothing to eat but program approved food.  Lunch was soup again, finishing it off, with rice.  We had a snack when we got home – leftover greens with a strip of skinless chicken breast and rice fried heated up in the microwave.  Very tasty

I made dinner – microwaved potatoes with cottage cheese, beef roast simmered with quite a bit of water, mushrooms and garlic, steamed broccoli.  I made a fresh batch of cottage cheese, this time using 50% milk, partly skimmed.  I couldn’t buy more than one liter of skim milk the last time I went shopping, so settled for a second liter of the partly skimmed.

And that’s been the day.  I’ve been feeling tired and low energy all day, but that’s not surprising.  I tripped going up a step on my way to class this morning and skinned my knee right through my pants.  Painful.  I must remember to stay conscious.

Elaine, if you read this, please give us a progress report.  You should also send me a weight report.  I’ll graph your weight with mine when I get the graphs started.

I’ll probably start every week of this program with a slight hangover.  Not severe this morning.  I’ve had a lot worse.  Just that horribly poisoned feeling and a headache.  I’m about to climb on the elliptical for another 31 minutes before breakfast.  It’s Sunday, and already 10:36am.  Slept in a bit.

I realize that I want to make a graph of the weight loss that can be updated each weigh in.  Coming up.

We told Elaine about this program yesterday, and she says she’s going to go on it too.  I hope she does.  She could send in her comments each day, as I do these posts.  We could start a club.  Or a movement.  What fun.

Okay, get on that machine and sweat out this poison, Zale.

Whew.  618 calories this morning in my 31 minutes.  Feeling good now.  An aerobic workout really is the best hangover cure.  Ruth has heated up the soup.  Lean beef broth and cabbages and mushrooms, left over from last week.  A good start to being back on the program.

I was too tired to even finish this post last night, so I’m editing it this morning, day 2 of week 2.

I went looking for a banjo (nothing to do with this program so it shouldn’t even be mentioned I suppose) and a double boiler in the afternoon.  No success finding either.  The Chinese are not big on boiling, and all the pots in the supermarket had holes in the middle layer to make them into steamers.

All I can add is that I was strict with my eating and water consumption, but I generally felt a bit crappy in the evening.  I made another batch of cottage cheese from skimmed milk,  poached two large skinless chicken breasts in a bit of the whey, then crashed.  Feeling good now.

I’ve relaxed about keeping track of my water consumption.  I’m drinking nothing but water, and probably close to 3 liters a day, but keeping track of it is boring and pointless.

Since it is the cheater day, I intended to do no cardio this morning.  But my wife was up early and put in her full 31 minutes, so I simply had to climb on the machine.

I only had time for 21 minutes – 400 calories exactly.  We have a driver coming at 8:00am to take us to the train station for a day in Suzhou with our friend Elaine from Israel via Hangzhou.

I rushed my shower, and now I’m sitting here still sweating profusely.  Damn.  But the scrambled eggs with cheese and Chinese sausage Ruth cooked up for breakfast, along with buttered toast, is deliciously greasy.  The Chinese excuse for bread leaves something to be desired, but all in all it’s a great start to a cheater day.

Next stop:  Starbucks on the way to the train station.  Must go now.  Ten minutes before our ride shows up and I’m still naked and eating.

Okay, we’re back from Suzhou.  What a great cheater day this has been.

On the way to the train station we stopped at Starbucks and I got a vente latte to go.  Ruth bought a chocolate muffin.   I had a taste of the muffin on the train.

Then in Suzhou before we met with Elaine I had a slice of cantaloupe.  After we met with Elaine I had some deep fried chou dofu (stinky tofu) with a bit of sauce, and a stick of deep fried quail eggs.  Love that street food.

Walking the streets with Elaine we stopped at a restaurant and I had a cup of really nasty sweetened coffee.  Tasted like Nescafe instant with sugar, the kind of stuff that comes in a package.  We had some green tea with that.

Bought all kinds of gifts for the folks back home.  Then a great canal ride to another shopping area where we walked down another tourist street and I had a soft ice cream.

Then we caught a cab to the second Starbucks and had a blueberry muffin and another a grande latte.

On the train back to Wuxi, Ruth broke open a bag of M&M’s and I had half of that.

Wonderful food. Decadent living at its best.

Then we went to Shanghai Teppanyaki at Baoli, all you can eat and drink for 168rmb (translation to Canadian coming tomorrow when I’m not drunk) ($26.56 CDN)  Bottomless bottle of hot sake, strawberry juice, sashimi, steak and onions, lamb chops, eel, lamb chops, more sashimi, reordered steak and onions, reordered sake and strawberry juice, tiger prawns, scallops fried in butter, tempura prawns, another lamb chop, reordered sake, octopus (like eating rubber bands) snow peas and mushrooms,  second order of beef ribs, more sake,  some other kind of liquor, one more sake…  topped it all off with fried bananas and ice cream.  Am I ever he zuile (drunk).

Stopped at Starbucks for a final latte to take home with me.

Now home.  Finally over this day..  Very happy to see our dog, and she’s happy to see us.

I think that was a good cheater day.  In fact, I can’t imagine having a better one.  Totally completely decadent.  Tomorrow is weigh in and photographs day.  G’night now.  May crack the huang jiu (yellow wine) just to totally finish off the evening.

It’s Friday.  Tomorrow it’s the cheater day.  Not sure I’ve earned it yet, but I’m sure looking forward to a Starbucks latte.

581 calories in 31 minutes this morning on the elliptical trainer.  Still dropping.  Down from 594 yesterday.  Still enough.

I’ve managed to get a file of “Alice’s Restaurant”, a movie I’ve been wanting to see for years.  That made the time on the elliptical fly by, and probably contributed to the lower number.  But 581 is enough.

I woke up with a headache again, feeling bloated.  Now, after the aerobic workout, I feel good.  Waiting for Ruth to clear out of the shower so I can get in there.  Life is good.

We put some lean beef in the crock pot last night, along with some garlic and mushrooms, to make a soup stock.  Half of that went into a pot of boiled cabbage to make soup for lunch.  The other half is in the freezer labeled beef soup stock.

Lunch was soup with brown rice and a dollop of cottage cheese.  We added the last of the Chinese greens that look like clover.  Tasty.  The Chinese greens are about as fibrous as I’d like to eat.

Before lunch, Ruth baked the marinated chicken breast strips.  10 minutes on a side at 130 C to 140 C.  Very tasty.  We’ve bagged them, two or four to a bag, and they’re also in the freezer.

The dilemma – do I weigh myself today or Sunday, the day after the cheater day.  Does it matter?  Ruth says to weigh myself on the same day each week.  So Sunday it is.  I should figure out how far back the cheater day puts me though.  I think I need a weigh in right now.  Why not.

And the number is:  106.4kg. Down from 109.6 so that’s a loss of 3.2kg = 7.05479 lb
OR 7 lb and 0.87 oz

Wow.  7 pounds in six days.  I think that’s plenty fast enough.

This morning I got on the elliptical trainer before turning on the computer, barely awake.  I felt very low energy, and only managed to burn off 594 calories in my 31 minutes, down from 621 yesterday.  That’s okay.  The big thing is I got on the machine.  I got my heart rate up, and I sweated profusely.

Breakfast was the second half of that can of salmon with a spoonful of cottage cheese and a blob of brown rice.  Not bad.   Showered and hit the bikes for school.  We were teaching this morning, so it was  bit of a rush to get out in time for the 9:55 class.

My friend Goody is a vegan, which is something I admire but am not ready to do myself.  But I’m edging in that direction.  Since each of my meals is supposed to consist of a palm sized protein, I asked Goody what she eats for protein.  Here’s her reply:

#################email from Goody on the Subject of Protein##################

Well – I see I will have to give you a lecture on protein.

As a vegan, I have really looked into this.

Every single plant on earth contains protein, Everything you’ve ever heard about combining proteins in plants and about incomplete protein is rubbish.

Think about what horses and elephants eat – where do they get their protein? Grass and trees.

That said, the more organic and “good” your diet is, the more in touch you are with your body and what it wants. There are times when I want a more concentrated hit of protein – not often but sometimes. When that occurs I eat tofu or beans. Sometimes tempeh. Sometimes soy cheese. Nuts and seeds are great sources of protein. I sprinkle sunflower seeds on my veggies. Wonderful!

I hope that answers your question. I too am constantly refining my diet. It is now 90 percent organic and totally wheat free. (wheat is so mutated now it just puts fat on your gut – really). I rarely eat potatoes or other concentrated starches. There are so many plants in the world. The secret to cooking those plants is to avoid water. Don’t even steam them. I drop some organic coconut oil in a deep pan – and add veggies, then cover and let them cook in their own juices. They taste fabulous and no nutrition is lost. Roasting does the same thing and makes them very yummy.

You should also discover quinoa – cook it like rice – it serves the same function, tastes really good and is actually the flower and is very high in protein.

There.

big hugs to you.

Goody

############# end email from Goody on Proteins #####################

I value Goody’s advice, since she doesn’t just talk the talk but actually lives the lifestyle she recommends.  She’s incredibly fit.  Goes hiking as often as she can.  Not an ounce of body fat.  I do have to wonder how reliable the details of her advice is, how scientific.  What, for example, makes being “too mutated” a bad thing?

Progress already?

I was thinking I could feel a difference at my belt line on my second day on this program.  Silly.  Wishful thinking.  But today there is no doubt.  On the measuring day, a mere four days ago, I had trouble doing up my belt to the last belt hole.  Today it’s comfortable in the second hole from the end.  I’d call that hard data.  Amazing how fast this program starts to work.

Today I was feeling a bit low blood sugar this afternoon.  Generally just a bit… too aware of being conscious would be the best way to describe it, like the world is just a little unreal right now.  We had a snack when we got home and I’m feeling good now.  Just making another batch of cottage cheese, and about to start dinner.  Must eat before Chinese lesson.

 Dinner was two strips of marinated skinless chicken breast each, Chinese greens, tomatoes, broccoli all stir steamed in the wok, eaten with a serving of freshly cooked brown rice.  Oh yeah, and a squash that I cooked in the microwave with a bit of the cottage cheese and whey.  The second batch of cottage cheese, made with white vinegar instead of lemon juice, turned out much better.  Really good in fact.

I still have about half a liter of water to drink to make my quota for the day.  And that’s it for this post. G’night all.

I haven’t had breakfast yet.  Sitting here naked after burning 621 calories in 31 minutes on the elliptical trainer.  Time for a shower.

I’d like to have something other than muesli for breakfast, but I can’t decide what.  Maybe I should fry up some egg whites and rice.  That would TOTALLY be on the program.  Or maybe half a can of salmon and rice.  Our salmon supply is getting down there, but I still have a few cans left from what we brought to China last summer.  Good idea.  Let’s skip the muesli and see if I can be strictly on the program today.

Okay, breakfast solved.  A fist sized ball of pre-cooked brown rice thrown in the frypan with the white of two eggs.  A bit of water to keep things from sticking.  That wasn’t enough protein so I tossed in half a can of salmon.  And then as an afterthought added two or three leaves of Chinese greens (pre-washed by Ruth last night)  A dash or two of soy sauce,  a shake of salt.  Eating it now and it’s okay.  Different.  Not what I normally think of as breakfast, but I’m certainly feeling fed.

I want to buy some skinless chicken breasts and some tofu today.  Protein seems to be my big problem with this diet.  Still naked.  Still haven’t had my shower.  Off to do that as soon as I finish this bowl of fish and rice.

We skipped lunch.  Left at noon to ride our bikes to Wanda Plaza Cinema (about forty minutes easy riding) to see “John Carter” (fun if you park your brain at the door) at the matinée.  Picked up some skim milk, chicken breasts, and lean beef on the way home.  Protein problem solved.  Then I took the dog for a run and bought some eggs and green onions at the campus store.  Now I’m hungry, have not eaten my six meals today.  Ruth is in the kitchen cooking something that I’m sure will be on the program.  But I would like to eat something…..

Okay, Ruth cooked a couple of thin strips of lean beef for each of us, Chinese greens, mushrooms, broccoli, with brown rice.  Very tasty.   There’s some left over.  I may have a snack later.

After dinner I poached two of the chicken breasts in water with garlic, green onions, a tiny bit of peanut oil, soy sauce.  Look and taste okay.  They’re in the fridge now for tomorrow.

One of the things I’ve been missing here in China is cottage cheese.  Low fat cottage cheese is a wonderful substance when I’m on this program.  It goes great with anything, and replaces butter and any other lubricant you can think of.  But I’ve never seen it in China.  Our friend Elaine gave me a recipe for making cottage cheese, and this evening I tried it out.

###################Elaine’s Cottage Cheese Recipe#################

Recipe for Cottage Cheese

Ingredients:

2 pints (1200ml) semi-skimmed or skimmed milk
2 tablespoons (30ml) lemon juice or white vinegar
pinch of salt

Equipment:

Saucepan – stainless steel or enameled
Wooden spoon
Fine sieve

Method:

Pour milk into saucepan.
Heat on hot until it is very hot, but do not boil, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon.
Allow to cool for a couple of minutes.
Add 2 tablespoons (30ml) of lemon juice or vinegar
Stir and watch the milk separate into curds and whey.
Allow to cool further.
Pour the curds and whey through the sieve to catch the curds.
Discard the whey or use it instead of water in bread making, or for any recipe calling for sour milk or buttermilk.
Transfer the curds into a small bowl and add a pinch of salt.

You’ve got cottage cheese!

Elaine’s note:  I hung the cheese in a cloth over a bowl in the fridge overnight- suspended on a chopstick – to thicken the cheese.

Optional Extras to your Cottage Cheese

Add a tablespoon of double cream to the curds for a richer consistency.
Add chopped chives, chopped spring onions, herbs.
Sprinkle with a little black pepper.
Whatever takes your fancy.

Problems with Cottage Cheese:

The milk is not currdling – may be the milk.  Only use pasteurised milk, semi-skimmed or skimmed, not UHT or homogenised.

N.B.  I used fresh milk (which I think IS HOMOGENISED) but not UHT milk.  Add a little more acid in the form of lemon juice or vinegar to correct.

#############end Elaine’s Cottage Cheese Recipe###################

So naturally I can’t just follow instructions.  I was worried about scalding the milk on our hotplate, our only means of heating milk in a pan, so I tried heating it in a bowl in the microwave.  I don’t think I got it hot enough.  Very little cottage cheese curded out, and the milk still looked milky.  So I put the pathetic bit of cottage cheese in a container and heated the remaining milk on the hotplate.  When I added the lemon to that the result was quite gratifying.  The liquid remaining after the curds formed was a light yellow colour, very thin looking.  The curds of white cottage cheese separated out in the sieve and I can’t see any reason to mess with cheese cloth or do anything further.

BTW, I don’t know why this recipe specifies a wooden spoon.  A standard stainless spoon seemed to work just fine.

This batch has a bit of a lemon taste, not unpleasant.  I think I’ll make the next batch with white vinegar and see how that works.  Anyway, making cottage cheese turns out to be beyond simple, fairly quick, and very satisfying.

It’s now five to nine in the evening and I think I’ll publish this and call it a day. Got time for some fiddle and guitar practice before bed.  This has been my first day with absolutely nothing eaten that isn’t on the program.  Feels good.

Today was a bit more on than yesterday.  Still not 100% fanatical about the program, but getting there.  For starters, I burned 618 calories in 31 minutes on the elliptical trainer this morning before breakfast.  That’s a reasonable number for me.  Working that hard makes me sweat like a shower nozzle and really gets me breathing deeply.  I slow down when I start to hear my heart pounding in my ears.

Oh yes, I also did a few reps with the weights while my wife finished her turn on the elliptical.  I’m not working hard with the weights yet, because jumping into free weights without some gentle warm up can be very destructive.  But at least I picked them up and did 15 reps of bicep curls and 20 of standing rows (not sure what they are really called.  Leaning on a chair and lifting the weight from ankle level to shoulder.  I’ll do more free weights tomorrow.

Breakfast was again questionable.  First of all, it should have been skim milk, not whole milk.  And I think my muesli is too heavy on sugars.  I must translate the ingredients list and nutritional content.  I’ll get strict on breakfast soon too.

Lunch was our leftover soup with brown rice again.  It’s very low fat, heavy on the vegetables, so I think it’s okay.  If anything it’s light on protein.

Then this afternoon I had a couple of pieces of durian.  Delicious, but very sweet.  It’s carbs, and natural, but again I think it’s too high on sugar.  Must investigate.  I’m not sure where fruit fits in my diet.

Ruth cooked dinner and it was delicious.  Snow peas and Chinese greens, brown rice, and two short pork ribs.  If there was anything wrong with it, it would be the bit of fat with the pork ribs.  Oh yes, and she used the apple water from making apple sauce to flavour the onions.  That must have added a bit of sugar.  But insignificant, I think.  It was great.

I’ve had about two liters of water so far today, as of 8:30 in the evening.  Drinking four liters a day is out of the question.  I think I’m going to make it three.  Even that is pushing it a bit.  I feel waterlogged, and my pee is running clear like tap water.

So that’s where I’m at.  My headache has been better today, though still there a bit.  Could be caused by eye strain.  I’ve been doing a lot of blog entry updates. (My main website is http://www.themaninchina.com  This one is only for my weight loss project.)  I’m looking forward to my cheater day already.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about the goals I want to set for this effort.  Really I’d like to be back to my teenage weight – 180lbs.  But that may not be realistic or healthy.  For sure I’d like to be around 200lbs. again.  I won’t have a six pack at that weight, but a six pack is not healthy anyway.  Right now it’s hard to believe I’m actually going to lose any weight.  I don’t feel like I’m really making that big a change to my eating.  But our fitness trainer friend, Kat, told me that everybody knows what makes them fat.  So, what made me fat?

Snacking on sweet potato chips and peanuts in the evening.
French bread with thick Irish butter.
Eating anything and everything I feel like eating, whenever I feel like eating it.
And of course the booze – scotch, jin jiu (A sweet and strong Chinese liquor), huang jiu (A Chinese wine).  Just empty calories.
There’s really nothing else that could have made me fat.  So if I stop these things, I should soon see a difference.

I have two new guitar students as of yesterday.  I don’t charge for teaching guitar, just happy to spread the culture.  But I realize that changing my body shape is a bit like learning to play the guitar.  The hardest part is the beginning.  I feel like this will get easier when I start seeing some results and can have a bit more confidence.

I think I’ll wait at least until Friday before I weigh myself or take any measurements.

This was not an auspicious day to start my body transplant program.  At eight this morning (scratch the light aerobic workout before breakfast) our friend Wang Tao and his parents arrived at our apartment to take us to a day of admiring peach blossoms.  It’s Spring here in Wuxi (pronounced more or less like woo she).  The air is clear and warm.  Skies are blue.  It was a beautiful day.

I took my large water bottle along, sipped on it constantly, and at this point in the evening have imbibed about two of my allotted 4 liters.  But I also drank many cups of green tea, which is a no no for this program.

No aerobic workout to start the day.  What else did I do wrong?  Well, part of our day was a tour of a tiny country factor that makes sticky rice dumpling things filled with sweet bean paste.  I ate two of them.

Then there was lunch.  I’m pretty sure that most of lunch was totally okay with my program,  except for the two bowls of soup broth my host insisted on me drinking.  They were like drinking straight oil flavoured with chicken fat.

The rest of the lunch was heavy on protein, and I think it was okay.  I cooked dinner tonight – a steamed stir fry of mushrooms, a bit of lean pork, broccoli, and a Chinese green vegetable the name of which I don’t know.  It resembles spinach, except more fibrous.  I’m sure it was totally on the program and I could eat as much as I wanted.

Ruth cooked up a rice cooker worth of brown rice, which went nicely with the stir fry.

Now we are off to see if we can give away the bulk of the bai tuanzi, the sticky rice balls with the sweet been paste filling, at the Chun Hui Qing Nian Gong Yi Fa Zhan Zhong Xin (The Chun Hui young volunteers center on campus.)

I’ve had a headache most of this day.  Probably caused by the change in diet, low blood sugar, or caffeine withdrawal.  I can live with it.

Tomorrow I’ll try to be more strict with the program.  I do want to see some results.  I want to get into a light weight routine with the aerobics in the morning.  It will have to be a light weight routine because all I have is two dumbbells.  Six kilos of weights and probably another kilo of handle, so total seven kilos or about fifteen pounds.  That’s enough for a free weight workout in my present condition.