Dateline Wuxi, China, Thursday September 20, 2012

552 on the elliptical this morning.  It’s a strange thing.  The day after a cheater day I have all those carbs and sugars to burn off, and it feels like no effort at all to get a score in the high 500’s, but by day 5 it’s a struggle to stay above 550.

Doing okay today, though I did have tea with a glass of milk to celebrate the end of this weeks classes, and I am sipping a very small amount of yellow wine as I type this.  Oh yeah, we had left over Chinese food for dinner, and I think the oil content was pretty high for the program.  How strict should I be?

Dateline:  Wuxi, China, Wednesday September 19, 2012

565 calories in 35 minutes on the elliptical this morning.  Not a high number, but I got on the machine.

Aaarrrr lad, it be talk like a pirate day.  Aarrrrr.

Dateline: Wuxi, China, Tuesday, September 18, 2012

572 on the elliptical in  my 31 minutes this morning.  Time for a shower.

Breakfast was chicken, rice, qing cai with a bit too much soya sauce.

Okay, I was good today.  So far.  Got the munchies right now.  Maybe there’s a strip of chicken left.

Dateline: Wuxi, China, Monday, September 17, 2012

573 on the elliptical machine and it’s about time.  A good number, not over the top but in the zone.

Started at about five after seven and it’s now seven 45 and I’m dripping sweat again and feeling good.  Must get some breakfast – brown rice, qing cai, and skinless chicken breast precooked.

Damn but I’m having a hard time sticking with the program during Phase 2.  We took my sister for a street barbeque instead of eating at home this evening.  I had the best part of a large bottle of beer, and on the way home I bought buttered popcorn just so my sister could see it made on the street.

Dateline Wuxi, China, Sunday, September 15, 2012.

Obviously I skipped a couple of days.  Cheater day yesterday was not such a pig out, though we did hit a bakery in Hangzhou pretty hard.

Today was a travel day, so I haven’t been very strict.  Fruit salad for breakfast, along with two lattes, but then I had a zongzi at the train station, fatty pork filling, greasy rice.  Delicious but not on the program.  Then when we got home, Gloria had cooked up a Chinese feast for us.  Again delicious, but greasy and fatty.  I must get back on the elliptical machine, if nothing else.

I’ve slipped far enough down that slippery slope that I’m having trouble getting on the elliptical.  Time is short in the mornings.  This morning we’re getting ready to go to Hangzhou, and our driver will be here in another forty-five minutes.  No time.

Right.  No time but plenty of excuses.

At least I ate strictly on the program yesterday, and should be able to do so pretty well today.  I’m having porridge for breakfast again this morning.

Again, no time for the elliptical.

Again porridge for breakfast.

Yesterday was not a disaster, but it certainly wasn’t being strictly on the program.  Not if I count the lack of exercise and the birthday cake, not to mention the dinner with the yellow wine.  Well, that’s the way it goes sometimes.  Today I shall try to be on the program at least as far as food goes.  No promises about the elliptical.  Busy busy busy.

Porridge for breakfast.  No time for the elliptical before class, or is that just an excuse.  No, really, there’s not enough time.  And Panda is sleeping on our floor so I’d have to wear my bathing suit.  I get enough exercise.

Today is hot and muggy already, and it’s only eight in the morning.

Okay, completely fell off the wagon this evening.  Well, not terribly.  I’m still sober.  But it was Gloria’s birthday so Ruth and I took Panda and Gloria and Cath to a restaurant on campus for food that is NOT on the program.  Plus I tossed in a bottle of huang jiu (yellow wine) and a big birthday cake.  Good party.  Bad food.  I shall do better tomorrow.

No regrets.  We enjoyed ourselves.

Finally up to exercising again.  575 calories on the elliptical in 31 minutes.

Now dripping sweat and almost cool enough for a shower.

I cooked breakfast, but no time for the elliptical before class.  Maybe at noon, I hope.

Okay, now reporting in after dinner (beef with mushroom, microwaved potato with cottage cheese, lots of qing cai).  I’m eating on the program, but I haven’t done any elliptical today and it looks like I’m not going to.  That’s two days in a row.  Another slippery slope.  I’ll try again tomorrow.