Dateline Wuxi, Monday December 17, 2012

586 calories on the elliptical trainer in 31 minutes this morning, while trying to figure out my next move against Chemist in England for the only one of the four xiang qi games we are playing for which there is any hope of winning.  I thought I had him, but he is the king of wiggle.

This last year in China I feel like I’m just marking time until it’s over.  Which will be in June.  Then we are back in Canada and an uncertain future.

Dateline Wuxi, Sunday December 16, 2012

605 calories on the elliptical this morning in 31 minutes.  Playing games with the numbers.  I was at less than 500 calories which is short of being on track to make 600 by the time I had 25 minutes in, so that meant I had to make more than 20 calories per minute for my remaining 5 minutes, which meant I had to keep my effort up at or above the 50 level for the remaining minutes. Obviously I managed to do this.  Whew.

Dateline Wuxi, Saturday December 15, 2012

Weigh in this morning.  I’m down slightly.  93.3 down from 93.6 last week.  But I ate a few salted peanuts yesterday, so I’m probably holding water.

Ruth is up slightly from 62.2 to 63.1

No exercise this morning.  I had a frosted brownie for a wake up and am now on my second slice of bread with peanut butter and bananas.  We’ll be off to Starbucks on our bikes soon.  Marking to do.

In the news, 27 children gunned down in America and the plea goes out not to blame this on mental illness.

Dateline Wuxi, Friday December 14, 2012

It’s Friday but we forgot to do the weigh in this morning.  Not too worried about that, and wouldn’t mind if we leave it until next week.  I’m feeling fat.

Made a conscious decision not to work too hard on the morning workout, because I’ve been making it too painful lately.  So I had a “walk in the park” on the elliptical trainer.  Still managed to work up a sweat and burn 571 calories.  That’s a steep drop from yesterday’s 639, but still totally acceptable.  And it did make the workout more pleasant.  Must get back to my previous motto:  No pain, no pain.

Starting my cheater day early with peanuts before dinner.  Bad bad bad.

Dateline Wuxi, Thursday December 13, 2012

Worth noting, today is 12/12/12, a repetitive date we won’t see again.  No it isn’t.  That was yesterday.  Damn, I got confused and missed it.  But the next number is just as amazing…

I did 639 on the elliptical trainer this morning without a pause.  Rather surprising.  I had been wondering whether my earlier record of 624 was a fluke caused by starting with ten still on the machine, but apparently not.  I was watching the numbers this morning.  Last night was a bit of a wine and cheese booze up, so this seems to support my theory that my mornings are powered by toxins the night before.

Dateline Wuxi, Tuesday December 11, 2012

562 on the elliptical trainer in my 31 minutes.  Very low score.  I wonder if I burned out all the sugar in my system by working out last night.  I did notice that I had a serious case of the munchies before bed last night.  Fortunately there was nothing in the house to eat that was off program.  Except the shortbread cookies left over from last Christmas and those were too obviously fat makers for me to eat one of them.  I ate a banana.  Still felt munch happy.

Dateline Wuxi, Tuesday December 11, 2012

No exercise so far today.  No time and too bagged this morning.  Last night was stressful with a facebook post by a close relative suggesting suicidal intentions, followed by the inability to contact anybody and the VPN not working to get me through the Great Firewall of China.   I may get on the machine tonight if we watch a movie.  why not, eh?

Yesterday I forgot to record.  I think my score was 588calories in 31 minutes on the elliptical machine.

Okay, I got on the machine in the evening while we watched “Dark Knight Rising”.  What an expensive piece of crap that movie is.  570 on the elliptical trainer in my 31 minutes.

Dateline Wuxi, Sunday December 09, 2012

No exercise this morning.  We were required to be at the North Gate by 7am to go off for a day of judging The China Daily speech contest.  110 identical speeches on the subject of the College Admissions Test.  Damn it was cold in that high school.

Lots of fat and carbs for lunch.  Typical Chinese lunch feast.  Now I’m drinking heated huang jiu and feeling totally fried from the day.  Still freezing.

Dateline Wuxi, Saturday December 08, 2012

628 calories in 31 minutes on the elliptical machine this morning.  That’s the highest I’ve scored in months.  Must be the dinner with the students last night, and all the hot huang jiu, that did it.

I don’t deserve a cheater day this week, but I’ll take one anyway.  I still feel like my belly flab is getting thinner, even if my weight isn’t dropping.  Started this morning with peanut butter and banana sandwich and one of Ruth’s fresh brownies with milk.  Good start.  We’re off to Starbucks.

Dateline Wuxi, Friday December 07, 2012

Ruth weighed in at 62.2 down from 63.1

I weighed in at 93.6 up from 93.0  discouraging but I deserve it with my scotch every night and dipping into the peanuts.

606 calories on the elliptical this morning in my 31 minutes. Feeling good.