New Beginnings

After my realization last week that my work here in China will not ever be a source of happiness, I needed to turn over a new leaf, and remember and find the things in my life that do make me happy. The past year or so I've given all my efforts to try and make my career work in China. I've been passionate as always, done the right thing in all situations, and stayed late, done work beyond what I was hired to do, etc. Still, I have not made much progress in helping the children at the schools because the people I have been working for are not in education to do the right thing for children.

So I have to just let go. I go into work, do what's asked of me, and get out when it's time to go. I feel strange not have motivation at work, but when I started to see the other parts of my life take a back seat, I knew that I needed to regain myself.

Last week I began doing p90x. It's a workout system which they say works because of "muscle confusion." That's just another term for cross training. It's a 90 day program that has various activities for cardio along with the strength training including a yoga workout that's pretty good I must say. The sequencing is a bit off, but they do a good job of teaching and demonstrating good yoga asana for the masses. Anyways, my workout routine for the past one year has been just bare minimum and so my body has been showing that. I've lost so much muscle tone and am bigger than I've ever been. So I'm taking back my body. And it feels good. I'm sore almost every single day but one thing I've learned from yoga is to remember my limits. So my soreness is not debilitating. I'm walking a little weird this morning because my legs are sore, but it's a good feeling. My legs feel strong and like they have worked ... hard.

Basically, this program is just changing it up for me. It's different exercises that's shaking up my muscles. The videos are motivating and the absolute best part is that it's all free! In America, if you buy the dvds, nutrition plan, workout charts, etc. it costs about $200. But thanks to youku.com and the fact that there are no copyright laws in China that are enforced, all the videos are posted and I can just stream them on my laptop. Which is good because I take my laptop to the gym and use the free weights and benches when I need them during the workouts. p90x is also available on Youtube.com for all of you in America, but I think because of youtube's rules, you can't post the entire video at once so it's broken up and that would not be the best when you are trying to workout to have to keep switching and loading different videos. Still, it's better than paying full price.

I also found the p90x+ in the dvd shop while we were in Beijing so I've got that for after I finish the p90x program. These five dvds are even harder workouts for when you have gotten through the first program.

Now I've just got to work on my diet which will be difficult knowing that Christmas is just around the corner. And not to mention that Chase joined me yesterday to do the Legs and Back workout and we went to dinner famished after and had cheese fondue. YIKES. I know, not the best idea if you're trying to get into shape.. hahhah. Anyways, it's been years since I've had fondue of any sort. I will just try and keep it lean for the next couple of weeks. I have noticed I'm eating smaller meals, and more of them and when I do that it's easier to choose healthy food to eat because I'm not gorging on bad food (salty or sweet) because I'm starving. So that's good.

The other new thing I started to do recently was eat peanut butter! I used to eat so many PB&J sandwiches when I was a kid that one day in elementary school, I just couldn't eat peanut butter anymore. It would just make me sick. So I've avoided anything with peanut butter in it for my whole life except for peanut sauces, peanut dressings, and actual roasted peanuts. So now I've gotten back to eating peanut butter. I still can't eat peanut cookies, peanut ice cream, or anything else, but I'm enjoying eatin PB&Js for lunch again. I think it was a mental obstacle for me so I'm glad to be over that hurdle.

So a lot of change over here and it's good to have a different focus in my life and not worry so much about my work. Chase and I are going hiking these weekend on Baochu hill, going to dinner with friends, bowling, getting massages, and putting up Christmas lights.