Posted by Stephen - February 6th, 2010
I have been thinking about a number of things....
Thinking about my weight
Like my sister confided in her last blog, I have gained weight and it is all around the tummy. When I went to Asia I lost a lot of weight, so much that people kept asking me if I was "sick". I actually thought it was pretty cool, fitting into pants 4 sizes smaller. Of course I went out and bought a lot of new clothes for my new shape...as a result Peter now has a lot of new clothes. OK, rice and diced pork is one thing, try losing weight on cheese, bread, European beers and authentic made in France French Fries! (not to mention butter croissants) I have gained back only a few pounds, but two pant sizes..that is not fair. Why does it not go to other places ? Anyway, I was on the verge of losing even the two pant size advantage so the past month I have worked very hard to reverse this trend. I exercised more and basically starved my self. I replaced my high carb diet with veggies, replaced beer with wine and eliminated bread, except whole wheat toast for breakfast. OK,...to be frank, I must admit that occasionally I do give in to a croissant, but only occasionally, like on the weekend, or maybe one other day in the week, unless it is raining and then I might take one to cheer me up. Or when it is cold. Sometimes on the way to work...
When I run in Paris I think I pass at least three bakeries and 2 chocolate shops. I think that bypassing a bakery while running should count for a higher calerie loss. The 50 calories fro running past and the 250 calories for not stopping and eating a butter croissant. Right ?
Anyway, I can now wear my trousers and breathe at the same time. Unlike China I do not have access to a health club and gym in the building, so I have to rely on the exercises Mr. Thorton taught us in grade 10 gym. class at Glebe. Push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks and running. As I was going to and from work this week, I started thinking that I must be walking a lot on those trips, twice a day. And as anyone who has taken any european subway knows, there are a lot of stairs.
So this week I counted the number of paces and the number of stairs it took on a typical trip to work. I had figured it had to be about 2 miles walking plus enough steps to climb 10 stories. So, I counted coming home one night. It was hard, I kept mixing up steps (stairs) and paces. Sometimes I forgot and I had to go back down a set of steps to recount. (feeble minded but strong legs...). I finally had to take out my blackberry and make notes after each leg, office to train, train to subway, subway to apartment. Took me two days. Some of my fellow commuters must have thought I was crazy counting, blackberrying, stopping, starting....
Finally the result. (drum roll please....oh, never mind) It is a measly .55 of a mile, and 203 steps. Barely a mile a day. Hardly enough to burn a couple of hundred calories! Back to Mr. Thortons gym routines. A bakery window....
Thinking about blogging
When I started this blog I figured I would have lots of witty and inciteful observations about my new life. . And for awhile I did. (well, I had new things, if they were witty etc. is up to you to judge) But, it is winter. Days are short., it is cold, wet. Now I have learned that complaining about living in Paris gets no sympathy. But I really have a dull existence. (or as Genya would say, no balance in my life). I go to work in the morning, it is barely light, and I come home in the dark. I have travelled every weekend since the first week of January, so any free time I have is doing laundry or sleeping (...see, I am complaining already). Genya comes next week, and we are trying to get away for a weekend to another city in Europe, so perhaps we may have a blog worthy topic.I wanted to do more blogs but I kept thinking I had no pictures. Well, who says all blogs need pictures. So this is a minimal photo blog.
I leave tomorrow for Morocco for 3 days, supposed to be sunny and 60F. Couscous and mint tea..., lamb kebobs.
