June | 2010 | Gracefulfitness

Monthly Archives: June 2010

June 20, 2010 · 11:03 am

No Woohoo in Wuhan

Unfortunately, I am taking a few days off from my June Goals. I am sick! Yesterday I felt rough but pushed through the day with a lot of walking and exertion. I put off my abs routine until late and by the time we walked home from our friends apartment it was midnight and I was totally whipped out.

This morning I woke up and immediately knew things had turned from “under the weather” to downright sick. I have spent the day in bed at the hostel and a walk across the street to the grocery store to stock up on fruit just about put me down for the night. So no push up variation challenge for me today.

C’est la vie.

In theory, I am a HUGE proponent of listening to my body. In practice, I sometimes choose to ignore it. This week I feel like I maybe pushed myself a little bit more than my body could take and as a result it broke down completely.

Well, it’s probably a good thing that we couldn’t book a train to Beijing until Tuesday night and we have to stay in Wuhan for another two days. Wuhan is known as the armpit of China. Delightful, no? Sooooo, sleeping the day away is not the worst way to pass some time in “The City in Central China” (great claim to fame, huh?).

Speaking of listening to my body, I have gotten much better on the sugar-free front. I realized I was being lazy about avoiding sugar and if I really wanted to stir clear of it, I could. I haven’t been 100% added-refined-sugar-free but I have been reducing my intake over the last few days.

I don’t think sugar is exactly evil…I just don’t believe it has much value. I have a sensitive immune system and keeping my refined sugar intake to a minimum is one of the simplest things I can do for my health. Also, when I eat sugar often I want it all the time and MORE of it. It is ADDICTIVE and I don’t like the strong cravings it gives me. Here is an article about some of the ill effects of sugar consumption, it is a bit extreme but it is a good illustration of how everything is connected and that refined sugar has a powerful effect on all of our bodily systems.

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Filed under food, goals, travel

Tagged as China, goals, stress, sugar

June 20, 2010 · 11:02 am

cough, cough

Well I seem to have overdone it. Liquid energy in the form of green tea before my run on Thursday may have been a bad idea. Or maybe it’s the stifling humidity paired with going in and out of AC all day. Whatever it is, I feel run down. My throat is still very sore and is now accompanied by a hacking cough and a runny nose. Yeah, not a pretty sight.

Sleeping in a different bed every few nights doesn’t help much either. Last night was spent on the train, which wasn’t so bad really. We got on at 7pm, ate a bit, read a bit, slept. Got off at 6:50 this morning in Wuhan. Trains are generally very timely here in China.

I love traveling. It’s one of my favorite things. But it can be very draining and with 10 days left to go I am starting to transition into thinking about my life back in the U.S. My thoughts are turning more and more to Portland and our big move coming up. My goal is to stay present and really savour this last week of being abroad.

We have an old friend from West Virginia here in Wuhan and he and his girl-friend showed us around this afternoon.

We climbed to the top of a hill for a city view and went to a veg restaurant at a Taoist temple for lunch.

We had a variety of “fake meat” dishes. Wheat gluten? Soy? I dunno but they were tasty. Here’s our appetizer platter. I meant to take more pictures but I got busy eating!

Later on Tate and I went into a REAL GROCERY STORE! All I have seen since April has been convenience stores chock full of candy and candy posing as crackers or breads.

As I have mentioned, Chinese food can be overly salty and overly oily.

The oil section! And that’s not all of it!