biggest loser...china taste

for those tracking with me on my biggest loser journey toward awesomeness, after 1 week of biggest loseriness i lost a grand total of 1.1% of my total body weight. ha ha. well hey...losing is losing right? slow and steady wins the race maybe??? here's hoping!

as week 2 continues i've found china both welcoming and receptive to my loseriness. first, i joined a chinese gym. i've gone a few times now and on monday when i went i had an ummm interesting yet helpful experience. so the chinese gym i should say is pretty nice. the equipment is decent and in fairly good condition and it only cost me 1400rmb for a full year membership (that's $205 for those who don't know what 1400rmb is!). so you know, great deal really. the one major drawback is that in china as with their water, they like it hot. they have a few small fans and some open windows and that's it. so the amount of sweat one can generate in 45min. on an elliptical is quite amazing. my first time, i was sweating so much i had sweat not only forming on my fore arms but actually dripping off. (i consider my fore arms to be an area of my body that would not typically sweat copious amounts!)

in any case, i'm still down with the gym and have been going faithfully every other day. so on monday i went in and put my stuff in my locker and then started to change into my workout clothes. for the ladies, you'll understand that sports bras are made particularly tight (for obvious reasons) and so they can sometimes get all twisty, thus making them a bit tricky to get on. in this case, i had a few brief struggles with my sports bra and was standing there tugging at it when i suddenly felt someone's hand on my back. eek! then i realized my sports bra was being oh so nicely tugged down into place. so my first awkwardness subsided and i thought, dang that was nice and helpful, i should say thanks. so i turned around and found chubby chinese lady standing there completely naked all smiles! i quickly said thanks and finished changing!! what can i say...helpful and strangely motivating for my workout!

the other strange occurence which is slightly less tied to loseriness but still crazy. i actually know and have interacted with someone who apparently now has swine flu! crazy crazy! i went to a bday dinner for this girl and apparently she had a friend fly in from new zealand to surprise her for her bday. i guess the girl who flew in got or had swine flu and then gave it to her friend here. happy birthday...here's your swine flu present! anyway...as far as i know all swine flu was acquired after i saw the girl so i seem to be symptom-less, but we cancelled our small group tonight...just in case. though i suppose if i should come down with anything it could prove to be a helpful biggest loser weightloss technique. what do you think? no? :)

anyway...here's hoping i can muster more than 1.1% this week! :)

we're here, we're hungry, get used to it brunch

....yes some of you have caught the pop culture sitcom reference in the title....you're correct...i'm now hooked like everyone else. for those that didn't catch it...you can go on thinking i'm really really funny...that's right....blog five!

so anyway...for the 3 people who read my blog you prolly already know and may even be a part of the new international version of the biggest loser that yours truly has crazily enrolled in. my $100 entrance fee buys me 23 weeks of low cal, high exercise fun. and, if at the end of 23 weeks of more-fun-than-a-person-has-a-right-to, i have the highest percentage of weightloss, i'll get something like $1000. sounds good right?! yeah....well....i think it is. course, i don't think i can win, but i do hope to put forth a better showing than my fantasy football team did last year. now the league has morphed into a keeper league and the truth is when your team finishes dead last there isn't much you'd want to keep!

but i digress.

so the biggest loser is underway in week 1 and so far i'm tracking calories, doing pilates every morning, and joined a gym. now i just need to go to the gym and i'll be on a sure path to not-last-place! woo hoo.

i've told a few of my friends here about our little competition since i'm the only contestant representing all of asia and so i thought i could use a little positive reinforcement. so i suppose the response at lunch on sunday should have come as no surprise to me. we're sitting at johnny moo's, shanghai's version of a fake american 50's diner that serves burgers and shakes (think johnny rocket). i'm casually flipping through the menu to figure out what to order and i mutter to myself, "now what would the biggest loser eat?" immediately, my friend hannah reaches over and flips my menu to the salads page and then smiles at me. i laugh at this bit of a joke/hint and think over the choices. when my turn comes for ordering i go ahead and order the grilled chicken ceasar salad and no sooner do the words come out of my mouth then everyone at the table sponaneously begins clapping. it was just short of a standing ovation! lol. now that's what i call positive reinforcement.

to all my fellow contestants....i know you're trying hard, but i fail to see how i can be beat when i get a standing O every time i sit down to a meal!

may the biggest loser win! :)