A post-PCP Top 20 list..

The first things that came to mind when thinking about the past 90+ days (in no particular order).

1. Be careful you don't make faces at other people's food choices, it's rude. 
2. Skipping breakfast is a stupid way to start the day.
3. Coffee is your friend.
4. Skipping is actually quite fun once you the hang of it
5. If the ingredients are fresh and good quality, then extra sauces and seasonings are a distraction
6. Before complaining about all the money you have to spend on new clothes post-pcp, remember how much money you are saving in bar & restaurant bills.
7. To celebrate the start of post-pcp, I bought a nice new belt.  There's only so many holes you can punch before the old ones looks tacky.
8. Not all skim milks are created equally. Try them all out.
9. PCP for me was all about developing good habits (or rediscovering old ones).
10. Food really does taste better when you've given your palate a holiday from manufactured foods.
11. How much weight did I lose? Honestly no idea and i don't really care. My guess is 5-7kg. Tailor said he took in 4 inches from my waste so I know it worked.
12. It sure feels good to be able to run up stairs and not feel pain in my right knee anymore.
13.  I ate a handful of Halloween candy, within minutes felt like crap. The cure?  A tasty yellow pepper.
14. Food is fuel. I can now tell the difference been the high octane premium stuff and the cheap lead-based poison.
15. Working out in the morning is a great way to start the day. (with the added bonus, courtesy of PCP, of the afterburn effect)
16. Throwing a bag full of raw veggies, a couple of apples and a few slices of chunky bread into my work bag  only takes a few minutes, but means that I will never be hungry during the day and tempted to eat some manufactured snacks.
17. The guy running the kiosk at the mui wo ferry pier has the best fruit cups I've ever had -- and only HK$14.
18. Good health is contagious.
19. PCP worked for me because it was a challenge. Staying healthy post- PCP means having new goals. Mine is to paddle around lantau in my new kayak.
20. Congrats to everyone else that gone through this, and a huge THANK-YOU to Patrick and Chen for making this excellent program accessible to mere mortals!

Hong Kong Farmer's Market

Check this out -- corn, daikon radish, okra, long beans, two kinds of eggplant, sweet potato leaves, shiso, basil and some funny looking red fruit I've never seen before. Plus the best bananas I've had a in a long time. All for under HK$100 -- about US$14 from the wednesday morning farmer's market at Hong Kong's Central Star Ferry pier.

How things have changed...

...for one thing, my breakfast is a lot more colorful these days. Should have taken a picture, but today's desjeuner was

-1 beetroot (already cooked, a bit expensive but easy and no extra junk)
-1 red pepper (eating them apples now, can't be bothered to cut them up)
-2 carrots (i buy 2 bags at a time now). 
-2 slices of whole wheat toast
-1 boiled egg
-1 glass of skim milk

First visit to tailor...

Had to put on a suit last week so first choice was one of my newer ones. Fat chance! I had to back to the end of the rack and put on some relic of the past that actually fit. Next day took six pairs of pants in to be altered. Tailor said I went from size 40 to size 36.

How to win friends and influence people....

Ordered a flat white at McCafe today and the young lady asked me - "will that be with skim milk sir'? Surprised, I said, yes, but how did you know? She replied "just looked at your face" or something like that. Not sure what to make of that but guess its a good sign. Or maybe she's been reading Dale Carnegie...

I checked the scale today for the first time since I started the project -- 96kg -- prePCP it was closer to 102-103kg.

Eating well in Canada....

Hit a couple of nice milestones -- yesterday put a new hole in my belt and bought a size 34 jeans. Good bye size 36!

Food in Canada this past week has been such a welcome change from Hong Kong's  Park-n-Shop and Welcome. Bought a venison striploin which was very lean, tasty and tender. Had to make a few phone calls to find it, so was surprised to find that it was a well travelled -- all the way from New Zealand. Cooked it on the BBQ and made a sauce with only blueberries, red currants and rhubarb which turned out pretty good.

Went to the weekly farmers market yesterday and bought some fresh wild rainbow trout from Ontario and some frozen wild scallops from Nova Scotia and a local grass fed rib eye. Man, that was superb. I already sent my friend Henry at TC Foods an email to see if he imports grass fed beef. Happy to hear that he does. He also imports venison, so will give that a try too when I get back.

Today's dinner was a bag of frozen prawns which turned out really well on the BBQ, along with some frozen haddock with tarragon and slices of lemon. Good value, but noticed that Captain Haddock likes sodium phosphate so will pay more attention next time. It came in a box so I should have known better. Also found some frozen wild blueberries which tasted better than the imported farmed ones.

But the highlight this week was really Mom's garden veggies (thanks Mom!). Carrots, kale, parsley, onions, tomatoes, beets, zuchinni... and lots of apples with just the right amount of tartness. Going to be tough to beat all that back in Hong Kong.

Well, that's about it for the past week. Tomorrow off to Vancouver to pick up a new Feathercraft foldable  kayak (Big Kahuna) and visit my friends on the Sunshine Coast. First thing I asked when I booked my couch was "what do you have in the freezer".  Looks like tomorrow's protein will be coming from ground moose and if I'm lucky, some wild sockeye salmon and morel mushrooms. Gotta make the most of it while I can!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

First, the Ugly part.

Workout #8 didn't happen -- well I did manage 100 skips but that was it.  After workout #7 I decided a cold beer would be really nice so went down to the one and only place within walking distance. Had a great time practicing my Japanese with the owner and his wife while enjoying their delicious Asahi draft beers in frosted mugs (skipped the food though), but then somehow we started drinking shots of brandy, then tequila and then vodka -- and while I enjoy wine and beer,  I'm definitely not into hard liquor.   Mixing drinks like that is called "champon' , which I think must be Japanese for "get wasted".  Well, the next day sure was a waste, that's for sure.

Now the Bad (and Good) part. 

The next day, it became crystal clear, even if my head wasn't, that if something makes you absolutely sick as a dog, how could even a little bit be good for you?  What's the point of skipping the butter on your corn on the cob or having low fat milk in your coffee if you are going to have even a beer or two?  Feel so good now after the past two workouts and better (albeit not perfect) eating that I'll remember to read this post again before I go out "just for a few".