The 28-hour trip to Taiwan was fine foodwise, as I brought a fruit salad and lots of fruit as described in my previous post. The fruit in Taiwan was fantastic. There was some Japanese white speckled fruit with a pink outer layer that we had a lot of and I don't know what it was called. The mangos were fabulous. The pineapple was better than I have ever had before. It was more sweet and not as tart as what you get in the US. Then there was this little fruit. I think they called it a papaya but it was littler than the ones I've seen and the part you ate was the seeds and juice. So I suspect I have the name wrong. It was very tart and strong and after eating 2, it became addictive. This Russian guy and I went bonkers over that.
Anyway, if I were really disciplined I would have just eaten fruit and salads and would have had enough and it would have been healthy. But in addition to the fruit snacks, they provided us with box lunches every day and took us out to lavish meals every night. They were very generous and hospitable! And even at the morning breakfast buffet I could have just had fruit and salad but I tried several of the other things like fried rice and fried bread (bad!) dipped in warm soy milk and fried noodles. It was salty and greasy. Lunches were often salty and greasy. I was too tired to go out to dinners every night but when I did, they were also salty and greasy. It was kind of fun though. But I did get tired of the salt and grease. On the good side, I was able to exercise quite a bit. There was a nice park by my hotel where I went jogging every morning, followed by exercises. They had exercise "classes" all over the park and hopefully they were free because I joined one every day for 30 minutes. There must have been thousands of people at this park at 6 am. Well, it was the coolest time of the day. I really enjoyed that. Oh, I also had some caffeine when we went to a tea house up on a mountain overlooking the city. That was very enjoyable. I don't mind breaking the rules occasionally. Oh, I forgot to mention the desserts. They like to make a dessert out of sweetened beans (like red kidney), fruit, some chewy rice dough chunks (I think), and ice. It's very popular, like an ice cream shop in the US would be. I really liked it. And it seemed pretty healthy for a dessert.
Here at the observatory, the cafeteria is very good in my opinion, but I really am tired of the salt and grease, and am staying in a dorm with a refrigerator so I got a whole bunch of fruit and salad greens at Whole Foods and I've been eating fruit, salad, and beans. The cafeteria has a good salad bar and I've been eating there for dinner. The vegetarian entrees look good but I'm just not in the mood after a week of grease and salt in Taiwan. And I have to say I feel a lot better just eating the fruit, greens and beans. oh and nuts too (raw Brazil and walnuts). so classic Fuhrman recommendations. I've been having strawberries, mangos and salad greens at breakfast (around noon, since I'm working nights), salad bar for "lunch" (5 pm) (lettuce, strawberries, cantaloupe, raw broccoli, chickpeas, peas), and for "dinner" (11 pm), salad greens + fruit + beans. Apples work well for that, as does cantaloupe.
In between Taiwan and the observatory, I visited relatives and had healthy food (mustard greens and a quinoa vegetable dish we made up that was great; smoothies for breakfast) since they are trying to eat healthy too. But we also had salted peanuts and margaritas one day (we invented a watermelon margarita that was very good!). I can get addicted to salt like anyone else, but since I usually don't have it, I notice how bloated you get when you eat it. I notice it in my fingers mostly. So I'd just as soon not have it. Plus it's really bad for you. Besides increasing your blood pressure, it makes your kidneys work harder and worst of all, leaches of calcium and other important minerals from your body. And it increases your stroke chances if you have low cholesterol as I do. That is another reason I'm not eating the entrees in the cafeteria, because they are probably all salty and greasy. If I hadn't of spent a week in Taiwan eating the grease and salt, I wouldn't mind doing it this week. I don't mind going off the health food thing for a short time but two weeks in a row is too much for me. And it's not about discipline because I have none. It's about desire because I really feel so much better when I eat healthy and I see so many of the benefits, both short-term and long-term, so I prefer eating this way. Plus it's really good. The strawberries and mangoes I'm eating this week are really good. Now why are the mangos better in Arizona than Wisconsin? Because the Wisconsin ones are shipped further and therefore picked less ripe? Would they really distinguish Wisconsin from Arizona when they are shipping from South America or Mexico? These are mysteries to me. All I know is the mangoes are really good this week. And the cherries too. and everything else I'm eating!
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