Days 15-16 - Step back

So it turns out that my concerns on the China trip were valid. Last night’s dinner was the multi-course banquet as expected with well presented cuisines (meat, veggies, rice, fish, sea food, hairy crab sperm, soup, fruit, etc) and multiple rounds of bai-jiu (rice wine that tastes like turpentine) toasts. Obviously, remaining PCP compliant was a challenge and I have to admit I didn’t make it, though I did do much better than I have in the past. The trip was for a board meeting of a company we have stake in and last night’s dinner was the first with the company’s new chairman, who hails from a provincial owned investment company that is also a large shareholder. Anyway, these dinners typically evolve into ‘toast and roast’ then ‘drink to sink’ festivities and there have been those nights where I thought I was utterly going to die but had to keep going as a matter of face/pride. Last night’s was certainly more civilized but I did partake in a couple of toasts (bottoms up a small shot of approx 1/3 oz of bai jiu) as it is necessary for guanxi (PCP is hard to explain sometimes). For dinner (I followed Patrick’s advice that it is better to eat than skip) I steered clear of the beef and the pork, ate small portions of the shrimp and fish, sucked it up and took down the crab roe, and ate most of the veggies. Although it wasn’t or didn’t seem like a lot of food, the msg in it was pretty potent and I actually felt like it was too much.

Got back on track this am with the workout (could only do 2 sets of 400 skips on the rope, as my calves are dying) and at breakfast (though they only had whole milk at the state guest house we’re put up in). Lunch was a minor diversion (banquet style, stuck to the fish and veggies, but again lots of msg in the sauces), and I plan on skipping tonight’s toast and roast. I know we have only been hitting these diets for 9 days now and I am not sure if it is psychological, chemical or just guilt, but I didn’t feel really good after the sauce laden food – it feels like it is a little heavier/harsher on the gut and saps my energy levels more.

Another aspect of my trip I found interesting is that you can’t access blogger or any of the PCP blogs from the internet in china (gotta love censorship - reminds me of the song "somebody's watching me"), so I am posting this one through my remote desktop to Tokyo, which is painfully slow. On an early flight to Edo tomorrow and am looking forward to being back for a few days. Am game for an early morning workout this weekend if anyone is around.