A Break From Low Carb

I’ve been taking a break from eating low carb. I definitely notice a difference. Despite going low carb for three weeks now, I’ve not seen a difference in my weight. But I HAVE felt a difference in terms of energy and great blood sugar levels.

My blood pressure is up too, but some blood pressure medicine is helping with that. I’ve also tried to get out about five times a week for exercise. I walk for an hour, then come back to my complex and jog around the courtyard for 10 minutes. Sometimes I cap it off with belly dancing. I SHOULD do an intense half hour of core workouts. That, plus a diet of celery and water, might take off 000000000.1 of an inch off my stomach.

Really, it’s frustrating to go low carb and not see a difference on the scale. So I decided to “treat” myself for a few days. Right away, I’ve noticed a difference. Harder to get to sleep, brain fog, and a general lethargy.

But I ordered some ketone testing strips, and they came right away. I was thankful for this, because the first strips I ordered weren’t what I wanted, after I’d opened the package. Ketone testing strips come in a little tube with tiny squares on the side. The object is to pee on the little testing strip, and see if it turns color. If it’s turning purple, your body is burning fat for energy. The strips I ordered tested protein in urine. Realizing my mistake, I placed a second order, which came the next day.

I’ll get back on low carb on Monday, and see if I can do an absolute no carb day. This would mean eating nothing that had carbs at all. Even at 20 carbs a day, I could go for a walk and a jog and possbily bring the number of carbs I have on that day to zero. Calories burned is easy to find; carbs burned is a bit harder.

Because I’m taking a break from carbs for a few days, I bought some strawberries and drenched them in whipped cream. I also loaded up on cherry tomatoes and radishes. Soaking bacon in water before frying takes down the salt content a little. Although I probably shouldn’t be eating so much of it.

Which is why when I was in Hong Kong, I was so glad to be across the street from a Marks and Spencer, which sold small packages of cut up turkey. It’s something I’d like to see here in the mainland, except turkey is not common here. Duck is, which is something that I CAN have, except I’m not used to seeing so many bones in meat.

Work is a Four-Letter Word

On Facebook, there’s a group that I am in and follow, and it has to do with work. Frequently, people post requests for advice in finding jobs. The posts go a little something like this:

Hello! I’m currently employed, but my job is driving me crazy. I don’t get acknowledged for the hard work I do, and the person who sits behind me eats crunchy food, which annoys me. I’d love to work from home. Actually, I NEED to work from home because I can’t stand being around other people. I don’t have a degree, but I have 20+ years in the workforce. I have ADHD, Autism, I’m allergic to nuts, have a bad back so I can’t lift more than 10 pounds, and I’m on several medications. Does anyone know of a job where I can work from home, doesn’t require a degree, not have the boss breathing down my back, adequate support if I run into a problem, great insurance and be paid at least $25 an hour? Thanks!

Please bear in mind I’m not really mocking these people. I’m here to say, “work is a four-letter word.”

When I was younger, it never really occured to me I could make a living doing what I liked. That period of time only happened maybe once, and it was for three years. I STILL wasn’t able to write about whatever I wanted; that had to come in the form of a ‘zine I published myself. I offered to write movie reviews, but was downvoted on that because if the one movie theater in town was running a movie I didn’t like, well, there go the profits.

And it still kind of blows my mind that people look for that in terms of jobs. I get that people don’t really want to do something they hate for a living, but to me, a job is a way to get money. It’s nice if you DON’T hate your job, but it’s rare to enjoy it. So the idea of having a way to make money that I actually enjoy really sort of shocks me. Is that how life really works?

And I’m well aware the difficulties disabled people have to deal with in order to find work. Especially work that supports at least one single person. With the way rent is now, I think the average person should be pulling down $4,000 a month after taxes, if not just a bit more. How many grocery shelf stockers are earning that kind of coin?

How many cashiers?

How many office workers?

How many work from home employees?

I’ve pretty much decided that when I do decide to go back to the United States, I’ll have to change careers. It’s going to be a hell of an age to do that, but I will say the career that I’m planning to train for (yet again) got me a job when I needed it. And it got me another job when I needed it. Then I stopped doing it because I got moved to another part of the company. But I ended up staying another eight and a half years. Not bad for a place I thought I’d be at for three years tops.

But yeah. It kind of tickles me when these people post these job requests. If you want a job, you do the job that needs doing. Never mind whether or not you like it. You want work, THIS is what you do. Need additional training? Suck it up and do it. I can ill afford to be like some of these people, who say they’ve been out of work for two years. How the hell are you surviving? Did you have $100,000 saved up and that’s what you’re living off? You’re just waiting around until someone hires you?

Personally, I don’t have the patience. I’d look for what needs doing NOW, blue collar, white collar, pink collar, whatever the fucking color collar, get training and do it.

I’ve reached the point in life where I will probably never have my dream job. When I come home, whenever that is, I just want a job. Something where I get decent training, they don’t expect me to learn everything on the job in 30 seconds, somewhere they won’t penalize me if I have a question, and I make more than $15 an hour.

My God.

I sound like THEM now.

Hello, Traditional Chinese Medicine!

So the high blood pressure medicine is working. But my back for some reason is sore. My hips are a bit sore too, so I don’t know what this is, but it’s all rather sudden. So I had some TCM at the hospital today.

I normally like massages, but I’m not overly fond with the ones I’ve received in China. In several public spaces (including the train station) you see these massage chairs. I tried one out, and it was awful. I wasn’t relaxed, I was sore as shit.

And even the human massages kinda hurt too.

Today was a bit different. The hospital set me up with a massage table, and I had a couple of people work me over for 25 minutes. They had some sort of oil they massaged into me. At times, it felt really, really hot. Almost like there was a wand someone was holding that had heat in it and they were holding it over my back. A few times I groaned and said it was too hot, but it was taken care of shortly.

Then, after the treatment, I was told not to shower for six hours. Most of the oil was gone anyway, so I didn’t have to worry about it staining my shirt.

I was given a cup of hot tea that is supposed to be good for kidney function. That’s something I’ll have to keep an eye on. The tea wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t delicious. It tasted like watered-down celery. I like celery, so that was fine. I’ve noticed here in China tea isn’t like having tea back home. There’s frequently nothing to put in the tea–forget about sugar, or milk, or even cookies to dunk.

I know, it’s healther.

My back is still a little sore, but it was from the massage treatment, not whatever it is that’s ailing me. It did make my back feel better for a little while.

And I’m feeling better overall. Sleeping better too. Doing more exercise, which is a sure sign I’m feeling better too.

Isolated by Choice

I don’t do well in groups of people. And when I mean groups of people, I mean groups of three or more.

I don’t know why, I just don’t do well. I start to get nervous and bored. I suppose this means I’m a narcissist. But I just don’t want to deal. Like the conversation can center on pizza. Say, likes and dislikes. And I’ll try to chime in with a relevant comment, like, “I enjoy American sausage on pizza, but not Italian sausage, because Italian sausage is just too spicy for me.” And the table goes silent. Like I’d just said, “fried chicken pen holder spasm, nail clipper fun bookshelf turd.”

I passed up an opportunity to socialize tonight, because I didn’t want to hang out with my Chinese teacher and others for several reasons. This get together was put off, because the first time the invite came around, I said no. They postponed the dinner for Sunday, something I didn’t pay attention to. I guess this is so everyone can meet the new teacher. But I am not at my best with groups of people. I’d much rather go one on one. So probably the new guy thinks I’m an incredible snob, but what’s wrong with meeting him at another time?

I’m trying to keep my blood pressure down. The new meds are working, but I’d rather avoid situations where I have to be social with more than one person. It’s stressful. It really, really is.

Yet I can get in front of a classroom and talk everyone’s ear off. Yeah, I don’t get it either. But I figure they aren’t paying attention to me either.

Racist Cartoonist Dies, Reddit Talks Food

I heard that Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, died earlier this week. The Reddit post I looked at had people chatting about food instead of Adams, which I thought was strange, but whatever.

I have, somewhere back home, The Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective People, a Dilbert collection. I also had a plus Dogbert and an actual Dilbert doll. It’s funny, but working in a cubicle looked somewhat enviable. I was floundering as a worker, the first of many two-job or more stints in my life. No career, just jobs. Journalism wasn’t really working for me, so I knew I needed to find something else.

I got a kick out of Dilbert. I wasn’t a part of the corporate world, but I’d had my fill of shitty jobs, so THAT part I could relate to.

But even Adams couldn’t avoid the pitfalls of self-expression. You can have opinions, but frequently, people really CAN’T say how they feel or else they’ll lose their jobs. I’m hoping Adams had enough saved/invested so that he was okay. A quick check on the interwebz shows he was worth around $20 million when he died, so I guess he was okay, and would have been okay for a while. But all the money in the world won’t stop cancer, when it decides you’re the target.

I’m sad that he seemed so racist. It just struck me as yet another familiar, but depressing opinion from aging white guys who’ve made a few bucks. I used to admire Adam Carolla when he was on Loveline, but he made a few bucks, and then condemned the rest of us. Funny, these guys seem to end up alone. Adams was divorced twice.

Adams isn’t near my age, he’s more my brother’s age, or WAS, but anytime I hear of a creative person dying, it reminds me that I have two unpublished novels, and I want to get them published. It’s not just a matter of querying publishing houses. The big five won’t accept manuscripts unless they have an agent pushing them. I’m hoping I can start looking when I have a break from school coming up. I know I have to at least try.

And I hope if I do ever make it big, I learn enough to keep my mouth shut.

Thanks to my newer subscribers! You’re probably wondering what the hell happened in the past couple months. Some health issues, keeping up with work, dealing with a hugely annoying person that I plan to limit my time with, and watching the world burn. Hoping I can post more frequently. Computer screw ups aren’t making things easier. I SWEAR I tell myself I’m going to post every day, then the internet lags, I can’t get a good VPN connection, cord won’t charge, blah, blah, blech. If you’re new, I post about stuff that happens to me in China, along with occasional commentary on stuff that may or may not interest you. Eggs are cheap here. $1.26 for 10. Why 10 insted of 12? That’s the metric system, baby.

“I’m Okay,” she said, Coughing her lungs out…

I’m sitting here having a late lunch with a bite of egg and tomato in my mouth when all of a sudden, I have an alarming coughing fit. Like, “are you okay?” fit. Like, “oh my God, she’s been coughing for 20 seconds straight ohmygod maybe she’s choking” fit.

Sometimes this happens to me. Everything will be fine, then all of a sudden, I cough uncontrolably for several seconds. This time I had food in my mouth, and I was mildly concerned I’d inhale it and things would get REALLY exciting.

But, no. I think maybe it was the pepper I’d ground onto my eggs. I think maybe a small piece of it landed on my throat, and my throat said, “fuck that.”

One thing though, about having a coughing fit by myself is I didn’t have someone asking me, “do you want some water?” My mouth is frozen open, my lungs are heaving, there’s still food in my mouth, and you ask me if I want to take a sip of water like I’m some aristocrat? NO! I’ve NEVER understood the logic of asking someone in the middle of a coughing fit if they want water. I don’t understand how pouring water down someone’s throat will help scratch the annoying, ticklish ITCH of whatever triggered the coughing spasm.

And try it sometime. As you’re coughing yourself to death, pick up that glass of water, tilt your head back (ever try to cough while looking at the ceiling?) pour that water into your open mouth and see how that works. Willing to be you’ll be inhaling that water (super healthy, so I’ve heard) and simultaneously spraying it all over God’s creation.

AFTER I’m done with the coughing fit, THEN ask me if I want some water. But not during the spectacle. Unless, of course, you want to be sprayed with a mixture of water, phlegm, and partially chewed food.

Yes, I know this is my first post in a long time. Yes, there’s more to come. But I’ll never figure out why not posting for months increases my views, whereas when I post daily, I get crickets. I also hit a personal high with YouTube in December, where I posted nothing except snarky comments on other videos. My channel hit 10,000 views. Go figure.

And stay tuned.

YouTube: NowayLaowai

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