I am on a painful quest to lose my small but obscene alcohol gut.  I don’t know exactly when it happened, and in the beginning I know it was starting to come out, but while doing my Hulk Hogan poses in the mirror and sucking in the gut, I deceived myself into thinking that it could be hidden.  Then the lovehandles came, sitting above my hips.  Didn’t notice those until one summer day I was sitting naked in my home watching TV (just because I can).  And most recently, it was pointed out by this girl that I was on a date with.  I vowed, early on, to start a running regime as soon as I got back to Toronto.  One month, hardcore.

And thus it began.  And it was brutal.  I know that I just needed to get over the hump – the mental struggle your mind plays to try to get you to sleep for another hour, surf the web for a little longer and throw almost every excuse to stop not run.  But I overcame it, if ever so pathetically, by starting to run at the treadmills in the gym.  Knowing I had to gradually ease it in, I started with smaller intervals.  First 10 minutes, then 15, now I’m at 20 minutes of running.  My body now aches, but it is a pleasureable pain as I know I’m getting something good out of it.  (There is some pain that I don’t mind ).

But here is my point: What I find most helpful in getting through the run, is music.  It made such a difference, expecially when a hype song was playing.  I was at 15 minutes, my body was giving up.  Just then, I put on Timbaland’s The Way I Are – and the music just took over my body.  I was running harder, faster and to the beat.  I can’t explain it, but the rush of energy really made me forget about the timer on my treadmill as it screamed second by second, taunting me as it slowly made its way to 20.  I won that battle.

Ok, so it took me two days to finally get up and do something.  I’m used to flying between Shanghai and Beijing or Shanghai and Hong Kong.  They are only 2 hour flights, so the 15 hour flight to Toronto was brutal.  I’m still getting over jetlag and it took me 2 days to just be able to not sleep before 7pm in Toronto.

Flying back, I decided to fly Cathay Pacific, taking recommendation from my ex, she was so right.  I can’t imagine flying on Air Canada, the service, the plane would be unbearable.  I dread my flight back to SH on AC.  I like the long hauls much better now though, everyone has their own on demand entertainment.  I managed to catch 8 episodes of 30 Rock, and a few Everybody Hates Chris.  Tina Fey is one hot mama. 

But now I’m back in Toronto, here for a few days.  Then thinking of Vancouver, and then NYC before I head back to Toronto.  It seems I’m more busy here than I am in SH?

One thing that I did notice coming back though, after living in China for 7 years, is that everything seems bigger here in Canada.  Everything is bigger.   The food portions are a lot bigger, the streets are wider, people are taller (and fatter), my fridge is bigger, our apartment is bigger, even the snowflakes are bigger.

Anyways, I also wanted to do some volunteer work here… I don’t know if anyone still reads this, but if you do, let me know if you have any suggestions.