When I first came to the fat camp, it was supposed to be two weeks, with the option to add two more. I have chosen that option.
I have gained 1.5kg. That might not sound like a lot, and it's not, but after trying unsuccessfully to gain weight for two years, anything is an improvement. Maybe I have learned enough to gain a little more on my own, but I have no doubt that staying here another two weeks will be better for me than going home and falling back into my old routine. Medically, staying here is the right thing to do.
More importantly, I love the basic training aspect. The obstacle course is fun, but the self-defense classes are life changing. My krav maga instructor lives in Taiwan, so I will have to leave him sooner or later, but he recommended a class in Hong Kong. I don't doubt that I will continued for some time. The lessons are useful and great exercise.
I'm also taking advantage of how easy it is to travel from Taipei. Hong Kong is an easy city to fly in and out of. The airport is enormous and there are direct flights to at least 146 cities in 48 countries on 5 continents. Taipei's international airport is not as big, but I was more than a little surprised to learn that they have flights to over 100 cities in at least two dozen countries. Whether flying from Hong Kong or Taipei, most of the destinations seem to be the same. Not surprisingly, both airports have more flights to China than any other country. What I find interesting is that Taipei goes to far more cities in China. Obviously, there are no flights to Hong Kong from Hong Kong, but Taipei gets you to almost every city you can fly to from Hong Kong, with an additional 20 cities you can only reach from Taipei. Shenzhen, Macau and Jieyang are too close to warrant an international flight from Hong Kong, but cities like Harbin, Shenyang, Xuzhou, Hefei, Lanzhou and Lijiang are very far from Hong Kong, yet cannot be reached directly by plane.
You can get to roughly the same number of Japanese cities from Hong Kong or Taipei, but mostly not the same cities, other than the largest – Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Sapporo, Hiroshima.
Outside of China and Japan, Hong Kong is the better airport. You can only get to one city in the Middle East from Taipei – Dubai – while there are eight different options from Hong Kong. Europe is overwhelmingly in Hong Kong's favor. Every city available from Taipei is also an option from Hong Kong, except Vienna, while Hong Kong has an additional 10 European cities. For whatever reason, neither Hong Kong nor Taipei is the best airport for flights to North America. You can fly to Toronto and Vancouver from either, but less than a dozen American cities from both airports combined. Only Hong Kong has flights to Africa. Neither have any flights to South America.
Currently, it makes no difference whether I fly out of Hong Kong or Taipei. A large chunk of the world is unavailable at the moment, and most of the countries that are open have a long list of restrictions. Large parts of Europe are closed to all visitors. A few airports are only blocking flights from certain countries. I can still go to Prague, Athens and more than a few eastern European cities. Most of the Middle East is completely shut off, but I can go to Jordan, Bahrain and Turkey. Iran is open, oddly enough, but there were never flights from Hong Kong or Taipei. A large number of South American and Central American countries would let me in, but my airports don't fly to that part of the world. Maybe that is why they will let me in. I can always go to the United States, legally, but I can't think of any reason I would want to go there right now.
Maybe this is the best time to finally take a trip to Africa. More than a few African countries are open to all, or at least some of us. One of the worst parts about traveling to crowded places is how crowded it gets. This might be the best time to avoid all of that.
Then again, I am not at the fat camp to fly around the world. Maybe I should stick to day trips around Taiwan. Fortunately, I can reach anywhere in the country by train, bus or boat.
Sunday, April 19, 2020
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Fat Camp part 4
The part about a typical day
My typical day at fat camp starts around 5 in the morning. Not because of our rigorous schedule, but because I'm naturally a morning person. I like getting an early start on the day, and more importantly, I like the way the world feels before everyone else is awake and making all their noise.
I try to get a two hour run in every morning, weather permitting. Anything less that two hours is a waste, but it rained every day the first week I was here. Fortunately, it mostly rained in the afternoon/early evening. Mornings and late nights were mostly cloudy but calm. By the second week, there were all but no clouds and the weather has been quite nice.
Breakfast is a group event with everyone at the fat camp. The nutritionists put a great deal of thought into each of our dietary needs and they want to make sure we eat whatever we are supposed to eat. They could trust us to eat what they want us to eat, especially since we are all here voluntarily, but having us eat breakfast in a group also fosters a sense of community. We come from all over the country. Some of us came from other countries. None of us knew each other before arriving. Having breakfast together replaces the traditional family breakfast that no one can have away from their families.
Even outside of a medical facility, breakfast is generally a light meal. People in China, Taiwan, Japan and probably most of East Asia eat nothing like a full English breakfast. In Asia, breakfast is designed to get you going, not give you a heart attack. For me, breakfast is always some kind of soup or porridge made from rice and roots. It looks unappetizing, like watered down oatmeal. The good news is that I never have an appetite to ruin. Even better news is that I can't taste any of it, so eating up every drop is pretty easy.
An hour after breakfast, we do our morning basic training. This is the only part of the day that looks anything like boot camp. We run around an obstacle course that is less about military tactics and more about working different muscle groups at each section. Whoever designed the course really knows their kinesiology. I like it because it's as much mental as physical. We are not timed on the course, but I time myself. Going faster than last time works out the brain as much as the body.
After the obstacle course, we have a self-defense class. This is really more for the military types, but I find it fascinating. Martial arts have been part of military training for thousands of years, but are largely obsolete on a modern battlefield. True wushu is as much about philosophy as fighting. We don't have that kind of time. Our classes are a combination of jujutsu, aikido and krav maga. One of the instructors is an Israeli who specializes in krav maga. I'm no expert on any of these styles, but I think krav maga might be the most useful. It emphasizes being physically aggressive while defending yourself, which is probably more useful. With something like aikido, you are supposed to defend yourself without hurting your attacker. That must take a high level of self-control. With krav maga, you can beat the shit out of them and suffer no moral or philosophical remorse. Essentially, aikido and jujutsu are what you use to score points in a competition. Krav maga is what you use in a street fight. As a bonus, our krav maga instructor's brother has an Israeli restaurant in Kaohsiung. So the next time I go there, I know where to eat. Hummus is hard to find around here, but now I know of a place in Kaohsiung.
Rather than philosophy or competition, we mostly focus on defense against an armed attacker. Hopefully, I will never have to put this training into practice, but it is still nice to know.
Lunch is also nutritionally regulated, but not at all communal. Everyone wanders off to wherever they go to eat. While everyone at the fat camp seems friendly, I have learned that lunch is the time when everyone wants to be alone. I'm not really sure why. Lunch is not necessarily a private affair in China, and Taiwanese and Chinese culture have a million things in common. At the same time, lunch is the most socially acceptable time to eat alone in China. You can always find someone sitting alone with their 便當 at noon, but almost everyone eats dinner in groups.
Compared to some parts of Europe, where lunch can be the largest meal of the day, Chinese lunch is a tiny snack. My lunch is always some variation on a rice dish. It is always different from the day before, with different ingredients, but rice is always the main course.
After lunch, it's meditation time. The Chinese/Taiwanese believe that good health is as much about what you put in your head as your body, so we all get together and sit quietly. I found it all odd at first. I'm no stranger to meditation, but I have always done it alone. It seems like the kind of thing you are supposed to do in solitude. But we meditate as a class, which took some adjusting.
I think their way is better than mine if for no other reason than the setting. When I meditate at home, I'm alone in a quiet room. To me, the quiet and isolation are essential. Here, we all sit in a garden. Everyone is quiet, but we can hear birds, the stream, trees in the wind and whatever sounds of nature happen around us. They are not at all distracting. In fact, nature can be remarkably helpful while meditating. You simply need to find a beautiful garden free from the sounds of traffic and commerce.
After we clear our minds of distractions, we have free time to do whatever we want. Some people go for walks, some take naps. I'm sure most of us use the time to fill our heads with distractions. I got a foot massage at an airport a few years ago. Right after getting my feet nice and relaxed, I had to walk and stand around the airport for a few hours. This is the same thing.
Dinner is the most important meal of the day. Where I grew up, it was breakfast, but that is obviously not the case around here. Dinner is when everyone eats together, including the staff, doctors, nurses, instructors and any visitors anyone had that day. It is like a banquet with everyone eating from an individually tailored menu.
My dinner always includes soup, eggs, potatoes and, of course, rice. They mix it up all the time. I think one of the big challenges for the nutritionists is to design meals that not only give us what we need, but provide enough variety to keep people interested. I don't particularly care. I can eat the same thing every day. But everyone else would get bored.
I don't often feel lucky to have no sense of taste, but at times like this, it comes in handy. For reasons I don't yet understand, Taiwan hates salt. There is absolutely no salt in any of the food I eat. Even at restaurants, you have to specifically ask for salt, and whether they have any is hit and miss. If I could taste all the saltless meals I'm eating, I think I might regret coming here. As it is now, I'm in it for the boot camp. Meals are an afterthought.
After dinner is free time. The camp provides a variety of activities into the evening, but nothing later at night. This is not a place to party. This is also not a prison or the army. We are all free to come and go at will. Every day is structured, seven days a week, but we each choose when we want to join in. No one needs a weekend pass to get away. Simply walk out the door and come back any time.
My first weekend here, I went to Costco and one of the newer restaurants at the Mitsukoshi mall in Xinyi. On Monday, I went to 國立傳統藝術中心, a large traditional village/park dedicated to the preservation of a culture that is all but extinct. It's almost the Chinese version of a New Mexico pueblo that is open to the public. Of course, there is plenty of shopping and food. I'm thinking about renting a car and driving around this weekend. I might do it during the week since the roads will be less crowded.
I try to get a two hour run in every morning, weather permitting. Anything less that two hours is a waste, but it rained every day the first week I was here. Fortunately, it mostly rained in the afternoon/early evening. Mornings and late nights were mostly cloudy but calm. By the second week, there were all but no clouds and the weather has been quite nice.
Breakfast is a group event with everyone at the fat camp. The nutritionists put a great deal of thought into each of our dietary needs and they want to make sure we eat whatever we are supposed to eat. They could trust us to eat what they want us to eat, especially since we are all here voluntarily, but having us eat breakfast in a group also fosters a sense of community. We come from all over the country. Some of us came from other countries. None of us knew each other before arriving. Having breakfast together replaces the traditional family breakfast that no one can have away from their families.
Even outside of a medical facility, breakfast is generally a light meal. People in China, Taiwan, Japan and probably most of East Asia eat nothing like a full English breakfast. In Asia, breakfast is designed to get you going, not give you a heart attack. For me, breakfast is always some kind of soup or porridge made from rice and roots. It looks unappetizing, like watered down oatmeal. The good news is that I never have an appetite to ruin. Even better news is that I can't taste any of it, so eating up every drop is pretty easy.
An hour after breakfast, we do our morning basic training. This is the only part of the day that looks anything like boot camp. We run around an obstacle course that is less about military tactics and more about working different muscle groups at each section. Whoever designed the course really knows their kinesiology. I like it because it's as much mental as physical. We are not timed on the course, but I time myself. Going faster than last time works out the brain as much as the body.
After the obstacle course, we have a self-defense class. This is really more for the military types, but I find it fascinating. Martial arts have been part of military training for thousands of years, but are largely obsolete on a modern battlefield. True wushu is as much about philosophy as fighting. We don't have that kind of time. Our classes are a combination of jujutsu, aikido and krav maga. One of the instructors is an Israeli who specializes in krav maga. I'm no expert on any of these styles, but I think krav maga might be the most useful. It emphasizes being physically aggressive while defending yourself, which is probably more useful. With something like aikido, you are supposed to defend yourself without hurting your attacker. That must take a high level of self-control. With krav maga, you can beat the shit out of them and suffer no moral or philosophical remorse. Essentially, aikido and jujutsu are what you use to score points in a competition. Krav maga is what you use in a street fight. As a bonus, our krav maga instructor's brother has an Israeli restaurant in Kaohsiung. So the next time I go there, I know where to eat. Hummus is hard to find around here, but now I know of a place in Kaohsiung.
Rather than philosophy or competition, we mostly focus on defense against an armed attacker. Hopefully, I will never have to put this training into practice, but it is still nice to know.
Lunch is also nutritionally regulated, but not at all communal. Everyone wanders off to wherever they go to eat. While everyone at the fat camp seems friendly, I have learned that lunch is the time when everyone wants to be alone. I'm not really sure why. Lunch is not necessarily a private affair in China, and Taiwanese and Chinese culture have a million things in common. At the same time, lunch is the most socially acceptable time to eat alone in China. You can always find someone sitting alone with their 便當 at noon, but almost everyone eats dinner in groups.
Compared to some parts of Europe, where lunch can be the largest meal of the day, Chinese lunch is a tiny snack. My lunch is always some variation on a rice dish. It is always different from the day before, with different ingredients, but rice is always the main course.
After lunch, it's meditation time. The Chinese/Taiwanese believe that good health is as much about what you put in your head as your body, so we all get together and sit quietly. I found it all odd at first. I'm no stranger to meditation, but I have always done it alone. It seems like the kind of thing you are supposed to do in solitude. But we meditate as a class, which took some adjusting.
I think their way is better than mine if for no other reason than the setting. When I meditate at home, I'm alone in a quiet room. To me, the quiet and isolation are essential. Here, we all sit in a garden. Everyone is quiet, but we can hear birds, the stream, trees in the wind and whatever sounds of nature happen around us. They are not at all distracting. In fact, nature can be remarkably helpful while meditating. You simply need to find a beautiful garden free from the sounds of traffic and commerce.
After we clear our minds of distractions, we have free time to do whatever we want. Some people go for walks, some take naps. I'm sure most of us use the time to fill our heads with distractions. I got a foot massage at an airport a few years ago. Right after getting my feet nice and relaxed, I had to walk and stand around the airport for a few hours. This is the same thing.
Dinner is the most important meal of the day. Where I grew up, it was breakfast, but that is obviously not the case around here. Dinner is when everyone eats together, including the staff, doctors, nurses, instructors and any visitors anyone had that day. It is like a banquet with everyone eating from an individually tailored menu.
My dinner always includes soup, eggs, potatoes and, of course, rice. They mix it up all the time. I think one of the big challenges for the nutritionists is to design meals that not only give us what we need, but provide enough variety to keep people interested. I don't particularly care. I can eat the same thing every day. But everyone else would get bored.
I don't often feel lucky to have no sense of taste, but at times like this, it comes in handy. For reasons I don't yet understand, Taiwan hates salt. There is absolutely no salt in any of the food I eat. Even at restaurants, you have to specifically ask for salt, and whether they have any is hit and miss. If I could taste all the saltless meals I'm eating, I think I might regret coming here. As it is now, I'm in it for the boot camp. Meals are an afterthought.
After dinner is free time. The camp provides a variety of activities into the evening, but nothing later at night. This is not a place to party. This is also not a prison or the army. We are all free to come and go at will. Every day is structured, seven days a week, but we each choose when we want to join in. No one needs a weekend pass to get away. Simply walk out the door and come back any time.
My first weekend here, I went to Costco and one of the newer restaurants at the Mitsukoshi mall in Xinyi. On Monday, I went to 國立傳統藝術中心, a large traditional village/park dedicated to the preservation of a culture that is all but extinct. It's almost the Chinese version of a New Mexico pueblo that is open to the public. Of course, there is plenty of shopping and food. I'm thinking about renting a car and driving around this weekend. I might do it during the week since the roads will be less crowded.
Saturday, April 11, 2020
Fat Camp part 3
The part where I get political and offend easily offended Americans
An incidental benefit to staying in Taipei for the next two to four weeks is that Taiwan is one of the safest countries in the world when it comes to the new American Flu. How that happened is a mystery to Americans, but it makes perfect sense to anyone who knows anything about Taiwan. They were hit hard by the SARS epidemic 15 years ago and they put those lessons into practice. The people of Taiwan, unlike Americans, never believed they were inherently immune to disaster. They get fatal typhoons every single year and have had their share of catastrophic earthquakes. Significantly, every Taiwanese alive today has lived with the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. Americans have the luxury of fighting their wars on the other side of the planet.
Rather than make racist jokes and spread conspiracy theories, propaganda, misinformation and disinformation when COVID-19 hit, Taiwan immediately sprang into action. They had a plan of attack after SARS and used it. Presidential administrations have come and gone since SARS, and even though two different political parties have been in charge, no one rejected their preparation efforts out of spite. They all put the country's safety ahead of their own agenda.
The people in charge of Taiwan and the United States are also very different in their backgrounds and temperament. America's vice president is a religious extremist who thinks science is the devil's work. Taiwan's vice president is an epidemiologist who was the minister of health during the big SARS epidemic.
Hong Kong is also far safer than the United States, but it is much closer to Hubei. People from Mainland China flood into Hong Kong all the time, mostly for shopping. While Taiwan immediately canceled all flights to and from the Mainland, Hong Kong only restricted certain cities. From what I have seen, the largely incompetent leaders of Hong Kong did a pretty good job in dealing with the virus. They acted infinitely faster than the Americans and have shown their ability to adapt and adjust as the situation changes. To American leaders, the only options are turning the knob all the way down to 0 or all the way up to 11. Hong Kong leaders know there are several volumes in between and that sometimes you have to turn it up or down when the song changes.
In parts of the United States, or every inch of it if you watch CNN, Americans are prisoners in their homes, the streets are empty and businesses are closed. I don't know how accurate that is, but every American I have talked to is staying home from work right now. In Hong Kong, the streets and shopping malls are just as crowded as ever, but more people are wearing masks and they closed Disneyland, KTVs and nightclubs. In Taiwan, I have seen no difference whatsoever. Everything is open, as far as I know, trains are still crowded, stores are still stocked. Maybe more people are wearing masks, but I remember plenty of masks the last time I visited before the virus.
Some Americans will take offense to everything I have said about the United States. That's just the American way. We are the best at everything, and anyone who criticizes anything is a traitor. Unless the other party is in charge. Then the United States is going to hell in a handbasket. But when it comes to this virus, the United States has failed miserably and Taiwan, of all places, has shown the world how it should be done. Unfortunately for the world, the WHO refuses to listen to Taiwan, and Taiwan will never get the recognition it deserves. When this is all over, someone will take credit for ending it, but I bet whoever that is will never acknowledge Taiwan's research, preparedness and ingenuity. I don't know how often the average Taiwanese is proud of their country, but they should be right now.
Rather than make racist jokes and spread conspiracy theories, propaganda, misinformation and disinformation when COVID-19 hit, Taiwan immediately sprang into action. They had a plan of attack after SARS and used it. Presidential administrations have come and gone since SARS, and even though two different political parties have been in charge, no one rejected their preparation efforts out of spite. They all put the country's safety ahead of their own agenda.
The people in charge of Taiwan and the United States are also very different in their backgrounds and temperament. America's vice president is a religious extremist who thinks science is the devil's work. Taiwan's vice president is an epidemiologist who was the minister of health during the big SARS epidemic.
Hong Kong is also far safer than the United States, but it is much closer to Hubei. People from Mainland China flood into Hong Kong all the time, mostly for shopping. While Taiwan immediately canceled all flights to and from the Mainland, Hong Kong only restricted certain cities. From what I have seen, the largely incompetent leaders of Hong Kong did a pretty good job in dealing with the virus. They acted infinitely faster than the Americans and have shown their ability to adapt and adjust as the situation changes. To American leaders, the only options are turning the knob all the way down to 0 or all the way up to 11. Hong Kong leaders know there are several volumes in between and that sometimes you have to turn it up or down when the song changes.
In parts of the United States, or every inch of it if you watch CNN, Americans are prisoners in their homes, the streets are empty and businesses are closed. I don't know how accurate that is, but every American I have talked to is staying home from work right now. In Hong Kong, the streets and shopping malls are just as crowded as ever, but more people are wearing masks and they closed Disneyland, KTVs and nightclubs. In Taiwan, I have seen no difference whatsoever. Everything is open, as far as I know, trains are still crowded, stores are still stocked. Maybe more people are wearing masks, but I remember plenty of masks the last time I visited before the virus.
Some Americans will take offense to everything I have said about the United States. That's just the American way. We are the best at everything, and anyone who criticizes anything is a traitor. Unless the other party is in charge. Then the United States is going to hell in a handbasket. But when it comes to this virus, the United States has failed miserably and Taiwan, of all places, has shown the world how it should be done. Unfortunately for the world, the WHO refuses to listen to Taiwan, and Taiwan will never get the recognition it deserves. When this is all over, someone will take credit for ending it, but I bet whoever that is will never acknowledge Taiwan's research, preparedness and ingenuity. I don't know how often the average Taiwanese is proud of their country, but they should be right now.
Thursday, April 9, 2020
Fat Camp part 2
The part about Taiwan
Taiwan has a larger military than it probably needs, mostly because of the occasional threat of invasion from China. They are gradually phasing out their mandatory conscription. Every man was supposed to serve one year when they reached 19. Now, they only have to serve four months. The goal is to have an all volunteer army, but apparently not enough people are volunteering.
This means nothing to me, except that Taiwanese men are not the biggest people in the world. Putting on a uniform does little to instill fear in their enemy. In Taiwan's case, the enemy is China, and Chinese men are just as small. But China has 6000% more of them.
Little can be done to make anyone taller, but most draftees get at least a little bulkier during basic training. Now that they serve four months instead of twelve, there is less time for basic training and less time to turn Steve Rogers into Captain America. Or Captain Taiwan.
Enter the private contractors. Some entrepreneur had the idea of opening up a reverse fat camp, whereby a 97 pound weakling can become a mighty he man, without turning into a lump of steroids. Instead of weight training and drugs, they would use doctors and nutrition to get their future soldiers into shape. The military immediately signed on, probably for the same reason militaries all over the world hire private contractors. As a medical facility rather than military, it is open to anyone who can afford it.
I went to the fat camp last Thursday. My current plan is to stay for two weeks, with the option of weekly extensions up to one month. If there is no improvement after one month, I can either go back to Hong Kong and try something else or stay in Taipei and hope that staying longer is better. By the end of two weeks, or one month, I should have a better idea of what to expect. I can stay in the country for up to 90 days without a visa, so government paperwork is never going to be a problem.
Despite the military association, the program is nothing like basic training, as far as I know. Having never been in the army, I only know what the movies have told me. So far, I can see no parallels between anyone here and gunnery sergeant Hartman. My drill instructor is a friendly Chinese woman who talks about the connection between body and mind, and inner harmony. Sgt Hartman would probably call her a hippie. The facility is at a hospital instead of an army base, everyone mostly wears gym gear instead of uniforms and those of us who spend the night, sleep in a hospital dorm instead of barracks. It's like medical boot camp, but without anyone trying to turn us into killing machines.
In unrelated news, we just had an earthquake while I was typing this up. It was pretty small. The light fixture above me shook and the windows rattled, but nothing broke or fell. I don't know how far away it was or if it was bigger somewhere else. I will have to ask around.
This means nothing to me, except that Taiwanese men are not the biggest people in the world. Putting on a uniform does little to instill fear in their enemy. In Taiwan's case, the enemy is China, and Chinese men are just as small. But China has 6000% more of them.
Little can be done to make anyone taller, but most draftees get at least a little bulkier during basic training. Now that they serve four months instead of twelve, there is less time for basic training and less time to turn Steve Rogers into Captain America. Or Captain Taiwan.
Enter the private contractors. Some entrepreneur had the idea of opening up a reverse fat camp, whereby a 97 pound weakling can become a mighty he man, without turning into a lump of steroids. Instead of weight training and drugs, they would use doctors and nutrition to get their future soldiers into shape. The military immediately signed on, probably for the same reason militaries all over the world hire private contractors. As a medical facility rather than military, it is open to anyone who can afford it.
I went to the fat camp last Thursday. My current plan is to stay for two weeks, with the option of weekly extensions up to one month. If there is no improvement after one month, I can either go back to Hong Kong and try something else or stay in Taipei and hope that staying longer is better. By the end of two weeks, or one month, I should have a better idea of what to expect. I can stay in the country for up to 90 days without a visa, so government paperwork is never going to be a problem.
Despite the military association, the program is nothing like basic training, as far as I know. Having never been in the army, I only know what the movies have told me. So far, I can see no parallels between anyone here and gunnery sergeant Hartman. My drill instructor is a friendly Chinese woman who talks about the connection between body and mind, and inner harmony. Sgt Hartman would probably call her a hippie. The facility is at a hospital instead of an army base, everyone mostly wears gym gear instead of uniforms and those of us who spend the night, sleep in a hospital dorm instead of barracks. It's like medical boot camp, but without anyone trying to turn us into killing machines.
In unrelated news, we just had an earthquake while I was typing this up. It was pretty small. The light fixture above me shook and the windows rattled, but nothing broke or fell. I don't know how far away it was or if it was bigger somewhere else. I will have to ask around.
Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Fat Camp part 1
The background part
In an effort to gain weight, my doctor told me to leave Hong Kong. So I did.
I lost more than a little weight after I had surgery and was in a hospital for a while about two and a half years ago. Everyone told me how lucky I was to lose weight while sleeping, but I was at a healthy size beforehand and in the best shape of my life. Ever so slowly, I got myself back in shape, though I never really gained any weight. I exercised like mad to get my strength up, but I have not had much of an appetite for the past two and a half years. Exercising is great. Exercising without eating is a pretty bad idea.
Eventually, my body told me to stop what I was doing. After a shorter stint in a different hospital, I was just as thin as ever and weaker than a scarecrow. I have been out of work since June 2019 and cannot go back until I get back in shape and gain weight. People who know me stopped telling me how lucky I was to be so effortlessly thin.
My doctor tried everything he could think of. He gave me pills that either did nothing or only offered temporary bloating. Steroids were not an option since they increase blood pressure, while most bodybuilding supplements and performance enhancers are dismissed as snake oil around here. There are all kinds of surgeries to lose weight, but none to gain weight. It is not as if they can simply shove fat into your body the way they can tear it out. My doctor referred me to a nutritionist who made out meal plans and suggested eating a wide variety of foods that did nothing for me. They put electric needles in my skin, had me drink root juice, gave me massages and examined my qi. I was told to always eat yang before yin. Of course. I'm not a wild animal.
Unfortunately, most nutritionists and dieticians, as well as doctors in general, have more training and experience with helping patients lose weight. Even in China, weight loss is a billion dollar industry. Anyone who wants to gain weight is simply told to eat more. But sometimes that is as useless as telling fat people to simply eat less.
Far longer than I think it should have taken, my doctor found a medical treatment facility that specializes in weight gain, rather than weight loss. If I wanted my insurance to pay for it, I had the choice of two hospitals, neither of which were in Hong Kong.
The options were either a spa-like facility at Poyang Lake in Jiangxi or a military style boot camp in Taipei. Obviously, I chose the spa. The lake looked nice, according to the pictures I saw, and is supposed to be a great place to see all kinds of migrating birds. The only real downside was that Poyang Lake is about 150 miles from Wuhan. They might be able to help me gain weight, but I would probably lose it all after catching their flu.
That left the boot camp in Taipei. I have been to Taipei a few times. I consider it a nice enough place to visit, but I have no interest in any military activities. I would need far more information before I ever agreed to go there.
I lost more than a little weight after I had surgery and was in a hospital for a while about two and a half years ago. Everyone told me how lucky I was to lose weight while sleeping, but I was at a healthy size beforehand and in the best shape of my life. Ever so slowly, I got myself back in shape, though I never really gained any weight. I exercised like mad to get my strength up, but I have not had much of an appetite for the past two and a half years. Exercising is great. Exercising without eating is a pretty bad idea.
Eventually, my body told me to stop what I was doing. After a shorter stint in a different hospital, I was just as thin as ever and weaker than a scarecrow. I have been out of work since June 2019 and cannot go back until I get back in shape and gain weight. People who know me stopped telling me how lucky I was to be so effortlessly thin.
My doctor tried everything he could think of. He gave me pills that either did nothing or only offered temporary bloating. Steroids were not an option since they increase blood pressure, while most bodybuilding supplements and performance enhancers are dismissed as snake oil around here. There are all kinds of surgeries to lose weight, but none to gain weight. It is not as if they can simply shove fat into your body the way they can tear it out. My doctor referred me to a nutritionist who made out meal plans and suggested eating a wide variety of foods that did nothing for me. They put electric needles in my skin, had me drink root juice, gave me massages and examined my qi. I was told to always eat yang before yin. Of course. I'm not a wild animal.
Unfortunately, most nutritionists and dieticians, as well as doctors in general, have more training and experience with helping patients lose weight. Even in China, weight loss is a billion dollar industry. Anyone who wants to gain weight is simply told to eat more. But sometimes that is as useless as telling fat people to simply eat less.
Far longer than I think it should have taken, my doctor found a medical treatment facility that specializes in weight gain, rather than weight loss. If I wanted my insurance to pay for it, I had the choice of two hospitals, neither of which were in Hong Kong.
The options were either a spa-like facility at Poyang Lake in Jiangxi or a military style boot camp in Taipei. Obviously, I chose the spa. The lake looked nice, according to the pictures I saw, and is supposed to be a great place to see all kinds of migrating birds. The only real downside was that Poyang Lake is about 150 miles from Wuhan. They might be able to help me gain weight, but I would probably lose it all after catching their flu.
That left the boot camp in Taipei. I have been to Taipei a few times. I consider it a nice enough place to visit, but I have no interest in any military activities. I would need far more information before I ever agreed to go there.
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