Fat Camp part 4The 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.