Run, Lindy, Run!

After seeing the athletes compete in the Olympic track events, I was amazed. As a kid, I was never very good at running and certainly not running fast. However, I have now been officially admitted to the Chinese Traveler’s Club where occasionally running is essential. People in different regions have terms of endearment for this rite of passage. Some call it having Beijing Belly, the Shenyang Sh**tz, or what I have recently dubbed Tianjin Tummy. No further explanation is needed. You know when you are on the couch, listening to the loud gurgling coming from your mid-section and thinking, “This can’t be good!” ~then you probably are going to become the fasted sprinter on record. It really is part of being an overseas traveler and who knows what can trigger such a gastric revolt. It could be some water you didn’t boil long enough, or some street food that has been just fine for the last 2 weeks and has suddenly gone bad. In any event, it is an expected pitfall of being in a foreign country.

In America we have some very stringent rules about food preparation and about not leaving food out for very long before it is refrigerated. Not so here. Pretty much anything goes and refrigeration is the exception and not the rule. Most of my friends know that I usually have a cast iron stomach. Even after long periods of fasting, I can dive right into a plateful of food and never suffer ill effects. For as many times as I’ve been in China, I’ve never had a “crook in the gut” as my Australian friends say. This time it kicked my butt!

There is one good result of Tianjin Tummy. I have now officially lost over the 10 pounds since my medical exam 3 weeks ago. After losing 7lbs. the correct way through proper diet (whatever that is) and exercise, the Tianjin Tummy pushed me off of my weight loss plateau and into the next level of health. (?) Not that I still don’t need to take off some weight, (because according to Chinese stereotypes all Americans are fat, lazy slobs) but this method of weight loss sure isn’t going to be bottled and sold to anyone but the most desperate souls. I recommend the walking and biking. It’s a lot easier on your system and you won’t waste a lot of money on TP.