An Organic Day in Hong Kong

Sunday morning I was exercising solo. I wasn’t in the mood for running outside alone so I took to the fitness center. It was actually a really nice gym! There were two state of the art treadmills and two stationary bikes. Each of the machines faced the mirror and had a little TV screen attached to the wall just above face height. I started off on the treadmill. I don’t know if it was a good or bad thing that it took me ten minutes to realize that if I just looked up slightly there was a nice little TV screen I could have been watching! I was too lazy to get off the treadmill and find a remote by that point. I did 15 minutes on the machine in intervals. I started off at 7 (I think the numbers were k/hr) and worked my way up to a high of 12 at 2 minute intervals then back down slightly.

I made a promise to my physical trainer that I would weight train THREE times a week. Sunday was the third time. Success! I created a regime for myself based off the exercises I could remember from our workout.

There was an extensive weight rack. Unfortunately, it was not designed for someone as weak as me! The lightest weight was a 10lb. First exercise I did was the standing arm flys. Arms straight out to the sides and then straight out in front, each holding a 10lb weight. These were heavier than the 5lb weights I usually use, so I only did 2 sets of 20 instead of 3.

Next I grabbed a bigger, heavier weight (They weren’t all labeled so I don’t know the exactly weight) and used it to do Duck Squats. I call these duck squats because you point your feet out like a duck as you squat down, keeping your shoulders back, until the bottom of the weight touches the ground.

Next came one legged lunges. One leg on a bench, squat down with the other. 20 reps on one side then swap and do the other.

This was rotated with free weight bench press (yes, I come up with these names on my own). Lie down on your back holding 10lb weights, press arms straight up in the air and then bring them back down all the way until you can feel the stretch in your inner shoulder muscle. Hold for two seconds, then push the weights back up into the air. Repeat 20 times.

Next came wall sits for one minute, rotated with machine chest pulls (10kg), 20 reps.

Each exercise was repeated in pairs two times each.

After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and left Macao for Hong Kong. I had taken Monday off to get more time in Hong Kong and visit friends. I said goodbye to my colleagues and took a taxi to the industrial area of Hong Kong where a close family friend lives.

Shane is a very close friend of my mom that had been around a lot when my younger sister and I were growing up in Singapore. He was friendly, styling, the epitome of the ‘cool’ older guy. When he moved to Hong Kong, mom would make a point to go and visit him whenever she had the chance. Even if mom wasn’t there, my sister, my dad or myself would go say hi to Shane if we were passing through Hong Kong. It had been over a year since I had seen Shane and when he heard that I was coming into the city, he invited me to stay in his adorable studio apartment while I was visiting.

His studio was gorgeous! I would say that it looked like something out of a magazine, but frankly I thought it looked better. It had a homey, relaxed, zen feel to it. The giant windows in the kitchen on the far side of the apartment lit the whole apartment beautifully. There were plants everywhere! Shane is very into organics and health. He grows all of his own herbs, fresh, in pots that sit along the counter of his kitchen next to the windows. The kitchen has a beautiful view of the water. The building is right at the waters edge, so the view is completely uninterrupted. I am not a fan of doing dishes, but I think I would do dishes in this apartment just to get to stare out at this view!

Two bird cages, each holding two brightly colored love birds (I think that’s what they are called), sit next to the plants along the window. The apartment is full of dark, sleek tones, from the shiny black of the countertops and the giant dining table that could easily hold twelve, to the navy blue of the couches. The dark tones and accents throughout the house contrasted beautifully with the light wood Chinese armoires so large they reached the ceiling and stretched all the way along the wall by the door. There were two perfectly kept bonsai trees, one in the kitchen and one in the living room, that completed the apartment’s zen vibe. The kitchen was an organic cook’s paradise. A book shelf was filled with cook books. Jamie Oliver was very well represented. Open the fridge or any of the cupboards, the only thing in there that wasn’t organic or natural in some way was the hagendaaz ice cream in the freezer. This was a couple truly dedicated to health! Shane’s partner is a doctor, so his knowledge of organics is supplemented by his partner’s expert knowledge of what the body needs from a medical standpoint. I learned quite a few new facts from them.

1. I need to go out and buy a produce wash to soak all of my vegetables in, especially if they are not organic.

2. Most things are truly better for you raw, but tomatoes is an exception. Tomatoes are too acidic raw, and the lycopenes come out more when they are cooked.

3. There are HUGE amounts of pesticides in berries (my absolute favorite foods!). Definitely something that should be bought organic. If that is not an option, the best thing you can do is to soak it in produce wash for SEVERAL HOURS.  Won’t fix it all, but it’ll help!

For dinner, I was treated to my first fresh beet and kale juice!

Shane soaked an enormous number of vegetables, roots and fruit, including celery, kale, beets, carrots, ginger and apples, in produce wash before sticking all of the goodies into a juicer. This had to be the most colorful juice I have ever seen! A red and green froth appeared at the top by the end, it looked like Christmas juice to me! I was warned that beets were an acquired taste because they were very earthy. There was so much ginger in this that the spice overpowered the earthiness of the beets. If I were to do this again on my own (definitely have plans to do so, once I get myself a blender/juicer), I would add some lemon to it, take the ginger down a notch, and drink it chilled with ice. Nevertheless, very good!

With our juice, we had a salad of arugula and tomatoes, covered with a creative mix the three of us conjured up made of a creamy wasabi dressing and south African peri peri sauce (a very tasty spicy sauce!). I was a big fan of the dressing. The creamy wasabi wasn’t too thick and took the serious spice of the peri peri down a notch.

On the side of the salad was some leftover grilled chicken marsala. The sauce was used more like a drizzle of flavoring than a soup that the chicken sat in, which I found I liked better.

A very great meal. I guess we were all more exhausted than we realized. We started to watch a movie but about ten minutes in we were falling asleep in front of the TV.

The next morning, I was up and running by 7:30. We were aiming to leave the house by 8:30 so I had time for a half hour run, shower and breakfast before we left. Of course, it was hard to limit myself to half an hour. There was too much to see and my legs wanted to keep going. I let myself go an extra five minutes before turning back.

RunKeeper doesn’t function without Internet so I was once again running without a clue how fast or how far I went. I ran for 40 minutes. The first ten minutes out was not so scenic, lots of construction and dusty roads, but then I found my way to the area where most of the lower income locals live, and the next ten minutes out and ten minutes back from that area rushed past! I passed a school district and watched parents drag their children to the government school around the corner (sometimes physically DRAGGING them by the handle of their backpacks), then ran into a building complex that led to the water front. TONS of people were out exercising! Hong Kong is clearly a fit city-people of all ages were out walking, jogging, running. There was an amphitheater right by the water where large numbers of senior citizens were practicing tai qi, and I saw quite a number of people walking around with tennis racquets on their back. It wasn’t even 8 am and this place was bursting with active people. It was even more impressive because exercising in Hong Kong is made that much harder by the severe pollution (mainland china is blamed for that) and dry air.

I was treated to a giant, decadent breakfast. Freshly squeezed orange juice, latte from their fancy expresso machine, a small bowl of organic greek yogurt with blackberries and blueberries (have I mentioned yet how much I LOVE berries?) and a piece of whole wheat toast with a bit of raspberry jam. They also gave me a bowl of quinoa oatmeal, which had an interesting texture to it. I had a couple bites with blackberries and blueberries, but with all the food I had in front of me, this was kind of forgotten. It was a little blah once I had eaten all the berries on top.

I spent the rest of the morning at Shane’s hairdressing salon where he tried to work miracles on my damaged hair. Breakfast held me over so well, I kind of forgot about lunch. Luckily, Shane didn’t. He went out and got us lunch from this AMAZING slow food place nearby called Mana! (yes, the exclamation point is part of the name!). He got me a green juice and a wrap with sprouts, cucumbers, mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes and sumac. This might take place as one of the best wraps I have ever had. The combination of fillings was superb!

After lunch, I had to run to catch my flight back to Singapore. Dinner was airplane food. I had asked for the vegetarian option, which happened to be pasta in tomato sauce with a creamy cheese on top. Not too bad, but why is it that vegetarian food  at events and such always spells out processed carbs instead of vegetables?

I got home and immediately crashed. Tuesday passed in a whirl of work, and before I knew it, it was Wednesday morning! My boss was really nice and let me do the half day work from my house, since it is much closer to the airport than the office and we were flying out this afternoon. I did a good job of cleaning out my fridge before I left, so food consisted of finishing off my container of yogurt and Barbara’s Puffins, eating the remaining bit of casserole, and finding my last meal in an Amy’s Organics Lean & Light Spinach Lasagne with a mini pita turned ‘pizza’ on the side.

I’m on the plane to Bangkok now and we are about to take off! By the time I post this, we’ll be in Thailand.

More exciting posts to come on my adventures in Thailand!

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The Scramble Before Macau

Okay! Quick highlights on Wednesday and Thursday so that we can move on to the good stuff!

Wednesday morning was a weight training day. Our apartment lift was being tested in the morning and the staircase leading down to the first floor was locked at the bottom (Dad discovered this the hard way after walking down 14 flights of stairs…). We were pretty much stranded up there until they finished so my workout was limited to the apartment. Luckily, there are quite a few exercises you can do from the apartment!

For Christmas I got a Core Ball. I was really excited when I got it but somehow it has been sitting in my room for months without being touched. I finally took it out the box and put the workout CD in my computer to try it out.

I wasn’t feeling that sore yesterday but today I was REALLY feeling the pain from the plyometrics on Monday! I went to do the AB exercises with the Core Ball and the minute I went down for my first ball crunch, my abs were already in complete pain. I managed to do the first two exercises in the CD, ball crunches and pulsing ball crunches (which is basically when you keep the ball under your lower back and add in three quick pulses at the top of each crunch). My abs were killing me so I decided to make it a full body workout instead of a pure abs morning. I did three sets each of:

• One leg lunges (put one leg on a chair, lunge down with the other. 20 reps each leg)
• Standing arm flys (standing with 5 lb weights in each hand, keep arms straight and lift then out and up to the sides to shoulder height, then back down, then bring them in front of your thighs and lift them up in front of your face to shoulder height. repeat 20 times).
• Duck Squats-point feet out as far as you comfortably can and then do regular squats, don’t let your feet turn in. 20 reps
• Leg Elbow Planks-go into an elbow plank, take your right knee as close to your right elbow as you can then back into plank, then repeat with left knee to left elbow. 15 reps.

Lunch was a huge Thai food feast, featuring an eggplant and minced chicken dish, grilled minced chicken and lettuce salad (a favorite of mine called Larb Gai), Spicy Tom Yum soup and a spicy fish dish. Lunch was good! The soup had some chunks of chili in it and I ended up mistakenly inhaling a piece. It was so spicy my eyes started watering! My mouth was on fire! My larb gai and eggplant chicken were really good! The soup, at least for me, was too spicy to truly enjoy. I knew that I wasn’t going to have time for a real dinner that night because I had a 10k tempo run with the Newton Running Group. By the time I would be done with the run, it would be bedtime and having a proper meal before the run would just give me stomach problems. A Thai feast was exactly what I needed to hold me through the day and the run, with just a light top-up for dinner.

Pre-race fuel? A piece of whole wheat toast with Crofters Pure Fruit spread and almond butter, with a small bowl of veggie casserole. The casserole came in because my bananas had, unfortunately, gone bad. I have to admit, even with how small the bowl of casserole was, it felt a bit heavy for pre-run.

I was really nervous for my run. These people are serious runners. One of the guys in the group has a marathon goal of 2 hours and 45 minutes! He can run the full marathon in barely more than I ran the half marathon! Another guy is an ultra marathoner who has already run a 100k race. You can get why I was nervous.

Turns out, I had no reason to be nervous! There were over 30 people there of all different levels. Some had not even run a 10k before. They split the group up in 3: Fast, Medium and Slow. It would be completely time based: how far can you go in one hour. We were told that when we saw the fast group pass us, we should turn around too.

I was scared to go too fast at the beginning. I didn’t feel like I was going that fast, but RunKeeper was saying that I was keeping a pace of about 9:15/mile. I knew I tended to pick up the pace around faster runners and it didn’t feel to fast, but if the app was right, I wouldn’t be able to sustain so I slowed down. Looking back on it, I think I slowed down too much. I ended up chatting with a new runner after about the three mile point and slowed down my pace to match his without realizing it. I seriously need to get my hands on a GPS running tracker that is accurate enough for me to trust the pace it whispers into my ears. I also need to stop being so afraid of a faster pace and get better at hitting the fast pace I know I can hit on my own! Somebody mentioned that we only had about 3-4k left to go and I still had a lot left in me so I picked up the pace until I was running with one of the faster runners at the head of the medium group. I must have been going 9:15 or less those 3 miles, because it evened out my average pace per mile to 9:45/mile by the end!

It was really exciting to see my own improvement! Every time I run a race or run with a group, I far exceed my own expectations of myself. I was tired by the end of the 10k from my fast pace in the last 3k, but I could have definitely gone a lot faster for the first 7. Next time, I’m going to challenge MYSELF and go for a 9:30/mile pace. It’s times like these that you have to just take a moment to really appreciate what your body can do if you train it properly and treat it right. I spend so much time doing back to back runs every morning, I forget how great it feels to run on fresh legs! I think my daily training really helps me build endurance. It’s important since I don’t have any opportunities for a run of any real significant distance during the week.

Thursday was a complete blur of running around for work all day and then getting home and packing for my flight. Even lunch was eaten in ten minutes, on the moon. Great thing about Singapore’s hospitals (I have to spend a fair amount of time there for work) is that almost all of them have a Subway or some similar kind of sandwich place. My colleagues may prefer the Kopitiam food courts, but I’m grateful to know I can always grab a salad or wrap for lunch. In my mind, it’s not a real meal if it’s not at least 50% vegetables! My one complaint about subway is that their wraps don’t come in whole wheat. This should be an easy fix!

It wasn’t until dinner that I finally had a chance to relax before leaving for Macau. I knew I wasn’t going to be seeing my dad for a while. I was going to be in transit for most of the next 10 days and when I was in town, my dad would be traveling. We took the time to get a nice dinner together before I took off. We experimented with a new Italian restaurant called Da Luca nearby. It came highly recommended from online reviews, and it was very close to our apartment.

We got there to discover that it was even better than the reviewers had given it credit for! The atmosphere was warm and rustic. This was an Italian restaurant in the truest sense of the world. Wine racks of dark wood lined the far wall and the checkerboard white and red table cloths were softly lit by the candles that cast an orange glow on the sandstone bricks that decorated two walls. The waiter and waitress were chatting softly in Italian as they leaned against the counter, looking over the diners.

It was not just the atmosphere that immediately took me in but the menu, which featured handmade pasta. We had originally planned to share a pizza, but when we saw that they handmade all of their pasta fresh, I knew we had to try some. We selected a tomato based pasta dish with meat. It wasn’t bolognese but it seemed somewhat similar (proof, I think, that I am no expert on Italian dishes). There was a definite difference in the texture and taste of the pasta. I feel like most of the time, with pre made box pasta, the pasta itself doesn’t hold much taste. It’s not a taste you actively think about. Whether or not it is al dente is important, but one boxed brand over another does not seem, at least to me, to have any significant taste difference. With this pasta, the pasta itself had taste, and the texture somehow felt less processed and more rough. I wanted to eat this as much for the pasta itself as for the sauce. I really enjoyed this pasta. I would really like to come back and try it with a very simple sauce, so that the taste of the pasta itself could be the main star of the dish like it deserved.

We got a pizza with procciuto, olives and artichokes. It was good, although I’m used to procciuto being very thin, delicate cuts of meat and this was very thick. Quite frankly, it looked a bit too close to baloney for my liking. The pizza was good, but the pasta was definitely the star of the night.

Okay! I am sorry it has taken me so long to get this posts up. I promise to get my Macau posts up soon! I had a distinctive lack of Internet in Macau. I am now at a family friend’s place in Hong Kong enjoying some much deserved peace and quiet in his gorgeous studio apartment overlooking the water. I wish my house was this beautiful and I could spend my days cooking from his amazing kitchen whose big windows look right over the water. He also happens to have a pretty amazing set of kitchen gadgets, organic food and cook books (obviously a Jamie Oliver fan), and giant pots of fresh herbs and mandarin oranges he grows himself. I’m in heaven!

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