November 13th - Friday the 13th!

麻酱面 - Some really good (not spicy) noodles!

Feeling a bit sore after yesterday. I'm so glad that all of my protein powder has arrived, I'm trying the On Gold Standard Whey Protein which is what my friends at Maling gave me before they left. This time I'm trying out their Double Chocolate and Vanilla Ice Cream flavors. Right now, I'm taking 2-3 servings (50-75 grams) of it a day as I don't want to give my body an excess amount of protein that just gets wasted. Now, next week I will try 3-4 (75-100 grams) servings a day to see how my body feels. According to my studying, you should be getting 1 gram of protein per pound of your body weight.There is no way I'm getting that much protein through the food I eat in China.

It has been fun learning this nutrition/exercise science but I don't understand it yet.

Getting Close to 100 Pull Ups a Day

Recently, I've been reading Zhuang Zi Speaks and some of the parables in there got me thinking. Throughout the book there are a few common ideas of being natural and going with the change. In many of the parables it even mocks those who try to attain knowledge or those who work too hard.

"Exhaling and inhaling, spitting out the old and taking in the new, imitating the movements of bears and birds - these are but for the sake of longevity and are what practitioners of the esoteric arts, health nuts... like to do."

This quote is from one of the parables talking about self cultivation. (修身) It then goes to say that following these things are actually bad for you. This makes me wonder then, according to Daoism thought, is it "natural" to train and change your body? In other parables, Zhuang Zi talks highly about those with great skill (carpenters, archers, butchers, etc) as through their practice they have achieved a "dao-like" state. These great skills came about through training and hard work which led to their now "dao-like" state. So what is right?

(Daoist also created Tai Ji Quan which imitates the movements of animals and which makes me more puzzled at this passage)

I've found reading the little comic to be quite enjoyable as its something I do every morning and every night now. Before I leave China, I'd like to buy the Buddhist ones since I wasn't able to study this kind of stuff at the Kung Fu School.

Hope you're having a good week!