50th anniversary

Yes, Frankie's school is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and there was an open house this weekend. The school was started by a French nun, a missionary who came to Taiwan 50 years ago.

Frankie was a volunteer and helped with raising money by selling pop corn. The task did not last long as there was just too much fun to be tied down to a job.......great day, great weather, and great fun.

Tsu Chi Foundation 慈濟基金會

Hualien is the birthplace of one of the most significant foundations in the world. Tsu Chi Foundation : http://www.tzuchi.org/ was started single handely by a buddhist nun here in Hualien nearly 50 years ago. It has grown into a huge organization with offices, staff, and volunteers all over the world. It has established its four missions: charity, medicine, education, and culture. Tsu Chi volunteers are always one of the firsts to reach global disaster areas offering assistance, food, water, and aids. The first time I came across them was the very next day after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, in Victoria where volunteers in blue uniforms were on the street corners collecting donations.

The auditorium and education center is absolutely magnificient. It was designed by the master herself who is a nun and has no architectural background. It is simply amazing. This is one of the "must sees" in Hualien.

My cousin's wedding

Actually, it is Rebecca's cousin's wedding.

It is a two day event with the first wedding banquet in Chiayi, the groom's home; and then the second wedding banquet at the bride's home in Pingtung.

We left Hualien Friday noon and arrived at our hotel in Chiayi in the evening, a seven hour road trip.

Hotel is very nice and the price is right. Frankie is happy as long as she has her own bed...

Because the couple is already living together and away in Kaoshiung, it is symbolic to follow the Chinese custom of bringing the bride home, therefore, the groom's party drove two hours to Pingtung to pick up the bridal party and brought them to the groom's family home in Chiayi. Frankie was the "door girl" who opened the door for the bride and received a nice "red envelope". Easy money she said.....

Then it was the wedding banquet........

Followed the next day with another banquet at the bride's hometown hosted by her family......

Weight watcher

Left picture on 12/31 at 201 lbs. Right picture on 3/31 at 171 lbs. So far so good, as I lost 30 lbs in three months.

Most importantly, my body fat and organ fat continue to drop, now at acceptable levels. Age analysis is a big surprise, as I went from 71 three months ago to now 47. That is most incredible as the computer does not know my actual age, only with the data collected. A difference of 24 years!!! This is the most motivating factor as I continue to return to health and fitness.

Thankyou for your support.

Going green....

There is a significant percentage of Taiwanese people who are vegetarians. Even for non vegetarians, they often have vegetarian meals for either religious or health reasons. Therefore, it isn't difficult to find vegetarian restaurants here. However, most of them are not health conscious. Trying to compete with non vegetarian establishments, many of these so called vegetarian places rely heavily on MSG, artificial flavoring, coloring, and oils; resulting in very salty, greasy, and rich tasting food which can actually cause health problems. Upon the recommendation of the vegetarian community, we visited a veggie buffet restaurant today, and it is a gem.

This place is very clean, well staffed, and very organized. They use organic foods as much as possible. They also use olive oil ( I can taste it in the noodles), and low sodium sea salt. Most importantly, they use low heat cooking on all their foods. As we know, high heat cooking causes oils to burn and produces carcinogen which causes cancer.......But what good is it if the food is tasteless as many so called organic restaurants tend to serve boring crap such as alfafa sprouts and multi grain bread........

Not here. Every dish tastes great and different. We have to stop before we over eat. We bought a book of twenty meal tickets for around $100Cdn, therefore, each meal costs $5. Excellent healthy food at superb value, only in Hualien.

After lunch, I had some time to kill before playing tennis, and since I had not touched a club for months, I went to the driving range to see if my lighter body has any effects on my golf swing.

Yes! As you can see from my finish, I have a much fuller follow thru with a nice body turn which I did not have before. This adds a bit of distance but most importantly, a cleaner contact and a straighter ball flight.

Take a hike!

Yes we did. This is the first time for Frankie to hike up Meilun mountain, which is similar to Mount Doug in Victoria. Its a beautiful Saturday morning and her tennis class is cancelled today due to a tournament, so we took the opportunity and spend some quality time together. Temp is a perfect 25C, but we still managed to work up a sweat. This is where I hike and run everyday for an hour.

There is a beautiful deck at the top of the mountain where folks rest, exercise, take pictures, play music, and some paint. You can see Hualien city below, with mountains to the west and ocean to the east.



Frankie loves nature, and she helps me see things which I normally am too blind to see. Like little butterflies resting on tree leaves, little flowers among the bushes, insects dangling among tree limbs, and some caught in the spider webs..........she also loves sketching, as she carries a pad of papers and pencil in her pouch, and draws sketches of things which she finds interesting.

Here is her quick sketch of a cat........

Food as medicine 山藥--瘦身好幫手

Chinese medicine is more about prevention than cure, and many food items are actually medicine. Here in Taiwan, we are blessed with rich soil, warm climate, plenty of sunshine and moisture, which all combine to provide an ideal growing environment, all year round. When I go to the local markets, I often come across things I am not familiar with. One of those things is 山藥, a traditional Chinese herb medicine which I have seen in dried form, but never fresh....

山藥 is a root vegetable, which resembles somewhat like a potato. The one on the left is imported from mainland China, while the one on the right is a local Taiwanese grown. It so happens it looks exactly like the island of Taiwan.

After some research, here are some of the medicinal value: 山藥可健脾胃, 補虛贏, 益腎氣, 止瀉痢, 強筋骨, 化痰涎, 潤皮毛, 除寒熱邪氣久服耳聰目明, 輕身不饑延年.

一般人熟悉的山藥, 經過研究, 效用有抗菌, 抗氧化, 抑制癌細胞, 調節生殖系統, 曾強免疫力. 蔡新聲表示, 山藥完全沒有毒性, 可當成三餐主食, 而不像馬鈴薯, 芋頭會令人發胖.

山藥含有的熱量少，營養多，而且其能增加飽腹感，達到瘦身的目的，故在瘦身期間可作為主食食用，或者作為輔食.

Here is more: http://www.aptcm.com/aptcm/medinfo.nsf/ByUNID/4B7E7C2F9849B77448256FFF0013580D?opendocument

Now that my focus is on health, I continue to search for foods which are nutritional and have medicinal values, instead of just loading up with fats and carbs.