protein

one of the things that bothers me about living in china is the carbs. carbs, carbs, everywhere. people eat rice wrapped in dough and then drink insanely sweet soy milk to top it off. i like to think i eat pretty well, that i'm active and stuff, so it's probably not the end of the world. but if you're me then you get hungry about 1.2 hours after eating nothing but carbs and then you're eating again. i just feel like you need protein to anchor yourself, to keep from eating mindless crap that delivers little to no nutritional value.

meat in china is questionable. i am the only person i know here in shanghai that refuses to eat the bbq skewers on the street. something about meat that costs 20 cents USD makes me suspicious. because of this (and after countless, and i do mean countless) tummy aches at the dumpling place next to school because of the grease-filled 'meat' dumplings, it's enough to make you consider vegetarianism. generally, the meat options that i am offered here (unless i make it myself, which equals far too much effort) are sub-par because

A: chicken parts favored include only the wing. that's basically eating skin. wings are cool every so often, but a daily/weekly thing it is not.
B: pork is incredibly fatty if in the ground form, and fatty + gristly if in the chop form
C: beef - see above

anything else i don't really eat frequently enough. i know american meat and poultry receives a lot of flack for the mad cow thing, and the dirty chicken processing thing, and the hormones thing. i understand that and i like to pay way too much for my shit from berkeley bowl to ensure that it's a bit cleaner. but in china, not only do i question everything put in front of me, i also can't even question what i'm questioning, because i don't know how to express my concerns. i'm not sure if what i'm asking about even exists here (hormone-free? free range?). most times i'll just do what my mom taught me - shut up and eat. but i draw the line at those nasty-ass skewers. buses zoom by and lay grit and exhaust all over that shit and people love them. it's grilled rat, people. maybe the expensive ones are cat meat, but that's about as quality as you're gonna get.

so as options i try to eat a lot of peanut butter (found the non-hydrogenated, natural kind at city shop), eggs, dairy. eggs are a frequent option - i dump them in noodles, hard boil them and just hit em with some salt and pepper, whatever. dairy is harder because i'm snobby about cheese and yogurt so i don't end up buying it a lot because the good shit is really cost prohibitive.

fish i am also suspicious of because i keep hearing whisperings about fish caught in these really polluted waters. i mean, fish in the US is already a concern. in china? you better believe there's some nasty mercury sulfur weirdness all imbedded up in there. i ate a ton of fish in hong kong because i was so happy to be around reliable seafood. mainland, tho... i just don't know.

i think a lot about this stuff because as an avid reader of many many women's health and fashion magazines over the years, it's been drilled into my head that (from the extreme dogma of the american woman who struggles with weight and self-image issues) we should aim for low-fat protein like chicken breast, salmon (higher in fat but ok because of the omega-3s), and EVEN some lean beef or pork! legumes. tuna. crab meat from a can. cottage cheese. yogurt. almond butter, soy protein shakes, avocado. these are things that american women are told to eat. it's laughable out here in china. i mean, even as an ABC we know that to chinese people, chicken breast is the throwaway, the garbage. it's so dry my mom only deigns to use it in soup. i do actually like and subscribe to part of the 'magazine' mentality - back in the states i'm a regular at trader joe's and berkeley bowl and i do veggie burgers and eat organic whole grains and flax seeds and all that. but that part of me is switched off here. it's survival unless you're pretty wealthy and can afford the imported expensive stuff. you have to get down and dirty and sort of more practical about food quality and availability in china.

in other news... i took a flow 2 class at the yoga studio yesterday. i am a regular in the bikram classes, but i shy away from flow or anything ashtanga related because of my back problems. but after several months of bikram, i wanted to try again.

holy SHIT. i mean, i was doing ok, my balance and flexibility is decent because of bikram, but at one point the instructor was like, 'ok, now reach your right arm around and grab your foot' and i was like, ok, sure, lady. uh huh. i ain't grabbing shit right now. miraculously, it could be done, but it felt immensely awkward. like, at a junior-high dance awkward. and today i'm so sore that i'm still pre-sore. meaning 24 hours later, my muscles are still so shocked that they haven't gotten around to being truly sore yet, and are still in the extremely fatigued / numbish stage. tomorrow's going to suck.