Something that people may be wondering about is how I'm doing on the health front here. In case you didn't know, I did a couple of fitness competitions back home before coming here to Singapore, so I was pretty intense about nutrition and working out. Well I am happy to say that I've been able to still keep all of that in check. It's MUCH more difficult here, though, which I fully anticipated. For one, protein is not a big part of the Asian diet, especially "clean" protein. (If you want rice, they've got plenty of that!) So I basically take protein in any form whenever I can get it, and supplement with protein powder shakes and baked goods. I used to be SO very OCD about what I ate, like if there was even a bit of sauce on a piece of chicken or fish at a restaurant I would mildly freak out and scrape it off immediately. In my time here, I've become much more lax about such things. In fact, I'm kind of glad the food here is a little less "clean" because I've been eating a lot of the dishes that are considered "normal" here (curry chicken, mongolian chicken, aka things with sauces lol) and have been able to keep up with the physique I've worked hard for over the past few months. Granted I don't eat that stuff ALL the time, since I do still make my own food at home a lot of the time, but knowing that I can eat it and my body won't freak out is extremely comforting. I clearly have not given my system the credit it deserves! I also think it's funny because a few months ago for me to go out and have Chinese or Indian food would be a treat - now I hardly even consider it a cheat meal lol!
Luckily one of the perks of this job is a membership to a really nice gym near work. They have good equipment, VERY nice locker rooms and lots of classes (which I have yet to take, but BodyCombat and Yoga are definitely on my to-do list!). I am SO grateful for it! Granted, it's a bit of a trek to go out and go to the gym on an off day from work, since it's about a 30+ min bus ride, but in the end it's worth it. We also have a few plates/dumbbells/barbell in our apartment, so I can squeeze in a quick session with those when I need to as well :)
On a completely unrelated note, I'd like to share a few interesting tidbits of cultural things I've noticed since being here, for your amusement:
A) Personal space. It doesn't exist here. You get where you need to go, and f*** everyone else - that's the ruling mentality here. It threw me off at first, and I was being very polite to everyone, particularly on public transportation. I finally learned that to stand your ground and continue on your way isn't a big deal to most people around you. That's not to say it's okay to be outright rude, nothing like that, but back home if there was a crowd of people and someone seems to have gotten to a space a bit before you, you might let them go in front of you - yeah, that would never happen here.
which leads me to...
B) Driving. There is a stereotype of Asian drivers for a reason. Here, they treat their roads the same way they treat their walkways - you gotta get where you're going and it doesn't matter how close to others you are or if you're in someone's way. I am so glad I don't have to drive here - I would have a heart attack every day! The funny thing is, since everyone has that same mentality, they don't really think anything of it if someone seems to be very close or in the way, which is true for walking as well. It's bizarre. But yeah, that's why it doesn't fly in the States, because no one else would take that!
C) Pedestrians. This is where it gets really weird, and is completely contradictory to the above points. Cars will stop ON A DIME at an intersection if a pedestrian starts crossing. You would think, given the previous perimeters, that they wouldn't care and would just fly by...which is why it royally confused me at first. I was standing on a corner where there was just a walkway across the road with no "walk/don't walk" signal, looking at my iPad for directions to make sure I was heading the right way. I just kind of stood there for a minute looking over the map, then heard a car honk at me. I looked up and saw there was a HUGE line of cars waiting for me to cross! I was like, really? You don't stop for OTHER CARS but you stop for ONE PERSON at a tiny intersection?? This country officially makes no sense :P
D) Rice. Rice everywhere. With everything. And if it's not rice, it's noodles. Oodles of noodles. Needless to say, my carb-conscious self about had a meltdown when I first got here and EVERYTHING was white rice and white noodles. I've figured out ways around it and when it's okay to eat, but still. Rice. So much rice...
E) Prices. Prices are ridic. Even taking the exchange rate into account, things are STILL more expensive here. Which sort of makes sense, since it's an island city-state and pretty much everything has to be imported. But here's a few that have stood out to me so far:
1) Pam cooking spray: $10
2) 11 oz. decaf Folgers coffee: $14
3) 2 lb. Optimum Nutrition Whey Protein: $200
4) Boone's Farm: $13
5) Margarita at Chili's: $16
All I can say is, it's a good thing I'm not a heavy drinker because my money would be gone PRONTO! Instead, I spend all of my money on expensive groceries, lol. But it's worth it!
A few things that are awesome:
1) Although they don't carry egg whites in a carton here, you can buy 30 eggs for $5.00. That's pretty rockin'.
2) Bus fares are like $1.75 to go 10km to work. Compare THAT to filling up a car every week...
3) Basic produce and fish are super-cheap at the supermarkets (chicken, turkey and beef not so much, but oh well).
4) Because people don't really care about space, if you're late to work/in a hurry, you can speed on past people down stairs, escalators, public transit, etc and nobody gets miffed about it.
5) At the hawker centres here, you can get a decent dish of nearly every ethnicity (Korean, Thai, Indian, Chinese, on and on) for $3 to $5. Is it healthy? Probably not. But they're almost always open late and perfect when you're walking around hangry with a nearly-empty wallet (which happens more often to me than I wish it did).
All in all, so far so good! Been working a lot and will continue to do so, so I'm working on finding a way to balance work and exercise - hoping I'll get to a good place between the two :)
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