Well it's been 2 weeks since I left for Thailand and although I'm starting to see some changes, I'm currently unable to do training sessions, for at least a day or 2 which is unfortunate. The main issue is I have a bruised right knuckle that I thought was better yesterday, but after several punches during pad work I found out that it wasn't quite ready yet. I bruised it on Saturday and Monday's session was pretty painful, but it felt fine for Tuesday afternoon...but it wasn't. I've been icing it and hope to have it better by Friday. But with Christmas and New Year's approaching, we have some time off from the gym so that'll give it some time as well. I also have a bruised left side and sore feet which are no big deal. Anyway, I should still be able to do some yoga and weightlifting so I don't feel like I'm wasting any time here.

So far I've been to the beach only twice and to Phromthep Cape twice, but I have a pretty serious tan going already. I can only imagine how dark I'll be by the time I get back. The bonus here is that if I get a bit darker, maybe I won't be as noticeable a farang (foreigner) as others here. Not too hard when your competition is mainly Brits and Aussies. Today is a gorgeous day out, but I may take it easy and read while recovering. I will go out for a bit, but a day of reading sounds pretty good to me.

Surprisingly, the days go by pretty fast here, especially if I don't do the morning run and have to wake up at the ass crack of dawn. This is mainly because I find it hard to stay up late after a day of working out and the addition of naps and a carefree lifestyle make it that much easier for the hours to slip away. This is good when I'm feeling homesick, but bad if I feel like I'm not meeting my goals. Yesterday I had weighed myself in the morning and was only down 2 lbs. on the trip which was very upsetting. But for some reason, in the evening I was down 6 lbs. This may be water weight, but I always drink a lot of water during the day and this morning I was still down about 6-7 lbs. So maybe it was something from the day before that was still with me, who knows. Either way, I'm happy with the progress there so far, plus I have 5 books down with some half read ones as well.

Part of my goal on this trip, as crazy as it sounds, was to read through 40 books of my choosing. I have always wanted to be better well read and more articulate so that's the reasoning. Being that it's about one book every 2.5 days, I do a lot of reading, but I'm on pace so far. It was disappointing to be reading a few books though and getting nothing out of them, hence the half read ones. I will go back to finish them at some point, but I was getting quite bored with them and thought it was silly to finish them just for the sake of saying I read it. I was also planning on writing up some reviews on them, but that also seems rather pointless. So rather, I'll just do some recommendations as I go along. The best ones I've read so far are Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse and A Fighter's Heart by Sam Sheridan. Both intrigued me for different reasons, but I could relate to both and I didn't find my mind wandering off while reading. I had read Siddhartha by Hesse earlier in the year, really enjoyed it, so I picked up this one which is his most famous - detailing a reclusive man who has become soured on life but has his outlook refreshed when he meets the woman who changes everything for him. And A Fighter's Heart was the story of Sam, the author, who traveled around the world to train and see just what made a man have the want to fight, what he was out to prove - to others or himself. He went to Thailand, Brazil, Iowa, California among others to spend time in their worlds. Although wordy at times, I found it to be a good read, especially at the beginning of my trip. It was recommended to me by Brett McKay, the author of the art of manliness blog (http://artofmanliness.com/) which every guy should be reading if he isn't already. I had emailed him about something I can't recall, but we got to talking and he recommended the book. So check that out when you have some time, and get on the email list.

I guess I'll get into a blog post soon about why exactly I felt compelled to take this trip. I won't get into all the details, but perhaps I can inspire someone reading this to do a self-examination of their own, it's probably long overdue like it was for me.