I just realized that I have 60 days left of my trip, it's going by so fast. It really seems like I just arrived yesterday and John was visiting during his tour-de-Asia trip. So I suppose a recap is in order, it'll help align my goals back in place even if I think I'm making good progress.

First I have to note that there seems to be an epidemic in the camp right now. On Tuesday I felt pretty weak during my muay Thai session, throwing very weak kicks by the end of the 5th round of padwork. Normally I wouldn't think much of it. It was a more humid day and there seemed to be smoke in the air from something being burned nearby. I found it a bit harder to breath, but got through the session, had another workout outside in the afternoon and was feeling ok. Wednesday morning I got up for training and during the warm-up stretching I was not feeling like doing a 2 hour workout. It's the first time I was like "ehhhh, I don't want to do this" but figured I may had just been feeling particularly lazy that day. Well, we did some shadowboxing like always and then I had the 5 rounds of padwork. (they switched from 4 rounds to 5, not sure why, but I think it's 5 of 3 min. instead of 4 of 4 min.). After the first round I felt really weak, no energy. I pushed through it but was completely wiped out after 5 rounds. Then going to the bag I found myself barely able to do anything. A fellow camper noted that I looked gray-ish in the face and had lost considerable weight the last few days. So we both agreed I needed to stop, get some rest and eat a big breakfast.

I decided to spend the day resting and trying to replenish my fluids and caloric intake. At breakfast I ate 5 eggs, 5 pieces of toast, an order of chicken pad thai and 2 bowls of fruit/yogurt/muesli. I felt much better, but needed to rest for the day. I wasn't hungry the rest of the day, but had a green smoothie around 4pm and took a quick trip to the store to pick up a few things, including electrolytes to help maintain fluids and bring back up my sodium/mineral levels which could be low. Well, once I got back I felt pretty awful. Still full, bloated and it only got worse. I'll spare the details, but I spent the night tossing and turning, being sick in the bathroom and oddly enough, burping a lot. It was such a weird feeling and although I felt better today, I'm using some discretion and did not workout today. I'll probably do an easy workout tomorrow and then take the weekend off. I was planning on exploring the island this weekend anyway, so the time couldn't have been better.

Then today I found out that all 4 guys in one house were sick all night, another girl was throwing up during the day before a fight she had wednesday night (which she won!) and some others were sick as well. So they're trying to figure out what it was, but my guess is it was something at breakfast. Anyway, I've spent the day reading and taking it easy, I hope to be 100% by tomorrow.

So to recap the trip so far, I'm pretty happy with the progress. One thing I'm not happy with is that I realized that I haven't spent much time exploring the country. I've seen plenty of things around here, visited Phi Phi island for nye, but other than that I've been a hermit. So this weekend I plan to rent a scooter, do some shopping, visit some other beaches, check out the local art scene and see what the restaurants have to offer outside of the camp. I don't want to leave the country and regret not having seen much of the culture.

In regards to my goals, I've stayed pretty true to my plan. At my lowest I was down 14 pounds (what the heck?), and am down 12 pounds right now. I'm concerned I'm losing too much weight too quickly (odd enough) which may have added to my sickness although if others are sick too, that may not be it. However, after talking with the woman who suggested I quit training yesterday, I realized that I perhaps am creating too big of a deficit in my calories. To lose weight you simply have to take in less calories than you expend. Then your body is forced to use your stores of fat and muscle to keep you going. Keep your protein up and do strength training and it's gotta burn off that fat (as I understand it, correct me if I'm wrong). One pound is equal to 3,500 calories so if you create a deficit of 500 calories per day, you'll lose 1 pound per week which is healthy. At this rate, I'm losing 3, possibly 4 pounds per week...not healthy. In order to do that, I have to create a deficit of 10,500 calories per week, or 1500 per day. Between a normal burn of 1000 calories per day, 1000-1500 during training and another 500-1000 during weightlifting per day, I'm using somewhere in the 3000 calorie range per day. And based on a diet of a lot of fruit, veggies and lean proteins, I'm not taking in too many calories, probably 1500-2000. So I'll have to adjust that going forward. Even so, I'm happy with how the transformation is going so far. I'm excited to see how I progress the next couple months.

Other than that, I've been reading way more than the average person does in a day, I'm a nerd. I'm on my 14th book since leaving (although I stopped 2 halfway due to me getting nothing from them), which I'm glad I was able to keep up with despite the doubt of a few people, ahem, Alberto and Noelle, that didn't think I'd read more than 8 or so books. My reading comprehension has always been terrible, I just can't keep focused on what I'm reading. It's tough, but I'm trying to get better at it. In fact, although I was finding it hard to read at first, barely able to read 100 pages per day, I'm breezing through books in 2-3 days rather easily now. I just finished the Adventures of Huck Finn by Mark Twain and Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, both very good reads that I found myself getting wrapped into easily. Right now I'm on Thoughts Without a Thinker which I borrowed from Micah and although it's a tough read, it has some interesting points in the relation between Buddhist principles and Western psychotherapy...which I felt appropriate for where I'm at now. I'm excited to get to the books I have planned for the 2nd half of my trip...even the 700 page behemoth of the autobiography of Teddy Roosevelt which I hear is outstanding.

Other than that, I spend my time searching the internet for interesting articles, reading about personal development, entrepreneurship, wine, finances and watching Scrubs on youtube. Here are the sites I visit regularly, if you're interested in checking some out:

http://artofmanliness.com/

http://tv.winelibrary.com/

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/

http://www.inc.com/

http://blog.entrepreneur.com/

http://www.stevepavlina.com/

If anyone knows of a good real estate blog or site to check out, please let me know. I keep updated on Crain's, and I know about cribchatter although I don't check it out too often. But I'm looking for anything else that may be interesting/entertaining or is more geared toward learning about real estate and development.

But, the most important part of this trip is that I feel like I'm recreating that spark and passion to do some big/fun things upon my return. Sometimes life just gets too blah and you need something to send it for a loop, mix it up a bit. At least I know I'm capable of entertaining my desires in that regard.