Budding Buddhist

[NEW: See my new blog, Budding Buddhist <http://bdbuddhist.blogspot.com/>, where I am not posting my thoughts, impressions and understanding on Buddhism-related things.]

5 April 2015

Taiwan is my kind of place: exotically different and challenging, while still being relatively easy to comprehend. It is a place, for example, where I feel I can safely and comfortably drive a car, despite not being able to read many of the road signs.

I first visited Taiwan in July 1976, on summer holiday while an undergraduate exchange student studying Cantonese at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. I spent a week with another American student visiting Taipei, Taroko Gorge, and Penghu Island. My impression, as best I can recall, was that Taiwan was a beautiful island (scenic mountains and coastlines), but that the people were a bit strange, probably because at the time they were under martial law and tensions with mainland China were very high with the impending death of Mao Zedong in September 1976.

I did not return to Taiwan until November 2010, when someone I met at a conference in China invited me to give some lectures at his university, and then had me join an urban geography field trip with his students. This time, I not only found a beautiful island, but also a beautiful people. Taiwan is less crowded than Hong Kong, and much more relaxed and easy going than mainland China. I think the openness of Taiwan in terms of its democracy and freedom of speech (and internet access) has created a culture that is more courteous in public spaces, friendlier to strangers, and more respectful of individual diversity, in comparison to mainland China. It is also more traditional and mostly Taoist, although Buddhism is also everywhere. It sort of reminds of the culture I see in American Chinatowns, though at a country-wide scale.

I came here to do research and to write a couple of articles, while attached to National Dong Hwa University on the less populated and very scenic east coast of the island. That area also has frequent earthquakes, although I have not yet felt one because I was out of town when a 6.0 occurred recently! The research is going well, and I am finally getting over some serious writer’s block.

View from near my apartment on the National Dong Hwa University campus, Hualien, Taiwan

Something totally unplanned and unexpected, however, has come to consume a good part of my attention: Buddhism. While I have long appreciated Buddhist traditions, more so than any other religion that I have been familiar with, I never felt comfortable actually calling myself a Buddhist. After two months in Taiwan, I think now might consider myself a Buddhist – maybe.

My slide into Buddhism came through several stages. Over 41 years ago I learned Transcendental Meditation during my freshman year in college. I have practiced TM fairly consistently since then, though sometimes I only meditated once a week.  When I developed high blood pressure over a year ago, I decided to see if I could reduce it by more consistent meditation (which has not really worked, for me at least).  I even attended a weekend TM retreat Tucson last Fall 2014. And I also started attending yoga classes with my wife, who goes to them daily when we are home.

Also about a year ago or so, I stumbled on the Audio Dharma podcast by the Insight Meditation Center (http://www.audiodharma.org/) in northern California. I would often listen to these Buddhism talks (and occasionally other new age podcasts) late in the evening while working at home – after my tech and other news podcasts.

So then I came to Taiwan in January 2015 for a 3 month sabbatical research stay.

I got here a couple of weeks before Chinese New Year, which this year is the Year of the Goat – which is also my birth animal year. I thought that would be good, but I soon learned that it is actually very bad for me. I spent CNY with a friend’s family and he took me to a Kuan Yin (the Buddhist Bodhisattva of Compassion) temple so we could do the standard prayers to overcome all the bad things that were in store for me this year. While I had made incense offerings occasionally at other Chinese temples, this time I took it more seriously – not sure why, as I am not normally superstitious. Another friend arranged to have a small golden Buddha statue to be dedicated at her family’s temple in my name (and that of a couple of other Goats) to bring us good fortune for the year. Possibly because of these two event, I have come to take all such Chinese temple offerings more seriously than I had before – which is something new for me.

I should also note that being a Goat-year person, I am approaching my retirement decade, so that has also been on my mind during this sabbatical. When I arrived at National Dong Hwa University, I met someone I had known for several years, who is also looking at retirement and who said that he is becoming more interested in Buddhism than in his university career. It also turns out that my primary host here is a devoted student of Buddhist thought. So in addition to talking about research and teaching (‘talking shop’) we would also talk about Buddhism – what I was learning in my podcasts (which are based in the Theravada Vipasana tradition) and what she had learned in her more Mahayana Buddhism classes. I eventually taught her how to meditate (because it was not part of what she was learning) based on my knowledge of Vipasana mindfulness meditation and TM, and we talked a lot about the role of meditation in Buddhism practice.

Meanwhile, I had contacted the Taiwan TM Center to see if, by chance, they might be having a meditation retreat that I could attend. It turned out that they were having a retreat and it was schedule start on the day that one of my field work trips was going to end, and in a location very convenient to my research site. It could not have been a better coincidence. So I attend the 3-day TM weekend retreat. Over two weeks after that retreat, I still feel that it has been a life-changing experience.

TM is based on Hinduism, not Buddhism. However, Buddhism (in its different forms) emerged out of the Hindu tradition, so while different, there are many ideas that are similar. For me they all work together very well. Without going into too much detail, the TM retreat opened and resolved some deep stresses (‘attachments’ or ‘dukkha’ in Buddhism), much more so than my last retreat. Since that retreat all I want to listen to are my Audio Dharma podcasts. I am almost afraid to listen to my old tech and world news podcasts because I am not yet ready to end this retreat experience, and returning to them might be sign of that! I have also been preferring vegetarian foods over meat even more than I had before (though I do still eat meat).

So I have been learning a lot about Vipasana Buddhist practice, taking notes of the most interesting things, and have had many discussion on interesting Buddhism topics with my friend here as well as with my wife. My friend has also shared some of the key books (online English versions) that she has been studying from with the group she is part of. The main books are:

      The Noble Eightfold Path: The Way to the End of Suffering – by Bikkhu Bodhi (1999) -  http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/noble8path6.pdf  - www.buddhanet.net

-        The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment – by Tson-kha-pa (1402) – translated by The Lamrin Chenmo Translation Committee (2000) – in 3 volumes

The element of Buddhist thought that has influenced me the most is the Eightfold Path, which is the prescription that the Buddha gave to overcoming the suffering (disappointment) of life. The path consists of:

1. Right View, and 2. Right Intention (Wisdom; Prajna)
3. Right Speech, 4. Right Action, and 5. Right Livelihood (Ethical Conduct; Sila)
6. Right Effort, 7. Right Mindfulness, and 8. Right Concentration (Mental Discipline/Centered Mind/Meditation; Samadhi)

The more I came to better understand these eight principals of Buddhist practice, the more strongly I felt that these really are the best guide to leading a more satisfying and ethical life, and for creating a more caring world. (That perspective, by the way, largely encompasses the Right View and Right Intention parts of the Eightfold Path.) As I ponder decisions related to my career, I turn to Right Livelihood as my guiding principal. As I consider my relations with others, I want to be seen as someone who can be trusted with Right Speech and Right Action. And through my practice of meditation and yoga, and learning from Dharma talks and books, the paths of Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration help me to achieve more balance in my life (I hope).

This is what I have come to in the first two months of my sabbatical here in Taiwan (along with doing my research and writing). When I came to the east coast of Taiwan in 2012 to give a keynote speech at a tourism conference, I felt like this was a very special place, with its clean air, mild temperatures, towering green mountains, and dramatic ocean vistas. I told my host at NDHU that I wanted to return here for my next sabbatical, little realizing that it would be more than just a research sabbatical.

It currently feels like a milestone experience for me, laying a foundation for many years to come. As I have come to understand the deep, but very flexible and open, philosophy of Buddhism (which results in many different forms of practice for different types of people), I can now confidently say that I am comfortable with adopting Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path as the best guide for my life, and that yes, I am a Buddhist.

Taroko Gorge National Park, Hualien County, Taiwan

[NEW: See my new blog, Budding Buddhist <http://bdbuddhist.blogspot.com/>, where I am not posting my thoughts, impressions and understanding on Buddhism-related things.]

Reflections on a 10 Year Old Biographical Note

I noticed a missing image on my personal homepage at Northern Arizona University (AlanLew.com).  While fixing it, I decided to update the photo of myself at the bottom of that page, which was about 15 years old.  I also noticed a link to a "biographical note", which I remember being there, but which I had not touched in awhile -- in fact, I probably not in at least ten year.

Below is what that 10+ year old biographical note said, in bold, with a comments added by me today [in italics in brackets].

=======

Alan A. Lew, Ph.D., AICP
Biographical Note - written to introduce me to students in the classes I teach at NAU [I used to link this to my class syllabi.  Maybe I need to check if that is still the case!]

I was born and raised in Sacramento, California to immigrant parents. My father was from China and my mother from Germany. They met in Canada after WWII and I was born a year later. I left Sacramento shortly after high school and a wasted year at Sac State. [Ouch, a "wasted year"? On reflection, I may have been on academic probation after my first semester, and while I was not really interested in school that first year, it was not really "wasted". I had a lot of growing up to do, which started at that time.]

I spent a summer hitch-hiking across the Pacific Northwest and Mountain West [People hitch-hiked a lot more in those days. I would not recommend it today, if only because it is so uncommon.], then 2.5 years in Hong Kong where I learned Cantonese [Actually, it was 2.25 years, and on 1.5 of those were spent learning Cantonese].

After about 7 years and 6 different schools (including the University of Hong Kong, San Francisco City College, and UC Berkeley-where I studied Mandarin) [Actually, it was 8 years and 7 schools. While that worked for me, I hope none of my own children follow in those footsteps due to the much higher cost of education today.], I finally finished my B.A. in geography at the University of Hawaii at Hilo (on the Big Island). It then took me only 5 years to complete two masters degress (one in geography and one in urban planning) and my Ph.D. in geography at the University of Oregon.

I came to NAU after completing my Ph.D. in 1986 [Over 25 years, as I write this in 2012. It sounds like a long time ago, though it feels like yesterday!].

I have since taught as a visiting professor at the University of Tubingen (in Germany) and at the National University of Singapore [I have now taught twice, now, in Singapore. And as I write this blog post, I am spending a semester on a Fulbright research grant in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. In fact I have spent over 3 years of my life, so far, in Singapore and Malaysia, and about the same amount of time Hong Kong and neighboring Guangzhou, China].

In graduate school I came to focus my research on tourism, as subject which brought together my diverse interests in environmental perception, built environments, and travel. My interests have primarily been in Asia, especially Southeast Asia and China - both of which I have visited many times. [All of this is still true, and my interests continue to revolve around these topics.  Some things just do not change much.]

I am hoping to spend my sabbatical leave in Fall 2000 at a university in Hong Kong studying the tourism situation in China. [I ended up at the HK Polytechnic University looking at overseas Chinese travel to China and at international travel patterns of Hong Kong residents.]

I have also done a fair amount of work on tourism in small towns in the Western US, and after coming to Flagstaff, I have been doing work on tourism on American Indian researvations. [I do not focus on these areas any more, though I have had several graduate students who have done research on these topics.]

I have edited several books on tourism, including the first scholarly book to be published on tourism in China and the first one ever on tourism on Native American lands. [I have now also written a couple of books since I wrote this original bio note, and edited several others.]

I am also the editor-in-chief of a new international academic journal titled, Tourism Geographies. [My journal is doing really well these days. The publisher is happy, which keeps me happy. And I might add that I was made a Fellow of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism in 2011.]

Courses that I regularly teach at NAU include: [Most of these are now taught by adjunct instructors using my content.  I still monitor the classes and try to keep the content up to date.]

- GGR 346 - Geogaphy of the US [now GSP 220]
- GGR 576 - A graduate seminar in Tourism and Recreation Geography [this is no longer offered due to demands for me to teach other classes and NAU's requirement to drop classes with relatively low enrollments]
- PL 376 - Planning for Sustainable Tourism (web-based) [now GSP 276]
- PL 431 - Computer Mapping for Planning (an AutoCAD class) [this is no longer taught for a variety of reasons that are too long to get into here ....]
- PL 405 - Planning Studio (the capstone class for Public Planning majors) [other people now teach this, which has been relabeled as GSP 405]
- PL 406 - Planning Methods (spreadsheets and powerpoint presentations) [I now teach this as GSP 406, which coconvened with GSP 506 -- a graduate level class. The title is been tweaked as it now includes a social media element.]
- UC 101 - University Colloquium (topic: sustainable communities) [this class is not longer offered by NAU]
[In addition to the above, I now teach:
- GSP 421 / GPS 521 - Planning Law and Ethics, which I developed when we lost the lawyer who used to teach our planning law class following the 2008 economic crisis and subsequent university budget cuts.
- GSP 240 - World Geography - West, and GSP 241 (online) - World Geography - East (online). These are now taught by adjuncts using material that I developed.]

See my Homepage [AlanLew.com] for more information on these classes and my current activities.

See my online Curriculum Vitae for even more details. [My CV is no longer online, as I had not updated since the late 1990s.  My CV these days is really long, 10 to 30 pages with very small font, depending on the version, and probably makes for some pretty dull reading.  My NAU homepage is the best summary of my CV.]

=======

On reflection, I am still the very much the same person after surviving the first decade of the 2000s.  Maybe ten years is too short a time period to expect much change, especially at this stage of my life. (By comparison, my kids have changed a lot in the past ten years!)

In addition to the changes noted above, even though I am a little bit older, I am in better physical shape now than I was a decade ago, having lost weight and gotten my Black Belt in Taekwondo last year.  In fact, someone at a conference in China told me this past summer that I looked much younger than my online photo -- a photo that was taken 10 to 15 years ago.  I do not think that is true, but it was flattering. :-)

A decade ago I averaged about one international trip a year, whereas today I am making two to four international trips a year. Unfortunately, that is not a very environmentally sustainable lifestyle, but I do expect to slow down as I get a bit older. Most of those trips are paid by other people, but some are paid by me.  I also make more money now to help pay for those trips.

I  had a stint as Department Chair in the middle of this past decade, which was the most stressful 3.5 years of my life.  Opportunities to get away from Flagstaff help me to keep my work sanity, though I also think Flagstaff is the best place in the US for me to live.  And despite it stressful moments, I really love my job and do not intend to retire from the intellectual stimulation that it gives me for many years to come.

By the way, here is the photo that accompanied that 10+ year old biographical note:

How I Lost 50 Pounds in 18 Months

And Am Keeping It Off by Eating My Vegetables and Counting Calories

Before (July 2009, China) and After (February 2011, Barbados)

(This version was updated on 16 June 2011; additional comments were added in June 2013)

This story starts in July 2009. At the start of that month, I weighed about 208 pounds, and at 5'8" I was into the "obese" BMI range. It was not the first time that I weighed that much, though I have usually been closer to the upper 190s and low 200s, right on the border between "overweight" and "obese".

I went to China in early July and traveled with a Chinese friend from Singapore who is fluent in Mandarin (my Mandarin is very basic). Because I was with him, we were able to join the cheaper domestic tour groups, which meant eating with them, family style, as well. Much to my surprise, when I returned from that trip, I had actually lost a couple of pounds, which was a shock because I usually gain a few pounds when traveling! 

So the first part of my weight loss journey was to replicate the way I was eating in China. This involved eating a lot of Chinese vegetables, with only small amounts of meat thrown in.  My rule was that I could eat as much as necessary until I was full, just so long as it was vegetables -- especially leafy green vegetables, though squash and eggplant were also acceptable.  Fortunately, my wife was fully able and interested in cooking Chinese food this way, though she also loves her steaks!  


I think this would have been a lot harder with just the vegetables available in our local supermarkets, because the range there is so limited.  Instead, we would go to Phoenix once or twice a month with a large ice chest to stock up on a variety of Asian vegetables and I would have totally vegetarian lunches and dinners a couple times a week.  

Chinese broccoli (gai lan) has long been my favorite Asian vegetable for its taste, texture and ability to make me feel full.  I found eggplant to be even more filling when stir fried with chili peppers like they do at one of the Chinese restaurants here in town.  Bok choi-like vegetable are good, but I need to eat a lot of them before I start feeling full.

I also weighed myself every day, using Wii Fit, and I took Taekwondo classes twice a week, though I had been doing that since before this all started. I continue to weigh myself every morning, though just on a regular scale, and I continue to attend Taekwondo today.

Following that diet I lost about 25 pounds, getting down to around 180 by the start of summer 2010. (I fluctuated from the upper 170s and lower 180s.) Quite a few people noticed the weight loss and complimented me on it, though I was still clearly in the BMI "overweight" range.

But then summer arrived and in summer 2010, I made three international trip (more than I usually do). By the time my last summer trip ended, in mid-August, my weight was over 185 pounds. I got back on my Asian vegetables diet, but it did not seem to have as much of an impact, though I admit that I was not eating as many purely vegetable meals as I had before.

Then, in mid-September, I got the idea to try a calorie counting app on my Motorola Droid phone. I tried a couple of them and settled on "Calorie Counter by FatSecret.com". I found that I was able to enter my foods faster with this app than any of the others, even though some of the others have a fancier user interface.

The app also links with an account that I set up on the FatSecret.com website. That web site shows my first weigh in as 185.5 pounds on September 19, 2010. Here is my weight chart as of April 7, 2011:

As you can see, the impact of the FatSecret Calorie Counter on me was dramatic from the very start, with a huge drop on the third day that I started using it. Over the first two months, or so, I lost an average of 1/2 pound (occasionally more) a day. Thanksgiving and trip to Taiwan in November resulted in a rise in my weight, but once I got back on the Calorie Counter, I continued to drop at about 1/2 pounds a day. The steep dip in December was the result of a bout with diarrhea.  Through most of December and January I was focusing on stabilizing my weight (by eating more calories) in the low 160s range.

I also kept eating those Asian vegetables and going to Taekwondo. The Calorie Counter app allows you to enter how many calories you burn through the day in various activities, which I entered religiously for the period from September to January. (I stopped doing that in February.)  In addition, you can easily enter you foods and activities through their website, as well, instead of on your phone.  

I was very surprised at my ability to maintain my weight through the winter holidays, and I was happy to be in the low 160s. When I was steadily losing weight, my daily goal was about 1700 calories, though I would occasionally go over that.

You can see another overseas trip at the end of January that resulted in another bump up in weight. For both overseas trips I was not able to use the Calorie Counter app on my phone, though it may not have made a difference since I love eating local food wherever I go and am often too distracted to even write down what I am eating.  In addition, the gap in January came from my trying a different calorie counter app for awhile, which I did not care for because it was more limited in what it could do.

By the end of February I felt that I could easily drop to less than 160 pounds, which I did. I am now trying to stabilize my weight in the upper 150s, with my daily food goal set to 2000 calories. In fact, if I only eat 2000 calories, I will usually lose 1/2 pounds the next day. And on most days I eat between 2200 to 2500 calories. If I eat more than that, I will almost certainly see it the next day on the scale.  Overall, I have happily stayed in my new weight goal range.

I use a scale to weigh all my food in grams to enter in Calorie Counter. I bought a digital travel scale, but seldom use it. When I am not at home I just estimate the amount in cups, teaspoons and tablespoons, or in generic sizes (such as one small cookie or one medium orange).  I have heard that the most important thing is to write it down what you eat, whether or not you count calories using an app or website.

Interestingly, I find that at the end of each day, the amount of calories that I have consumed comes very close to the total number of grams that I have consumed. So I sometimes use that as a quick estimate of my calorie intake. If you eat a lot of high calorie foods (white flour and sugar), you will probably not get that same kind of result.

These days, when I look back at photos of myself from the past 25 years, I find it hard to believe that the person in those picture is actually me. I weigh less now than I did when I got married in 1987. I do not know for sure, but I think my weight has not been this low since I was a young exchange student in Hong Kong in the 1970s! (Again, that Chinese diet!)

One added benefit is that I convinced my doctor that because of my loss of weight and regular exercise I should be able to stop taking cholesterol medicine. My cholesterol had been under very good control for a long time with the medicine. So we gave it a try and so far, so good...

Finally, people often comment on my weight loss and ask me how I did it. In my November overseas trip, several students in Taiwan commented on how much thinner I was now compared to how I looked in some of the photos of me in my presentations to them.  And they wanted to know how I lost the weight -- which I told them, and which I am telling you here in more detail.

So now that I am an expert as losing and controlling my own weight, here are some tips for others who might be like the "before" me in the photo above ...

1. Write it down. Write down everything you eat - do not skip anything. Just writing it down will slow your rate of consumption and you will eat less. But I think it has some other (magical and psychological) influences, as well. It simply forces you to pay attention to what you are eating.
   
   This is the minimum that you need to do.  It is easy to do and takes almost no time. If you really want to loose weight, just do this -- no excuses!  If you cannot simply write down everything that you eat, then give me a break -- you really do not want to loose weight!
   
   [UPDATE: June 2013 - I am not sure if I really believe this one. After a recent 3-week trip to Asia, I tried this -- writing things down but not recording them in FatSecret.com.  I found that my weight did not go down doing this.  It may depend on how  overweight one is, but for me, I need to see the calories building up to get myself to slow down on the food consumption.]
   
   
2. Try to estimate the amount of each item that you eat. That will slow you down a little more. If you also weigh what you eat, for a more accurate calorie count, that will really slow you down a lot!
   
   This is the second step, which takes a little longer. The easiest is to estimate based on cups, teaspoons, tablespoons (1 tbs = 3 tsp), or even one hamburger patty, one medium apple, one small cookie, etc.  Again, it can be easy, though it is a step beyond just writing it down.  
   When you are at home, and you have more time and privacy, get a food scale and weight your foods. That will take more effort, but will probably give you better weight loss results.
3. Add up your calories. You will need an app for that -- though you could do it on a website, as well.  Some scales come with this feature built in (you need to enter the food code on the scale).  As I said, the combination of the Fatsecret.com Calorie Counter on my smart phone, which syncs with the Fatsecret.com website works the best for me.
   
   This is the third step. You do not have to do this, and you will have results. But you will get the best results if you count up your calories a couple of times, or more, through the day. You will almost certainly eat fewer snacks, for example, if you find that you are already at 1600 calories after lunch and before dinner.
4. Weigh yourself daily, preferably in the morning before eating (when you are the lightest). Weighing yourself daily gives you the best feedback as to how well you are keeping on track. By doing 1, 2 and 3 above, you will actually become fairly good at predicting your daily weight based on your previous day's calorie intake. (Though see my Weight Anomalies comments below.)
   
   Doing the four tips above alone gives me a sense that I am in complete control over my weight. 
   The following tips will help you speed up your weight loss, but are less powerful agents of change without the tips above.
5. Eat your vegetables. Try to eat more low calorie vegetables than meat and white flour products. Fruit is a good snack food, though still higher in calories than straight vegetables. 
6. Eat eat candies, nuts and white flour products in moderation (smaller amounts or less frequency). You do not need to cut them out entirely, but be sure to write them down and count the calories -- you will be amazed at how high they can be.
7. Eat at home as much as possible. Restaurant food, especially fast food, has a lot more calories than home cooked food. And a lot of those calories are "bad calories" (processed grains and sugars, and salt).  I believe that those bad calories have an impact on my overall health, if not necessarily on my weight gain or loss.
8. Get some exercise. I know that I can always eat more on Taekwondo days. But even on other days, I know that if I go for a 20 to 40 minute walk, it will noticeably burn more calories than if I do not.
   
   [UPDATE: June 2013 - I am still convinced that exercise helps me to drop the pounds faster. However, nowadays most of my exercise is simply walking and tai chi -- I am not getting any aerobic exercises like I used to when I was doing taekwando. Calorie counting and eating right are, I find, far more important than exercise to lose weight.]

That's it. I would guess that this would not work for everyone, as not everyone would have the personality to closely monitor everything they eat.  But for those who can, and short of any other biological challenges, I am totally confident that this approach works.  

Good luck!  

[UPDATE June 2013: While I am sure that this approach will work for some people, I am also sure it will not work for everyone because of different body types, lifestyles and personalities. One friend who tried it insisted that he could not lose weight even when only taking in 1300 calories a day, which may be a body type issue.  Many people have no choice but to eat out all the time due to their work schedules, which make calorie counting very difficult.  And I am sure that there are a lot of people who would not be able to keep track of their calories as closely as I do, though I could not do it either without the support of all my gadgets!]

---

ADDENDUMS - A few additional thoughts after I posted the blog above:


Low Calorie Foods: There are a lot of websites that list low calorie foods.  I printed a couple of them out and early on I spent some time using them as a guide on what to eat. Here is my list of the best things that I like to eat to feel satisfied with minimal calories:

1. Celery with sour cream - Celery is very low in calories and of all the popular things you can put on its, sour cream is probably the lowest in calories.
   
2. Zapple - This is zucchini squash made to taste like apple pie filling!  Find a zapple recipe online (most any recipe will do) and make it during zucchini season in the Fall. Cut the sugar recommended in the recipe in half (or less - that is where all the calories are in the filling.) The pie is really good, but the crust makes for high calories. Make a lot of the filling and freeze it for use later in the year. It goes good with plain yogurt or just by itself as a snack.  Depending on how much sugar you use, zapple is much lower in calories than real apples.
   
3. Chicken broth - I am always amazed at how few calories there are in chicken broth.  You only need to add a few other things (a little meat, some vegetables) to make for a filling little soup with low calories.
   
4. Congee - This is Chinese style rice porridge ("jook" in Cantonese).  You can find recipes online. Plain jook is just rice and water, which is filling, but not very tasty.  But you can also make it with chicken broth along with some pieces of fish or chicken or a few cocktail nuts, and spiced up with diced pickles (any kind), green onions, white pepper, and if you like a lot of salt, some soy sauce.
   
5. Wasa Light Rye Crisp Bread - Three pieces are only 80 calories! Other styles of crisp bread are thicker and only have two pieces per serving.
   
6. Fiber One Cereal - This is the king of cereals for low calorie eaters.  I usually have half a serving (15 g) with my nonfat plain yogurt and fruit in the morning.
7. Eggplant - I find eggplant to be one of the most filling vegetable, at least the way my wife cooks it, while also be low in calories (though higher than green leafy vegetables).
8. Asian Pears - These are a lot juicier and crunchier than other pears, and that may be why their calorie count is much lower per gram (42 calories per 100 grams). They are mostly found in Asian markets. The Japanese ones are expensive. The Chinese ones are called "Ya Lay" - or something like that - and are cheaper.
9. Water - Craving at late night, or mid-afternoon, snack -- try a glass of water, instead.  Sometimes I find that is all that I need to get me through to the next meal, though at other times, I need more.
10. Strawberries - Strawberries are even lower in calories than Asian pears (32 calories per 100 grams, or about 4 to 5 medium strawberries). Buy a bunch of them when they are season and use them to snack on.

Weight Anomalies

• Two day momentum.  Sometimes I find that I either ate a lot or ate very little in one day, but I do not find a change in my weight the next day, as I would have expected. It seems like I sometimes experience a weight momentum, so a high (or low) calorie day is still having an impact on my weight two days later. So, while I mostly assume that my "calories in" and "calories out" work on a 24 hour basis, this is not always the case. However, this momentum effect never seems to last more than two days -- at least not for me.
• Salt!  A sudden increase in salt will almost always increase my weight the next day. This happens when I eat out at restaurants, which use a LOT more salt than we ever use at home.  Restaurant food tastes good, but be prepared for the weight gain caused by extra water that your body takes on when you eat a lot of salt. For me, the salt impact takes two days to work its way through my system before I am back to normal.
• Sleep. I do not quite understand this, but I have heard that the less sleep you get, the more you gain weight. I usually try to get a minimum of 7 hours of sleep a night. Sometimes I just have too much to do, and do I only get 6 hours. Occasionally, I can take it easy (like on the weekend) and get a fully 8 hours. I often find that I my weight is down more on the 8 hour nights than the 7 hour nights.  I do not know how this works.

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