My Self Help Project

No problems today, I enjoyed learning these!

1. Send message to you – fā xìnxī gěi nǐ
2. My hair is long. – Wǒ de tóufà cháng.
3. Headache – tóutòng
4. Sit down – zuòxià
5. Generous – dàfāng
6. Rich (prosperous) – fùyù
7. Poor (not rich) – pínqióng
8. Upstairs – zàilóushàng
9. Downstairs – lóuxià
10. Sad (unhappy) – shāngxīn
11. Rude – wúlǐ
12. One’s path home – guīlù

So I’ve been doing Operation Have a Good Body for a week now. Can I notice any difference in my body? Not… really. Maybe a bit, but only very little. This is, of course, to be expected. Getting bigger is a long, slow process.

1. Protein Intake

So far 4 eggs, 2 yoghurts, and 10 dumplings. I have 5 eggs waiting for me in the fridge, but I might save some for tomorrow.

2. Exercise

Finally today I woke up with no muscle soreness. So I was free to work which ever muscles I wanted!

3 sets of real press ups. 3 sets of girl press ups (on your kness). 5 sets of bicycle crunches.

I didn’t have time yesterday to write up my words. So here they are:

1. I’m late – Wǒ chídào le
2. Bag –  dàizi
3. Can I have another bag – qǐng zài gěi wǒ yí gè dàizi
4. Pay separately – fēnbié zhīfù
5. To have a cold – gǎnmào
6. Tell – gàosù
7. Art student – yìshù, měishù
8. Some – yìxiē
9. Doctor – yīshēng
10. First, second, third etc. – dì yī, dì èr, dì sān
11. Oxford – Niújīn
12. Russia – Éluósī

I had to have another day of recovery because my abs and triceps were still sore, although my biceps finally stopped hurting. I spoke to my friend who is experienced with building up muscle and he said it’s very normal for the soreness to last a while when you are starting out (or starting again after a break).

I’m writing this a day late so I don’t remember exactly how much protein I ate, but it was quite a lot.

Today Operation Have a Good Body experienced a minor failure. My biceps, triceps and abs still hurt from previous days work outs, and so there are no muscles which I can work out today. My pecs are not sore, but I don’t know of any way to work out just them.

But I’m still eating my protein, so far 4 eggs today.

I can’t believe I’ve already made it for 6 days! Was talking to people in Chinese today, using my new words, understanding people saying the words I’ve learnt… it’s great! But still a long way to go!

I’m in a rush today because I have evening plans. So here’s today’s words:

1. Take away – dǎbāo
2. Take away – dàizǒu
3. Eat in – zài zhèlǐ chī
4. I am tired – Wǒ lèi le
5. I like American tv shows. – Wǒ xǐhuan měiguó diànshì liánxùjù
6. Married – jiéhūn le (verb)
7. The internet – hùliánwǎng
8. I like surfing the internet – Wǒ xǐhuan shàngwǎng
9. Careful – xiǎoxīn You should be careful – Nǐ yào xiǎoxīn
10. Rose – méiguī
11. Singer – gēshǒu

Today I left both my self help projects quite late, but got them done anyway. I did a review of all the words I’ve learnt so far (64) and only couldn’t remember the first part of ‘probably’. So the retention is pretty good.

1. Should – yīnggāi as in ‘I should go’
2. Sport – yùndòng
3. What’s your favourite sport? – Nǐ zuì xǐhuan shénme yùndòng?
4. I forgot – Wǒ wàng le
5. I can’t remember – Wǒ bú jìde
6. I am waiting for my friend – Wǒ zhèng zài děng wǒ de péngyǒu
7. I have just –  Wǒ gānggāng
8. Come back from/ return – huílái
9. For example: I have just come back from Chansha – Wǒ gānggāng cóng Chángshā huílái.
10. Husband – zhàngfū
11. Wife – qīzi
12. Parents – Fùmǔ

Pain

1. Protein Intake

This morning I was set on eating some eggs for breakfast. The problem is the canteen at my university only serves fried eggs and when I had a look at them today they looked really fatty. So I didn’t have any eggs for breakfast, just my usual 4 ròubāozi (a steamed bun with meat stuffing).

I also ate 4 barbeque tofu sticks, 10 jiǎozi (a dumpling with meat and vegetable stuffing), 3 yoghurts and 7 hardboiled eggs.

2. Exercise

I woke up this morning and my biceps were hurting even more than yesterday. This means that I probably over trained them and should give them a nice long rest to recover. My triceps hurt the right amount from yesterday’s exercise so no worries there.

The sit ups I did on day 2 did not leave me with any muscle pain the next day, so obviously I didn’t do them right.  I did a little bit of research today on how to work out your abs and I was pleased to find some information seemingly based on science.

I did 4 sets of the ‘bicycle’ exercise, which I must say is way more enjoyable than sit ups. It’s also apparently the most effective way to target your six pack and waist (according to this one study commissioned by the American Council on Exercise).

So hopefully I will feel my abs aching tomorrow!

Another successful day!

I’m incorporating my words learnt yesterday into my speaking and I’ve even already used a phrase from today’s list!

I taught 6 lessons today (I’m a teacher) and felt very tired when I got home. I definitely felt like not learning Chinese or doing exercise. I’m pretty sure that if I didn’t write this blog I wouldn’t have bothered. It would be easy to make some excuse like this: ‘I’ve had a hard day, I’m tired, I deserve a break’.

But I didn’t make that excuse and did what I set out to do, and I feel really good about that!

Here’s today’s words:

1. Or - huò
2. Friendly - yǒuhǎo
3. Clothes – yīfú
4. Jump - tiào
5. Probably - dàgài (as in you probably know him)
6. Impossible - bù kěnéng de
7. Can I have one more? Wǒ néng zài yào yí fèn ma?
8. Smoke - chōu
9. Tall – gāo
10. Short – ǎi
11. Strong – qiáng
12. Fat - pàng
13. He is taller/shorter/stronger/fatter than me - Tā bǐ wǒ gāo/ǎi/qiáng/pàng

That's tofu, in case you didn't know.

1. Protein I ate today:

4 Barbeque Tofu sticks

9 Boiled Eggs

13 Meat dumplings

An egg or two in egg fried rice

2. Exercise

I woke up today with very sore biceps, which I felt happy about! It means that I tore them up  yesterday and today they are recovering and are going to come back stronger.

I worked on my triceps today doing 3 sets on each arm. I should feel those tomorrow!