The Triumph Of Tebow: God is a Bronco Fan

Everyone in Colorado has known for years, that God is in fact a Broncos fan. It is just recently the rest of the country is finally learning. Ok I've been a Bronco fan through and through, grew up watching Elway. I am just so fascinated by the whole Tebow phenomenon, this national conversation about Jesus and faith. 

His Christmas card was the top selling one on e-bay this year, his jersey is the 2nd highest selling in the NFL now (Z got one for Christmas from Grandpa).  Tebow hasn't even won a Superbowl but he already has a best selling book out. Ok so I am not back in Denver in the thick of it, I am living here in Tainan and read the papers, talk to my family on Skype, I caught the 3rd quarter of their last OT game, so I am very removed. Still its interesting to me.

 

Obviously I am cheering him on. It has been amazing watching the various reactions; the anti-Christian backlash (Bill Maher the notorious atheist for example) or even from Christians themselves who believe faith should be compartmentalized to the private sphere (Terrell Suggs).

There was that funny SNL skit that caused an uproar, with tight ass believers, i.e. Pat Robertson's total lame reaction. No wonder people are turned off by Jesus if people like Robertson are the loudest believers out there. I have faith Jesus has a better sense of humor than Pat Robertson. Tebow himself found the skit funny. Jesus was a man who hung out with rough and uncouth fisherman, I totally can see him sitting in a football locker room. I disagree with SNL's argument that Tebow is in "everyone' face" about his faith, he gives all the credit to God. I think that makes most American Christians from a Puritanical performance oriented theology totally uncomfortable (we ought to work hard and earn the victory). He is not in the natural a very talented quarterback by any means, and then these miraculous endings are nothing short of supernatural.

Even if Broncos are to lose to New England on Saturday, I think Tebow is a total champion. He has made million of people google John 3:16.  He has made people who consider themselves Christian just a little uncomfortable. Anyone who pushes the comfort envelope has to be interesting.

Of course Bronco fans are the best supporters too. We work hard, play harder and we are very devoted. I would not be surprised if the Broncos go all the way this year, "all things are possible..."

The Merging of Two Forces

This was the week of the converging of 2 parties. First on the gym front. Gyms in Tainan are the stuff of legends, a big gamble. Two years ago I paid a year membership at the fabulous Flying Club by my house, went to Colorado for Chinese New Year came back and the place was closed, the owner took off with everyone's money to China. Expats who have been here longer have even more horror stories. So I have been a member at E-Powerhouse every since then. The gym is close enough, small, locker rooms are like a stinky closet, don't ask me about when a lady drops a bomb, there is no air ventilation. The weight room is pretty good, a lot of buff meat heads go there. They have yoga, spinning and combat and dance classes. My membership ends in July.

I found out on Monday they are moving, merging with the pool/gym/spa where Z takes her swimming class. They will move the library or weights and its actually a bigger space with  a coffee bar. Z can watch me dance while I take a class. Membership fees are the same, but a little more if I want to swim. The pool is closed during lunch (bad business move) so I wont pay extra for that and just buy the tickets to use the pool as I already do, swim while Z has a class.

The spa is decent enough, dry sauna, and wet sauna, nothing close to the luxury of the former Flying Club, kinda musty and cave like, but great for a sweat. The pool is fantastic for laps. So that is one merger. They will renovate during Chinese New Year plus a week off and have added a free month to everyone for the inconvenience. Now they have a special 8 months for 5000NT. Did I mention this new location (under my former apartment) is closer to my home and work? Now I can ride my bike, no need for the scooter.

Pastor Yeh, Mary (Sharefun's owner), Vivian Yeh new assistant principal

The second merger of forces has been my church with my work. Chinese Pastor Yeh and his wife Vivian have come on board to Share Fun's management. It was announced to us at our weekly meeting Wednesday and they officially kicked it off at last night's annual end of the year staff dinner (I won 4200 NT!). Since Vivian has been busy behind the scenes these  past few weeks, the whole atmosphere of the school feel so much more lighter.

I have a positive feeling that change is happening for the best.

New Years Chez Moi

On Sunday's Christmas night wedding feast I decided I would invite people over my apartment on New Years before they set off to their various parties.I wasn't up for a crazy night and I never have more than one party over at a time, except for that surprise 36th b-day party of mine.

I invited co-workers, my friends in Taipei (just in case) and some friends here in Tainan. It was a low turnout, but enough to be cozy. My closes Tainan friends plus 2 co-workers. It was mellow.I had a bottle of red and was up for making Fireflies. I had some finger food, cream cheese and salmon stuffed cherry tomatoes and red onion, blue cheese puff pastry triangles.

There were 8 adults and 6 kids, Z was the only girl. Three of my guests are divorced, one separated, the other announced their upcoming marriage, one has a spouse who lives and works in another city and comes home every other weekend, then there's me. Just call me Sgt. Pepper. It was like the Breakfast Club grews up, the Tainan version. Everyone left and my friend David stayed we watched the countdown on TV. Simple night for I expect a simply wonderful 2012.

Thinking about the Transit- Our Singapore Layover

At first I was dreading our long layover in Singapore because I knew we wolud be tired from the previous night's night bus from Tainan to Taoyuan. Then the more I started checking out Changi Airport's website I was getting petty excited about it. I figured we could take a taxi into the city maybe chill at the Botanic Gardens again (we were in Singapore in July). Now I don't think we will leave the airport, except maybe for one of the free tours.

Z is totally stoked about Changi and at night before bed , instead of a beloved story she wants to hear our Sumatra itinerary and specifically our layover in Singapore. She is excited about the kids science room and the gardens, I am excited about the nap room or the transit hotel and getting a shower. I hope we catch up on sleep during our flight so we can catch one of the free tours and enjoy a swim on the rooftop pool. Everything there is pretty affordable which is surprising because Singapore was expensive when we were there.

I cut and pasted from the airports website and converted prices into NT.

Changi Singapore Layover Possibilities:
1. FREE TOUR (2 hours)  Registration timing and operating hours Tour timings

7.00am to 3.15pm, daily (Terminal 2)

7.00am to 3.00pm, daily (Terminal 3) 9.00am, 11.00am, 1.00pm, 3.00pm, 4.00pm

(All tours are conducted in English)

2. Soak up the sun and take a refreshing dip in the rooftop swimming pool (30 mins) SGD $13.91 (327 NT) nett for non-hotel guests. 0700hrs to 2300hrs daily TERMINAL 1

3. Get a new hairdo or manicure (45 mins)

4. Catch a blockbuster movie for FREE at the Movie Theatre (2 hours) (term 2+ 3

5. Rediscover the beauty of nature at one of Changi's themed gardens (15 mins)
Term 1: Cactus Garden, Term 2: Fern Garden and Pond, Orchid Garden

6. Tuck into a hearty meal and chill out at Harry's Bar or Hard Rock Cafe (45 mins)

7. Try out a fish micro-massage therapy at the Fish Spa & Reflexology (30 mins)

8. Refresh with a quick shower (20 mins) SGD $8.56 (211 NT) nett for non-hotel guests., each Terminal

9. Have a go at the FREE Xbox 360 and PlayStation® 3 games at the Entertainment Deck (30 mins)

10. Ambassador Transit Hotel (Budget) single, TV, shared bathroom ($41.20 SGD/988 NT), Napping areas all terminals

The Querks of Work

"Ya gots to work with what you gots to work with." --Stevie Wonder

"We work to become, not to acquire." --Elbert Hubbard

2011 Fitness in Review (or My Anaerobic Anamensis)

I am no meat head, I wouldn't consider myself a sports person, although I grew up watching predominately basketball and football, still enjoy cheering for my NBA team (the Nuggets) and NFL (The Broncos). I have no Olympian physique. I don't have the Hollywood cookie cutter body type, but I'm strong,and I like to sweat. If I had to carry my 20 kg daughter on my back up a mountain I could do it.

This past year some fitness breakthrough sorta fell into my lap from new information I gained and I was able to learn a lot and improve my fitness and overall strength. It has always been easy for me to hit a plateau especially coming from Colorado at altitude, and then working out in Tainan at sea level, cardio was just too easy. I had to go all out for 40 minutes on a cardio machine before I was able to get my heart rate up to 180.

 Then I was having these epiphanies that were later confirmed by experts that the traditional cardio with the machine, even their heart rate monitors were not a realistic way to achieve my fitness goals and break on through to that next level.

I found Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS  and his Turbulence Training info online and found his free podcasts extremely helpful. He also has a blog and on his podcast will just spit out workouts that I can write down. Turbulence Training has totally transformed my thinking about exercise, I mean radically. TT is more effective, more time efficient and in more ways more gentle and loving with my body although the workouts are more intense.

TT training differs radically from conventional American gym dogma, that cardio should be on a soulless machine for 40 min-60 minutes 4-5x a week with some weights 2-3x per week. And on top of that weights typically means doing 3 sets of 15 reps, doing supersets of the same muscle group until exhaustion. TT training is totally anti-cardio and all interval. The metabolical resistance training is more body weight and free weights, with a fitness ball, doing super sets based on one push followed by a pull  of different muscle groups stopping BEFORE exhaustion. You stop when you can still do one more rep. Its kinder to your  body and builds up the body rather than traditional body building that tears down the muscle  tissue (followed by rest) to beef it up. The interval training is on a spinning bike, 5 minute warm up followed by intervals (like 30 sec all out HARD, followed by 30 rest, or 45 hard, 60 rest) for 6-8 x followed by a 5 minute rest and stretch.  TT training is only 3x a week, so my M, W, F and I am in and out of the gym in 45 minutes. A warm up is doing push ups, squats, lunges. The rest of the days Craig recommends some light exercise for 30 minutes doing something enjoyable with your family. He reinforces that wisdom that's so important in this age of cyberspace, real human connection  (how I miss my gym buddies, especially Andrea), workout buddies where are you?  TT is all about changing it up every 4 weeks which means it never gets boring and your body has enough time to respond to the exercises but then before it adjusts too much, you tweak it again.

On my off days, I recently discovered from the American Kettlebell trainer Dave Chesser in Taipei, the Body Rock website. The star of that show is Czech trainer Zusana who is totally amazing, has a perfect body and  very sincere about inspiring people to work out hard. By hard I mean intensely for about 10-16 minutes 6 days a week.  All that time I wasted in the gym! Lately Zuzana has been MIA and there some guest trainers, but you still get an exceptional workout. I still go back to do some of the earlier workouts with Zuzana. Body Rock uses body weight, sand bags, an interval timer and sometimes a ugi ball, and almost always a dip station. I put bags of kitty litter into a backpack, use an online interval timer, and use the hand rails on my treadmill as my dip station.  I do bodyrock 2x a week, either on Sat, Tues or Thurs, with one rest day. However, if I have my period I will rest.  And these past 2 holiday weekends, I have been having 2 rest days.

The advantage of TT and Bodyrock, is I have more time, faster results, real fitness, its not boring.

So today is Tuesday and I logged onto Body Rock and did their New Year fitness test.  I highly recommend it to see where you are and after competing 30 of their workouts see how fast your body responds. That's what I plan on doing, it will be a challenge and unlikely if I can do this on the road while traveling through Sumatra in 10 weeks.

The test is only 7 minutes long of 50 sec train intervals with 10 sec rests in between. I believe my score would of been higher but my butt and shoulders are cashed from yesterday's TT. My scores:
Squat Jumps: 42
Push Ups: 25 (some on my knees)
High Knees: 100 (might of been more hard to count, 50 R + L)
Burpees: 18
Jump Lunges: 40
Tuck Jumps: 24
Sit ups: 22

My fitness goals of 2012:
1. Add more kettlbell into the mix (I usually do KB on my Tues Thurs once a week)

2. more yoga

3. relax more

4. sleep earlier at least by 11

5 at least 10 pull ups by June

6. portion control

Food is an important issue, I love it.I have a hearty appetite, I could never skip a meal if I tried. As Craig Ballyntine says, "you cant out train a bad diet." Not that I eat junk food, I eat well, just portion control and slowing down to enjoy it, which goes hand and hand with rest and relaxing, no rushing around.

7. Exercise my faith in divine health. As a child of God it is my right to have divine health, never get sick again, retain the dew of my youth as I age. I had that Jesus dream recently where I believe He sent it to me so I could see how he looked, fit, young, the epitome of health and so if I experience symptoms of illness or premature aging, I seriously see myself as I saw Jesus in that dream, forever 30 (or 32?).

Christmas in Tainan

Christmas started for me December 1st. I decorated my classroom, put the tree up at home. I taught the kids the Nativity story and we did various crafts, a Nativity scene pop up display, coffee filter angels, they learned  some traditional carols (which is not easy for a 4 year old with limited English), we made a hand print wreath out of green felt. Later, I introduced the Nutcracker story, the Ginger Bread Man and made ginger bread cookies (minus the Molasses, so not so authentic, but it was edible). Our Christmas Popcorn balls were a disaster, but fun in a science experiment sort of way.

Winter solstice this year was the 22nd and traditionally Taiwanese eat sticky rice ball soup, usually with red beans, peanuts and lichee (a fruit that induces heat in the body). My friend had some bowls waiting for me when Z and I came over, and then when I came home my other friend had some bagged and waiting at my front door. I added some more red beans, black sesame and black rice to make it more hearty.

Christmas Eve  day I went over my former manager Amy's house. The food spread was fantastic. I made a simple polenta+ Parmesan  crust with some indentions and cracked an egg open in them and baked it until the eggs cooked. There was S. African milk cake, KFC, giant prawns, pesto and pasta, pudding, clams, so ALOT. The adults played Secret Santa, and Amy bought each child a gift. Zenaida got a Minnie Mouse watch which she was ecstatic about. I got some essential oil, anointing oil from Rose of Sharon in Israel, which was a strange coincidence because I recently had the dream of being annointed  by that Bishop (earlier blog).



Singing Carols



Z recieved a watch

That night I let her open a few gifts at home, her big gift, the science kit with a microscope and telescope. She has been playing with her "professional" as she calls it and pretends to be a professor.

On Christmas Day we went to church. Z and her kid Bible class entertained us with a song. My Taiwanese friends came to church and we all went to the mall Mitzokoshi for lunch  on the 6th floor, so the kids could play some games at the arcade.


Z at church



Later that night we shared the joyous occasion of a Christmas Wedding  Feast. My coworker Eric, (my boss' nephew) married. A Taiwanese wedding means getting drunk on food and there was plenty of that. The sushi was frozen, but the black chicken soup was amazing, as was the steamed fish. Z volunteered to sing on stage a few times, which was surprising, she is definitely becoming more of performer. I went to bed too late and indulged one wine glass too many and I felt it the next day, Monday morning.   



Monica and her son, lunch time