Healthy Eating?

Lydia runs into the den carrying a bowl of sliced apples and pears. She tells me in her unique english that I can eat some and would I like a few or many. I take one of each remembering that I had passed on an apple earlier in the day because it was looking a bit old. After my two pieces she says “ok” and runs out of the room, bowl in hand. Moments pass and she is back with the bowl of strawberries and tells me I can eat some. I have one thinking that I hope the strawberries are washed and what should I do with the pit. I haven’t been eating meat now for over two months. I try to avoid dairy but not so much…just replacing milk with soy in my cereal. Yang’s mom Yihang at first thought it was amusing and at the same time didn’t quite get that pieces of meat served in dishes also count. Lately she has been asking when I will start again and I honestly don’t know. She tells me that it can’t be healthy not to eat meat and I tell her I don’t know, if anything I’ve been feeling a lot healthier. She is especially worried because when I dropped by her apartment last week her mahjong friends told her I looked too skinny. To which I retort that I just don’t look as fat as I used to. I’ve lost maybe five pounds. This does not seem to console her. She asks again why and when and since I’m never good at these questions even when I know the why or when so I proceed to answer the more interesting question which is “what’s next?” I tell her I plan to go on a raw food diet followed by an all fruit diet. She doesn’t get the humor in this even when I add that during the raw food phase I can load up on sushi. Well, at least sashimi. Our new Ayi that cooks everything from scratch and throws nothing away. Makes her own noodles, makes her own dumpling wraps, I would not be surprised to find a rice paddy in the back bedroom. I guess that makes it healthier. It is cheaper but noodles and dumpling wraps are not exactly expensive to begin here. It does take a fairly long amount of time. And on her weekly day off I’ve been know to go through the fridge and throw away the old and molding food. Or feed it to the goldfish. We’ve been pretty good with the fast food and soda for the kids. McDonalds is a maybe once a month event and its for the toy more than the food. KFC (which is on par here in terms of fast food popularity) we’ve only been to once with the kids. And that was for a toy. Aidan likes Sprite but is lucky to have a can every two weeks—we just don’t buy it nor stock it in the house. Out major weakness is ice cream and with summer coming we can expect two a day ice cream cones for the kids. Hey, I may even have one. As I write this I just finished dinner. Yihang had they Ayi cook “meat tofu” just for me and it really did look like meat, which isn’t really they idea I’m going for. Tasted ok. We went to Qingdao last weekend and stopped in an SPR coffee shop where I bought Lydia a chocolate donut. You might be able to tell from these pictures that she enjoyed it. Elisa, not ready for chocolate, has a satisfied look after her meal earlier in the trip.