So what have I been up to in the last 6 months? Among other things, a whole lot of bicycling. In September, I wrote about my new bicycle and 25-40 km rides that left me tired and with an aching back. Things have certainly changed since then. I don’t know for sure, but I estimate I have ridden somewhere around 2500-3000 km in the last 6 months, including an amazing nearly 400 km adventure through the mountains from Vientiane to Xieng Khouang/Phonesavanh. Even though I didn’t blog about it, this trip is something I will always remember. All this cycling was spurred on by the challenge of an endurance ride, the idea of which leaves most people thinking you are crazy. When I started, I had no idea it was going to end up being such a lifeline for me. Despite the daily frustrations of my work here and occasional periods of restlessness, my exercise keeps me sane. Through cycling, I have become acquainted with a group of people who help motivate me to get out of bed and get my rear moving. They notice if I don’t show up and encourage me to keep at it. It is also nice to interact with people who don’t work in a hospital and who can talk about a whole variety of subjects while cycling through the countryside. With the encouragement of these folks, I have also started to get back into swimming and have started running. I had forgotten how much I enjoy swimming and it is fun to reminisce about my swimming days while backstroking and gazing at a beautifully blue sky. Running is still a difficult mind game, but it is getting easier and I think I am about to breakthrough to the point where it is enjoyable. The next challenge on the horizon is an Olympic distance triathlon. I plan to be able to say I am triathlete before I return to the US.
My physical fitness is much better than it has been in years. My weight has only slowly creeped down but my clothes are looser and my Lao colleagues want to know what I have done to get so ‘joy’ (thin). When I first arrived in Lao, my weight was a frequent topic of conservation, with repeated reminders of being ‘dtui’ (fat). Now, my weight is an even more frequent topic of conversation, but in a way that is less painful. I frequently hear my residents talking in Lao about my weight or appearance while I am lecturing, not realizing that I understand quite a bit of Lao these days. It still hurts some when Lao colleagues make hand gestures to indicate how big I was before and ridicule someone else for being ‘even bigger than Christine’ but at least they are no longer discussing my death by heart attack. My housekeeper told me a few months ago that I was beautiful. It would have been nice if she’d stopped there, but she continued “When you first came to Lao, you weren’t beautiful, but now you are.” Last week, the head of pediatrics stopped me at a workshop to ask my secret and wanted to know my daily diet. Funny how people think folks who are successful in losing weight must have a secret we are not sharing with the rest of the world. My “secret” of lots of exercise and making better food choices doesn’t seem to be what they want to hear. If I had a magic bullet, I’m not sure I’d be hiding it in Laos. It is a slow process, but I’ll keep chugging away. 
Exhausted and worse for wear, but on top of the world--or at least the dratted mountain.
