February 4

Post 732, Day 35 of 2013
 - and 766 days since I started this blog -

Daily Comment

Cuenca, Ecuador, an amazing city up (8600 feet above sea level) in the Andes, thirty miles off the Equator, is beginning to tug at my imagination. It has been runner-up on my list of places to check out for post-retirement living or a while now, with Chiang Mai, Thailand, in first place.

That may change. I am thinking of advantages it has over Chiang Mai. It is much easier and cheaper to travel to and from the States than Chiang Mai (half the cost, one-third the travel time). Residency is much easier (Chiang Mai has no path, outside of marriage or being from China, for permanent residency or citizenship). It has a retirement program that gives great discounts and privileges - and any resident over the age of sixty-five, irrespective of citizenship status, qualifies for it. It is also possible I can learn Spanish, and it is not likely I could learn Thai. Cuenca has potable tap water, Chiang Mai does not. Both cities are about the same size (Cuenca is the smaller) and neither has a much violent crime (not nearly as much as most American cities), both have higher-than-in-the-US amounts of property crime, with Cuenca being slightly better in that regard.

Chiang Mai has the advantage of having better food, a much larger expat population, overall lower cost-of-living, and a non-Christian-oriented (Buddhist) culture. 

Weather is a toss-up - because of its altitude, Cuenca is cool, and Chiang Mai is hot-to-steamy. Both have rainy seasons, but Chiang Mai has a couple of months where things  are downright unpleasant. But Cuenca's weather, which is actually moderated by Ocean currents and not atmospheric changes most of the time, is cooler than I like it, and the weather at any time of the day, any day of a season, and any season of the year, is unpredictable. News broadcasts do not include weather reports (except historical, if there's something unusual). Chiang Mai has days of comfortable, short-sleeve temperature, but sometimes it is wicked hot there. Never happens in Cuenca.

Chiang Mai is more exotic, more interesting, but harder to expatriate to. Cuenca is pretty exotic in its own way.

I'm weighing the plusses and minusses now, thinking Cuenca might be the new number one.

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 Food and Diet Section

First-half year 2013 daily weight

Today's Weight:         206.2 lbs

Yesterday's Weight:     206.2 lbs

Day Net Loss/Gain:      - 0.0 lbs

Diet Comment

Same as yesterday, so, like yesterday, although there's no weight loss, there's no gain and the trend-line moves in a favorable direction, which is the goal of my current diet - to flatten the trend-line completely. That being said, I need to start losing weight. 

Must cut out late-night snacks.

Food Log

Breakfast
Cocoa-Kale-hemp protein shake (Almond milk, hemp seeds, kale, chia seeds, a large egg, cocoa, vanilla whey powder (24g protein), cinnamon, stevia-inulin blend).

Lunch

Roasted turkey breast with black beans and balsamic vinaigrette on Spring Mix and cole slaw mix.

Snack
Pepperoni and celery with home-made mayonnaise.

Dinner

Cole slaw and chicken sausage with feta cheese and spinach and whole seed Dijon mustard.

Snack
Celery and home-made mayonnaise.

Liquid Intake   

   Coffee:  30 oz,  Water:  92+ oz 

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