It is nearly two weeks of this 45 day fitness challenge, and so far the results are close to two kilograms of weight lost.  This stabilized a bit from the excessive pace at the beginning and yet my goal is to lose 5kg.  So far we're definitely on track.

While at the gym working out last night, the second day back after my epic trip, I bumped into a friend who is in his mid-50s and recovering from an injury.  We had an epic chat between group fitness classes, and he told me, "I want to be as fit as you bro.  You've got a reputation for being one of the elite members of our studio in your age group"

I said, "Thanks so much, but really I'm not some fitness legend.  It's just doing the workouts day in and day out, and sticking to the calorie deficit.  It's about making small incremental changes day by day that add up to big changes.  I also made sure this time to cut the alcohol."  

This led to a conversation where he told me how he stopped drinking after he got into serious trouble at the bar one night, he then came to the realization this had to stop and he has been sober ever since.

I then told him, "By the way I just came back from Pattaya on a business trip and spent the entire weekend drinking very little."

He said, "How the fuck did you manage that?"

I said, "It's all about this challenge man."

I don't mean to brag, but this accomplishment was actually a huge deal.  This trip made it all too clear that alcohol consumption in Thailand is out of control.  Statistics on the internet don't always reflect reality, but I can certainly tell you from my trip that many Thai people drink hard.  That includes an unexpectedly high prevalence of female alcoholics.

We both walked away more motivated, and it became clear that the fitness challenge indeed survived a weekend in Pattaya.  If that could happen successfully, then there were no limits to what I could do going forward.