Lose 10 pounds

I ate horribly today, but at least I didn’t eat very much. The worst part was that I drank more soda in a day than I normally do in a week!

My legs are VERY sore from hiking, but I definitely want to get a lot of exercise everyday this week.

I feel so gross. Right now I weigh about 105lbs. and I’m somewhere between 4’10 – 5’0ft. tall. My BMI is in the healthy range, but I know that I’m getting overweight. I left China (July 2008) weighing 97lbs., which seemed like the “perfect” weight. My body looked nice and I felt healthy & energized. Then I moved to Korea (September 2008), where I’ve been gaining a lot because of the abundance of Western/fast food, cooking too much spaghetti, using mayonnaise on foods, eating Korean galbi (BBQ), etc. Now I have a big, flabby stomach, cellulite legs, and just generally hate the way I look naked. Sigh. I still look thin with clothes on, but once they come off, it’s a different story…

In the spring, I joined a gym and exercised for three hours every day, 5 days a week, for 6 weeks. It was hard at first, but eventually I got used to it and felt great. But then I took a day off, which lead to another day off, and finally I quit going altogether. I loved the gym and all the stuff I did there, but spending 4 hours exercising (by the time I walked to the gym & back home) + working for 9 hours a day = no time for anything else.

Now I’ve turned into a lazy sloth with terrible eating habits, who goes to bed at 5am (altogether getting about 6 hours of sleep). That’s why I got so out of shape again. It’s not as bad as college (when I weighed 115 and was DEFINITELY chubby), but I’ll probably get there again soon if I don’t start doing something. :/

So…

There’s a lovely fortress wall (see “Hwaseong Fortress” on Wikipedia) in my city that I really love! :) It’s a 2-hour walk if you go all the way around it. Also, it has a few steep parts that really make you sweat. I walked it today and plan to start going there 2 or 3 times a week from now on. It’s a gorgeous place, so you don’t really think you’re exercising as you look at the scenery.

I want to start hiking again too. Tomorrow night/Saturday morning I’m going to climb South Korea’s 2nd-highest mountain! I’m so excited! I’ve already climbed the highest one and I thought it was fairly easy (compared to mountains in China!), so I’m not expecting this to be very hard, but at least it will be some exercise.

Also, I’m trying to cut pasta (my #1 weakness), mayonnaise, all drinks except water and low-fat milk, burgers, and other junk foods out of my diet.

However, I feel like it’s really hard to eat healthy in Korea, so that’s my biggest struggle. I lost weight in China because Chinese dishes have TONS of vegetables, fruit was cheap and abundant, and the only fast food available was McD’s, KFC and Pizza Hut. I wasn’t eating pasta everyday either. But Korea’s fruits and vegetables are expensive. Most of their dishes have a lot of pork or beef. And I already mentioned how it’s fast food heaven here.

I’m going to bed now (at 12:15! Yay!) so I can get up early and hopefully go running. I know that if I can just start exercising a lot again, I will feel and look much better. :)