The Picture worth a Single Word

If you follow any of the Korea-related expat blogs then you’re probably well aware by now of the new Expat Living section in the Korea Herald. I, too, will have an occasional piece in the new section as well about my own struggles to get back in shape and lead a healthier lifestyle as an expat.

I specifically wanted to choose a topic that was just slightly off-point for SeoulSteves, but still related, because I thought that if I wrote about exactly the same stuff I blog about on here, then it doesn’t really add value. Let’s face it, there are special difficulties doing this while living in a foreign country. I firmly believe they can be overcome, but for something as emotionally charged as weight loss it serves as a big mental block to get through. Fundamentally, I believe this topic deserves special attention as a big issue for expats.

So anyway, you can view the article (which I wish I could change around a bit and totally re-write a whole paragraph. But you can’t revise forever. At some point you have to call it ‘done.’)off of the website (thanks for the perma-link workaround EFL Geek!), or, since it will soon disappear behind the subscription-only area, read below. After the article, I’ve added some additional content, including my personal favorite websites I use for helping me lose weight.

I’ve also corrected two paragraphs being out of order.
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The Picture that was worth a Single Word

Something changed in me during the Chuseok of 2006. After a few days in Bangkok, my group decided to take a boat trip out to one of the islands off of nearby Pattaya. About halfway to the island, the boat stopped to give everyone a parasailing photo op. It was a complete tourist trap, lasting about thirty seconds, but it was cheap so I gave it a shot.

When I first saw the resulting photo, I thought there was a mix-up and I had someone else’s picture. To be fair, it was taken from below at about a 45 degree angle; an angle at which I’m pretty sure I’d never seen myself from, but I was appalled at the photo. Straps pulled tight, bulges coming out from every direction, legs hanging limply in the air, and the most spaced-out look on my face I’ve ever seen. Basically, I looked like a balloon in a Thanksgiving Day parade.

When I realized the person in the picture was me, one word came to mind: obese. It’s a word that doctors had used in reference to my BMI and high cholesterol before, but I always held it at an intellectual distance. I told myself that the medical definition of ‘obese’ is different from how we use it in daily life, but when I saw myself strapped tightly into that harness, the word cut deep.

For the next year I started working out at least three times a week and monitoring my diet more strictly. I’ve tried various pieces of advice with limited success, and I’ve found that most of the prescribed weight loss programs are difficult to follow as an expat. Late-night business dinners, soju, the prevalence of rice at every meal, and the language barrier all seemed to be conspiring against me. My weight yo-yo’d. For some reason the most weight I could lose at any given time was about 4 kgs, which would inevitably creep back as I became overconfident that I was doing a good job. It’s been incredibly frustrating. However, in the past couple of months I’ve finally made some real progress.

For some reason, rather than tearing it into a million pieces and burning it, I looked around to make sure my friends hadn’t seen the picture before sticking it in my pocket.

This coming May, I will be the best man in my brother’s wedding in the U.S. and I want family and friends to be shocked, shocked, when they see me. That’s only one of my goals, but it’s the one I am looking to the most these days. Aside from that, I’d like to be able to buy clothes off the rack in Korea, especially jeans and t-shirts.

Simply, this column is a tool to help me reach my goals. If I know that 1,000 people are going to read about that Costco hot dog, then that’s more motivation for me to stay strong. However, I’ll also be posting the columns on SeoulSteves.com, and I hope that people visit there to leave feedback. If I’m doing something wrong, or if you have a tip you’d like to share with others, please drop by and post it so that everyone can benefit from it.

Please remember that I’m no expert. I’m just a dude trying to extend his life expectancy. This isn’t about fad diets or trendy exercise programs; it’s about building a lifestyle that maximizes both the quantity and quality of the days we have left. In my next column, I’ll try to summarize what I’ve learned in my research and outline the basics of how I got started when I got serious about weight loss.

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If you’ve read this far, then you may be interested in this topic. If you’re in a similar position as me, you may enjoy some of these great online resources:

Mens Health is hard to get a hold of in Korea for a reasonable price (though What The Book does carry it, including subscriptions. Also the USO.), but the website is fantastic. In my opinion, Men’s Health has the single best website of any magazine or newspaper out there. They’ve found away to provide much of the magazine’s content online, totally for free, without taking away value from the magazine because it very much feels like a standalone website rather than a magazine that also puts all it’s content online. Here’s a hint: Don’t rely on just the main website. The forums are a fount of knowledge and experience as well. In fact, above all other posts on the forum, there is one that is pure gold. No need to spend a dime on exercise books and magazines (unless, like me, it helps motivate you).

Related to the above, the Men’s Health website has a fantastic online personal trainer that is worth the money. I used to use it but have started designing my own workouts and diet plan since purchasing The Abs Diet (also published by Men’s Health). The Abs Diet is the program I’m currently following. It’s not easy living in Korea, but it’s doable. Costco almonds and the 1-minute, flavorless, Quaker Oatmeal (with costco frozen blueberries added), are your friends. There are several plans available through the website, including this one, but they all make automatically change out routines occasionally, adapt to your diet/exercise preferences, and allow you to track your progress.

Fit Day allows you to keep an online calorie journal (not that I recommend calorie-counting, but it works for a lot of people if only to get them thinking about their diet), with a searchable food database already in there. It’s lacking in Korean food nutritional values but if we can get a few of us on there and working on it we can probably get the most common Korean foods all up pretty fast.

If reading others’ success stories is a motivator for you, then bookmark John Stone Fitness.

Some of these may seem specific to men’s weight loss. I apologize for that but, as a man, that’s what I’ve focused on. However, though the writing on most of the above sources are geared towards men, it all works for women as well. Men’s Health published a “The Abs Diet for Women” book, but from the reviews I’ve read, the technical stuff is pretty much exactly the same as the regular Abs Diet book, the writing is just geared towards a female audience.

I highly encourage people to use the comments section of my columns to discuss your own experiences/advice/support for others.

Finally, if you’d be interested in taking part in an online project regarding expat fitness, please contact me through the comments section or email. I’m already in contact with a group trying to put together a bit of a support group in Seoul for people taking on this goal, and I also have some ideas of my own for organizing an online resource for expat fitness.

That’s all for now. My next column will be about my particular strategy and why I chose it.