Getting Serious About Nutrition

My latest article in the Korea Herald was published last Monday. I delayed in posting it to the website because I was expecting it to be published on Thursday, but when it didn’t show up I wasn’t sure what was going on. This time it was heavily edited, which I thought made it sound awkward, but I understand why they cut the stuff they did (I admit it was kinda wordy and not my best writing). I’m posting my original version below.

The photo above was taken by Catsper and used only for this post under the Creative Commons license.

When I finally got serious about getting in shape and joined a gym about a year ago, I was at the scale-crunching weight of 124 kilograms. It was initially slow-going. The problem was that I had a hard time making it a routine. I had to find ways to eliminate excuses. Excuses are just that, excuses, and there are few that cannot be overcome. However, they still represent a major stumbling block for people, so I find that preventing the excuse in the first place helps to curb the temptation to cheat. In my case, this meant joining a gym in a very convenient location; across the street from my office.

Lunchtime workouts have now become my ritual and, honestly, there’s nothing I’d rather do during that time. It also helps that my gym is, in general, a pleasant place to be, having friendly people, brand new equipment, and clean facilities. Oh yeah, they also have a little mini-jjimjilbang complete with sauna and hot and cold tubs. It also helps that my gym has a built-in café serving up very decent chicken breast sandwiches on whole wheat bread I can take back to the office and eat at my desk. A year ago, cheating on my workout meant skipping the gym to go eat pizza. Now it means skipping my thirty five minute circuit training in favor of a twenty minute interval workout and hanging out in the sauna for the extra time. If you’re anywhere around the Hakdong Station area, do yourself a favor and forgo the trendy and cramped chains for Dotori Fitness at the very top of the hill that Hilltop Hotel is on (almost all taxi drivers know the hotel). Having highly motivated co-workers at the same gym so that we can all encourage each other has been a huge help as well.

However, there was a major piece to the puzzle still missing. Over five months of working out I’d lost a grand total of two kilos (at one point I was down four, but bounced back up a little). This was when I decided I’d had enough of controlling my diet through vague maxims and really got serious about it.

It really kicked things into high gear for me when I started going back to my gym after work and having the salad there for dinner. Ironically this also saved me a ton of money, as I usually would eat out on the way home or have food delivered when I arrived. This also made sure I was eating my last meal of the night by 6:30 p.m. at the latest. If the salad wasn’t enough, then when I got home, I’d supplement it with a protein shake. A protein shake has the added benefit of being just sweet and dessert-like enough to restrain me from eating sweets.

Another thing I did was pump up my fiber consumption. Psyllium husk isn’t the most pleasant thing in the world to drink, but after the first couple times it gets a lot better, and it’s the only kind of fiber supplement I’ve seen in Korea. I try to take a scoop of fiber with a lot of water at least once a day and always thirty minutes before I expect a big meal, like a company dinner.

For every breakfast I eat one cup of plain instant oatmeal (purchased at the foreign market in Itaewon), made with water and a scoop of strawberry protein powder (from mass119.co.kr). The key is the frozen Costco blueberries that I sprinkle in very liberally. This is the flavor that makes it good. Breakfast is the one meal where I sometimes go all out. I’ll even eat Egg McMuffins occasionally. From what I’ve read, we would all be a lot healthier if we just inverted our meal schedules. Eating your biggest meal at breakfast helps you feel less hungry throughout the day while giving your metabolism (=burning more calories just bumming around) a boost.

A few other foods I like to put in the mix are raw, unsalted, almonds for snacking on at work (Costco), guacamole for salads (Also from Costco. Keep the tubs frozen and use a big knife to cut off what you need after running warm water over the tub to soften it. One chunk thaws fairly quickly), olive oil for cooking of any kind (also great for adding to smoothies and using as a dipping sauce for appetizers. Olive Oil is high in calories, but it makes you feel full so you eat less overall). I try to eat a lot of chicken and you won’t see me shy away from a steak, though I’ll shriek in terror at anything made with processed white flour. Organic (no sugar added) peanut butter is pricey in Korea, but Costco was carrying it the last time I was there. A peanut butter sandwich is good from time to time, and it makes an interesting smoothie ingredient (the peanut butter, not the sandwich). I love Korean food as well, but I stay away from anything fried and try not to eat much rice.

Since I introduced these nutritional measures, while always taking a multivitamin, I lost 13 kilograms in about three and a half months. I didn’t get a body fat check when I first started, but I know I dropped 1.6 percentage points over the last two months. The holidays and getting sick for a couple weeks in January stalled things out a bit, but as far as I’m concerned, I’m well on my way. As long as you let your own progress become an avalanche of motivation, rather than resting on your laurels, you’ll start a positive feedback loop of encouragement that should keep you motivated to reach your goals.