Two NSV in the past couple of days.
Background: I am an ESL teacher in S. Korea. I was in training with around 80 other people for 6 weeks and now we are spread around the country.
Some friends met up in Seoul this weekend and one of them asked if I lost weight. She said my face looked slimmer. I am down around 13 lbs and I have noticed some changes but wasn't expecting other people to notice yet. Especially since the two of us didn't hang out a ton at training. I also appreciated that her next question was if I was trying to lose weight. My clothes are starting to feel looser and I definitely notice some changes in my face.
The second affirmation actually came from one of my students yesterday. I like to walk around campus during our daily breaks and listen to a podcast. One of my favorite students that always likes to talk to me told me I looked slimmer. It was in a mixture of English and Korean, but still very nice. I tend to take the compliments of my students with a grain of salt (Korean students have high respect for their teachers and often shower them with compliments) but this definitely made my day.
What I have been doing so far:
- Changing my mindset - I am telling myself it will take a long time if I want it to be sustainable. I am focused on small changes (taking the stairs, switching out unhealthy options, removing my reward approach to exercise and treats). I also am keeping a wellness journal (in my google drive) where I write down my thoughts about wellness holistically. I am focusing on affirmations, self-love, sleeping habits, eating habits, and activity.
- Food - I can't really track CICO because I don't have a lot of control of what I can eat and everything is Korean. Since I live with a host family and eat lunch at school, I have focused on taking less food at meals. Between meals, I have stopped snacking (a reinforcing justification is to save more money) between meals. I know there are a lot of supporters of snacking, but even with healthy snacking options I was justifying added unneeded calories. I am cutting out processed sugar (drinking black coffee, not really eating treats) since I have such a sweet tooth.
- Activity - I do a short workout every morning before work at the gym in my apartment complex (~30 of weight lifting). I never understood why or how people woke up for early AM workouts, but now I get it. It sets my day up so well, wakes me up, and gets me in a healthier mindset. I workout with my host mom, which is an added social pressure to get up. At night I like to walk and talk on the phone or listen to podcasts/music. I started doing 30 minutes after dinner, but now I do around an hour. I enjoy walking and it makes me feel more connected to where I live. Since it is started to get darker and colder, I went for a walk before dinner yesterday. This freed me up to do 30 minutes on a stationary bike after. I think I will make this more regular. I am also trying to get up and moving around more during the day.
My goals:
I am trying to stagger out my goals. A big goal of mine is to get under 200 lbs. I am [M] 6 ft 1 in, so this would put me in the high end of a healthy weight range. I also am setting up smaller goals in between now and then to give myself some sense of accomplishment and motivation. My first mini goal is to get under 220 lbs/100 kg. The second mini goal for me is to get under 215. I don't think I have seen 215 on a scale since I was in middle school (and a lot shorter). Even if I reach my main goal of 199 lbs, I would still be considered to have an overweight BMI. I plan to re-assess my goals once I reach 199, but something I have in mind is an ultimate goal weight of 188 which would put me right at a healthy BMI.
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