Struggling in China

[scorpiosphinx]

Hi all,

I'm new to this message board and I'm hoping you guys might be able to help motivate me and give me some tips. Here's my 30-second story: I'm 29 and 5'4", large hipped but slim build otherwise. I was in an unhappy marriage for 4 years and went from 125 to 150. Last summer the marriage fell apart and I ended up losing a lot of weight between depression and trying to raise my self esteem as the marriage ended. I went down to 107 at my lowest. As part of my efforts to reinvent myself after the marriage, I decided to fulfill my lifelong goal of teaching abroad and I moved to southeastern China where I now teach ESL at a university.

Unfortunately, I LOVE Chinese food. I'm currently up to 117 and in a panic. I'd like to maintain at 110. It's really important to me to control my weight because it makes me feel like I'm getting my life back on track and that I can still feel attractive even though I was rejected by my husband. However, it's so hard for me to control my eating in China! I'm often overfed by the wonderful Chinese friends and students who are eager to show me the local cuisine, and if I decline I feel culturally insensitive. And when I do manage to cook for myself I find myself binge eating in the wee hours of the morning from the stress of it all.

So I need some help and encouragement! How do you deal with stress eating? And how do you lose weight when others are forcing (delicious!) dumplings, dim sum and hot pot down your throat? HELP!

[lissvarna]

I indulge a lot; sometimes I can't believe i've lost 15+ pounds considering how much. But what I do is pick my indulgence meal for the day, and eat very very light for my other two meals. Today I know I'm going out to dinner, so I'm only consuming 400 calories during the day, and working out for an hour. That will leave me with enough spare calories to enjoy dinner. I also think those of us who love good food have to love the gym as well, to even it all out!

[Sungseng]

Hi!

I am also teaching ESL but in Korea and I am offered food all the time, I usually accept it and then secretly give it away! I also pretend to have a stomachache a lot which they expect from us foreigners and they back off a bit!

Hope any of this helps!

[graciegoose13]

Hi! I'm currently teaching ESL in Thailand, a country where love and hospitality is expressed through eating. I definitely found, like Sungseng, that the giving food gifts away secretly is a good trick. Also, at meals, especially in the hotpot, shared food setting I try to make the meal more about talking to the friends that I'm with instead of solely the food. Sometimes this is very hard, especially when everything is so delicious!

For me the hardest part has been the emotional eating. I when I'm tired or exhausted from teaching or sometimes a little overwhelmed or stressed out by being in a different culture where I don't speak a lot of the language, I find that I want to stuff my face with food, especially sweets. I wish I could say that I found the solution to make these cravings go away, but I haven't. I hope that at least by acknowledging this connection I'm able to recognize that I'm not hungry, just dealing with emotions. I know it's super hard, but know you're not alone!!!

[krampus]

Hi! I did the JET program in Japan for 3 years and am no stranger to feeling obligated to say "yes" to every offering of food from friendly locals who wanted to make me feel welcome.

I had a lot of problems with stress/binge eating over there, but those were brought upon by the stress of worrying about my weight. Do you exercise a lot? I found I could lose weight with big (I mean BIG) cheat meals every weekend as long as I built exercise into every day and made a point to eat healthy whenever I wasn't having social meals, but I know everyone is different. How long have you been there? I think it's normal to gain a little upon arrival, but most people level out/lose some after a while.

[exma1]

Heya!

I'm in a similar situation - moved to Southeast/East China for study for a year.
Chinese food is yummy and I eat a lot of it.

I find that if you're eating with Chinese people, eat how they eat, stop when they stop. If this makes you too full - then stop earlier, just eat slowly for the entirety of each meal!

I know it's possible to lose weight eating Chinese food - I lost a whole bunch of weight when I first arrived here!

加油！
<3