Hi, Belle!

Oooh, Tokyo - colour me envious! I'm thinking that will likely be my next stop, after Bangkok - I'm signed on for another year here in The Big Mango, but Japan is calling to me. I have a strong suspicion that it will be JUST my cup of tea! My wee sister lived in Beijing for a year - I know she enjoyed herself there a lot too, but I'd think it's quite the culture shock after Tokyo, no?

Anyway, as to the gym - what kind of exercise are you thinking of? General workouts, or a particular program? I've started following the C25k program, which involves 3 sessions a week of walking/jogging - because it's an actual PROGRAM, rather than me nagging myself that I ought to go to the gym to meet my own targets, I'm finding that a bit more motivating so far. But YMMV.

(I've also decided to look into Bellydancing classes - have been vaguely thinking about that for months, but last night I hit Google, found a place, found a course starting on Saturday and I'm going! Think I may even have successfully lured a friend into accompanying me! I suspect I'm going to be all nostalgic for Cairo pretty damn soon!)

Wow, are you so worldly. You make this Midwestern gal feel very plain! I hope the belly dancing goes very well for you. It sounds like fun, but I don't think there are any such classes in my area. I am considering a membership to the Y, but family memberships are so high around here.

Hi and thanks to everyone for the welcome.

I am not familiar with C25k, will do a web search and see what I come up with...I usually (operative word) treadmill (walk on steep incline or jog) 4x a week. Although, I go through periods of skipping a couple of weeks and feeling fat, unmotivated, etc. and then drag myself back. I usually watch my iPOD - download movies and TV shows from i Tunes, so helps the time go by faster.

Was on holiday in Cambodia 10 days ago and took gym gear as I was DEFINITELY going to go, but didn't even unpack the gear in the end. And I haven't been since we got home, either!

The gym is in my complex and it is fantastic - our gym in Tokyo was pitiful and I blamed the facilities for my lack of motivation to go...now I have no excuse, but walking across the courtyard seems like a marathon some days.

I have my gym clothes on today though and have charged the iPOD, so am a few steps closer to getting there!

Thanks for the support!

Sorry, motomom - I hope I didn't come across as sounding like a jerk? I got a bit excited at happening across another expat-in-Asia, type of thing - so much of the conversations I have here/the products listed on Fitday/my online weightloss journey is embedded in American culture - and I'm neither American nor living in the West.

fwiw, the stuff that YOU take for granted is equally exotic to me. I mean, Jings, I have American friends who talk about cowboys like they're just a normal thing, whereas from my pov you might as well be talking about spacemen! And ditto, oh, cheerleaders and American football proms and iHoP and all that stuff - it's all foreign and infused with this strange glamour of through-the-looking-glass-ness, because it's all familiar through TV and movies, but it's no closer to my own reality than the deck of the Starship Enterprise is. So next time you visit Target or Walmart or see someone eating a breakfast burrito, think how it would look from my PoV!



Belle - C25K is a running program that takes you from absolute beginner to being able to jog 5k straight. Theoretically it's 9 weeks, iirc, but being phenomenally unfit and horrifyingly overweight, I'm taking it VERY easy, and not trying to race through it - but I'm doing it 3 times a week.

If you pop over to the Exercise forum, you'll find more info there on the C25k thread. (Although if you've googled it, you likely know the whole thing already!) You can also download free C25k podcasts, if you like, rather than listening to your own music mix - the fella who put them together tells you when you need to shift to jogging, when you need to move back to a walk. I think that's probably more useful for those people who are jogging outdoors than for those using treadmills, though - perhaps in the summer I'll do that (if I do indeed go for a run in the early morning/evening, when it's cooled down enough to be viable). Right now, though, I'm happy with my wee iPod shuffle.

I've got my gym targets pinned up on my front door, and I cross it off each time I've been.

I also find (and this is just me), that if I sit down when I get home, or lie down, then it's very hard to motivate myself to turn around and go to the gym. I pretty much need to come in, get changed, and leave straight away.

hey chicas!

when last we had met i was suffering horribly--now the antibiotics have finally seemed to have kicked in and i can check in on ya'll what i'd like to know is why are we women subject to such debilitating stuff like monthly periods, UTI's, rupturing cysts etc. etc? unfair! *grump* men and their open plumbing seem to have it sooo easy!! okay, got a bit carried away there.

anyways: hope all you guapas have a great night.

belleinasia: always nice to meet fellow expats! even tho tokyo is so worlds more glam than mundane lil germany. good luck on ur weight loss journey

janda - good to see you're doing better.

things here are good. I'm a little jealous of belle & broad myself. Not that I want to live afar - but a nice 3 month vacation would be awesome!

I'm bored with water though. I get in PLENTY but it just isn't exciting to me.. and I've cut out pop - so I'm getting even more blah-ness into me. Know any secrets to spice up the water? I'm not a huge lemon water fan - limes are good - but hard to come by right now in Michigan... at least at a decent price.

On a better note the Farmer's Market is opening full swing soon! I'm Definitely going to buy more fruits and veggies there!

All right - I'm off for my crazy hectic night. I'll check back later! :hugh: & for everyone!

Eaten by monsters, maybe?

As to the water thing - I love soda water, so I'm not getting the blah thing. But maybe you could try adding sugar free syrups? I don't use them myself, but I know people speak highly of them. Or you could buy some essences? I have several wee bottles of them, from the bake section of the grocery - raspberry essence, almond essence, orange essence and cinnamon essence, and I use them to sex up my coffee or add a kick to a low carb smoothie or a low carb pancake. Might be nice to give your water a flavour boost without using lots of calories or carbs...?

(Incidentally - LOVING your avatar!)

Thanks for the water tip... I may try it. I've found a few things that I like to put in it. Honestly - if I drink tap water over distilled water I like it a TON more! I think it's the added flavor (even though the chemicals are AWFUL for me!)

I am however agreeing that people were eaten by monsters! Maybe they're all like me and don't sign in to post unless they're doing good. Kinda counter active since we're here to support through the tough times - and cheer on the successes... so if any of you are lurking out there - COME HOME!!!!!

Things on my end are going good - still staying away from the scale.. I'm walking about a mile a day.. making better choices - not over eating. All in all I believe that I'm making a difference! I'm not focused on the scale number, but the tag.. and right now I'm getting into a lot more 14s then I was last month! My June 21st (First day of Summer) goal is going to be to get into 12s.

Ok - here's the motivational quote for today:

Have a great day girls! &

Ha! I haven't been eaten by monsters, but slightly getting my butt kicked by the various demands of Life. (Have been posting hello's and in the April thread, though.)

Hope Janda and Eny are all WELL and over the blaahness of a couple weeks ago.

My husband got me bottles of almond and raspberry extract (I think that's what it's called, he got them at a cooking store) to use in coffee, b/c I like flavored and he doesn't. I bet they'd be good in water too.

On Wed I had lost 5 pounds : ) but I suspect some of it is back, since we went out for a celebratory dinner and then I went crazy the next day and had two candy bars. Ah well --- I'm about to get dressed and start my day w/ walking my dawg -- hope you guys are having a good weekend.
anita

I thought we had an April thread, no?