hi all!! so i am back on here... for like the 10th time now or something...

i swear, it's almost like jinxing myself everytime i re-introduce myself on here... i end up giving up 2 weeks later... *sigh* which is why this time around, i've been lurking around without posting for the last week or so... lol.

well anyways, for those who don't know me, I live in Japan and i've been struggling with my weight forever... since I moved to Tokyo last April, my weight has been slowly creeping back up... with a massive boy-related-drama boost at the end of summer/beginning of fall... i'd known for a while i needed to do something. all my autumn clothes were fitting way too tight for comfort, and my sleeveless summer things showcased my massive flabby arms... and still i could not get myself into gear. ironically, it was a casual comment from my bf (that was not really about my weight, and not even mean at all) that shattered me and made me feel so bad about myself, i knew i had to do something. (it's sex-related so i thought TMI, unless you wanna know... lol)

so anyways, i first started dieting without really doing any exercise for the first 2 weeks, and then finally i joined a gym and have been pretty good about attending about 3x a week so that's not too bad. lost about 10lbs and i'm just hoping i can keep it up!! I have a tendancy to start strong and then unravel really quick...

anyways, nice to meet you all!!

Welcome back!

Heeey! I too have contracted the "I'm back!" "No I'm not..." curse. I hope we can both stick around and stay accountable, I'm finding it really difficult losing weight at the moment in Japan so maybe we can start giving each other tips? Hope to see you around!

Hey I've done the same thing a million times, as you can see my first weigh in was about a month ago, I've yet to diet or workout, home for the holidays (I'm in college), so I just don't see this happening until I'm back on my own haha. ALSO! I just found out that my scale, that I brought with me to be diligent, broke on the way here. So GOOD NEWS, I may not actually be ten pounds heavier than I thought...BAD NEWS. I can't weigh myself at all until I get home and get a new scale...in January. Sorry to rant, but anyway, I feel you. So demotivated.

eheh, thanks guys! makes me feel better knowing i'm not the only one!

Rie, my advice for you in this country would be:

1. don't eat the rice!! rice is evil...
2. frozen veggies! quick and easy, and often cheaper than the fresh kind!
3. cabbage is your friend! it's the cheapest thing here. chop it up, toss it into everything.

also sometimes i take raw cabbage leaves, dip it in miso (just buy a big tub at the supermarket) and you've got yourself a crunchy, super low-cal snack!

also, we have to hang out!!

But rice is so goooooooooooood! I know you're right though, hah! Definitely need to get in on the veggie train. I bought a book called the Japan Diet which has some recipes in that I'd like to try. We should totally hang out, sorry I'm been a huge poo and not got around to organising it. After I get back from England we'll have to arrange something!

oh are you in england for the hols? nice!

yeah, rice is so good... especially japanese rice but it is not good for your bum!!! you know what my downfall is/was? katsudon. god that is heaven. and about 1000calories per bowl *cries* i've cut rice out of my diet completely, but if you must, try to eat less than half the rice you are served at any given time and i'm sure you'll see a huge improvement! you know that rice in a bento box is usually about 400 calories all on its own?? i'd rather eat 400 calories of something else.

lol. i bought that book too! but i only read like 30 pages into it cuz it seemed really full of crap, haha...

Ooh, ooh...if there's a Japan meetup going on, I want in! I'm about 2 hours outside of Tokyo...less if I want to spring for the shinkansen, but it's not too terribly much faster given that it's more than double the price. In any case, welcome back and 頑張れ！

Good on you for the gym-ness...Right when I finally found a gym, the weather changed and the mountain winds decided to tell me to go F myself, so I've been scouring the interwebs for helpful-looking bodyweight exercises with minimum jumping around so as not to disturb my neighbors through the paper-thin (and uninsulated...wtf, Japan?) apartment walls.

Oh sweet jeebus, katsudon...there's a place down the street from one of my schools that specializes in deep frying everything under the sun...it always smells so greasy and delicious when I ride past on my bike. Even worse than katsudon, though? Katsukare...I've been fighting the urge to go to Coco's and buy one for months now.

heeeey! i remember you!

yeah sure, let's have a meet-up! how's your job going btw? if i remember well, last time i was around, it was going pretty crap for you... did that get better?

recently, some of my friends have linked me to lots of "fitspo" tumblrs, and lots of them are constantly posting exercise listing, and youtube clips for exercise... one that has a lot of those is this site http://fitspiration.tumblr.com i'm sure you can finds some routines that'll help you out in there!

Nope...it's still absolutely awful. I'm definitely heading back to the US when my contract finishes in April. There was some absolutely appalling crap last week that I probably shouldn't talk about on the internet, but long story short...no, definitely not better.

Thanks for the link! I'll have to page through. I bit the bullet and joined pinterest over the weekend after being bombarded with useful-looking things via friends in my facebook feed. I found some promising-looking things, but a lot of the links I clicked got tagged by my security extensions as unsafe. I'll have to browse around and see if tumblr is any more trustworthy.

aww... i'm really sorry to hear that

i still think you shoulda quit and gone somewhere else! you coulda gotten such a different experience... but still!

and omg, i just saw your post on katsudon... haha... KATSUKARE!!! omg... lol.

oh and we definitely need to hang out before you leave the country then!

Welcome and good luck on your journey!

I am interested in the comment that sparked all this, PM me if you want, I wanna hear about how Tokyo life is treating you and all that jazz!

I'll be in your hometown for New Years Eve this year...

omg, really?! oh wait, do you mean in Montreal? cool!

am pm-ing you right now! lol.