hello blogworld! nothing important to say, just typing. it's 8:30 pm korea time. im at the pc bang, hung out in the hotel all day, it was great! this is how i knew i'd be aiight in korea, b/c i really do enjoy just chillin. oh how i miss my cats, tho *sniffle* jeez, anyways Cat-Lady, i did do my step workout today of course. really, nearly every single day i've done it. man, i want that scale! i havent used a riser since the last time i wrote about it. i dont know what happened; like those two days i used it knocked me back a few and i huff and puff through the whole thing now instead of slide through like before. well, not quite, but point is that it sure does feel like a full on workout again, even without the risers. my lips are chapped, the cold weather here is drying me out. today ive drank like two liters of half coke zero, half water concoction.

celebrate!

hello blogworld. nothing to report, just stopping in to say im still stepping near everyday and i dont have a scale yet. i'll be moving into my place mid to late next week, and top on the list of things to buy is a scale. and a blood pressure monitor. and a bed. and groceries.

my clothes feel no different than when i started this journey in november. jeez. but it's only february. and i know i wont really notice until it's at the point that i need a belt or something. regardless, ive not gone more than 2 days in a row without doing my step workout and that exercise buzz has kept me up and moving here in korea. it's really helped with the time/body adjustment.

it just occured to me a couple days ago that i havent had any ankle pain in forever. not since i wrote that entry about it, actually. well hey, right on!

dunkin schmunkin

ooooooh my goodness i barely made it through the step workout just now. i put the riser on and stuck it out through the warm up which wore me down, and then took the riser off and sluggishly finished the dvd. i was so tired! i didnt even want to finish! well, many factors here: i've been waking up at 3am since i got here last week. i cant get back to sleep so i get up and do the step set to be sure i DO get a workout that day, around that time it's 4am. i shower and lay my clothes out and im ready to go by 6am, but my training doesnt start until 12:30! so i think overall tiredness contributed today. at first i was so alert and awake despite the hours, but everyday i get increasingly tired. so maybe today was the catch up day. i also blame not enough water yesterday, my lips were so dry. i also blame the two giant ramen cups i had for breakfast, and the chocolate chocolate chip muffin and whole milk i bought at dunkin doughnuts for lunch. hey, they only had whole milk! i didnt want it! i actually really didnt, i shouldve bought a water. i took like 4 small swigs and tossed it. ate the muffin, tho. it's only a one hour break between the training classes, and dunkin doughnuts is on the bottom floor, so i was chillin and oh how i love chocolate muffins! im never buying from there again tho, fo real, the muffin and little ol' milk cost me like 2,600 won! i could've bought a whole meal with steamed rice, kimchi, and fish or chicken from the lunch counter guy down the street! i found out that i'll be teaching in pyongchon in seoul, and the school is working on finding housing for me. another couple weeks, i think. it's only 6am. i may nap right now... jeez im tired...

stepping up

i've been doing my step workout in the hotel just about every morning, save for yesterday b/c i'd gotten so lost the day before and did so much walking around trying to find my way that i just said f* it when next morning came. anyway, today i thought i ought to add one of the risers b/c i notice how easily i get through the warm up and first combo now that ive been doing this for a while, and WHOA does that one riser ever make a difference! i thought "eh, 4 inches, let's see how this works out" and man did i get a workout! i got through the warm up and part of combo 1 before i had to pause the tape and take the riser off, i could barely talk! ha! it was, tho, the challenge i wanted, im going to try it again tomorrow. i STILL dont have a scale, the teacher training takes up all my time and energy, but it ends on saturday and then we get a week off, so hopefully i can make my way somewhere and buy one. i think i've been losing: i exercise everyday, i'm avoiding all junk food, im not drinking my calories... we'll see. the walking from getting lost alone, i'd better be in the 230's dammit. for real, finding the right exit off that subway is tricky! ok let's do a guess. i'm going to guess that when i step on the scale, it'll say i weigh... 236. ok we'll see next week.

no ramen today!

hey blogworld. and hello Kole, who is maybe my sole male reader! (im so tickled that people read this website, tee-hee!) today i had lots and lots of water and coke zero, some crackers & peanut butter, and juice and sushi, green tea, a hard boiled egg... *sigh* man i really really want to start my own shopping. well, this is a good exercise in dealing when you dont have your usual tools at hand. i dont know exactly how many calories are in everything i eat here, nor do i know if i'm eating enough protein/carbs/fat, etc, but i kinda know it... and if anything, im aware enough to not eat when im just bored, and am sure TO eat when i realize i've had nothing but some ramen that day. and im not running off to burgerking or pizza hut which is very visible here and looks appealing if only for the ease of ordering food alone. got to find some little carts that sell produce or something. and jeez, i wish i could figure out which milk is the non dairy! i have all those wonderful jc complete start cereals sitting in my back taunting me! :) pero anyways, i did my step workout again this morning, and OH i didnt count on all the extra exercise i'd get climbing all the stairs on the subway here! especially when you keep getting off on the wrong stop and have to keep climbing up to see where you're at, and then back down to hop back on the train :) i think the stepping helps me to climb all those stairs, and has been just in general keeping me alert and in fair health thus far. i really REALLY want a scale; i did daily weigh ins back home and my fingertips were grazing the 230's, i want to know where i am now. im in an internet cafe right now, the guy at the counter is so cute. he speaks no english but helped set me up on the computer. i wish i could say, "you are so cute" in korean. when i learn, i'll come back and tell him.

eating ramen

hello blogworld! i went around for a walk around the neighborhood today, around 3 hours or so, and i DID NOT get lost :) i drew a little map as i walked, i was so proud to have found my way back to the hotel! the tv here has a dvd player, so i was able to do my step workout last night. my eating has been hard, b/c everything is in korean (of which i dont read or speak a word of) and im not always sure what is a restaurant or not. i went into one place today to try to eat, and the guy just said "no." i was so embarrassed! im sure that it was a restaurant, but im not sure if the "no" was b/c im a foreigner, black, or couldnt speak korean. after that, i was too embarrassed to try anywhere else! *blush* i went into a convenience store and bought ramen. was yummy, tho. hopefully i wont live on that for the week, but it was all i could muster myself to do today. i cant figure out the calories of anything im eating b/c i cant read the labeling, but still im writing everything down to keep me conscious. once i get a place of my own, first on my agenda is figuring out how to grocery shop, and buy a scale.

hotel workouts

i am now in seoul. everything on the computer screen is in korean. there is internet in my hotel room! also a tv with a vcr AND dvd player! you know what that means... stepping with me and CathE! the disc skipped a bit, so i missed pieces, but yes i DID do my step workout in my room today. er, yesterday night. which was saturday. i have sunday free, and then training starts on monday. on my personal agenda is to buy gloves and a scale. gloves first, it's cold as a mo fo. k, gots to sleep now.

"Meal on My Own"

so im embarking on a career change and going into teaching esl and i'm leaving for south korea TOMORROW MORNING! im very very exited. im packing, stocked up on deodorant, got my boxes all set to send to myself later full of cute smaller clothes, gonna be great. i had one last appointment with jc yesterday; i wanted to discuss doing what they call "meal on my own." w/jc, you get your main jc meals and then your snacks, and the snacks are defined as a starch, fat, meat, milk, fruit, or vegetable. they gave me a break down of how many of each im to have at my calorie level of 1700 a day. so for example the jc complete start cereal i used to eat in the morning is equal to 1starch and 1milk. so i can find my own cereal, or go to the jc list of what's a starch and what's a milk and have something else. i can also mix them up however i want, like eat 4 meats in one sitting if i wanted, so long as i eat everything listed for that day and not go over calories. it's much easier than i thought it would be. being on jc for this little while, the transition is ok. this is why i dont agree w/people who say jc is no good b/c you'll gain all the weight back once you stop eating their food. not so, you're supposed to stay on the program, you transition slowly from jc food to your own, one meal at a time, until you're doing all your own. if you gained everything back once you stop w/jc food, then you werent paying attention when you were on the program. dont blame jc, you'd have gained it back anyway. same reason i dont blame optifast, or nutrisystem or anything else ive done where i was not successful with the program, b/c really EVERY PROGRAM WORKS, but it's what you do and how you live after you finish said program that counts most. pero anyways, the scale is bouncing around 238-240, hasn't gone over 240.5 in days. im happy. and man, do i LOVE my stupid step workout, i've been doing it everyday. i want to buy a new step dvd now. so let me get off this computer, i got so much stuff to do. good day, blogworld!

im stopping jenny craig

2/04/07 today was supposed to be my last jc appointment. i called to postpone b/c i wont have money until monday, and turned out the consultant i'd been seeing no longer works there. ah lindsey, i'd hardly knew ye! so i just canceled altogether. im on my own now. i thought i'd be scared, but im feeling very confident. the daily exercising has helped for sure, makes me very confident. and i got calorie-count.com, i got sparkpeople, i got you all in blog world, im'a be ok. it's been in the back of my mind this whole time about going solo anyway, i've been scheduled to leave for korea since early november. im ready. keeping in mind that this weight loss is a life style change, that there's no start or finish, really, makes it all less daunting. there's no, "i have to lose 20 lbs by April" or anything, im not in a competition, this will happen for me, i know it, b/c everyday i keep trying. so i did a lot of giving away today. i posted items on craigslist one by one, and within ten minutes of each posting, someone called to come pick up said item. my balcony is so clean and clear now! i gave away the aerobic rider. i did rather like that machine, tho i didnt use it daily. not even twice a week, i think. s'cool, b/c i love my step set and balance ball. i've packed a couple boxes of clothes and books to send to myself in korea. using the cheapest method of surface mail will take about 2 or 3 months to arrive. and all them clothes are sizes smaller than i am now, b/c i just KNOW they'll fit by the time they get to me. :)

my past contributions to the Fitness Industry.

look at that photo! if only it really were pennies that i pissed away at the gym! maybe it's a reverse photo showing what i was left with AFTER the gym membership. the lesson i learned: having a gym membership isnt going to make you lose weight. using it, yeah, but just having the automatic monthly withdrawal set up to keep that membership, not so much. silly sha. these are the gyms i've made monthly donations to, in no particular order:

• 24hour Fitness. i went less than 5 times in 6 months and decided i ought to cancel. if you decide to cancel your membership, prepare to keep calm and have ample time to sit on the phone. When i tried to quit, the only way to cancel was to call this 800 number, and there was always a hold. i tried for 4 days in a row, holding for over 45 min each time, and when i did finally get through, a woman answered with a scripted message that the system was down and please call back another time. >:( i think i just ended up calling the gym directly and did an "angry customer" thing and demanded they cancel my membership right then and there.

• The Women's Club was close to my school, so i thought i'd for sure be coming here regularly, esp since it's a women's only gym. yeah, didnt happen. well, i did start out ok, i really loved the hip hop dance class, and i did stepping for the first time and enjoyed it. all kinds of different classes were offered regularly, but my attendance was sporadic at best.
  

• The Arc is the Aztec Recreation Center on the campus of my alma mater. It's also the acronym for the Association of Retarded Citizens, but that is completely unrelated. Tho the Arc was close, could be hit up before or after classes, and was open 24 hours a day, i found it too intimidating to work out with all those tight college bodies. if you went after 6pm, it'd be packed until well after midnight.
  

• Curves for Women opened up right down the street from my house, less than a mile away. thought to myself, "Huzah! The answer to all my problems is here!" yeah... no. yet again, i did not accept into my brain that you have to GO to the gym for things to happen. i made monthly donations to this thang for like 3 years. well, at least it was black-owned. Ujamaa!
  

• i've had home exercise equipment, treadmills and exercise bikes and the like, that i was fortunate to come up on for free, and whattyaknow: having them just sit in your living room doesnt make you lose weight either! :)
  

i dont have a gym membership anymore. dont know if i ever will again. not to knock gyms at all, glad i got to try all of these, but i think i am just not a gym person. i really enjoy my home workouts, but i think that is just my nature: i spend and enjoy a lot of my time alone. i get excited when i get in a groove, i talk to myself and the cats and the instructor on tv about how much fun were having. and of course, the type of home workout i do makes a difference. maybe im a little vain too, b/c i want to be seen in public looking cute, not sweaty or jiggly or struggling. Hmmm, maybe that attitude will change when i am closer to goal weight, maybe i will feel like i look like an athlete, glistening from a hard workout. time will tell. in the meanwhile, i'm still stepping in front of my tv at home. anyway...

do what works for you!

240.8

it's 8:40am and the scale says i weigh 240.8. yeah, mang!

thus starts a new month.

it's feb 1st, my weigh-in is 242.4. note the annoyance in my face on this month's photo. i've not been writing down and tracking all my food. and the exercise is only just really becoming routine; when i work out today, it'll be the 4th day in a row. but it's the eating that's the weakest for me, i know, even if i didn't exercise at all, i still could've lost if i kept track of my nutrition. so my weight is up 0.6 lbs from january 1st. well hey that's not so bad. i can work with that. i'm keeping track now. now is what's important. keeping track keeps me on track. im awake, im aware. i'll leave february in the 230's. oh and did i tell you all and i did my entire step workout yesterday; warm up, combo 1, combo 2, and the cool down. the WHOLE thing! the first time i tried it, i could barely get through just the warm up!yeah, that's right! im doin' it!

Milestones

i started this list so that i can look at my milestones and remind myself that i am making progress... b/c dammit, weight loss happens soooo slowly... but that's ok. progress has little to do with speed and everything to do with direction.

• dec 31 2006: lost the 1st 10 lb

• jan 18 2007: did home workout for the 1st time & only could get through the warm up

• jan 30 2007: completed entire home workout for the 1st time.

• feb 24 2007: realized i havent had any sore ankles in forever... not since nov.

• march 09 2007: down a full twenty pounds.

• november 08 2007: down 25 lbs.

• april 07 2012: down 40 lbs.
• may 2017: i have returned, blogworld. kkkk ;)