The okonomiyaki was the best I’ve ever eaten and sooo worth the journey alone! Pictures to come if I stop being lazy. Easily one of the tastiest things I’ve ever eaten.

In addition to that culinary treat were many other things in the form of junk food. Essentially refined carbs and I had a torrid holiday romance. Though the trip ended and we said our goodbyes, however I did manage to pack on astonishing 6.5 pounds. Eek! Not good, do not want! Must get rid of this food baby!

I knew a gain might happen but I was hoping to maintain. It is so hard to eat well in restaurants in foreign countries while on vacation. Fruits and vegetables are not abundant in healthful forms but refined carbs are! I made it through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s with losses while indulging. Why not this trip that involved lots of walking?

And 6.5 pounds? For reals? How on earth? Did I really eat that badly? Will I magically balloon into a fatty the minute I veer away from Weight Watchers? It’s not the hardest thing to follow but regimented eating feels too diety to me. Oh sure there’s the Simply Filling Technique, but guess what? I can’t find most of those foods here! So counting points it is! Which is easier than counting calories but no less annoying.

And to think, I put on in one week what it takes me one month to lose. AWESOME.

This is the part where weight watchers feels more like a prison than a liberating solution. If I dare veer, I shall become fatter at 4x the speed it takes me to slim down. If that doesn’t inspire effed up food and body relationships, I don’t know what does. Don’t worry, I’m just having a whinge here but you do see my point yes? How frustrating this all is?

I’m leaving Japan come the end of April. Goodbye Japan, Hello Thailand. What will I do there? Good question.

When I came to Japan I had a job, visa, and apartment lined up. The only thing to do was fly over and weather the culture shock. I had never traveled abroad before then, let alone lived abroad, and Japan was every bit the adventure I could have asked for and more.

This time I will be moving to another country with no job, no visa, and no apartment. What will I do? The plan is for us to get jobs in Bangkok and find an apartment there. By us I mean my beloved boyfriend and I. Whereas I ventured to Japan solo, I will not being going it alone to Bangkok.

The prospect of another country doesn’t make me nervous so much as it is the idea of going there with nothing lined up. I hope sharing a small apartment doesn’t make us want to kill each other. If we can get through one year then the next plan is England. A country with English food labels I can read and food I know. Until then, it’s another country with food labels I can’t read and restaurant food I can’t count points for. I am both excited and terrified.

Oh sure, fruit is good like rambutans, mangoes, bananas and mangoesteens. Tom Yam Soup I can do. But all the curries? Probably not so much. I wonder how the learning curve will affect all my hard earned work? Will I gain weight? How much? Will I lose weight?

It’s quite nerve wracking to think about having some success only to see it vanish due to a new country and new foods.

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I changed my weigh-in day from Tuesdays to Wednesdays. Tuesday was originally chosen because it’s the day I started and it’s also my day off. My original aim was to weigh myself in the morning, completely naked, before I ate and after a trip to the little girl’s room. Which seemed like a great plan. Until recently.

I find myself spending Monday nights at my boyfriend’s house. Monday is the only day we both have off so we like to spend as much time together as possible. That means I get back to my apartment around 1pm at the very earliest on Tuesdays. Where I proceed to peel off the clothes and weigh-in. And get frustrated.

I know that it’s not good to weigh yourself at different times of the day and more than once a week. Weight fluctuates for many reasons. Google why the scale lies for an informative read. But that said and done the scale is still the official calibration tool of weight loss. Hooray.

I find myself eating next to nothing on Tuesdays before weigh-in. And not so impressed with the results.

My scale is in kilograms so I convert from that to pounds, rounding to the nearest .5 of a pound. Not the most exact system. Also, my cheapo scale from Ikea does not instill faith in me as to its accuracy. The needle moves before and after weighing on it. So I average my weight after several times, round it, and call it a day. I did have a better scale but it broke it in the move. And seeing as I will be moving soon I don’t plan to buy a new one until after the move.

As long as the overall trend is downward, it’s all good for me. No one wants to work hard only to see a lack of results.

So out of curiosity I weighed myself again this morning. Naked, pre-breakfast, and post-bathroom of course. I had lost 1.5 pounds overnight! Well, probably not but I decided rather than eat next to nothing for breakfast and then have a poor afternoon weigh-in, why not change my weigh-in day? So I did. And to account for my scale’s inaccuracy I added one pound to my weight.

166. I have lost a total of 32 pounds. Starting weight was 198 and goal is 135. I am officially more than half way there thanks to that additional .5 of a pound.

Also, another pair of smaller jeans fit me now. Yes!!!

Have you ever bought food with great anticipation, only to be  disappointed upon tasting it? Isn’t that the worst? Now imagine that same letdown being turned into something amazing with one ingredient. Magic for your taste buds!

I bought some smoked salmon the other day and the taste was not what I thought it would be. It wasn’t bad, as in off, it was just not all that great. I ate it with my cheese and wheat crackers, choking it down all the while thinking “Ugh, no thanks.”

While in the foreign food shop tonight I happened upon some Boursin Herb and Garlic Gournay Cheese.  Would it be good with the smoked salmon? I let it soften a bit, smeared some on wheat toast and added the smoked salmon in question to make a sandwich.

Oh. My. Lord. Awesome! Boursin Garlic and Herb + smoked salmon = love at first bite.

Perhaps you’ve perused the rest of the blog up to this point and have noted my sporadic posting. It says something that I bothered to log in just to blog this finding, no? There are precious few times in my life when I’ve actually wanted to make love to my sandwich. Tonight was one of those times. I need a cigarette. And I don’t even smoke!

Seriously, Boursin Garlic and Herb plus smoked salmon on wheat toast.  Your mouth will thank you.

I set out to lose 63 lbs. At 23 lbs lost that leaves 40 lbs left to go. Oh sure I could stop when I’m no longer fat and call it day like I have in the past. Which would be in another 15-20 pounds. But I’ve decided I don’t ever want to be classed as big again. And if you’re going to do the work you might as well have something to really show off eh?

So with 40 lbs left to go I decided to divide it into 5 and 10 lbs mini-goals. A 5 lb goal should be reached every few weeks, which is often enough for me to stay motivated. And every 10 lbs means a new size. More win!

Now what do I do for rewards? I used to reward myself with food or wine. Same technique for bad days, emotion, and boredom. Sometimes I still do this, though in smaller amounts.

Things I would want as rewards that come to mind are new clothes, new underwear, back massage, shoes, and travel. I need to think up some less expensive and more accessible items. Shopping here is enough to reduce me to tears. I don’t plan to attempt much of that until I get closer to goal. I’d be lucky to find a size 8 here! I’m currently a 12. :/

Books come to mind. Manicure. But what else?

And my goal weight reward should be something big. A trip to someplace warm and sunny? Or something more lasting like jewelery with an engraving? New laptop? It has to be something I really look forward to!

Today I decided to go buy a world map to put up on my wall. I plan to highlight the places I want to go and make a list. There are so many things I want to see and do, it bums me out to think I might not have enough time to do it all! But if I lose the weight I’ll look good doing it and have more energy. And more fun.

Fun is the best motivator of all.

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I lost 1.5 lbs this week. No small loss considering it was Christmas and all. Also? I am officially 1/3 of the way done. It’s really starting to feel like I’m doing something good now. I just feel this amazing snowball effect momentum. And I love it!

Today is Scrabble tournament + sit under the kotatsu + eat food day with a friend. Originally it was drink wine which I would prefer but she wants junk food. Ugh. And she doesn’t feel like drinking. So I’m making a small batch of Rice Krispy Treats,  Spinach Dip (the newly modded low fat edition), and bringing lots of veggies. She doesn’t know about the low fat dip part! Shh! She demanded chips as she won’t eat the veggies. Her contribution is buffalo wings and pizza. She knows I’m a on diet. Nice huh? Here’s hoping my refusal to eat all of her food doesn’t start World War 3! Current plan is to eat 3 wings and 1/2 of a personal size pizza. It’s too pointy to eat much more.

Recipe for the Spinach Dip is on the Recipe Page.

I haven’t posted for a while. Busy busy busy, just like the title says! Still doing well on Weight Watchers though.

I have lost a total of 20 pounds. Which means I hit the 10% of body weight goal. Yay! Also? I’m just about 1/3 of the way down, not too shabby folks!

Christmas was nightmarish. First I plot out my points for my favorite French restaurant and then all kinds of crazy ensued meaning we wound up at a different restaurant. So I had to guess my points. Every weight watcher dreads this scenario. Luckily I was about right and didn’t go over my allotment. Here’s hoping tomorrow’s weigh in goes well!

To assess potential damage I weighed myself Sunday. Down 2 pounds, yes! Then again the next day to be certain. Up 4 pounds, oh lord no! NO NO NO!!! Which is why you shouldn’t weigh yourself everyday.  Tomorrow will the final verdict.

Want to see my current weight and progress? You can! Go here: http://doingitmyweigh.wordpress.com/weekly-weigh-in/

I’ve been exercising more lately. By exercise I mean going for power walks. Tried jogging (also running) and it’s just not happening. My shins feel like they’re being poked with needles! Ow!!! I know that if I don’t leave the house the whole exercise thing isn’t going to happen. But it is happening more so that’s good.

More excitement? I’m going to start posting recipes here! Not sure if I’ll do it as posts or separate page(s) yet. The more I get involved with making food the healthier I eat. To this end I’ve tried oodles of recipes of late with varying degrees of success. Stayed tuned for the winners!

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So I went to weigh in this morning and thought I was back where I was when I started Weight Watchers.  AGH!!!! (89 kg or 198 lbs)

Then I realized I had actually lost 2 kg and which puts me at 5% loss!!! (84kg 185 lbs) Woohoo!

I sometimes make mistakes in my head when weighing myself in kg. Sadly a pound scale is not to be found anywhere! How funny is it that I made the mistake of confusing 89 with 84? My scale is calibrated every ten kg so it’s not that big of a leap pre-coffee.

For weeks I had half pounds losses, no losses, and even a one pound gain. Kinda depressing. Also I was sick so my motivation wasn’t great. There are numerous factors affecting the number on the scale such as water intake, sodium levels, and so on. I know this. I still want to see some results for all the work I put in. Seeing the numbers drop on the scale was beyond thrilling today. I really needed that!

And now? I have accomplished the milestone of 5% of body weight lost. Nice! Only 4 more pounds until I hit the 10% mark.

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I found a killer salad with only 4 points at the store. I’m constantly on the lookout for low point value foods I can buy should I be in a bind time-wise. It happens more than I care to admit! Unfortunately this particular store is one I happen by exactly once a week when I work in Iidabashi. It has a dressing whose flavor I can’t place and this yummo sweet potato mash on top of chicken (tiny bit of chicken, garnish size?) and greens. Soo delicious! And surprisingly low in points.

To motivate myself to keep going I find myself on youtube searching for results of people who have lost weight. Sometimes I find inspiration in the form of severely obese people who have lost 200+ pounds on their own without surgery. Other times I find depression in the form of anorexic teens obsessing over eating a couple of grapes.

Surely ingesting canned soup or cup of noodles isn’t a dieter’s best bet.  And lack of exercise never helped slim one down. Ditto sugared teas and cough remedies. There really is only so much one can do when they don’t feel well. So here’s hoping one of these mornings I spring out of bed all set to take on the world and drop some poundage once again.

My grand goal for the week diet-wise is to make it off to the grocery to stock up on fresh produce and prep it for consumption. As for exercise I plan to shake it dancing in my room and go swimming this Friday with the boyfriend. And to stop feeling so pitiful and lethargic. Wish me well!