How can I keep track? Food culture differences living abroad ....

sapphirewind

How can I keep track of my calories if half the time I don't even know what I am eating? So I've been trying to use myfitnesspal for the last few months living abroad - I moved to Korea last spring. But lunches are always a guesstimate. Even if I manage to ask "Igeo mwoyeyo?" ("이거 뭐예요?""What is this?") it doesn't help me when I either can't spell it or the app can't understand what is either....sometimes I translate it and try that or use a general app. And I can't just bring food to work, no one does that here and it'll offend them. I've started saying "Bap ppeh Juseyo" ("밥 빼 주세요""No rice please." before weigh-ins at my gym and my co-teacher explained the situation to the lunch lady. She was already giving me odd looks as I usually eat the same amount of rice as the students (i'm at an Elementary school) get. But how can I explain to them that white rice is bad for me? They eat it three times a day and consider it perfectly healthy. But I practially gain weight just looking at it!

I don't mean to complain so much.... Actually, so far Korea has helped me lose weight...that was not until I stopped going out drinking and eating anju (안주, side dishes for alcoholic drinks) all the time. I've lost 8 or 9 kgs (about 18lbs)... there are a lot less fast food options here (odd pizza and fried chicken is about it), although the coffee houses are just about everywhere on every block, besides that...

It's just these last 10-15 lbs or so that are very difficult to lose and I feel like it's next to impossible to be strict with myself when I don't know what I'm eating. On top of that, my two-burner stove won't light itself anymore and I now need matches to light it...

Cahgetsfit

Can you guesstimate the ingredients and base it on that? Korean food. Yuuuuummmmmm.

sapphirewind

For that I will probably need to learn to cook Korean food myself. Some of the vegetables aren't even known to me... I've been trying to guesstimate the calories based upon dishes posted to MFP already... but it's been a really rough estimate. Also, I have no idea how big each area on the metal school trays actually is.

robertw486

You might want to try to contact any local US military or embassy type installations. When I was in Okinawa the base commissaries had nutrition charts for local food, and you could get a copy. Such places also usually have contracts that require them to hire people from that country, and most are bilingual. If you could contact someone like that they might be able to help you identify the various local stuff and put a nutritional value to it.

RodaRose

Is it possible to learn the names of the vegetables?

sapphirewind

robertw486 wrote: »

You might want to try to contact any local US military or embassy type installations. When I was in Okinawa the base commissaries had nutrition charts for local food, and you could get a copy. Such places also usually have contracts that require them to hire people from that country, and most are bilingual. If you could contact someone like that they might be able to help you identify the various local stuff and put a nutritional value to it.

Good idea....the nearest US bases are pretty close, I go near there if I want Mexican or "American Style" food anyway...

sapphirewind

RodaRose wrote: »

Is it possible to learn the names of the vegetables?

Yes... but veggie side dishes are very complex here. I've stuck to learning the names of the dishes and then trying to look them up in 한글 and if that fails, in English. I also don't know their cooking methods, how much oil or gochujang (red pepper paste) is being used, etc.

robertw486

sapphirewind wrote: »

robertw486 wrote: »

You might want to try to contact any local US military or embassy type installations. When I was in Okinawa the base commissaries had nutrition charts for local food, and you could get a copy. Such places also usually have contracts that require them to hire people from that country, and most are bilingual. If you could contact someone like that they might be able to help you identify the various local stuff and put a nutritional value to it.

Good idea....the nearest US bases are pretty close, I go near there if I want Mexican or "American Style" food anyway...

You can find contact information for the commissaries on commissaries.com

If you can contact a produce manager, you might even be able to get something emailed to you. And if you have access there might be a good chance you can get one of the local nationals to help identify the veggies and fruits you don't know the names for, as well as provide info on common cooking methods.

Don't be afraid to venture out in town and ask either. Where I lived in Okinawa there were small local market stands, and many of the people were very helpful. Often they were as interested in US type foods as I was in their local foods.