Happy Chinese new year!

Been living in Shanghai now for 7.5 years. I have no problem eating many good foods according to www.bulletproofexec.com.
Things like avocado, grass-fed butter, good quality milk, eggs, vegetables.

Jurgen_Kluft,
I started the bulletproofexc way of eating about 6 weeks ago. It's pretty much the same clean-eating as before but I've replaced my breakfast with bullet proof coffee and fats with coconut oils and grass fed butter. That coffee is AMAZING! It keeps me going from 8am till the mid afternoon before I'm hungry again but I know I'm not starving my body of essential calories due to the lack of a crash. Not only that, but I feel GREAT! I fully support this and highly recommend everyone to check out the sight and replace their Dan-Bin breakfast with a butter-coffee. Read before you judge!

http://www.bulletproofexec.com/

My family and I moved to Beijing almost 4 years ago. Since then, I have either been nursing or pregnant (boy 4 & girl 1). In 2005-2006 I lost 50 pounds following Weight Watchers and I am still a lifetime member and keep track of my points. I recently gained 10 pounds after I stopped nursing our daughter and I'm looking to lose that again.

As for living in China, I've developed a few strategies when it comes to food. Our family eats out a lot. I rarely if ever eat the rice or noodles. If the dish looks especially greasy, I will get the bowl of rice and use it as my plate. I will get a bite and let it sit on the rice. The rice acts as a sort of blotter for the oil. This also helps me eat more slowly. I find I don't eat nearly as much processed food here. Just lots of fresh fruit and veg.

I think someone was talking about the food labels being covered by a Chinese sticker. I bring a little wet sponge in a plastic bag when I go shopping. I scrub the sticker with the sponge and the paper comes off enough to see the info. I need this to check for calories and to calculate my WW points. If I decide not to buy it, I just put it back on the shelf and assume I'm helping some other English speaker.

My biggest challenge and the reason I joined MFP is my lack of exercise. This has nothing to do with living in China, I've always been a very inconsistent exerciser. I need to learn to make it a regular part of my day so I can keep the weight off and keep up with my very active kids.

Sorry for the long post but hopefully someone found it useful. Feel free to add me as a friend. I need the accountability.

WWnChina

Wet sponge trick going into my playbook!

I found it way easier to keep track of food in Hong Kong. When shopping lots of labels were in English and in the food data base. Most Western restaurants were also represented in the diary. The Watson's pharmacies also have GNC areas inside them and you can get more "trusted" vitamins and protein powders and of course the labels are in English.

What's going on my fellow MFPers in China. Just wanted to share my thoughts on staying healthy in China. Although it's much harder to find the nutritional contents of food in China than it is back in the states it can be done, you just have to work that much harder to look for it and spend time converting it. I actually find that it is easier to stay healthy on in China when you cook because most Chinese people like to eat fresh produce instead of all that processed foods we eat back home. Just stay away from all that MSG and oil and you'll be good. If you have any trouble converting the calories over and don't know where to look for it and go about calculating your calories just let me know.

It's hot here in Shanghai too! Luckily our compounds gym has semi decent air conditioning! I can't imagine what it must be like in Chongqing, I think I would probably melt!

Sorry I just flipped back and saw this. I am in Guangzhou. Did you make it here? You should be cool losing weight here. I have lost the most in the past year I have been here. Good luck!

I work for an IS in Guangzhou, and I quite literally have to do guess work for lunch daily. I have figured out that regardless it's going to be up to 1000 calories once I be generous about portions etc. It's hard, but I've started finding the nearest equivalent. I don't weigh/measure anything. I've also made it the main meal of my day, so a small breakfast, HUGE lunch and if I'm still hungry something light and lo-cal to tide me over for dinner.

I don't even account for the oil content in the veg. Normally I try to go for the steamed option. I generally avoid the rice though. My school almost every day has a veg option and a meat option (often deep fried, YUCK!). But lots of fresh fruit. I've been soooo bad during this week off that I'm juicing on my day off. Went to try and find some protein powder at amway yesterday and Amway was closed. There's a Decathalon out in Panyu, and probably one in Foshan where you can get sports stuff. I go to a gym that's right near where i live, but there's probably some near where you are. Are you a member of gzstuff? You may want to join there, not really a weight loss place, but a good place to interact w/expats.

For handweights Decathalon is best if there's one near you. You can also get some from Amazon.cn and Taobao, but both you'll have to have a native, or somebody who speaks fluent Chinese help you get set up. I set up an Amazon.cn account this way, but I rely on my Chinese coworker for Taobao...yet to figure out Alipay.

I've been trying to enter in stuff I buy into the database where possible with the English name and pinyin if I know it. Can't help much with the hanzi though unless it is character that I know. However, the fact that stuff only lists calories in terms of 100 or 1000 gms has been frustrating. I haven't done any barcodes at all.

As I buy stuff I'm happy to try and enter foods into the database to make public, would that be better in the long term scheme of things? Especially having the pinyin would be superb as often I don't know the English name, only the Chinese.