Losing weight abroad

amakkun
amakkun Posts: 5
in Introduce Yourself
Hi! I just joined MFP a few days ago and I'm looking to lose a bit of weight (Who isnt'?). I am originally from the US, but I am currently teaching English in South Korea. It's a great job, but the food isn't so fabulous... Who would have thought I'd hate the majority of Korean food? Unfortunately all this has left me with is junk food and McDonald's (which delivers, by the way. Amazing and horrible, right?). But I'm trying to be proactive and start cooking my own meals more and maybe learn to love Korean food? All the girls are so skinny around here. If I eat what they eat, certainly it would work right? lol

Are there any other MFPers living abroad and finding trouble managing their weight? Or is there anyone who wants to commiserate about deliverable McDonald's with me?

Good luck everyone!
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Replies

  • mockchoc
    mockchoc Posts: 6,573 Member
    I don't understand how you can't like beef bulgogi, rice and kimchi! I'm over the moon because we finally have a Korean restaurant opening in my city this weekend. Have you really tried it? Anything has to be better than McD's!
  • yesmikan
    yesmikan Posts: 98 Member
    I'm teaching English in a small town in Hokkaido, Japan. I've been living here for 2 years. I signed up for MFP last August and have lost about 30kg/70lbs since then. I've spent a lot of time getting to know my local supermarkets and what is/isn't readily available.

    Luckily for me, my town is so small (4700 people) that there's no fast food, deliverable or otherwise. So I cook or prepare simple meals for dinner. Japanese food ranges from the healthy (sashimi) to the not so healthy (katsu, fried pork cutlet omg so delicious) and you can definitely "stay fat" if you're not careful. I know cos I did it for a year.

    So it's definitely doable, but will take some effort on your part to stay away from the fast food.
  • Markguns
    Markguns Posts: 554 Member
    Omg.. I love Korean food....:tongue: KimChi, Squid Hot Pot (super high in protein), Korean "pancakes". Not to mention all the great little sides that come wih an entree like Beef Bulgogi. They have a lot of soups too... wow that's bad luck. If you have $$ to eat out all the time have you tried any hotels? Areas near US Military instalations? Markets will have a lot of veggies you can recognize along with asian varieties. Also fish, squid, octopus, shrimp... Seafood salad time. Good Luck. :bigsmile:
  • be_patient
    be_patient Posts: 186 Member
    come on! korean food is delish!
    of course you can always buy food from online grocers. :P

    and ikr! they're soooooo skinny! i have a korean friend and she is tiny tiny tiny. hmmm must be nice for her..
  • whierd
    whierd Posts: 14,025 Member
    Hi, I'm Tim, welcome to MFP!
  • whierd
    whierd Posts: 14,025 Member
    So how does abroad lose weight?
  • ihateroses
    ihateroses Posts: 893 Member
    Paris baguette has salads and sandwiches that aren't half bad. You can also buy chicken in bulk at costco and just make your own food.

    Also, try EVERYthing. Maybe you don't like most korean food but theres bound to be something you enjoy.

    Have you tried:

    *mandu
    *tuna kimbap
    *gamjatang
    *jajjangmyeon (not technically Korean but they have it at all the "Chinese" restaurants)

    Just test things out, don't go straight to comfort food.

    Also, if you are living in Korea and do not eat the school lunches, you're going to have a bad time...Rejecting food here is a bigggg deal and I think a bit disrespectful (maybe?).
  • amakkun
    amakkun Posts: 5
    I guess I should have clarified; I don't like spicy foods which sort of encompasses about 90% of Korean dishes. The ones I do like seem to be full of carbs which doesn't really help weight loss, at least for me.

    I do eat the school lunches (maybe that's where my distaste for Korean food comes from!) and I think the inability to reject food has also contributed to my weight gain. Just yesterday I was given a fist sized meat bun and while it was delicious, it probably isn't the best thing to eat at the beginning of the day...
  • absurdic
    absurdic Posts: 62 Member
    I'm a Swede who's been living in France and travel frequently all over Europe. During my stay in France I learned how important it is to fill yourself upp with one or two fruits before going out to eat traditional stuff like Tarte flambée or just a simple baguette. Just eat greens and fruits while enjoying the local food culture.
    Germany is probably the hardest country to stay fit in whilst going on the Autobahn. There are fastfoodresturants EVERYWHERE. And all they serve is schnitzels and bratwursts, served with fries of course. Also, always by Evian water. It is the tastiest, hahaha!

    I'm going to Shanghai to study next semester; any tips about healthy chinese food would be very welcome!
  • Oishii
    Oishii Posts: 2,675 Member
    I gained and lost weight in both France and Japan. In neither case did I do it particularly healthily, but I did it nonetheless.

    If you can't refuse food in Korea, how do girls there deal with it? Do they accept and then leave some? They must have ways round it or they wouldn't be as tiny.

    Would it be possible to take a packed lunch for a while? Do you have a colleague you could confide in?

    If I didn't like strong flavours and lived in Korea I'd probably live off rice, seaweed and fish. In Japan I ate a lot of Nattou and stopped eating as many of the amazing cakes.

    Hope you find a way round it so that you feel happier.
  • JessHealthKick
    JessHealthKick Posts: 800 Member
    you're crazy! :laugh: all jokes aside, I spent 3 weeks in Korea and was in love with most of the food.

    GET A LOCAL TO SHOW YOU AROUND! sorry for caps, but this is super important. I went there and got to hang with my friend who is a local (I can't read the menus etc). He was always ordering lots of different foods for me to try. So maybe someone could help you out with that?

    I currently live in Japan, so I'm your neighbour :) Feel free to add me if you feel like it! I have successfully started losing weight after hovering and not losing/gaining for some time.
  • JessHealthKick
    JessHealthKick Posts: 800 Member
    I guess I should have clarified; I don't like spicy foods which sort of encompasses about 90% of Korean dishes. The ones I do like seem to be full of carbs which doesn't really help weight loss, at least for me.

    I do eat the school lunches (maybe that's where my distaste for Korean food comes from!) and I think the inability to reject food has also contributed to my weight gain. Just yesterday I was given a fist sized meat bun and while it was delicious, it probably isn't the best thing to eat at the beginning of the day...

    there are plenty of non-spcity foods there that you add the spice to by your own tastes. Please take my advice and get a local to help you out!
  • Mimoki
    Mimoki Posts: 115 Member
    I live in Bangladesh and everything here is deepfried or soaked in a gallon of oil. Calories in, calories out and excercise! You can do it. And you can defo cook your own food. I dont even have that option lol!
  • l2013k
    l2013k Posts: 18 Member
    Hi,
    I', from UK and living in Estonia. Likewise all the girls here are tiny and very glamorous in the city, this does not do much for the self esteem. I'm trying to cook myself but finding it hard to get any spices I'm used to in UK, so dinners are pretty bland. Making a pizza a much more tastier option. They also have tons of pork belly, which my hubby loves and I know this is pure evil on a diet... since it's pretty much pure fat with a smidge of meat thrown in. Need inspiration
  • Nutella91
    Nutella91 Posts: 624 Member
    i hear ya, i'm studying in China. The eating part sucks since nothing has labels on it so i don't know the calories and i have to kinda eat the same food all the time just to be "in control"
  • terriblyn
    terriblyn Posts: 107 Member
    I lived in Japan and lost weight there. Skip the rice, go for the protein and veg.

    DON'T eat what they eat! Have you seen the way some of the tiny female teachers eat sweets and bread?!
    Those girls have genetics on their side :)

    Seriously though, a very good friend of mine just got back from Busan and she lost a ton of weight taking lunch, saying no thanks to the offers of cake between classes and getting active! Set some goals, download some Insanity and start sweating! That should at least counteract the occasional meat bun :)

    Good luck, you can do it!
  • sarahsim48
    sarahsim48 Posts: 37 Member
    I moved to Germany two years ago and finally learned how to cook since I have to make everything I want from scratch (blessing in disguise for avoiding all the processed *kitten* I was eating back home!). It has taken a lot of time, but I finally have a good grasp on what I can and can't find here and where. You'll get there! But my suggestion is to just go to the store and get the things you know, veggies, chicken, etc. and cook everything yourself.
  • ContraryMaryMary
    ContraryMaryMary Posts: 1,786 Member
    I'm going to Shanghai to study next semester; any tips about healthy chinese food would be very welcome!

    I love Chinese food. And the rules are the same as anywhere, go easy on the fried stuff. Their noodle soups are delicious, healthy and filling and not to calorie heavy (just watch the carbs) but the best thing are the steamed dumplings - come in around 35-50 calories each (depending on the filling) so you can eat lots!
  • annab1684
    annab1684 Posts: 36 Member
    Hey,
    I've been living abroad since last July in France, Spain and now Italy. Working as an assistant in primary schools and living with a host family (who also provide me food) at the moment - I've concluded that the Mediterranean diet doesn't exist!
    Started on MFP mid March and I'm pleased with my progress. I just try to limit the amount of what I eat of the food that's available and jump at the chance to eat any fruit/veg! Also doing lots of exercise.

    Any people abroad/ TEFLers feel free to add me! Would be great to hear from people abroad. I'm abroad (returning to Spain and France) until late September before returning to uni to do my 4th year. :)
  • ElliInJapan
    ElliInJapan Posts: 286 Member
    I also live in Japan. Losing weight definitely has its challenges here but for me it's mainly because it's more difficult to keep track of calories when you don't know how the food is prepared (or even called sometimes!). I do like the local food, but I try to cook most days so that I know what I eat. Is it possible to bring your own lunch box?
  • Nutella91
    Nutella91 Posts: 624 Member

    I'm going to Shanghai to study next semester; any tips about healthy chinese food would be very welcome!

    good luck with that
  • toothwalker_
    toothwalker_ Posts: 32 Member
    I've been in Germany for 6 months now (originally from Canada), and it's been a bit of a challenge so far. There's so many new/unfamiliar veggies and meat cuts here, whereas all my go-tos are considered exotic XD. So right now I have a fairly boring selection of veggies, but I'm hoping things will get better in the summer when the new growing season kicks in. The other difficult thing about Germany is the shear amount of starch and grains that go into every meal. Eating the school lunch can easily be 800-1000 calories if I don't think about what's actually going in to it.

    I would echo everyone else suggestions about get acquainted with the different veg and such there, and stay positive. Don't miss out on trying new things at least once!
  • donnaleighh
    donnaleighh Posts: 178 Member
    Bumping as I'm about to jump on a plane... but will reply when I get to destination :)
  • mockchoc
    mockchoc Posts: 6,573 Member
    Bumping as I'm about to jump on a plane... but will reply when I get to destination :)

    Not without me!
  • slrose
    slrose Posts: 164 Member
    bump
  • slrose
    slrose Posts: 164 Member
    http://www.footprintsrecruiting.com/food-in-korea-south-korea

    http://www.taekwondo-information.org/food-in-south-korea.html

    i hear 'hot pots' are fabulously healthy and come in many varieties as well
  • Josedavid
    Josedavid Posts: 695 Member
    Im originary European Spanish, so I love Mediterranean cuisine. I was over weight, and when I moved to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia 2.5 years ago I put 10kg extra. But I said... NO MORE! and i started losing weight... feel free to add me to see more! hahaa
  • Mimoki
    Mimoki Posts: 115 Member
    they love meat in the arabic countries!
  • changergirl
    changergirl Posts: 81
    While I love Korean food, and have lived in Korea for over 3.5 years (and counting) I understand that it is not everyone's cup of tea. Since you said you eat school lunches, I'm going to warn you about them. Each of them contain between 600-700 calories in them. Both my schools print a nutritional guide which they place near the menu. To get around that I make sure I'm only eating about 1/2 the rice they give me. It saves about 150 calories.

    Besides that I'd recommend you cook for yourself if you don't like typical 'kimbap restaurant food'. Anything else is going to be more expensive and most likely not the healthiest. What I do is buy frozen chicken breasts from g-market (online website), brown rice and a ton of veggies. Every day I mix them all together and use different spices and voila a healthy non-Korean meal. You can make these in bulk and freeze them to save time as well. I live in a tiny town, for Korean standards, about 100,000 and there's no major store here but have no problems finding stuff to prepare my dinners.
  • cheonsa93
    cheonsa93 Posts: 2
    did u know that spicy food helps boost ur metabolism. I was same way too, I couldn't stand spicy food but trained myself to. believe me u will get there. good luck fightign

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