Staying lean is 80% food, 20% exercise, and 99% genetics.

Premise #1: Losing weight is 80% eating and 20% exercising (unless you're a serious athelete)

Premise #2: Human beings are wired to look for three types of taste: sweet, salt and fat; all of which are extremely infrequent in nature.  But modern technological advances have made these tastes readily available, which accounts for most of today's dietary problems.

Premise #3: Many food sold in boxes are really food-like substances, not food. You can leave 'em out open for months yet no bugs or bacteria will eat it because either 1. all nutrients have been sucked up already or 2. it's filled with preservatives.  Yet they still taste good because it has tons of sugar, which is what we're wired to look for.

Premise #4: Meats sold in markets are bad, even if it's chicken breast. Animals raised in
Concentrated Animal Feed Operations (CAFO) pose unique health threats to humans. Chickens in CAFO are designed to be slaughtered after 39 days. These chickens can barely walk, and are constantly fed anti-biotics because many of them would die without it. Even if they weren't slaughtered after 39 or 42 days, they would die soon due to cardiovascular complications.  Do you really think it's healthy to eat these sick-ass animals overdosed with growh hormones, sitting in their manure all day? 

Premise #5:  Processed food contains the cheapest and the worst ingredients, yet they are designed to taste and look good through utilization of artificial flavoring and coloring.

Premise #6:  Carbs are what makes you fat?  Get out of here!  (though it's partly true).  It's not just the carbs; It's the process, stupid.  Eating super-fat chicken, overdosed with hormones and only fed the most fattening feed is what makes humans fat, not so much the chicken itself.  It's not the bread, but the fact that we've using refined (aka heavily processed) flour and adding corn syrup (aka sugar) to the bread that's making us fat.  Complex carbs burn like wood - slowly, while simple carbs burn like gasoline. 

Whether you believe in above premises or not, I think they are all true.  Therefore, I will begin a new diet based on these premises.

If I don't know what I'm eating, I will try my best not eat it.  For instance, MSG.  Do I know what MSG is?  of course I do - it's mono-sodium-glutamate, made from corn.  No, but really - what REALLY is MSG?  I can't REALLY answer the question, so I will not eat anything with MSG.  Same thing goes for stuff like fruit roll ups.  What's really in fruit roll-ups?  Here are the ingredients.

Ingredients: Strawberry Ingredients: Pears From Concentrate, Corn Syrup, Dried Corn Syrup, Sugar, Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil, Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate, Acetylated Mono And Diglycerides, Pectin, Malic Acid, Natural Flavor, Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid), Color (Red 40, Yellows 5 % 6, Blue 1).

(What I don't know is in red.)



So, the name of the concoction is "fruit roll-ups," but what are you really eating?

No really, what the hell is acetylated diglyceride?  And what exactly does "natural flavor" mean?  

This pretty much means, no food in boxes or bags, unless I know exactly what's in there. e.g. grapes or peaches in a box. The original Tabasco sauce - its ingredients are pepper, salt, and vinegar (isn't that crazy?). Limited refined carbs - no white or wheat bread but just whole wheat.  As far as rice goes, only 50% white rice and the rest will contain hyun-mi and other ingredients. 


...

....

...

As I'm writing all this down, I suddenly want to drink beer and eat some squid crackers.  Diets and homeworks always start tomorrow.  Good night.

I clicked on "new post," did some laundry, and completely forgot what I wanted to write about.

Anyways, I bought a scale.  I also placed a calculator right next to it to convert kilograms to pounds.  Long story short, I weigh 89.6 kilos, which translates into 197 pounds.  I was somewhere around 210 (yes, that is effing fat) in the states, so I am making progress, though I'm not even close to my ideal weight.

My goal is to lose about 1~2 pounds every week until I'm about 135~ 150 pounds.  people think that's waaaayyy to skinny for my weight but I disagree.  BJ Penn (the UFC fighter) fights at 155 pounds yet he's only slightly shorter than I am.  Does he look too skinny?  I don't think so.



I'm really writing this entry for my own sake - because this way, it's easier for me to see the progress I've made.

It's been about 3 minutes since I used dual monitors, and I don't think I'm ever going back.

"Take a look at her.  Have you ever seen a woman with an uglier face than that?  I doubt it.

But the funny thing is that Mrs. Twit wasn't born ugly.  She'd had quite a nice face when she was young.  The ugliness had grown upon her year by year as she got older. 

Why would that happen?  I'll tell you why.

If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face.  And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until it gets so ugly you can hardly bear to look at it.

A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly.  You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-oiut teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely."

- Roald Dahl from the Twits.

I love Roald Dahl.

My life in Hongcheon

One of my dreams is to become a diplomat.  Unfortunately, the odds of becoming one are something like 5,000 to one, which means it will take a small miracle.

Although I signed up for the October test (they have "foreign officer" aka diplomat tests all over the world), I will not be able to take it.  The only available dates are weekdays, and I obviously cannot miss work since I started this job a week ago.  I will have to wait another six months - may be a year or more if the test is on a weekday again. 

Anyways, I'm settling fine at Hongcheon, Gangwon Province.  It's quite ghetto here, but I can handle it.  I am the new "Native" English teacher at Hongcheon middle school - or should I say Hongcheon BOYS middle school.  I emphasize "Native" because I'm technically not a native (though most young immigrants such as myself often forget their native language) and I emphasize boys because... it's all boys.  I'll be honest - I resented going to an all boys middle school but they are cuter than I expected.  They also smell a whole lot worse than I expected, but I should've known better.

I was made to introduce myself through a video - yes, all classrooms here have a huge tv, and they televised my introduction live.  After the broadcast, I heard a little boy say in the hallway, "hey our new native teacher is Korean, but he's effing good at English!" haha, how cute.

Alright, since couple people told me that they were waiting for pictures, here you go: I only had about 15 minutes or so to takes these pictures due to the rain but they came out okay despite the time constraint.





























and my room:


small disclaimer: Hongcheon does not look THIS ghetto. I just felt like taking ghetto pictures.

This is my first post since I came to Korea, which is somewhat sad because I'm supposed to write everyday to "maintain" my writing technique. 

I'm sitting in a semi-cubicle in my office as of now, and it's rather nice in the office because there are two things here that I lack at home: internet and A/C.  Yes, my studio does not have air conditioning, and it's routinely about 82~85 degrees with what seems like 99% humidity (I have a thermometer in the room).  I finally got my Alien Registration Card, which is an identification card you need for EVERYTHING e.g. ordering internet or getting a phone.  Hopefully I'll get internet soon. 

I want to take pictures of my neighborhood but it's constantly raining and I'm actually somewhat busy (shopping, finding out bus times, laundry, ironing, etc etc).  Ironically, I'm actually busier when I'm not at school because all I do here is sit and surf on the web for about 4 hours since I'm getting "settled in" this week.  I'm not complaining though.  I already have nearly three weeks worth of lesson plans done.

I'll write a lot more later.