Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Beating Back the Bulge
Has the tide turned in my favor?
For an unemployed, relatively lonely guy I've been quite busy as of late. Each morning I head over to the gym in a desperate attempt to reduce my waistline. Initially I was focusing solely on weight lifting, as my work out experiences from 2005 seemed to suggest that muscle-building would be the most effective way for me to lose weight. However, I neglected to take into account that in 2005, I spent weeks doing cardio workouts on the elliptical machine first, not to mention my diet was radically different than it is now. I had cut out most carbs, especially rice, and I was eating very lightly. These days I eat a hearty bowl of rice most every morning, which may or not be a problem (it wasn't in Japan, where I consistently lost weight without much exercise).
Evidently something wasn't working because after a week of working out my weight had gone up, not down. So I added a half-hour of cardio, which quickly turned into two half-hours (one before, one after the weight lifting). Still, my weight continued to inch higher and higher, rolling awfully close to the dreaded "deuce." I haven't weighed that much since September '05! Anxious, I decided to up the ante a bit and I stopped eating my usual breakfast. I switched to oatmeal or simply a banana on other days.
Well, I don't know if it was simply a matter of time or the dietary change, but today I finally saw the scale dip in the other direction. Let's hope this is the beginning of a continuous roll towards a healthier physique. Maybe I can eat my natto once a week? For lunch?
In the midst of all these weight issues, some family friends are in town and that means lots of eating out. I've tried to keep things under control during these excursions; i.e., I only ate half of a pastrami sandwich at the Carnegie Deli on Sunday. And when we all went out to see Curtains last night, I barely ate any dinner at all! Of course, that meant I was starving halfway through my second cardio routine today. You can't press the petal to the metal without some gas in the tank. The show was really wonderful though, and the first Broadway show I've seen in years. I should really pick something Mako might like and take her out next month.
Speaking of the Japanese, I got some great news on Saturday. First there was a lengthy orientation in midtown for my upcoming job. I suppose I learned a lot, but there were two incredible surprises. First, I learned that the vast majority of the participants had never been to Japan before. I had assumed that this program drew more applications from candidates with experience in such matters. Does this mean that I was an unusually-qualified applicant or that they purposely favor those without a background in Japanese? Whatever the reason, I took it as a good sign that I would be able to succeed in this job. The second surprise was running into two guys who I first met seven years ago when I began studying Japanese at the Japan Society. One was an alumnus who had gone to Japan just after those classes ended, while the other was a new participant like me.
Yet throughout the day I was somewhat irked to learn that many people had already received documents from their board of education in Japan and had contacted their predecessors, giving them much-needed insight in what was to come. Meanwhile, I spent the entire day wondering what level of school I would be teaching and what kind of environment I would be living in. Was I really bound for a rustic apartment in the sticks? Thankfully, I arrived home to discover that the package I had been waiting for had arrived that very day. If it had come even one day sooner, I could have prepared better questions to ask at the orientation, but no matter. The good news is that I will not be living in the countryside. In fact, I won't be living in Osaka at all but across the border in Kawanishi, Hyogo. It's a modest-sized city and my apartment is less than 100 meters from a train station. That means it's only a half-hour from my home to Mako! The bad news is that I'll have to commute to work everyday (at least an hour) but I'll take that trade-off.
This post is starting to get a little too long for its own good. I'd say that's enough news to cover for now.
For an unemployed, relatively lonely guy I've been quite busy as of late. Each morning I head over to the gym in a desperate attempt to reduce my waistline. Initially I was focusing solely on weight lifting, as my work out experiences from 2005 seemed to suggest that muscle-building would be the most effective way for me to lose weight. However, I neglected to take into account that in 2005, I spent weeks doing cardio workouts on the elliptical machine first, not to mention my diet was radically different than it is now. I had cut out most carbs, especially rice, and I was eating very lightly. These days I eat a hearty bowl of rice most every morning, which may or not be a problem (it wasn't in Japan, where I consistently lost weight without much exercise).
Evidently something wasn't working because after a week of working out my weight had gone up, not down. So I added a half-hour of cardio, which quickly turned into two half-hours (one before, one after the weight lifting). Still, my weight continued to inch higher and higher, rolling awfully close to the dreaded "deuce." I haven't weighed that much since September '05! Anxious, I decided to up the ante a bit and I stopped eating my usual breakfast. I switched to oatmeal or simply a banana on other days.
Well, I don't know if it was simply a matter of time or the dietary change, but today I finally saw the scale dip in the other direction. Let's hope this is the beginning of a continuous roll towards a healthier physique. Maybe I can eat my natto once a week? For lunch?
In the midst of all these weight issues, some family friends are in town and that means lots of eating out. I've tried to keep things under control during these excursions; i.e., I only ate half of a pastrami sandwich at the Carnegie Deli on Sunday. And when we all went out to see Curtains last night, I barely ate any dinner at all! Of course, that meant I was starving halfway through my second cardio routine today. You can't press the petal to the metal without some gas in the tank. The show was really wonderful though, and the first Broadway show I've seen in years. I should really pick something Mako might like and take her out next month.
Speaking of the Japanese, I got some great news on Saturday. First there was a lengthy orientation in midtown for my upcoming job. I suppose I learned a lot, but there were two incredible surprises. First, I learned that the vast majority of the participants had never been to Japan before. I had assumed that this program drew more applications from candidates with experience in such matters. Does this mean that I was an unusually-qualified applicant or that they purposely favor those without a background in Japanese? Whatever the reason, I took it as a good sign that I would be able to succeed in this job. The second surprise was running into two guys who I first met seven years ago when I began studying Japanese at the Japan Society. One was an alumnus who had gone to Japan just after those classes ended, while the other was a new participant like me.
Yet throughout the day I was somewhat irked to learn that many people had already received documents from their board of education in Japan and had contacted their predecessors, giving them much-needed insight in what was to come. Meanwhile, I spent the entire day wondering what level of school I would be teaching and what kind of environment I would be living in. Was I really bound for a rustic apartment in the sticks? Thankfully, I arrived home to discover that the package I had been waiting for had arrived that very day. If it had come even one day sooner, I could have prepared better questions to ask at the orientation, but no matter. The good news is that I will not be living in the countryside. In fact, I won't be living in Osaka at all but across the border in Kawanishi, Hyogo. It's a modest-sized city and my apartment is less than 100 meters from a train station. That means it's only a half-hour from my home to Mako! The bad news is that I'll have to commute to work everyday (at least an hour) but I'll take that trade-off.
This post is starting to get a little too long for its own good. I'd say that's enough news to cover for now.
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