I know, I know, a whole week with no update. Shame on me.
Well, all I can say in my defence is that nothing really happened. The week was a bit of a struggle in its overall blandness, hit a hight point on Thursday, and then hit rock bottom on Friday, and today, Saturday, is very nice, so far.
Last Sunday I went into Seoul and got a cute pair of handmade earrings from the craft market and some lunch from Taco Bell. I also had a nice browse through the book store, but didn't buy anything.
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were so same-same I don't even remember them. Mr Beak seems to have totally thrown my teaching schedule out the window and now just tells me right before he wants me to teach that I'm on. Or he'll come into the classroom when I'm five minutes into a lesson and tell me to 'take a break', he'll teach it alone. So, because I have next to no schedule, and no was to know what they're up to in class, and no real way to plan for all that uncertainty, I've stopped caring a little bit. Last week was full of 'get in there and teach from the book and somehow get through 45 minutes. It is not the teacher I want to be, but I can't see too much choice.
Thursday was a good day because all my classes (all two of them plus after school class) were enjoyable and there weren't any major mess-up, interruptions, or discipline issues.
Friday sucked because it was the exact opposite. And then there was some kind of sports afternoon for the kids, which no one told me about, and I was left alone in the teacher's room with nothing to do all afternoon. To make matters worse, lunch wasn't very good that day, so I hadn't eaten much, so I was tired, bored, and hungry. Sucked all round!!
Today, Saturday is a really nice day, though. It's chilly, but the sun is shining, and the sky is blue. I spring cleaned the whole house this morning, including totally scrubbing down my rabbit's living area and washing all her towels. Then I went for a walk, window shopped, and then stopped in at LotteMart to see if they sold gelatin. Score! They do! So no I have some home made pineapple-coconut jelly setting in the fridge.
Why have I made jelly, you ask? Well, I had a bit of a life revolution last weekend. Possibly why my week has seemed so non-existent - I've been concentrating so hard on other things.
Well, it all started with my friend Jenni (I blame her entirely). She's a qualified personal trainer, and she wrote me an awesome indoor fitness plan that I can do in my apartment. It's been so cold outside, I've been pretty inactive these last few months. So, I started exercising. Then I though, why not keep track of how much of stuff you can do? I've always been awful at push-ups and whatnot (I actually can't even do one). So, on Sunday I got a notebook to write it down. So, that was healthier me, step one.
Now for step two, and it's a biggie. My diet in Korea has been downright awful. Like seriously appalling. One days food might be:
Breakfast: Sugary cereal with strawberries and milk.
Lunch: School lunch with tonnes of rice.
Dinner: Two slices of combination pizza.
Snacks: Chocolate, chips, biscuits (often the whole box).
Or:
Breakfast: Oatmeal with lots of sugar and milk.
Lunch: School lunch with tonnes of rice.
Dinner: 2 minute noodles made with packet cheese and processed fish cake.
Snacks: choco-pie biscuits, marshmallow-fluff mixed with peanut butter.
Notice the almost total lack of vegetables or meat (or any actual 'food' for that matter). I'd never eat like this at home! I realised something had to change when I reached my highest weight in 3 years on Saturday. It's not the most I've ever weighed, and I'm still a totally healthy weight, but that'd change pretty quickly if I kept going. In the middle of the night on Saturday I woke up starving and ate a big chocolate mellow-puff type thing. I'd been eating them all week, and I realised that they were horrible, and that eating them in the middle of the night was definitely NOT healthy behaviour.
By pure coincidence at some point on Saturday or Sunday I stumble upon this website. I wasn't even looking for anything health related, I followed a link at Zen Habits, one of the blogs on my sidebar. It's about eating 'primally'. Now, I am super totally completely not a fan of labelling like this, and I'm also not keen on following one guy's word on a subject (like this Mark Sisson guy, or Atkins, or Jesus). But... what he says (Mark, not Atkins or Jesus) makes sense to me. In fact, I believe my whole family believes in much of what he says, I'd just never really thought about it and how it affected me. I've always been a healthy weight, and have just assumed that meant more or less 'healthy'.
I think I've been kinda wrong, though. I've read Pollan's work, seen Food Inc., and lots more through my Masters research, and always agreed wholeheartedly with their 'eat real food not this processed shit' philosophy. I'd just never thought to try. Plus there was a ton of stuff mixed up in there about vegetarianism (which I disagree with), corporate blah-blah-blah (I don't really want to mix business and food), and the fact that I actually like/love ice-cream, cake, and home made pizza. So, I agreed with the philosophy, but in no real way felt motivated to pursue it with any real intent to change.
So, not sure what changed. Maybe it's that I live alone for now, so changes seem less daunting. Maybe it's that I've dedicated the next few years of my life to myself and doing whatever makes me happy. Maybe it's because I have no way to make a home made pizza in my tiny kitchen. But, the stars have aligned, I'm most of the way through Mark Sisson's book 'The Primal Blueprint', and I haven't eaten a grain or sugar in six days. And I'm exercising like a caveman :D
Now, I am notoriously flaky about some things. Hobbies, food, and exercise are the top three things I always (seriously, without fail) never stick to. At least I'm consistent in my inconsistency. But I don't really intend to stick to this 100% FOREVER. I want to do it as much as I can, as often as I can, and return to it whenever I want to. It'd be great if I could just commit, but I think that trying to do that might create more of an urge to rebel. I've thought about it, and yeah, I'd actually prefer to die a bit earlier and eat pizza and ice cream sometimes.
It's all very new and shiny, and we'll see if I can actually feel any of the benefits that this 'blueprint' is supposed to help me achieve. They are all things that are wrong right now and that I need to fix anyway, so I figure, give it at least 30 days to see if it's going to help.
What I want to achieve:
Lose the 5kg I've put on in the last 6 months.
Maintain weight.
Sleep better.
Have more, and more consistent, energy levels throughout the day.
Be stronger/fitter.
What I'm doing to achieve this:
All kinds of exercise.
Not watching TV right before bed.
Eating no sugar or grains.
Yeah, so, my current goal is to make it to Wednesday without deviating. I'll keep you updated on how it goes.
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