Walking steadily, eating less with less sodium
Many people, with the arrival of the New Year, resolve to exercise regularly for their health.For those people, let me introduce Hyung-suk Kang, a deputy at the Tokyo Branch, who succeeded in losing 25kg last year
I was really embarrassed after being asked to write about my experience of weight loss. That’s because I rarely write about myself, except for writing my CV before I was hired by the company. Furthermore, I was embarrassed trying to write about my weight loss, which isn’t something that I should be proud of. Despite my embarrassment, let me describe my experience of weight loss.
I started to control my weight on December 5, 2013. At that time I was 110Kg, but I lost 25kg and dropped to 85Kg. During the first two months I lost 10kg, and from the next month on I lost 1.5Kg per month. It was said that sudden weight loss isn’t good for the health, so I aimed to steadily reduce my weight and accomplish it in steps.
Walking more than 10,000 steps a day: Consistency is important
To begin with, I made the most important rule, which is the thing that I can continue to follow, and I made other rules for myself. The most important thing is to walk.
First of all, I walked a lot. I commuted to the company, which is 40 minutes from where I live. I tried to walk in any situation. I didn’t ride the escalator when working away from the office, and I walked to customers who were located close by. I made a goal of walking 10,000 steps, taking advantage of the pedometer on my smartphone during the weekdays. Based on commuting alone, I was able to walk 5,000 to 6,000 steps. When I worked away from the office, I was able to walk 10,000 steps. When I walked a lot, I approached 30,000 steps.
As I get older, I don’t sleep a lot in the morning. That’s why I walk about two-and-a-half hours even on weekends, because I don’t during the work week. My main walking course is a place called “Odaiba,” which is around 11Km. Odaiba is famous for its life-size Gundam, the main character in a Japanese animated series about a robot.
I will continue walking for a while because it’s difficult for me to continue a hard workout and it’s too hard for me to run. However, I also considered running when I saw that I was losing weight.
As I walk a lot, I felt that I hadn’t been able to see things while commuting on the train. Sometimes I go home on foot with the branch head. We have a good time talking about the company.
With diet: “Leave a spoonful,” “don’t eat salty food,” etc.
The following is my diet. Because walking alone wouldn’t have been enough to ensure weight loss, I also controlled my diet.
First of all, I reduced carbohydrates, including bread, white rice, ramen, etc. If possible, I tried to eat carbohydrates as breakfast, protein only at lunch, and mainly vegetables and vitamins at dinner. Of course, dinnertime was difficult for. In particular, it was hard to refrain from side dishes as there were many drinking parties in the evening.
In fact, I had gained weight since May 19, 2005, the day I quit smoking. I didn’t smoke at drinking parties, which made my mouth feel bored, which then made me eat a lot of snacks, which resulted in weight gain. It was obvious, because I always ate ramen after drinking.
I tried to refrain from eating snacks at drinking parties, which also helped me to refrain from suggesting drinking to others. As a result, I used to drink two or three times a week, but now I drink once a week. (I feel a bit insecure, because there are many drinking parties in this year-end season.)
The second point is to “eat little” and “leave a spoonful,” no matter how small the original dish is. It wasn’t a great help to leave a spoonful, considering the calories, but I tried to leave one in order to remind myself that I was on a diet. Some people think that leaving a spoonful must not be difficult, but in Japan it’s considered polite to eat everything in the dish. That’s why I was worried about what others would think when I left food. It wasn’t easy to leave food, even though I was trying to eat less.
The next point is to eat brown rice. Since my baby isn’t old enough to eat brown rice, I asked my wife to prepare my rice and baby’s rice separately. I felt sorry for my wife, but brown rice was quite good for my diet.
Finally, I tried not to eat salty foods. The CEO also said this. Salty food is bad not only for the health but also for the diet. When I ate salty food, I seemed to eat more.
Pros and cons: Better health, support from my family, and a thinner wallet
There are many pros. I feel lighter than before. There’s no worry about indigestion, because I eat less. Exercise makes me healthier, and I don’t feel tired as I work.
Many of all, my wife likes the new me. That’s because I look better, and I take care of various household chores. Before that, I did nothing when I came home from work, before and after having dinner, which is the habit of a typical Korean husband. I was a couch potato, asking my wife for everything. Now I try to move as much as possible, preparing meals and cleaning up. Sometimes I even wash the dishes. Additionally, I’m a bit flattered to hear that I’m so great for having lost so much weight.
One bad thing is that I spend more money on clothes. I never thought I’d like buying clothes, but actually I enjoy it these days. In the past, I wouldn’t buy clothes according to my favorite color or my shape. I was really annoyed because I needed to choose clothes according to my size. However, I love buying new clothes, so I do it a lot.
When I go shopping, I buy clothes for my wife and my baby because I don’t want to just buy things for myself. So, that has made my wallet thinner. (This is probably one of the reasons why my wife likes the new me.) However, this point is a joyous scream that the pros more than make up for.
The goal: To continue my diet and increase muscle
The first goal was to lose 25Kg within a year. After achieving the first goal, I set the second goal of losing 10kg more within one year. The goal is to lose weight. Now I go to the gym, where I have the bigger goal of increasing muscle instead of simply reducing my weight. I will continue to control my weight so that I won’t go back to the fat old days. I appreciate your support.*