HYC #1: Man, my ass hurts. (That's what she said.)

In probably the most exciting news, I joined Scale Junkie's amazing Healthy You Challenge. (And I didn't even do it just for the snazzy "I lost 50 lbs!" badge that you can now see on my sidebar, although I'll admit that it was pretty exciting.)

It all started with Wendy McClure's book I'm Not the New Me. A friend and former roommate, who's lost a BUNCH of weight herself (over 100 lbs., I think), was kind enough to mail it all the way to Korea, and I enjoyed it immensely. I was just getting started then, and while Wendy didn't offer me any concrete tips on how I could go about losing the weight (WW would be next to impossible here in Smalltown, South Korea), something about the book inspired me to keep going. That's what the past year has been all about for me... keeping going. Jogging when I don't want to. Getting back on the wagon when I fall off. Not giving up hope.

I re-read I'm Not the New Me quite a few times, but for some reason it didn't occur to me until much more recently to check out her blog, but I'm so happy I did. Because from there I found so many more amazing and inspirational stories. I have only one friend living in my town, and I suspect she weighs roughly half what I do, so I was desperate for someone to connect to. I needed to hear that other people had the same struggles, problems, and questions as I have. Thank you once again, Mr. Gore, for creating the Internet.

Anyway... it's been a really surprisingly good week. I'm still kicking ass with March Madness (my quest to break through this plateau by losing 10 pounds before April 1, and get down to an unprecedented 179). This morning I weighed in at a super-surprising 182.5. I'm not sure I can trust it, but it sure got me excited, and made me hopeful that I might actually make it! I honestly can't remember when I weighed less than 180, but it must have been my first or second year of high school. For whatever reasons I've had almost no terrible cravings this month, and I've stuck to the exercise plan like glue (6 days a week, Sunday resting), so seeing the weight falling off this way makes me so happy. TOM is coming soon, so I've felt a little down on myself the past two days, even though I've eaten pretty well, but I'm hanging in there.

Yesterday I accompanied a friend to the Adidas store in our little town because she wanted to buy some new running shoes. (We have an Adidas store, but we don't have a lot of other more useful things.) Everything in there is really expensive, so I only went once, about six months ago. I was looking for a track suit to run in, but the store owner, a middle-aged lady, just about ran me out. Korean store owners are really intense, particularly if you are a foreigner. They will stand within six inches of you, not only watching, but picking up random items and suggesting them to you. And if you're a foreigner, you don't even know how to politely say "please just leave me alone and let me shop for myself!" So you're trying to find something you like, dodging her suggestions, and generally just feeling uncomfortable. I was looking in the men's section, because Korean women, on the whole, are usually smaller--and my huge chest makes shopping difficult even in America. But when I made the mistake of stopping to glance at the super-cute pink baby tee workout shirts that I might someday dream of fitting into, the store owner was quick to tell me they wouldn't fit. "Big size... no." So I left, fuming, with every intention of never returning.

Until a few days ago. I'd mostly forgotten about that embarrassing incident, and M needed shoes, so I didn't think much of it. And I didn't recognize her, but she sure recognized me. (There are maybe 15 or so Americans living in our town, so this doesn't mean I'm a celebrity.) She immediately started speaking animatedly to her co-worker and pointing at me. I tried to ignore it, but then she came over to tell me herself... in Korean, of course. Because I'm used to being called fat, and now, being told that I've lost weight, I was able to understand most of what she said, which was basically...

"Wow! You've lost a lot of weight. Really! Before, you were very very fat!" [At this point, she demonstrates with her hands how I used to be very fat. Then she turns to her co-worker and says:] "No, really! She was like... really fat. Huge."

Suddenly she was my best friend, and proceeded to ask me how many kilograms I'd lost, and how I did it. And I didn't really know how to feel about it. I mean, it's always nice to receive a compliment, or for someone else to notice our efforts--particularly a stranger, I guess, because they're more likely not to be just being nice. But part of me bristled too. This is all part of a larger issue, which I'm hoping to devote a blog entry to soon--how weight is discussed here in Korea. The other teachers at my school, who I like far more than the Adidas lady, have also complimented me recently in broken English "Brittany... slim," which was nice. A scale victory and a NSV! I'll store up these nice memories for a rainy (TOM weight gain) day.

The only other real news I have is that yesterday I started my More Intense Weight Training Plan, and it's safe to say I'm really feeling the effects today. I'm sure that at some point there was a time when I knew that weight training was important for losing weight and developing a more toned and beautiful body, but I must have forgotten, because I've been largely ignoring it for the past 6 months. And when I did do it, it was only arms, and this lame low-weight, high-repetitions crap. But the repetitions weren't even that high, because I just got bored and quit. But after spending about three days surfing some awesome weight lifting sites for women, especially Stumptuous (see link at right), I made a plan, and yesterday I executed it. Higher weights without sacrificing form. And I'm feeling it in my ass today. I'm going to get up early and go tomorrow at 6:30, if possible, to avoid some of the inherent embarrassment. We'll see. Today I started week 2 of Couch to 5k.