HYC #3: April Fool's Day!

I reckon I'll use these Tuesday check-ins to take a look at my progress toward my monthly goals. But since it's April 1, and I'm only just now starting on my first set of monthly goals, I don't have too much to say as yet. I started Cloudstreet last night, and read my allotted 50 pages, and surprisingly, I actually love it. Usually, when something is saddled with the distinction of being a country's "national novel," I end up disappointed (e.g. Ulysses). But Cloudstreet's great already... I even read half of my daily allotment of pages this morning on the bus, which caused me to almost miss my stop.

Yesterday I did do something a little exciting. I decided I wanted to upgrade my calendar. As I've mentioned before, for the past few months I've used an intricate system of checks and X's in red pen on my calendar to indicate days when I ate well or exercised, but last night at 9pm I suddenly got a hankering for some cute stickers... so I changed out of my PJs and am now the proud owner of 100 colorful strawberry-themed stickers. Sweet. If just being healthy and looking great wasn't incentive enough to eat on plan and keep fighting my way through C25k, surely these stickers will do it. I'll take a picture of it at the end of the month.

And lastly, I think I've found a 5k I can run here in Korea, which happens to be about 2 weeks after I'm scheduled to finish C25k. I kinda feel like, as if my first 5k run wouldn't be difficult and draining enough in America, I'm sort of asking for trouble by trying to do it in a foreign country and language. But, it could be way fun, so I'm seriously considering it. Thursday I'll ask my co-teacher to look into it a little more and find some of the logistics, then I'm kinda hoping I'll man up and sign up. (I'm a big, brave dog. I'm a big, brave dog.)

I'd hoped to write something insightful, but it's just not happening today. Good luck, everyone! I hope you have an excellent first week of April and get yourselves off to a great start.

eta: I found this quote on one of my lovely fellow-bloggers pages, and it really got me thinking: 

"The one way to get thin is to re-establish a purpose in life." --Cyril Connolly

Lately I've been thinking a lot about my eating patterns, and why I used to eat so much when nowadays I'm so happy (most of the time) eating healthily. I often find myself wondering, then, how I'm going to maintain this healthiness once I am back in the land of plenty (of transfats and fast food). What's going to stop me from turning to multiple Taco Bell value meals when the going gets tough? And I'm not sure. I've read some wonderful posts recently about emotional eating, and I've tried to figure out if that was really my problem. 

I mean, I know I did it... I know I binge ate sweets when I was feeling down, which was a problem. But I think the worst thing for me was social eating... because most of my social life revolved around food. I love going out to dinner... so I'd do it twice a night, sometimes. I don't really think I lacked a purpose in life. I was certainly busy enough--a college student with two jobs trying to stay afloat. I think what I lacked was other things I loved besides eating. Other ways to derive endorphins. Other things to pass my time. I never (until now) managed to find an exercise plan I could stick to, although I definitely find that now that I exercise regularly, it's much easier for me to avoid binge eating. But rediscovering other pastimes that I let fall by the wayside when I was so busy studying and being social have helped too. I spent almost an hour tonight reading, and it was just a nice, relaxing experience, and I didn't have the urge to snack at all. 

I think the most important thing I can do for myself when I go back to America is nurture these non-food habits. Join a book club, so I can spend time with other people someplace other than Chili's (mmm.. queso). Do exercise classes to spice things up and have more fun while working out. Spend more time with my family just hanging out. Rent movies and watch them at home to avoid the temptation to eat a big tub of popcorn. I'm hoping, at least, that nurturing these non-food habits will help keep me busy but happy, because they're things I like to do anyway. 

We shall see, I guess. :)