Crazy Sunshine

All drawing and no play makes Jkun a little plump boy.

I am having a really hard time losing weight in Japan. It’s not something that has happened recently, either! So, I want to talk about how I am trying to fix it and get rid of my gut.

Location

The biggest problem is also the hardest to remedy; my location. Out in the sticks, 30 minutes drive from any big cities. Moving house is out of the question, so I tried to make the best of it by signing up to the nearest gym. It takes a good 2 hours out of my evening, and during that time, I only get 50 mins exercise from it! The travelling, especially after work and during rush hour, takes up more time than I spend plodding along a treadmill!

Then there is the cost of petrol, driving to and from the gym every day. That alone costs about 3,000 yen ($30) every 4-5 days, that’s just over $100 a month by only driving to the gym! Eek!

What I am trying to do is budget the cost of that, in addition to the incredibly expensive 8,000 yen ($80) a month membership fee. I am trying to keep positive, thinking that “$200 a month will get me slim!” but it just isn’t working. Maybe it’s got something to do with…

Calories

Japanese supermarkets, for the most part, have no laws regarding they display the amount of calories in their food. This makes ingredient and food shopping incredibly difficult, especially since 99% of the brands are not listed in online diet programs and calorie counters. Of course, I eat a lot of salad and make my own lunches and dinner, and try to avoid the prepackaged zombie food that Japan is notorious at shoving in their customer’s faces.

One of the hurdles I face in this department are Japanese staples, for example, rice, fish and seafood, all of which contain an incredible amount of calories and carbs and for the most part are still layered in fat and grease. I try to avoid them as much as I can.

Another is just the fact some foods have no nutritional facts listed at all. Especially regarding traditional food and restaurants. Even if you are confident what you are ordering looks healthy, you absolutely cannot gauge just how bad it really is for you.

Ramen noodles are a prime example of this. This specific dish is absolutely terrible, sometimes exceeding 1,000 calories per bowl, but looks and tastes just like soup with noodles. So, how I get around this is to visit many different restaurants and try to find at least a few with a calorie list for their food.

Then, I use those restaurants as benchmarks. So, for example, say one restaurant’s chicken fried rice is 500 calories for 100g, I would consider every other restaurant’s chicken fried rice is the same unless it’s stated otherwise  then make an average. But in the end, it’s all eyeballing and incredibly annoying, especially when all they tell you is the calories, and not the amount of fat and carbs that are thrown in there too.

Cost

Then there is the cost of food. Back in the UK, healthy food is more expensive than pre-packaged TV dinners. Naturally, the same thing occurs in Japan. However, even the simplest of ingredients are sometimes triple the price of their western counterparts. Like $5 for 50g of chicken, $2 for a measly 500ml of milk, and upwards of $8 for 4 (four) strawberries. But as for rice and fish? Hella cheap. You can cop out and get over 10kg of rice for a measly $3, but then you’re stuck with 300+ calories per 100g, and a truckload of carbs to boot.

Considering I already spend $200 on gym membership, including travel, adding the expenses of daily healthy food shopping pushes my budget to $300 a month. All for the sake of losing weight.

But recently…

…it just isn’t working. I have spoken with two personal trainers, planned out a fairly decent yet incredibly expensive diet plan (forcing me to travel two towns over to get certain ingredients, some which make me vomit like fermented red beans and bananas) and doing a mix of upper/lower body muscle training with lots of cardio 4-5 days a week. Nothing has changed in the last 6 months.

It’s starting to really irritate me. I could have spent all that money on a Cintiq for starters, or maybe I am just not doing something right?

Or maybe…

I should just keep trying, and finding out new ways to shed this belly despite being put in a multitude of inconvenient positions. Looks like that big, shiny graphics tablet will have to wait, for now.

From what I am told, Japanese diets work for Japanese people and Japanese people alone. The majority of Japanese people have an incredible metabolism and a mere 20 mins of recommended walking a day means they can eat 2-3 bowls of rice at a time. On paper, that’s 900 calories for rice alone per meal, something that completely blows my mind!

So, tell me, what are you doing to get into shape, any hurdles you currently face, or if you have any tips or tricks that could work internationally!

Thanks for reading! Let’s keep doing our best, eh?

Image courtesy of Rakuten’s Hakata Ichi