Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Swampfox10mm]

What do these places cost? A friend was asking about them. I know a little because I knew a woman who went to one years ago. Hers gave her a kind of liquid diet in packs she would eat.

[Ralphie]

I went to Dr. Lee Eun-mi Natural Oriental Medical Clinic in Myeong-dong. She gave me a complimentary 7-day supply of tradional Korean herbal medicine to aid weight loss. (It was a promotion for foreigners at the time.) I took the liquid medicine 3 times a day before meals, while avoiding all breads and cereals, meat (including chicken), fat, grease, and sugar.. I did lose weight quickly (had a stomach virus that resulted in severe diarrhea), but I was wondering if it was due to the herbal medicine working or something I ate...I asked her about the cost of the herbal medicine: 500,000 Won for a 7-day supply, 1.6 mil for a month's supply.

I have a Korean friend who's been seeing a food psychologist. She pays a million Won per month to see him every weekend, plus periodic phone consultations. She's lost 18+ lbs. in four months. **My friend has maintained her target weight. I've since gained even more weight. Tell your friend to buy a juicer and go on a veggie juice detox (lots of info on the Internet) OR follow Louis IV's diet example: http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=205117

[weso1]

Please don't waist your money on these quack clinics. They'll clean out your bank account selling you the latest fad diet.

If you want to lose weight, here are some tips:

Do some type of cardio every morning when you wake up, before you eat. Run, bike, jump rope, jumping jacks, heck anything to get your body moving and sweating for 30 mins. Then eat some fruit for breakfast.

Eat a sensible lunch, no burger and fries, but a bowl of rice wont kill you with some veg and meat.

Have a healthy dinner, but skip the rice. Don't eat 3 hours before bed. You should have a membership to a gym. At least 4 days a week get in there for 1.5 hr - 2hrs. Do some weight training followed by 30 mins of cardio at the end of you workout.

You don't need to buy a lot of crazy supplements and pills, but having a good multivitamin would help. Eat lots and lots of veg, a good amount of fruit, a moderate amount of meats, and a simple amount of brown carbs.

There is not secret to losing weight. The one element that always works that people don't have is commitment. Stick with it. You will not see results in a week or two or three. But in 2 months you will look and feel better. Rome wasn't built in a day. Don't expect that after one week it isn't working because you don't look like a super model. It takes time.

Stick with it! Don't give up! You can do it!

[DorkothyParker]

http://www.365mcdiet.net/eng/service.html
This place could be helpful. I think the lipolysis sounds fascinating for trouble spots.

I wouldn't waste your money on any of those fancy diet packs. They are telling you not to eat, well, everything. It's a VLCD.

[hostness]

Really, don't go with fad diets / pills / etc. If you want results, it's going to take a lot of hard work. And it really is tougher than most people think. So really, it becomes a matter of how bad you want to achieve your goals.

Just something to think about when you hear people achieving 'results' with these things over a really short period of time: most of these people will gain the weight RIGHT back after they stop their program. Seriously, it's not unheard of to get fast results, but for most people it takes a lot of time. And like I mentioned before, a lot of hard work. Good luck.

[working title]

I suggest that the OP tries The Body You Deserve Program by Tony Robbins. You can download it for free (Bittorrent) or PM me and I'll send you the workbook and audio series.

I've tried every kind of diet. I even went on the Optifast Diet for 5 months and lost 45 kg. This is the same diet that Oprah went on. But what happened? Oprah gained all of the weight back! It was shortly after this diet that I came to Korea and started packing on the pounds. In the course of about 2.5 years I put on around 30 lbs. I tried everything.

In March I started this program. A lot of what I found is that dieting is only a short term solution to a larger problem. Those who are successful with continued weight loss are a pretty firm psychology to go with it. Robbins taught me to do certain things like "pattern breaking." He also taught me how to properly combine foods.

For example, one of the reasons I would always feel tired after lunch (when eating the school lunches) was because I wasn't combining food properly. I read the book "Food Combining Made Easy." This book blew my mind. It was published like 70 years ago, but all of the content is still totally relevant to today. The book talks about how the stomach contains two different enzymes when breaking down food, one for protein and one for carbs. When combined (for example, when eating rice and pork), the enzymes neutralize each other causing them to not function properly. This causes the food to ferment and staying your stomach. More importantly your body is working harder (and spending more energy) to process and digest the food. Now by combining my food properly, I've had increased energy levels which has caused me to sleep less, work more and live a more productive life. Imagine how many times on a daily basis our society has us improperly combining food:

Sandwiches, cereal, beans+tortillas, steak+potato, rice+bulgogi, fruit+yogurt, pizza, salad+balsamic vinagrette dressing (acidic) etc.

OP, this is just one example among many that the program can teach you. The first battle needs to be won in your mind. Everyone's will power will break at some point.

It's been a life changer for me. Download his stuff or PM me. You can do it!

P.S. Since late march I've lost around 7 kg. and kept it off.

[Gorf]

Cut your carbs. Lift weights. Lose fat.

Problem solved.

[Dazed and Confused]

I went to a major hospital to the diabetic & weight loss clinic. Lost 7 kg VERY SLOWLY but I've kept it off for 2 years. I used an FDA approved diet drug and nutrional counseling to improve my eating habits. Then, I joined the gym and go 3-4 times a week.

[R. S. Refugee]

As you can see by these posts, there are lots of theories and methods involved with this daunting challenge.

My advice is to drop ALL grains and sugar (and artificial sweeteners). The unhealthy western way of eating is made up (I've read) of about 80% grains and sugar. The high-carb way of eating keeps one on an insulin roller coaster of being constantly hungry for the next sugar-high-carb fix. When you give those up, you will discover (over the course of a few weeks) that you aren't hungry for more all the time. Then you can fairly easily give up the need to be snacking all the time.

But, whatever you do, don't fall for the old low-fat eating scam. This 50-year old myth has had a great deal to do with promoting the obesity epidemic in the west that is spreading all over the world. Eating fat doesn't make a person fat. Unlike high carbs (i.e., grains and sugar) fat is satiating and discourages compulsive eating. When you eat too much high carbs and sugar, your body stores the excess (the amount that exceeds your daily calorie burning) as fat. Eating high carbs and sugar pretty much always keeps you hungry and overeating. I do have a sweet tooth though. Stevia in my coffee and yogurt satisfies that.

Most of what I eat is above the ground veggies (no white potatoes, a few carrots), many, many green veggies either raw in salads or steamed or in chicken vegetable soup, lots of homemade whole milk yogurt (the easiest thing in the world to make). For me, the meats are chicken and lamb.

Other posters were talking about going to a gym 3 or 4 times a week. This is an essential habit to develop for health and fitness and that means ideal weight too. Lifting weights is essential to health even if you are a girl. You're muscles won't get too big, but they will get stronger and they will burn more calories even while you're sleeping. Some kind of cardio and/or interval training are very important for burning excess fat. I prefer the elliptical trainer machine for that. It's very low impact with almost no possibility of injury.

Developing a different relationship with food is usually a key ingredient of achieving and maintaining a healthy percentage of body fat. I like to think of the goal as a healthy percentage of body fat rather than "weight" which is a similar but much less precise indicator of health and fitness. For women, the healthy % of body fat is 18 - 28 % while for men it is 10 - 20 %.

Since the beginning of March, my % of body fat has gone from 28% to 21%. My weight has decreased by 7 kg. My pot belly (measured at the belly button) has decreased from around 118cm to 95cm. I still have a way to go, but changing your mental/emotional habits and behaviors related to food is essential to lose the excess and keep it off. Why go to all that trouble and just put it all back on again?

There are sooooooo many fat loss and nutritional theories (frequently contradicting each other) that all I can say is good luck. Don't trust anyone's advice completely. Including mine. Try out different ideas that you think you might be able to live with in the long run, and don't be afraid to try something completely contradictory until you find what works for you.

I think that's one of the great things about not being part of a "couple." That is being free to completely change directions and try something completely contradictory to what you've been trying without having to explain and justify your course change to anyone else.

I think that being very pre-occupied with food can be a helpful technique for fat loss -- shopping for food, preparing food, eating. Oh yeah. Eat only whole foods (mostly). In other words, if comes in a box or can or jar and has an ingredient list it's called "processed." Better not to eat many "processed" foods because they usually have lots of added sugar or chemicals that you can't pronounce.

I almost forgot. You don't drink soft drinks, do you? Sugar or artificial sweetener, they are very bad.

Ok. I quit now. Good luck and bon appetite.

PS. Oh yeah. I almost forgot. If you get hungry between meals and really want a snack, skip the grains, sugars, and processed snack. Eat some raw nuts. Walnuts or almonds will do the trick.

Eat to live. Don't live to eat.
One more thing. I actually do have one grain item almost every day. One beer. Hite Black beer. Cheers.

[R. S. Refugee]

It occurs to me that I should offer some "food for thought" about the health issues I raised in my previous post from some knowledgeable, published health professionals on these topics.

So, here's an article about the importance of healthy fats and the dangers of sugar, etc. in the New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html?_r=2

Cheers.