Pohang's Biggest Loser Update

This past Thursday marked the official end of Pohang's Biggest Loser competition!! I'm so thankful that I participated - it was the perfect motivation and accountability to get me back to living a healthy lifestyle. The other ladies I participated with were always on our facebook group offering words of encouragement, healthy recipes, and various other suggestions! I definitely couldn't have done it without them. So, let's get to it - I lost a total of 14 lbs, 19cm, and decreased my BMI by 2.2.(Which moved me out of my previously overweight BMI and into normal weight range!!) 14 lbs is 8.2% of my body weight!

Aside from the accomplishments on the scale, the ones off are just as exciting:
My attitude towards exercising has completely changed. Whereas I used to get tired just THINKING about going to the gym, I ENJOY it now. I love getting on the treadmill, jamming to music, and getting a sweat on. I actually like running, which before I HATED! I ran a 5K the first week in December!!! I have so much more energy. My relationship with food is so different. I'm much more conscious of what and how much I'm eating, rather than just eating when I'm bored, or eating junk that I know I shouldn't. My clothes fit better now! :) Before September, I was wearing black pants almost everyday to teach in because they were more comfortable than my jeans! Now the jeans I bought when I was home in August are a little loose on me!

It feels good to have made this change, to have lost weight, and to know I'm going to continue - bikini bod, here I come! :)

Merry Christmas from Korea

Thankful Thursday

So this is the first of something I'm going to start - when I used to sell educational books door to door with the Southwestern Company - each day had a special theme, and Thursdays were called Thankful Thursdays - it usually was one of my best days in Sales, because I was able to get outside of myself and the monotony of selling and rejection (I mean seriously, door to door sales post the year 2000- who does that? :) haha) and was able to really be thankful for all the little things! So here goes, while I can't promise to do it every Thursday, when I remember or something strikes me, I promise to blog about it! I've been thinking to do this for a while, but today something happened and I thought - yep, this is the perfect way to start off.

It was a usual Thursday, I had my business class at Hyundai Steel class in the morning and went to my academy around 3:00.  My 5:30 free talking class roles in and they're a hardly excited 2 person class of advanced 6th graders -actually some of my favorite students.  We started off with a few rounds of Crazy 8's -I can use the game to distract them and ask questions about their school day and plans for the weekend without them having their 'I don't want to learn English' guard up. That class passed really quickly. 
 My student, Jason, stays for the next hour also, so he always just keeps his same seat.  I wished them a great weekend, and opened the door for my next class.  Before I know it, 8 rambunctious 6th graders come barging in.  I was in and out, grabbing some water, and dropping off the attendance books for my previous classes - and then I heard some commotion between Jason and another student in the 6th grade class, Jack.  They're arguing about a chair and playing tug-o-war with their backpacks.  So, I intervene, and ask Jack to please stop, and give Jason his chair back. The argument breaks up, but Jason bursts into tears, and when I say tears, I mean giant elephant tears and audible sobbing.  I was surprised to see him cry, because it didn't seem like that big of a deal - BUT the next few things are the reason for this post.

He started to cry, and the 2 students sitting to his left, immediately quieted down, the girls across from him busied themselves with homework, and Jack who had caused him to cry - realized it, stopped immediately, and hugged him, while apologizing in Korean. I was amazed! I expected to have to force them to apologize to each other and shake hands, but they handled it themselves. Jack knew he'd done something wrong, and he was hugging and sincerely comforting Jason to make him feel better. NO students even thought to make fun of him for crying, he wasn't teased at all, he wiped his tears off, and we carried on about our English class.  It was such a small thing, but it made me smile and feel really grateful for Jack's sincere apology, and for Jason's speedy forgiveness.  Teaching is extremely rewarding, frustrating at times, but to be honest, I don't remember what I taught that hour - but I do remember what I was reminded of - apologize sincerely without hesitation, and forgive quickly.  

New Look

Hey ya'll, I'm really excited to announce I took the plunge and gave my blog a facelift, thanks to Jenn at Cutest Blogger on the Block!! I  got way behind a few months back, and thought a facelift would serve as the perfect motivation for blogging more often, AND thought it'd help keep me busy during the winter months in Korea! I'm really excited about the new look and can't wait to update you on life since October - stay tuned. Hope everyone is having a great holiday season...One thing about living abroad, I do miss Christmas in the 'States - being so far away from home, definitely makes getting into the Christmas spririt a little tougher. Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

Girls Just Wanna Have FUN!

Daejeon girls weekend - shopping! :)

 Ah! This past weekend was one of the best in a while - which in the past few months - is saying alot! Heather and Christie a few weeks ago suggested a girls' weekend trip somewhere outside of Pohang! So, on Saturday morning we boarded a bus at the Express Bus terminal and headed out for a weekend of girls only fun!  The fun started the minute the tickets were bought - as Heather excitedly bought 6 tickets, even though there were only 5 of us! haha :) in her defense it was fairly early. But, with a little friendly persuasion and my best attempt at Korean - she successfully got reimbursed for the extra ticket!

We got to Daejeon early afternoon, got to our host Steve's house to drop off our stuff, cheers'd with an adult beverage, and hit the town for some big city shopping.  I struck out as far as the shopping was concerned, but had no problem over-sampling yummy treats in a bakery.  No clothes, but food? Sure!! We wrapped up our afternoon of shopping, stopped at the local mart for pre-gaming snacks, before getting the beauty devices out - for the next few hours, we had girl talk, primped, curled hair, did our make-up, decided what to wear, danced to Miley Cirus's party in the USA using hairbrushes as microphones, watched Christie unsuccessfully attempt an ab-roller, and once we were beautified and a little tipsy we went to check out the night scene!

6 parts great girls, 1 part red wine, 1 part potato snack = awesomeness will ensue

Daejeon's Angels pose!

Ab-roller: 1 vs Christie: 0

Arribba! :)

Long story short -  we danced our butts off and laughed till we cried! We woke up the next morning giggling and telling stories over Starbucks coffee and an egg, bacon, and toast breakfast made by our fantastic host Steve. We said farewell to Daejeon, but not before stopping in at Western Food heaven - Cosco - to yep! buy more food!! I love spending time with my handsome Canuck, but there's no replacement for quality time with great girlfriends! Thanks Tiffany, Nicci, Christie, Heather, and Jess for such an awesome weekend - you girls rock!