In a nutshell, I have a love-hate relationship with my body.
At my highest weight, I was 190 pounds - and simply miserable. The horrible thing about it was I had not realized how fat I had actually gotten. I had always been a chubby kid, but pretty much physically active, playing tennis a lot and not quite sedentary. However, around the age of 15, things changed. My dad had had cancer for many years, eventually succumbing to it, and I enrolled at a Canadian all-girls boarding school, a million miles away from my home of Hong Kong. Granted, an all-girls boarding school was definitely not the perfect environment for me. I gained about 30 pounds in my first year, remaining that way until I graduated in June 2008. Combined with the pressures of adolescent girls and their emphasis on body image, I hid behind my happy and upbeat demeanor. I stayed at about 180 until my second year of university. Again, things changed. I don't know how, and I'm not quite sure why, but I dropped around 25 pounds. Maybe it was because I started walking everywhere, and since I began to rely on myself for funds (even getting a part-time job), I couldn't afford that much food. At this point, I started to love myself (and subsequently my body) for losing the weight- but at the same time, I still hated the way I looked. People always expressed to me that I was not fat, but I couldn't understand them - I was!
Fast forward to summer 2010. I have been back at home in Hong Kong for about 3 months - not really exercising all that much but remaining at the same weight - around 160. People here are tiny, and also due to the fact that I am not Chinese, I tend to stick out like a sore thumb.
My goal: I want to lose 30 more pounds, to attain a healthy weight for my height, 5'3". I've started to walk, jog, run a few times a week, and hopefully if I continue to do this, the pounds will melt off. In terms of my eating, I have begun also to cut down on excesses but not entirely...I still enjoy junk food once in a while.
I have become inspired by looking at the before and after photos, and I aspire to be able to one day post my own after photos, and realize that I was able to conquer my weight, and more importantly, my health!
Here are some photos, albeit low quality, just as a starting point for me.
Hope to hear from you guys - any input is appreciated!
At my highest weight, I was 190 pounds - and simply miserable. The horrible thing about it was I had not realized how fat I had actually gotten. I had always been a chubby kid, but pretty much physically active, playing tennis a lot and not quite sedentary. However, around the age of 15, things changed. My dad had had cancer for many years, eventually succumbing to it, and I enrolled at a Canadian all-girls boarding school, a million miles away from my home of Hong Kong. Granted, an all-girls boarding school was definitely not the perfect environment for me. I gained about 30 pounds in my first year, remaining that way until I graduated in June 2008. Combined with the pressures of adolescent girls and their emphasis on body image, I hid behind my happy and upbeat demeanor. I stayed at about 180 until my second year of university. Again, things changed. I don't know how, and I'm not quite sure why, but I dropped around 25 pounds. Maybe it was because I started walking everywhere, and since I began to rely on myself for funds (even getting a part-time job), I couldn't afford that much food. At this point, I started to love myself (and subsequently my body) for losing the weight- but at the same time, I still hated the way I looked. People always expressed to me that I was not fat, but I couldn't understand them - I was!
Fast forward to summer 2010. I have been back at home in Hong Kong for about 3 months - not really exercising all that much but remaining at the same weight - around 160. People here are tiny, and also due to the fact that I am not Chinese, I tend to stick out like a sore thumb.
My goal: I want to lose 30 more pounds, to attain a healthy weight for my height, 5'3". I've started to walk, jog, run a few times a week, and hopefully if I continue to do this, the pounds will melt off. In terms of my eating, I have begun also to cut down on excesses but not entirely...I still enjoy junk food once in a while.
I have become inspired by looking at the before and after photos, and I aspire to be able to one day post my own after photos, and realize that I was able to conquer my weight, and more importantly, my health!
Here are some photos, albeit low quality, just as a starting point for me.
Hope to hear from you guys - any input is appreciated!
