How I Lost 5 Lbs In A Week!! (aka My Trip To Japan!!)

I've been ignoring my wee little blog lately, but for a pretty good reason.  I've been in exotic and exciting Japan!  And, since this is a blog about exercise and weight loss, I'll bring it home by saying that I lost 5 pounds over the 7 days I was in Japan.  I could explain this revolutionary new diet plan, or I can just show you some highlights:

This is a delicious baked potato completely ruined with squid and squid liver pate.

This was the hotel breakfast: seaweed with beans, ginger root in "sauce", salad with something decidedly NOT ranch dressing, pork sausage that was a little off, fruit and rice.

Lunch one day - a collection of mystery foods.  I did eat the sushi and there was potato salad in there.

This is a tiny Pepsi bottle being served in a tiny little glass.  I guess they don't believe in Super Sizing beverages.

I love noodles, but octopus is chewy.

My quick lunch option on two of the days.  Sandwiches from the local 7-11.  I didn't eat the whole thing.

So, needless to say, I lived on rice all week:

I am lousy with chopsticks so only about half of the food I wanted made it to my mouth.

 

Also, apparently people in Japan walk everywhere as well.  When I would ask how far something was, I was usually told in terms of how long a walk it was.  Since they all seem to power walk like something was chasing them (perhaps the mama squid?), a 15 minute walk was easily a mile.  So I walked.  A lot.

Don't get me wrong... I had a blast.  But eating was not something I did a great deal of.  Fortunately,
the complete flip-flop of time zones (Japan is about 14 hours ahead of EST where I live in NC) meant I was so tired that I was too nauseated to eat much in the first place.  Believe me when I tell you the first thing I did after clearing Customs was to buy a gigantic tea from McDonald's and a bag of white cheddar popcorn.

Here are some pics of some of the cool things I got to see between teaching classes and prepping for those classes:

Atsuta Shrine in Nagoya (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atsuta_Shrine)

Kaminarimon Gate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaminarimon)

Sensō-ji (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensō-ji) - This tower is said to hold some of the ashes of the Buddha.

Tokyo Skytree - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Skytree) This picture was taken at 450 meters up!

Mt Fuji (taken from the train window between Nagoya and Tokyo)

I had a wonderful experience, but I am happy to be home.  Now I can start my 100 days towards getting serious on training.  I have a race next Saturday - the Krispy Kreme Challenge and I'm glad I'm not running for time because I would not be so speedy.

I have to say that 5lbs gone was a welcome surprise and I'm looking forward to losing more before squeezing into my silver dress at the end of March!