Home Cooking: For Health, Quality, and Family

Smoked Duck with bean paste soup and banchan

So, I am getting older (I'm 36 now and I have spent nearly a decade in Korea) and my old eating habits have caught up with me. I don't know exactly how it happened. I mean I had problems with my weight before but if I put my mind to it and exercised, I could work it off. Since I have gotten married and our family had our first child, I have had problems controlling my weight and it is seriously starting to scare me. 

Maybe it is stress or maybe it is from the lack of pressure ( I mean I have it all right?: Wife, Baby, Home, Job...the newest Apple products:)

The main thing that I have found out is that the daddy gut is a real thing and it is something that I am taking serious measures to cure. I have been exercising more and watching my weight. In the last 3 months I have lost 4 kilograms which is about 8.8 pounds so that is down from a very depressing 93 kilograms or 205 pounds. Never in my life have I been over 200 pounds and then here I was. Geez. And at this point in my life with a company, wife and baby...I need to be healthier. I don't know maybe its this pressure that is making me put on weight but I doubt it.

I say forget excuses. 

Here is what I am doing. I exercise in the morning. I stay away from processed foods and the only thing I have eaten at McDonalds for the last few months has been the 1,000 won (80 cents) coffee. (Good thing they don't have apple pies in Korea...they are my Achille's heel.)  

I have cut down my drinking a lot...but I need to cut it down even more. One thing that I am doing is drinking red wine mixed with water. It keeps the hangovers away and at my old age hangovers are the worst. 

I got myself a Fitbit HR which makes it quite fun to exercise and forces me to reach my goals for the day. I got it over the Apple Watch, because...well, I don't need another distraction in my life. I like the simplicity and the battery life of the Fitbit HR plus the heart rate monitor (however, I don't think it is all that accurate.)

The other thing that our family is doing is that we cook more at home. We have noticed that restaurant quality has gone down significantly while costs have gone up. Supermarket prices aren't all that low either but you can get rice, a meat and veggies for pretty cheap. Plus you'll have money left over to buy overpriced avocados (6,000 won for 2...$4.80), a bottle of wine, and fruit for dessert. Our family has found that with a few staples we can make dozens of meals that are healthy, balanced and delicious. We even stopped splurging on food delivery because we have found the quality so awful and for the same price we could make 2 or 3 meals. For example, some nights we would order fried chicken and pizza with coke and some sides like a salad or french fries. I know terrible, but some times you just want something good that's bad. This would cost us about 43,000 won ($36). But if we went to the supermarket we could get steak, avocados, veggies, yogurt, rice and eggs and more for the same price. I am sad to see that restaurant quality has gone down so much, but it means that we need to change.

Anyway, I encourage you all to try and cook for yourself. It's better for your life and family.

Ok, bye for now...gotta get back to work.

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