Richard, that's amazing work - something to really be proud of! 25kg in less than four months... wow. When I am in Thailand I find my appetite for food is less (I don't snack so much) due to the heat, although I eat bigger meals as the food is so cheap and great! Also I drink more...

What kind of exercise were you doing daily at first? How did you change your diet? Any more details would be really encouraging.

Finally... welcome to the forums!

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Owner, travelforum.org
My latest travels: Shikoku Pilgrimage

Hi Steve

When my mother in-law comes to Phuket from Japan every year for 3 months she has the same problem at first with the heat. One trick with the great food choices we have hear is to eat more Thai style instead of main meal binging Westerners. Thais usualy eat abou 6 small meals a day instead of the big regular meals we usualy have.

When eating at restuarants or cooking at home I usualy plan my caloric intake by info I get from this site http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/tour.php and base my meal accordingly and can plan to increase my daily workout accordingly. So much in-so much out is the secret. I used to have 2 liter bottles of our local beer every day and wondered why with all the gym time I was still gaining weight. Then I food out using this cal-counter that each beer was 350 calories or a 1 hour workout on the treadmill. Since 1 pound of fat works out to about 1,300 calories I was taking in 700 calories a day with only beer & no food when my recomended intake for my age & hight is only 2,000
per day. Yikes ! What an eye opener ! I am now off the beer and I am not a tea tottler still enjoying the occational glass of wine with dinner I no longer drink alone or use alcohol when socialising with freinds.

Beginning my workouts was hard at first since I had so many pre-existing conditions to start with. Hard smoking for 35 years left me with borderline enfacima (spelling ?) and I regularly used an inhailer to breath. An accident that crushed my lower food so bad they were going to cut it off when they got me to the hospital but my wife would not sign the authorisation papers. Too much alcohol, very big gut interfering with normal sleep and in poor shape coupled with being a confirmed coach potato. Borderline heart attack leval blood preasure & much higher then normal colesteral to the point where my doctor who just shake his head and tell me not to make long term plans.

Watching the telly I found and was inspiered by the "Biggest Looser" program and decided that if I wanted to live I would have to drasticly change my life and make the commitment.

Sorry to break this off & will return after work with how I slowly began turning things around to where I am now planning for next years marathon.

Regards from Phuket

Richard & Megumi