It’s easy to get big in Hawaii

It’s really easy to get fat in Hawaii. It’s been 6 years since I moved to Honolulu from San Francisco, and I gained about 10 pounds in the first couple of years. The reasons are pretty obvious. First of all, because there is no train here and people depend on cars for transportation, we hardly walk. It’s too hot to walk anyway during the day, and streets may not be that safe either (with the exception of touristy places like Waikiki). In addition, it’s too hot to wear any tight clothes; people usually wear flabby loose clothes that you won’t recognize when your waist line expands an inch or two. On top of it, the quantity of food they serve is way too much. The stomach fills up half way into the plate, but we still try unnecessarily hard to finish them all. I wasn’t paying attention, and when I realized I was already unable to fit into some of the clothes I brought from SF.

But once I realized something needed to be done, it wasn’t hard to correct my life style. Small wave surfing every once in a while was not enough exercise, so I’ve tried to make some time to walk around the neighborhood and go swimming. At 3 p.m., I go into an empty conference room and do a round of stretch. Then I made a point of eating only half of what’s served, and take home the other half. Just small changes and nothing like structured diet programs, but it didn’t take long for my weight to come down to the same when I got here.

I didn’t pack my lunch yesterday, so I went to L&L across the street. They are very generous with portions, and since they know us (the “regulars”) they’ll put some more on the top. $6.28, what a deal. I came back to the office and ate enough to fill my appetite. Then today, I ate some more, but still couldn’t finish them all.