Apparently, I've lost weight. I don't know how, I had no intention of losing weight, but I have. People are starting to tell me how thin I look and not in that "Oh my gosh, you're so thin! You're so lucky!" kind-of way, but in that questioning, accusatory way. So now I will describe to you my daily routine and you can decide for yourself if I'm healthy or if I should do something different.

I'll start off with the fact that I live in Korea and in Korea one of their favorite expressions is "많이 드쎄요!" nicely translated as "Help yourself" but literally meaning "Eat a lot!". So I do. I eat constantly. I have breakfast every morning of bread, cereal, or oatmeal. I eat a snack with the teachers sometime in the mid-morning and then I eat a Korean style lunch of rice, soup, assorted vegetable dishes, and a meat-product. I eat an afternoon snack. I eat dinner. I usually have an evening snack of a brownie or a piece of chocolate. When you go to a restaurant (which I do 3-4 times a week) you can have FREE servings of side dishes, as many as you want. And when you dine with Koreans they always tell you, "eat more!" So what I'm summarizing here is that perhaps my metabolism has sped up. Many nutritional philosophies tell you to eat every 2-3 hours and I definitely do that. What I'm not eating very much of is fattening foods. I do eat tons of carbs, some sugar, plenty of island-fresh vegetables and fruit. I also think that food in general - save for packaged goodies - is less processed and contains less chemical and artificial products than back in the States. How am I doing so far?

My yoga practice has seriously picked up in the past 2 months. I teach 1-2 classes a week, I attend 2-3 classes a week, and I practice at home at least 3 times a week. Some of these practices are physically challenging, some are more restorative. Headstand, downward-facing dog and back-bends are the asanas I do most consistently. The last time I lost weight like this was when I became vegan, moved to Boston, and started practicing hot-yoga. Perhaps we are seeing a trend...

One of my favorite Korean customs are the saunas, or public baths. You soak in both hot and cold tubs and sweat in dry saunas and steam rooms. Since they only cost $5 and they feel so very nice, I go once a week. Many people use this kind of therapy for weight-loss. Here could be another connection.

So unless I have a terminal illness or a tapeworm, I think I'm pretty healthy. Most likely this has been quite slow and gradual but since I've been bundled and layered trying to keep warm these past 4 months, people are just starting to notice now. I'm happy, I'm positive, I enjoy my work, I'm not under very much stress, all in all things are good. Any questions?