Fitness and Nutrition

[albull]

Hi all,

I've been doing some research on what foreigners do to meet their fitness and nutrition needs in Taiwan. Is it harder to stay and feel healthy in Taiwan than in your home countries? Is there anything you've discovered in Taiwan that makes it easier to live a healthy lifestyle?

AB

[jimipresley]

Don't smoke, don't drink. Eat vegetables and fruit. Get some exercize. It's really hard.

It's much harder for foreigners, though, because they're programmed to smoke, drink, eat hamburgers and vegetate.

Foreigners are like that. No direction; no focus.

[Wheybrotein]

It's easy. You give 8+ hours to work a day, what do you do for the rest of it? You owe it to yourself to spend a couple hours a couple days a week investing in yourself.

[albull]

So is there anything in particular that makes life in Taiwan easier? Like specific gyms, organic food stores, restaurants, health centers, exercise groups, etc?

[John Yu]

I think eating healthy in Taipei is difficult because kitchens are so small and people think it's normal to eat out all the time. It's certainly affordable, but whether or not it's healthy is another matter.

[archylgp]

Hi all,

I've been doing some research on what foreigners do to meet their fitness and nutrition needs in Taiwan. Is it harder to stay and feel healthy in Taiwan than in your home countries? Is there anything you've discovered in Taiwan that makes it easier to live a healthy lifestyle?

AB

At first It was much easier for me to be healthy in the US since I knew where to get healthy food and had the facilities to cook it with there. These days I just eat a lot of fruit and some vegetables (I don't like the vegetables here.) and stay away from foods cooked with a lot of oil or fried foods. I exercise a lot as well. which helps a lot. I think it's a good idea to avoid eating hot food out of plastic bags and get yourself a good pair of chopsticks. It's my understanding that chopsticks are unregulated here and the disposable ones are packed with nasty chemicals. The cheap reusable ones are probably bad, too.

[elburro]

Hi all,
I've been doing some research on what foreigners do to meet their fitness and nutrition needs in Taiwan. Is it harder to stay and feel healthy in Taiwan than in your home countries? Is there anything you've discovered in Taiwan that makes it easier to live a healthy lifestyle?
AB

I think it pretty much evens out. The ingredients that I'm used to cook with are either hard to find, or very expensive. Also sports are not as common and well organized here compared to back home. So you have to adapt to the local ingredients and do a lot more individual fitness.

The three things that I find do help is that 1) there is a very good selection of high quality fruit, and 2) Meal sizes at restaurants are comparatively small, 3) The proportion of the population that is overweight in Taiwan is lower, and it's natural to compare yourself with what other people look like. In other words, if you're overweight in Taiwan, you're more likely to stand out. Everytime I go home and I compare myself with my old classmates, I feel pretty slim and fit.

[John Yu]

I think it pretty much evens out...good selection of high quality fruit...Meal sizes at restaurants are comparatively small...proportion of the population that is overweight in Taiwan is lower

Agreed.

[louisfriend]

I actually eat a higher fat diet here and exercise less. Back home it was easy and affordable to get ingredients to make easy-to-prepare (mostly vegetarian based) Mexican food. It was high-nutrition, low-fat, and high-fiber. I also ate a lot of natural peanut butter and healthy all-natural breads that are impossible to find here. Not low-fat, but high on healthy fat, high-fiber, good at keeping blood sugar levels stable. It was also easier to find good deals on a variety of other healthy nuts and seeds. I didn't eat a lot of meat and it was easier to stay thinner, and i felt great. I could do a better job eating healthy here but eating mostly vegetarian means lots of tofu to get protein, which is high in unhealthy preservatives and raises estrogen levels in males. I'm also not used to cooking with the ingredients readily available here and admittedly I'm a bit lazy about learning it.

On to exercise. Exercising outside here during the summer means dying of heat stroke, and in the winter it's often raining. The bike paths are cram-packed on the weekends and going to the parks to exercise with little kids running around you screaming while old people stare at you is a bit awkward. I'm not really a gym kind of guy, but i did manage to stay in shape for a while going to one. The key was to go at the right time of day before too many people hogged up the equipment. I recently tried going to the closest sports center but it is quit small and crowded no matter what time I went so i gave up. It's not easy to work out at home because exercise equipment is hard to find and expensive with little room in an apartment to exercise in. I do manage to exercise a bit but I have to get creative since I don't go to a gym anymore. It was easier to exercise at home back in my native land.

[archylgp]

I actually eat a higher fat diet here and exercise less. Back home it was easy and affordable to get ingredients to make easy-to-prepare (mostly vegetarian based) Mexican food. It was high-nutrition, low-fat, and high-fiber. I also ate a lot of natural peanut butter and healthy all-natural breads that are impossible to find here. Not low-fat, but high on healthy fat, high-fiber, good at keeping blood sugar levels stable. It was also easier to find good deals on a variety of other healthy nuts and seeds. I didn't eat a lot of meat and it was easier to stay thinner, and i felt great. I could do a better job eating healthy here but eating mostly vegetarian means lots of tofu to get protein, which is high in unhealthy preservatives and raises estrogen levels in males. I'm also not used to cooking with the ingredients readily available here and admittedly I'm a bit lazy about learning it.

On to exercise. Exercising outside here during the summer means dying of heat stroke, and in the winter it's often raining. The bike paths are cram-packed on the weekends and going to the parks to exercise with little kids running around you screaming while old people stare at you is a bit awkward. I'm not really a gym kind of guy, but i did manage to stay in shape for a while going to one. The key was to go at the right time of day before too many people hogged up the equipment. I recently tried going to the closest sports center but it is quit small and crowded no matter what time I went so i gave up. It's not easy to work out at home because exercise equipment is hard to find and expensive with little room in an apartment to exercise in. I do manage to exercise a bit but I have to get creative since I don't go to a gym anymore. It was easier to exercise at home back in my native land.

I found eating back home healthier, too. (Also cheaper, actually.) As for exercise, go to a gym if you can't stand the heat. Or exercise during the morning / evening hours. (I spent 5 hrs on an outdoor basketball court today and didn't have any problems.)