My city is one of the bike friendliest cities in the US, thus the bike cost I was mentioning. I have to say, it is really nice, except for the 104 degree F weather yesterday, no biking in that!

A lot of US cities have amazing bike tracks. I used to live in Santa Monica, CA, where there's a huge cement boardwalk/path that runs the length of the beach. It's packed with joggers, runners, rollerbladers and cyclists. I used to go down at 6am almost every morning and rollerblade on the beach. What an incredible way to start the day!!

Unfortunately, that's lacking in most cities in Asia. Just too many people and too much traffic, and the pollution is horrendous.

I rode ~18 miles yesterday on my dad's bike (because it has a motor to help in certain spots), so that was healthy.

I thought one of Asia's more popular stereotypes is that cycling is the most common form of transportation :P

LOL, yep, if you're Chinese and you enjoy cycling through the world's most polluted cities :)

Actually, when I was in Vietnam a couple of years ago, the Vietnamese used a lot of bikes but motorbikes are slowly taking over from that too, and there are boatloads of those. Here in Thailand, it's mainly motorbikes and then an eventual graduation to cars, although I don't think cars will ever completely take over as it's easy to get thru traffic on a motorbike when it's bumper to bumper cars.

Hey, it's good you're feeling good about it now. It's also nice to see cosplaying become such a motivation to get healthier. I'm sure you'll reach that goal. What do you like cosplaying as out of curiosity?

I don't cosplay, but one day I swear I'm gonna do Duke Nukem or some other he-man just to prove to myself I can do it:)

I go through times where I exercise and eat well for a while and lose steam when the payoff isn't there. According to myfitnesspal, I typically have an extra (edit) 1100 calories I could consume each day and still lose 1 pound a week. I'm +4 pounds for the last 2 months (and still feel hungry since I'm eating less) :(

The good news is I've been exercising for the last 2 months and haven't quit yet. This makes me healthier... I just need to find out where the weight is hiding. There are many variables here so its a much longer process than I would prefer.

What changes things a lot for me is finally forcing myself off gluten, which sucks cause I like beer (the Widmere Omission line is gluten free and really good, just a bit pricey), I could literally do everything right and if I ate too much stuff with gluten (like bread, I love toast and honey and fancy sandwiches both) and I'd never lose an ounce.

Kicking gluten also made me less hungry, I forget to eat about half the time now. I just had surgery so I'm not even exercising beyond opting for walking places over driving and the like.

I don't have what you'd call Celiac Disease (which is pretty severe), but doctors have been bugging me for years to go GF or very restricted, I knew they were right, but it's a pain in the ass. On the upside you pretty much will have to cook for yourself more and that's healthy and satisfying for most folks. This is the first time in years that losing weight was "easy", or at least comparatively easy. I'd guess gluten was slightly inflaming and fucking up my gut somehow, which caused all manner of issues.

I'm not suggesting your gluten intolerant per se, but if you find it harder than other people to maintain fitness, you might have some kind of dietary issue. Eliminate the obvious ones first, gluten, lactose, and then casein, see if that helps.

Right now I weigh 120 pounds. I'm a good runner, so my legs are strong, but my upper body leaves a lot to be desired. It'd be nice if I could add an extra ten pounds of muscle so I wouldn't be underweight anymore.

I'm just relieved that I shed good bit of a weight so cosplaying is not big problem for me. Also, I was able to have more energy at the cons/gatherings. For example, I usually get tired so fast at previous San Diego Comic Con but not so this time around so I'm very happy that I achieved the goal.

Honestly, cosplaying is just an extension on my personal hobbies. I really enjoy dressing up as my favorite characters and I like the artistic merits of it. Also, I love the social aspect of it since I'm able to build up more confidence to talk to beautiful girls at ease.

Yesterday, I spend all day making 2 cosplays so that was fun.

Recently, I incorporated Zuzuka Light's work out in my routine and I find it to be amazing for me since it's short and dynamic work out.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ZuzkaLight/videos
Dude...... go for it! :DDD From reading your posts..... you struck me as very masculine and badass dude so I think you can pull of Duke Nukem.

This is my current cosplay project. :) http://www.1999.co.jp/itbig06/10060066a7.jpg

Want to be in really good shape because of the swords and armors.

I'm not trying to pick on you, but 120 sounds positively emaciated, even when I ran 13+ miles per day in high school I weighed 172 pounds and people wanted to give me a sandwich I looked so skinny.

How tall are you?

5 feet, 9.5 inches.

Well, my advice to anyone who wants to lose weight is: don't watch the balance. Like, at all. Why? Because it's not hard to get "easy" satisfaction with how much you loss and it's really EASY to retake everything you loss, especially in the first 2 months. So, don't look at numbers but, instead, look at yourself. Maybe it's the most hard thing to do because in the beginning you won't be seeing much of a change, but in the long run it really pays off.

Also, try to get used to eating less and eating healthy. Again, it will be hard at the start, but once you get used to it everything will get much more simple. Hope this helps

I'm only 5'11" (sucks to be stuck 1 inch short of 6'!), giving some variation for bone density, and I don't know your age, 120 still sounds too light, I'm not doctor or personal trainer but I'm guessing if you're over 24 or so you should have filled out and be more like 145-155. Of course everyone's different, if you're getting plenty of fats, complete proteins, and other good stuff in your diet then it is what it is. You should be able to put on 15 pounds in muscle without much trouble (you may need trainer, for awhile though), on the frame you are making it sound like you have, that 15 pounds will really alter your look.
Good advice, a cheap, cloth measuring tape (like the kind a tailor would use) is a better indicator of your progress anyway.

Cook more, eat less prepackaged stuff. I even made a rule "nothing with high fructose corn syrup in it", that's good for about 10 pounds around here:)