Jan. 26. 2020. Obesity and Instant Cup Noodle

“Oh, my goodness, look at your belly!”

My senior in the air force was shocked. He frowned at my fat stomach in the group shower room. A rush of water from the shower head was indifferently flowing down from my chest, and I reluctantly looked at my flaccid, honey jar-shaped belly. I was filled with a deep sadness. I asked myself, “What has happened to my body since I enlisted in the air force?” The public has a stereotype of a military man who has a muscular body covered with a clean, perfectly ironed uniform. Unfortunately, this image did not really apply to me.

My military duty, 24/7 air traffic controlling at the Republic of Korea Air Force, required daily eight-hour shifts, including on weekends; it was an incessant shift cycle of midnight (2:00 a.m.–8:00 a.m.), swing (8:00 p.m.–2:00 a.m.), afternoon (2:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m.), and morning (8:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.). I was mentally and physically fatigued, and worst of all, I ate innumerable noodles and junk food during the quick break of the midnight shift. My troops offered two boxes of instant cup noodles (twenty-four noodles per box) in each quarter of a year as a consolation to all shift workers who abandon a regular lifestyle. Gobbling instant cup noodles to fill up my stomach was the sole comfort for me to get through the lethargic midnight duty. However, noodles had a negative effect on my health: I gained thirty-five pounds!

Eating instant cup noodles is at risk of obesity! 

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in South Korea reported that one instant cup of noodles typically contains 1,700–1,900 mg of sodium, exceeding the World Health Organization’s recommended daily allowance of 2,000 mg of sodium, and 7–9 g of saturated fat, more than half of the recommended daily allowance of 15 g. Hypertension due to high sodium intake can cause heart failure, myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, and osteoporosis. In addition, saturated fat raises the level of LDL cholesterol, which increases a person’s risk of heart disease and stroke. In 2018, the World Instant Noodles Association reported that South Korea ranked first in the world in noodle consumption, with an average of 73.7 packets of noodles per person per year.

The annual physical strength exam was just around the corner in my troop, and I was eager to regain my thin, muscular body. I had to overcome my habit of eating unhealthy food as a form of stress relief. I immediately stopped eating noodles and began doing one hundred sit- ups whenever I had a spare moment during my midnight shift. After coming back to the barracks around 8:30 a.m., I skipped breakfast and jumped rope 2,000 times without a break every day before bed. Furthermore, prior to my swing shift, I did 2,000 push-ups—forty per set for a total of fifty sets in various poses—with my subordinate and went jogging in the vicinity of the airfield for one hour each day. The key was instilling this intensive exercise regimen into my daily routine. After two months of intensive effort, I was able to return to my muscular body shape, and most important, I ranked in the highest level of the physical strength exam.

A month after being discharged from my military duty, I lived in three different states, each of which has a distinct atmosphere and lifestyle. Sadly, the more I dealt with new stress from adjusting to new environments, the more my weight fluctuated. Moreover, living a well-balanced life of studying, working, and exercising was always challenging to me because I feel exhausted when I spend most of my time at school. To stay up until late at night studying, I had to eat junk food for additional energy.

Luckily, I still had the military spirit motivating me to improve the gloomy status of my body’s condition. To keep myself motivated, I tried to find the best types of exercise to keep me excited and having fun. First of all, I continued dancing salsa, which I learned in South Korea; I have always joined salsa performance teams whenever I moved to a new state. I wanted to become a better dancer and flexible enough to perform fascinating dance moves, so I started hot yoga earlier this year. After sweating so much at the yoga class every day, I can feel that I am improving my respiration, energy, and vitality with a balanced metabolism. I also have completely changed my diet. These days, I choose nutrient-rich, high-protein sources that contain low saturated fat and few calories, such as chicken breasts, tuna, shrimp, scallops, and nut products. The United States Department of Agriculture’s recommendation for adults is to consume a minimum of two to four servings of whole fruit per day; I consume fresh fruits and drink 100 percent real fruit smoothies on a daily basis to intake essential nutrients such as potassium, vitamin A and C, folic acid, and dietary fiber.

My life has been a cycle of gaining and losing weight. How do I stop the vicious cycle of fluctuation in my weight? After making several attempts to return to healthy living, what I have realized is that maintaining a desirable lifetime weight is much harder than transiently dieting. Healthy living truly requires a lifetime dedication. Most important, daily exercise that is faithfully executed and derived from a proper understanding of my own physical constitution is essential for moving into a continuous healthy lifestyle. As the old saying goes, slow and steady wins the race. No matter what the circumstances, it is important to pursue a healthy lifestyle through exercise and a balanced diet on a regular basis. I am looking forward to the day that I become a well-balanced man who enjoys a healthy lifestyle with constant exercise and nutrient-dense foods.