Your first paragraph is spot on. More so for HK than any other place I have lived to be honest.
Substituting massively sugar laden carbonated soft drinks ( soda pop ) with carbonated mineral water, is a good way to start. Cutting out refined sugars and processed foods will also have a noticeably marked affect.
Another issue is a lot of folks these days don't eat enough vegetable matter, you really need to make a concerted effort and try and achieve a vegetable intake of around 70%, and be careful to keep away from junk food, MSG & Aspartame also mess with the brain which will encourage it to store fat/sugar, so be very aware of that. Eating out in HK is a MSG wonderland, matched with 'diet ' drinks you are likely to put weight on in this town if your metabolism is susceptible to what is served/cooked here.
Avoid the Asian habit of having a birth right that you must have cooked meals, especially at lunch. You DONT need a cooked meal !
Learn to make healthy meals using as many natural ingredients as possible, that could be as simple as making Bruschetta with fresh organic tomatoes, or a toasting bread, cutting them into fingers, pouring a little extra virgin olive oil into a small bowl and a decent lashing of balsamic vinegar for dipping. Tuna on toast with a little onion and a tiny splash of vinegar works well too.
Eat a banana between meals.
Make sure your smallest meal is at night, you dont need to fuel up at night, bulk of which time your body is at rest.
Biggest meal in the morning, medium portion meal at lunch.
Buy a good quality juicer ( Kenwood 1HP model for $1500hkd )
Boost/fuel yourself up in the morning via a decent breakfast, cooked tomato on toast, some baked beans, coffee or tea without sugar and a 5 green vegetable juice, two full glasses.
Cut the use of sauces ie mayonaise, ketchup, salad cream . you dont need them..
Eat out once a week.
Greatly reduce alcohol intake to once a week, and even then reduce that to no more than 2 to four standard glasses. If you go out during the off drinking days, drink mineral water with a lime/lemon twist, to everybody else it will look like a G & T.
Next thing, dont worry about what everybody else thinks, do what is best for you, it is your body in the end. Do situps, try and do some intensive on the spot excercise for 20 minutes a day and you will notice after the first month ( it gets a lot easier to see the results after the first month ) which is the hardest to get motivated through.
Stay focussed and remind yourself every day that what you are doing is going to make you feel/look better.
My friend was overweighted before. Then she was recommended by a friend to go through a body check in a medical center (incl blood test) to understand why she was fat. Then doctor n nutritionist has given her some supplement intake with main function to smooth out her digestion system. She gradually lose weight in a healthy way
Pm me if u need info
Most obesity is due to digestion n metabolism.....then diet n exercise. Shall be comprehensive to carry out
heard about garcinia cambogia and am really tryin to find that product here in hongkong
Easier and cheaper to get it from iHerbs.com perhaps. (assuming you order a few bottles at a time)