Fitness Malaysia

Does Soy Protein Cause Man Boobs?

2012-01-26T17:49:00.008+08:00

No, there is nothing wrong with your eyes. You read it right. There has been lots of speculation that drinking lot of soy milk or consuming soy based foods and protein shakes actually cause man boobs. And therefore, if you are a guy, you should avoid consuming soy protein at all cost - unless you want to have man boobs. Someone actually asked me this other day and i was shocked. So is this true or is it just another urban myth? Lets take a look.

How did this hypothesis come about?
Soybeans are rich in molecules called "isoflavones" which has weak estrogen properties and has been used for years as a "natural" remedy for hot flashes in menopausal women. It is a known fact that many male transgenders take estrogen (not soy) to stimulate breast growth. Therefore, someone has decided to put 2 and 2 together and come up with the hypothesis that soy causes rise of estrogen, which causes man boobs. Is it true? Btw, in case you are wondering there is a scientific / medical term for man boobs and its called gynecomastia. Yup - didn't know that.

The fact is, this is a myth and there is no medical or scientific evidence to support this hypothesis. In 2004, an Italian study of kids raised on soy protein formula showed no gynecomastia, no early puberty, no changes in their bones and definitely no signs of screwed up hormones. In fact soy has been enjoyed by the world for thousands of years. So until there is scientific evidence of soy causing gynecomastia, all this is just another myth - like the myth that doing leg raises actually targets your lower abs. Of course if you were to surf hardcore body building sites, you will notice that soy based protein gets a really bad name. But most of the time, these are just opinions without any scientific proof.

So what actually causes gynecomastia? Here are some of the causes based on medical science:

Malnutrition and recovery from malnutrition can create a hormonal environment that is man boob friendly
Disorders in the male sex organ (testicles) which may be caused by genetics, aging, trauma, infection, aging
Other conditions that can promote altered hormonal environment such as chronic renal failure or hyperthyroidism.
Certain drugs and medications overdose - please check with your doctor on this.

Don't seem to see anything about soy here.

But isn't soy protein less effective for building muscle compared to whey protein?
Says who? I noticed lots of these comments on hardcore bodybuilding sites. Here is the truth on that as well. Several studies have been done to assess muscle gain in individuals using soy protein, whey protein and egg protein. The results - There was absolutely no difference between the three. Supporters of whey protein like to site BV (Biological value) as an indicator for the quality of protein. Unfortunately, BV is as outdated as BMI. Today most scientists use a different rating to score the quality of protein. Its called the PDCAAS--Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score. The highest possible score or rating is 1, meaning the highest and best quality protein for human consumption. Soy scores a 1 just like whey protein. So is whey still superior to soy? I can't see how.

I am a big supporter of soy based protein because i am lactose intolerant, and for years i trained without using any protein supplement at all. Today i use a soy based protein supplement because it just takes the guess work out of nutrition. For me, my soy based protein supplement gives a high protein content (80% of it is protein) without the unnecessary calories. Now who wouldn't want that? And like i shared earlier, from that protein shake, i can make it into a weight gainer or even a meal replacement shake. I do hope this post has shed some light on soy protein and busted the myth that many people have with regards to soy protein.

So if you have been consuming loads of soy based products like tofu, soy milk and tempe, don't worry. You don't need to go down to Victoria Secret to check out their latest collection of bras. The fact is, soy protein does NOT cause man boobs. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Eat more and lose weight

2012-01-17T10:49:00.005+08:00

Hi guys, firstly my sincerest apologies for not writing anything in almost 4 weeks. Guess i am still in a holiday mood. But i am back and i have a very special post for you guys today and i hope you enjoy it. Before i start my post, just a small announcement.

Over the past few months, i have been working closely with the team of The Fitness Studio, a brand new gym that is opening up in Setia Alam. This 3 shop lot gym (near Tesco Setia Alam) is scheduled to have a soft launch in February and unlike other mass produced fitness centers out there, The Fitness Studio will be focusing on serving the community. We have developed special fitness programs for children, senior citizens and many other community based programs. Another unique thing about the Fitness Studio, is that it has a cafe that will feature special health foods with the aim of promoting healthy eating. If you are around the area, do check out this fantastic fitness center when it opens in February.

Now on top of that, The Fitness Studio is also looking for people to join their team of people. At the moment we have openings for the following positions:-

Personal Trainers
Sales Consultants
Customer Service

If you are interested in any of the positions above, please email your resumes to me at rajanrj@hotmail.com

Ok... now on to my post. I met my new client Ms. Siti ( she only wanted to be known as this) about 6 weeks ago and she had a unique problem. She is not overly fat and looks normal if you ask me. She of course claims she is overweight. But her goal is to look more athletic and lean. fair enough. She is super strict with her food and she exercises at least 4 to 5 times a week. Her food is mostly very high protein and super low or zero carbs. She has tried meal replacements, but it never worked. She has been on this super strict diet for the past 4 years. Her exercise routine used to be 45 minutes to 1 hour of jogging 4 to 5 times a week. She does 10km marathons quite regularly and despite all that she can't seem to lose weight. She said she is fine with maintaining everything but her weight has been slowly creeping up and she is worried that its going to go back to where she was before. She tried cutting down her food even more, but it just didn't work. It actually kept going up. She said she has tried everything from working out more, to cutting down her food even more, removing sugar from her diet completely and yet she wasn't seeing anything.

She even signed up for personal training at a big fitness chain and the trainer worked her to death, but she still did not see the results. It kept creeping up. By the time she came to me, she weighed 65kg and at 5 ft 7inches, that's not too bad. Her goal is to reach 60kg - that's all. In her own words - "I just want to lose 5 stinking kilos, is it so difficult?"

So anyway i met up with her and as usual, went through my standard assessment and getting to know her eating habits better and exercise routine. Siti has been working our for the past 6 years, so she knows lots about staying fit and healthy. So after my assessment, i told her she is not going to like what i have to say. She looked surprised and told me to spill it.

I told her that she needs to change a few key components in her lifestyle.

1) I want you eat more - She gave me a stunned look. Are you crazy? Based on her daily dietary habits, i showed her that she is only getting in about 900 calories a day. Based on her activity level, she should be getting in a healthy 1600 to 2000 calories a day. She was shocked and we debated this for awhile until she agreed. The point is, she was eating way way below her requirements which has sent her body into a super preservation mode. So in short, he metabolic rate had hit the floor, and to rev it up, she needs to feed her body again.

2) I want you to work out less - 3 to 4 times a week, and a maximum of 30 to 40 minutes of running. I told her to train hard and intense (sound familiar?). So i got her onto a HIIT program and it has worked wonders for her. The fact is, while she was eating poorly, she was unable to push herself properly during workouts. So with the new diet, she will now be able top push her body to greater heights. Better workouts = better results.

Now there is a whole lot of other things that i got her to start doing, but i can't share everything here. Trade secrets if you want to call it that. But what i wanted to share was that when it comes to weight loss, eating less and less does not always mean better. It is only better up to a point. Once you pass that, your body starts reacting in the opposite direction. So if you have been trying to cut down your food drastically and can't see results, this could be your problem too. PLUS, the sudden change in diet (i got her to start eating more carbs, complex carbs that is) and this has caused a major shock to her body. The result - she started losing weight again and she loves standing on the scale again. How cool is that.

The exercise, well i was inspired to write the article on short but intense because of her unique problem. So more and more exercise again does not mean better and better results. You need to find the balance and the important point here is intensity, not volume.

So after 6 weeks of training with me, its time to share the results. Drum roll please. Brrrrrrrrrrrrr. We just weighed her yesterday and she is down to 61.3kg. She couldn't believe how she is eating more, eating carbs, working out less and seeing the results. She is now super motivated to train harder till she achieves her goal of 60kg, which i think we will reach within the next 2 weeks or so. Its all in getting the balance right - which i helped her find.

Now with that being said, i am not promoting all of you to go out there and start eating more and working out less. This worked for her, as she was on the other extreme of the scale. Unless you are in this category, i recommend that you keep to the basic rules of weight loss - ie calories in vs calories out. But for special cases like this, then sometimes it is best to seek advice to help you see results again. When your system is broken, you need to be ready to make changes to it, or else you will never see results. Anyone else got problems like this? As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Staying Motivated During the Holiday Season

2011-12-22T10:17:00.005+08:00

So another year is almost coming to an end. time really flies. I was having a conversation with a friend in the gym that day and he said he is finding it hard to stay focused and motivated in the month of December. Why? Too many parties, too many trips - its like everybody is in a celebrative mode, so even coming to the gym feels like a chore. Mind you this guy is one of the regulars at my gym. So he asked me for some tips on how to stay motivated, and i thought it would be great to share with all of you - how to stay motivated during the holiday season.

1) What is your goal
If your goal is to lose 5kg in the next 2 months, then you need to be clear about this. As long as you have a deadline and a quantitative figure, it will help you to stay on course. A lot of times, people get easily demotivated because they don't have the final result in mind or, they have just forgotten. SO remind yourself again about what your goals are and how much more time you have to achieve this. And thus it will become clear what needs to be done in terms of effort

2) What is your "Reason" for wanting this goal?
Now lot of people take this lightly, but i feel that having a reason behind your goal is a great motivating factor. So "why" do you want to lose 5kg in 2 months? Maybe you are going for a class reunion or maybe you are getting married in 2 months. Or maybe you are tired of people making fun of you. Whatever the reason is, you need to write it down and have it in your mind at all times. So you need to sit down and discover what prompted you in the first place to come up with this goal

3) Monitor your progress
Monitoring your progress regularly is great to help you stay on track. If you have been skipping workouts and then find out that you have gained 1kg, well the results speak for itself. So don't wait till the end of 2 months to weigh yourself. Weigh yourself periodically. Now weighing yourself every day is not necessary as your weight can fluctuate quite a bit due to water retention. once a week or once in 2 weeks is great. So if its been a while since you stepped on that scale, take it out, dust it off and step on it.

4) Plan your cheat days
Rather then letting life decide what direction you are going in, how about planning it a little. Example, you want to go to the gym tomorrow evening (because every wednesday evening is gym day), but there is this party that you absolutely have to go for. So what do you do? Well plan around it. How about going to the gym on Tuesday evening (assuming you don't usually go on Tuesdays). Or thursday. Or the weekends. The point is, don't let your social plans become an excuse not to exercise. Instead find ways to work around it. If you want it bad enough, i am sure you will find a way. Same goes for food. Going to indulge later tonight? Then eat sparingly for the rest of the day. You don't have to eat banana leaf for lunch today. You can always have it some other day.5) Tell your friends about your goals and progress
Whats a great way to get excited about your goals again? Start talking to people. Tell people you intend to do this. Tell them about the progress you are making. The more you tell people, the more excited you get. The more excited you get, the more motivated you are going to be in sticking with it. So learn to share it with people around you. Plus, your friends will give you some words of encouragement too. So that will help to motivate you further.

As you can see, staying motivated during the holidays is not impossible. It can be a tad bit challenging, but not impossible. As the usual mantra goes - everything in moderation. So its just a matter of finding a balance between having fun and keeping fit. If you are clear about where you are going, it goes a long way in helping you stay the course. So happy holidays everyone and hope you manage to stay on course and still have some fun and indulge. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Do I Need to use Weight Gainers to Gain Muslce?

2011-12-12T18:39:00.007+08:00

OK.. first up, some important announcements. Actually there is only one announcement. My TV Show is finally out. It airs on TV2 every Monday through Wednesday at 1pm. Yes, i know the timing is not the best, but hey, if you happen to be around the vicinity of a TV, please do check it out. OR if you are having lunch at a mamak which has a TV, ask them to tune in to TV2 for you. I still haven't caught it, but i am hoping to catch it tomorrow.

Anyway, lets move on with today's post. A friend of mine recently asked me if he should consider weight gainers as a supplement. He is finding it difficult to put on some serious muscle mass, and was wondering if he should invest in weight gainers. For me, if you have the extra money to spend, then yes, go right ahead. Is it essential to have? No, because you can easily make your own weight gainer at home.

Weight gainers have 2 main components that make it, well a weight gainer.
1) It is high in calories. The high amount of calories are necessary to keep your body anabolic - by providing your body more calories than it needs. If you are looking to gain muscle mass, you need to ensure that your caloric intake is higher than what you need. Your muscles grow after your workout, not during your workout. And for it to grow, you need to stay anabolic. Simple science.
2) It's high in protein - No guess work here. To build muscle you need protein. Protein is the building blocks of muscle. But in order for your body to fully utilize the protein, your body needs to stay anabolic, by having more calories in than necessary.

So when you combine these 2 elements, you get a good weight gainer. Now of course some will argue that some weight gainers have vitamins and minerals which are good for you and helps to increase absorption. No doubt these vitamins and minerals are good, but unless you plan to replace every single meal with your weight gainers, i wouldn't worry too much. Because you can easily get your vitamins and minerals from your food. So you don't need to dump every bit of goodness that nature has into your shake. I think most of these things are just gimmicks to make you feel like you can never achieve results without their wonderful product.

So how do you make a high calorie high protein shake? Well here are some ingredients that you can easily mix together to get a good shake. If you have a protein powder at hand, you can easily turn your protein powder into a weight gainer by just adding some simple household ingredients. This is why, if i had to spend my money, i would prefer to spend my money on a protein shake, because it is versatile. You can drink it as a protein shake, a weight gainer or even a meal replacement. All other stuff, has a very specific function.

Here are some suggestions to spike up the calories in your protein shake

1) Add flavoured milk like strawberry milk to your protein shake. Flavoured milk has sugar which immediately increases the calories in milk. Plus, the sugar in these milks are great especially when you take it after your workout. If you are looking to gain muscle mass, you need to have an insulin spike after your workout. Because insulin is a storage hormone, it will help in protein being absorbed into your muscles faster.

2) Add ice cream - Yup, you heard me. Ice cream is high in calories, and because it is made out of milk, its really a 2 in 1 deal. Now, don't go crazy with it. Just 1 or 2 scoops of ice cream into your protein shake, after your workout should suffice.

3) Peanut Butter - Peanut butter surprisingly has high content in protein as well as calories. So if you are a hard gainer, peanut butter is a great way to amp up the calories and protein.

4) Almonds - Almonds are a great source of protein. They usually have between 6 to 8 grams of protein per serving. A handful of almonds into your shake not only amps up the protein, but it ads great flaovour to it as well.

5) Sweetened Soy Milk - Because you want the calories, sweetened soy milk is excellent for this. It is high in protein (about 5grams per glass) and it has sugar which will help to give your body the insulin spike it needs after your workout.

6) Yogurt - Yogurt is a great source of protein, but do bare in mind that it is sour, so it may or may not go with the rest of your ingredients. So be careful when blending other stuff with yogurt. Yogurt usually goes well with berry flavoured stuff. Chocolate, hmmmm.... its a no for me, but it really is a personal choice.

So those are just some suggestions of what you can chuck into your blender and make a shake from. Below is one of my personal favourite weight gainer shakes that i have made. Try it, you will love it.

1 Scoop of vanilla ice cream
1 table spoon of Milo
2 table spoons of Peanut Butter
1/2 glass of sweetened soy milk
1 serving of plain flavoured protein powder - how many scoops will depend on which protein powder you use. My protein powder needs 2 scoops (or you can use your chocolate flavour and ditch the Milo and use the protein instead)
1 glass of Milk.
A little bit of water if its too thick.

Method - Chuck everything into your blender and blend it till its smooth. When it pours out, it will make 2 glassfuls.

Now, this recipe is only for those who:-
a) Lift like a warrior - if you lift like a wuss, please stay clear of this shake
b) Finding it extremely hard to gain weight, but want to bulk up like Thor
c) Should be taken right after your warrior workout.

For all other people, please stick to your usual protein blend or diet stuff.

Now on top of these weight gainer shakes, you also want to make sure you eat lots of complex carbs and lots of protein for your other meals. Its not what you take once after your workout, but the continuous nutrition that you keep feeding your body for the rest of the day, as your body grows. So meal times are important too.

So, do you really need a weight gainer? Personally for me, no. Like i mentioned earlier, i would prefer to spend my money on protein powders, because i an easily interchange it to suit my needs. But hey, if you have lots of money, then go right ahead. So do try out the recipe and as usual, look forward to hearing your comments. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments

Short but Intense

2011-12-01T17:40:00.007+08:00

Off late i have been getting many requests from people who seem to be doing everything right but still can't seem to drop the weight or worse still... end up putting on weight. They eat right, meaning less calories in than out, the do exercise, but yet they can't seem to shed the unwanted pounds. In most of the cases i viewed, the problem was actually over training. Yup doing way too much exercise to the point where your body starts fighting back.

Hence today's post what i want to share is the concept called "short but intense" workouts. If you follow these simple tips, i guarantee you will start seeing results. I also noticed something similar when i was training for my marathon. even though i was running a lot, i felt like i was getting flabby and was not happy with my physique. This is more proof that i was possibly over training and my body was resisting the change.

More does not always mean better
In most cases in life, more is always better. Eg. having more money is always better than having less money. But in fitness, it is only true up to a certain level. Thereafter in becomes counter productive. Running for 20 minutes may be great, but running for 120 minutes does not make it 6 times better. Of course if you are an endurance athlete then yes that would be your goal. But for weight loss, its not the case. Sometimes doing less can get you better results. Please clear your mind of this concept. Doing more does not mean more results always.

1 hour sessions, 3 to 4 times a week
OK, now that we know too much is not good, how much is good enough? Of course this will vary from person to person, but as a general rule of thumb, i find 1 hour sessions, 3 to 4 times a week the most effective. Keep your workouts to 1 hour as far as possible. I know people who run for 40 minutes, do weights for 45 minutes and then cycle for 30 more minutes after that. That's almost 2 hours. And you do all that 7 days a week. That is way too much for your body to handle. If you are doing this, scrap it and change it to 1 hour sessions 3 to 4 times a week. Trust me, you are not going to get anywhere with your current 2 hour routine 7 days a week.

Do super Sets
Super sets are usually 2 sets of exercises that are done back to back without any rest in between the 2 sets. Ideally, you should try to do antagonistic muscles like your biceps and triceps. so learn to swap your exercises around so that you can cut short your work outs. supersets is a great way to intensify the workout while cutting down your workout time. Not to mention, it also helps to keep your heart rate up. So i highly recommend doing exercises in supersets for weight loss. It really works wonders.

Increase intensity, not volume
OK, so what exactly is intensity? Isn't running for 30 minutes more intense than 20 minutes of running? No, that would be volume. Volume is doing more reps, doing it more frequently. Intensity means, making the exercise more challenging. Instead of running for longer, how about covering more distance within the same time frame. Eg. If you can cover 3km in 20 minutes, how about trying to cover 3.5km in 20 minutes. The effort of pushing yourself harder is what counts. This is what i mean by intensifying your workout. Or how about doing more uphills to make it more challenging. Or how about wearing a weighted vest and still try to complete 3km in 20 minutes.As you can see, there are various ways increase intensity and not volume of your training. Intensity is important for results. Volume is too, but in this case, most people misunderstand and increase volume thinking they are increasing intensity.

Keep it short but intense
So keep your workouts to an hour, but during that hour ensure that you push yourself to the limit. Now pushing yourself to the limit also has its limitations. I don't mean pushing yourself till you puke. A good indicator of a good workout is, when you are done, think to yourself "now lets do it all over again right now". If you hate that idea, good job. If you feel, yeah, i don't mind coz i don't think i did enough, then that's a bad sign. Of course this is very subjective and will vary from person to person. But you know yourself best. Make sure you keep challenging yourself for each workout.

Concentrate your efforts
Also, because you are not working out like 15 times a day, you can concentrate all your efforts to push yourself to the limit on every workout. Not to mention, you will also have recovery time so your body can recover before you push it again. This has both physical and psychological benefits to you. As you know, recovery is extremely important for the body if you want to see any kind of results. By cutting down your workouts, you will give yourself more rest time. If you are doing way too many exercises too often, then chances are you are slowing down because you know you have to push yourself again tomorrow or for the next 3 hours. So your workouts are never 100% that way. By keeping it short and less frequent, its easier to push yourself all the way for each workout.

Keep on challenging yourself
After awhile, what seemed to be intense 6 months ago, may not be intense anymore. So this is where you need to increase intensity again. Remember, increase intensity, not volume. If you can keep increasing intensity, i guarantee you that you will continue to see results. So keep progressing in intensity whenever you can. Every time you push yourself to new limits and boundaries, you will see more results. That's how the body works. so work with your body and not against it.

So now you have a clear picture of how to keep your workouts short but intense. The key here is to play around with intensity and keep upping the intensity. Doing more isn't the answer always. Now with that being said, it does not mean that doing less and less is better either. Keep it to 1 hour sessions, 3 to 4 times a week. The intensity is what you will need to decide for yourself. Hope this helps all of you out there who have sweating buckets but still not seeing the results. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Penang Bridge Marathon

2011-11-22T16:21:00.004+08:00

As most of you know, last Sunday morning i participated in my first marathon ever at the Penang Bridge International Marathon and it was quite an experience. All the training sessions i did really paid off as i was prepared for the run. But it wasn't quite what i expected on the actual race day. I guess nothing can prepare you for it until you actually do it.

Did i qualify in time? Did i collect my medal? Well lets save that bit till the end of the post. Let me share with you my overall experience and hopefully it will give everyone (especially those who have never participated in a marathon) a good feel of what to expect. So here goes.

The run was scheduled to kick off at 6am. We stayed in Tanjung Bungah and the starting line was at Queens Bay Mall. So it takes about 15 minutes to get there without any jam. But there is a catch. All the roads leading to Queens Bay Mall were closed because of the race. So the officials told us that we can head down to the ferry terminal and take a shuttle bus from there to the starting point. One of my very good friends who was not participating in the race was sweet enough to drop off me, my wife and one more friend. So we left our hotel room at 4:15am and reached the ferry terminal about 4:40am. Because the bridge was closed, people who wanted to travel to the main land had to depend on the ferry... which caused a jam leading to the the ferry terminal. So we decided to get down and walk to the terminal. The bus left at 5am and we reached Queensbay Mall at about 5:20am. So from there we walked over to Eastin Hotel which was the starting point and then i had to take a small toilet break before the race. The organizers were kind enough to set up 200 or so mobile toilets so i had to use one of them. It was disgusting to mention the least, but i shall spare you the details.

So after that, we walked over the starting line and there was this huge crowd of people. Yup, all the racers had begun to gather around for the race. I joined the huge group of people somewhere in the middle. Did some light stretching and waited for the gun to go off. To be honest, i was a little nervous, as it was my first race. At 6am sharp, they did the shoot off. But the crowd was so huge, it took me a good 2 or 3 minutes just to pass the starting line. I could not run for the first 5 minutes or so, as there were just too many people everywhere. One thing i am glad about, is that despite such a huge crowd, everyone was well behaved. There was no pushing or anything of that sort, despite it being a race. So after about 300 or 400 meters, there were some empty spaces appearing between the crowd so i could finally start jogging. But i had to zig zag as some people were running, some were walking fast, some were walking slow... man, it was crazy.

As the race went on, the crowd thinned out a bit more, so i could finally pick up pace. I ran pretty fast for the first 4KM, overtaking many other runners and i was feeling good. But after about 4KM, i was running out of breath. Maybe i pushed too hard too early, i am not sure. I brought along two 600ml bottles of mineral water with me (one in each hand) as i need lots of water when i run. I could have drank more, but i was worried about having to go again, so i cut down my intake of water... so maybe that caused me to burn out faster. I am not sure. But i am glad i brought it as there were only 2 water stations available. And as you can guess, the queue to get water was huge. I would not have made it with just 2 water stops. Phew.... good thing i brought my own water.

Anyway, after 4KM, i started walking while trying to catch my breath. I kept walking until the 5KM point. I tried to run again after that, but barely lasted 400 or 500 meters before i started walking again. At that moment, my mind started playing tricks on me. I think it was just out of fatigue. I actually started thinking, "gosh.... i don't think i am going to make it." I looked at the clock and 40 minutes had passed already. I really need to pick up my pace. Then i started thinking, "oh screw it, its just a race". So what if i don't make it. Then a little voice inside me said, "its not too late to make a difference". That gave me a bit of motivation. So i ran again but alas, same thing happened. I ran out of gas after about 500 meters. This really started to worry me. At that point, my legs started to get sore as well. I was expecting muscle soreness after 6KM, so it was no surprise. How am i going to run fast now?

50minutes had gone by, still walking. Recovery is slow. I suddenly hear the sound of police on motor bikes. The runners start moving to the side. Then i hear the ambulance... they whiz pass us. Not sure what happened, but someone must have gotten injured. Then i see the sign board that says 3KM to go. That's when i felt a glimmer of hope that i can actually do this. I downed and finished my first bottle of water drank some more from my second bottle. Normally when i do my practice runs, at this point, i would be halfway down my second bottle. But during the race, i had not consumed much water. So maybe this caused my fatigue. Not sure. Anyway, took a few deep breaths and said "Let's Go!" So i started running. And i kept running. Saw the sign that said 2.5KM to go. Alright... lets keep going. The crowd was still everywhere so i still had to weave in an out. 2KM to go. Lets go.... 1.5Km to go. I walked again for a bit till the 1KM mark and then i floored it. i took long strides but at a slower pace. It boosted me past many others. 500 meters to go. There were loads of people on the side cheering all the runners and clapping hands. Not sure if there were cheering for me or not, but it felt good. So i kept going. I saw one guy massaging his feet and all his friends had stopped by his side... apparently he was suffering from leg cramps. More people were clapping. One guy shouted "Come on guys, you're almost there". Wow, kept going and going. Saw the finish line in the distance. I can feel it. More and more people started cheering. YES... passed the finish line. Looked back at the clock, it was blurry and i could only see the minutes, 31. Oh dear. Did i just miss it? According to my time, it was only 7:20am. That means i still have 10 minutes more. So i saw one of the race officials and asked them - "Did i make it?" He said YES. Go over there and collect your medal. Wow... i did it.

So here are the results

10km in 1:19:24. 1 hour, 19 minutes and 24 seconds. qualifying time was 1:30:00. Could have been better, but hey, i made it. For a non runner like me, i am extremely happy with it. There you go... my shiny little medal.

Wifey did better than me. 1:16:44. All my friends who participated made it too. Going back to the hotel was a whole new saga as we tried to jump back on the shuttle bus. Some one told us to go to point A, when we walked all the way there, then someone else said, no, you need to go to point B. When we got to point B, someone else said, NO, you need to go to point C. Ordinarily i wouldn't have minded walking around and round, but after running 10KM, i don't think so. So we finally got fed up and paid a cab to take us back. We took the cab to Equatorial Hotel where one friend had a car and from there, we went for a much earned breakfast. We decided to check out the famous Roti Canai store in Jalan Tansfer. Mmmm... it was really awesome. Went back to the room, had a shower and went to bed. Forgot to mention, i woke up at 2:45am to do "my business" before the race, if you know what i mean. So was dead tired by then.

Would i do this again? Hmmm... i am not sure. To be honest i would have liked my timing to be better, so the competitor in me keeps saying - go for it. But then, my fitness goal is not to be an endurance athlete. I want to gain some serious mass and build some serious lifting strength. Running long distance is kinda going in the opposite direction. So for now, i have decided that i will most probably participate in maybe 1 race a year, just for fun. 21Km, unlikely. 10 KM, yep - once a year maybe. 5KM, bring it on anytime.

Anyone else want to share their experience for the race that day? Would love to hear your story. For now, i am on a serious mission to pound on some mass. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

High Quality Protein for less than RM 6

2011-11-08T16:54:00.007+08:00

So last Sunday, i did my 2nd attempt at running 10km at lake gardens. Last one was about a month and a half ago. Timing wasn't the greatest, but i am happy. 1:20 for 10.12km. So now i guess i am ready for the race. From now till the Penang Bridge run i will only do 4km to 5km runs maybe twice a week. That's it. Don't want to over do it. My knees did feel a little sore after the run the other day, but its better now. So that's just an update on the run.

OK, enough about running. Today i wanted to talk about proteins once again. Since my recent post on protein and weight loss, i have gotten quite a few emails asking me all sorts of things. One of the most common ones i received were that protein is expensive and if i could recommend some cheap sources of protein. Now i am not sure what the definition of cheap is, but what if you could get high quality protein for under RM 5 or RM 6? Would that be OK? That's affordable right?

So here are just some in no particular order

Eggs - One of the cheapest source of lean protein. Each egg will give you roughly 6g of protein at about 80 calories. Thats pretty good. So you can buy a whole 12 pack for about RM 3 or RM 4. Should you consume the yolk? Yes you can. The whole notion about egg yolks causing high cholesterol is a myth. Your body produces most of the cholesterol and your diet has little impact on this. So yes. Go ahead.

Chicken Breast - Chicken breast is another excellent source of lean protein. You can grill it, toss it in a sandwich, eat it as a chicken chop, dice it up... the possibilities are just endless. Each 100g of chicken breast contains about 45g of protein. That means almost of it is protein. Remember, preparation of your chicken is important. Avoid deep frying it. Pan searing, roasting or grilling would be the best option. How much is one cut of chicken breasts? I usually buy them in the market for about RM 3 to RM 4. Once i buy them, i split it in 2 (as shown above) and just consume one portion.

Sardines - Fish is one power foods that we all need to have more of in our diets. Sardines especially are high in Omega 3, which time and time again has been proven to prevent many chronic diseases especially heart related illnesses. 100g of sardines has about 24g of protein. If possible drain the tomato sauce out before preparing sardines. Usually the sauce has high amounts of sugar and sodium. So i usually drain it, rinse the sardines and then prepare my own tomato sauce. This way i get to control what goes into it. You can easily get a tin of sardine for under RM 6.

Tuna - Tuna in water, tuna in salt water, tuna in oil... which one to choose? Best choice is Tuna in water, second choice tuna in salt water. Usually one 185g can tuna will has about 24g of protein. You can prepare it any way you want, but go slow on the mayo if thats your preferred style. This is also under RM 6 for a can

Tandoori Chicken - This is one of my favourite ways to consume lean protein. You can usually get a quarter chicken of tandoori for about RM 6 or just below that. You can eat it with naan or chappati or you can strip the meat off and make a sandwich out of it. How much protein is in tandoori? Similar to chicken breast. About 40% of its weight (minus the bones of course) will be protein.

Skim Milk - One cup of skim milk has less than 1g of fat and offers you about 8g of protein. You can add fruits to it to make a smoothie or just drink it by itself. For convenience, you can buy skim milk powder so you can prepare it anywhere and at anytime. Excellent source of protein as long as you are not lactose intolerant. One liter of skim milk usually sells for about RM 5 or RM 6 and serves about 4 cups

Tofu - Depending on the type of tofu, generally most tofu will have between 10g to 12g of protein per 100g. Its an excellent source of protein because its lean and its complete protein. That means it has all the essential amino acids in there. Again, preparation is vital here. To make it healthy you want to avoid deep frying it. Try pan frying or even stuffing it and then steaming or baking it.

I could go on an on, but i am sure with what i have shared here so far, it is possible to put together a variety of high protein meals that don't cost an arm and a leg. It all just comes down to creativity. What other cheap sources of high protein foods are available out there? Would love to hear your feedback too. Google some healthy recipes with the ingredients above and i am sure you will find something that will excite your taste buds. So yes, it is possible to stay healthy even on a budget. You don't need to rob a bank to stay healthy and more importantly, no more excuses for staying on a healthy diet. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Preparing for Penang Bridge Run

2011-10-31T09:59:00.009+08:00

The Penang Bridge Run is just around the corner and i have been spending quite a bit of time preparing for it. YES, i have registered for it and am going to be going for my first 10KM run. Some time ago, i wrote about running and said i would participate in 1 race this year...and yes.... i finally have. Have i become more fond of running... honestly - not really. maybe this will change after the run... i am not sure. i mean i don't mind running, but if i had a choice between running and lifting weights... you all know which one i would choose. would i like to prepare for a 42km, errr.... at the moment NO. it really isn't part of my goals. am quite happy with my 10km achievement.

So my workout routine has changed a little to ensure i am able to slot in enough cardio sessions to prepare me for the run. Also, i am lifting some amount of weights, but i know bulking will be difficult while i prepare for the run... so i am just targeting on mantaining what i have until the day of the run, then concerntrate of bulking up again after this.

The big question on everyone's mind is... how do you train for a run? Well here are some tips for working out and i hope it helps you with planning your own routine.

1) Don't overtrain
I put this as the first tip because many people tend to over train. When you over train, you are more likely to get injured. If you are planning on running 10km, it does not mean you have to do 10km for every workout. Doing about 5km to 6km is more than enough to prepare for the run. Yes, you might want to try and complete a full 10km at some point before the race, just to know what it feels like, but you don't have to make every workout a 10km run.

2) Train with some friends

If you are going for a run, i am 99% sure that you are joining the run with some friends or family members. It would be great to train with these people. One thing i noticed, i can almost double my distance of running when i run with people - compared to when i run alone. Why? Because it becomes more fun and you start enjoying it more. Also training with others gives you a good perception of how good or not good you are. When you run alone all the time, you have no way of benchmarking how good or poor you are. So this is one way to discover where you need to be.

3) Training Time

It is highly recommended that you try to run at the same time as your run / race day. If you have a morning run which kicks off at 4am, you will want to try at least a couple of training sessions at 4am as well. If you have a night race, then you will want to try and run at night. This is just to ensure that you know what it feels like and gives your body a chance to adapt to the timing. Law of SAID. It would be even better if you could train on the actual track itself.

4) Do them darn hills

I hate running uphill but doing uphills really trains up your stamina and leg strength. The more hills you do, the stronger you become and on race day you won't need to worry about change in terrain. One big mistake many people do is to keep their trainings light and then on race they get fatigued because they were not prepared for it. Make your trainings more challenging and intense than the actual race day...so that on your race day, you will breeze through it. If you only train on flat ground all the time, you are going to suffer on race day should there be any hills. But if you always train on hills and on race day you have a full flat road, then you will blaze through the course. so remember.... keep it more challenging than race day, but don't don't overtrain by doing too much. Your workouts need to be intense but not the point of overtraining.

5) Train at least twice a week

How often should you be running to prepare for a race? Ideally you should try to run about 3 times a week, but minimum 2 times a week. Your trainings should be spaced out as evenly as possible. So avoid doing running only on Saturday & Sundays. Try to spread it out. At least 2 to 3 weeks before the run, this frequency becomes even more important to maintain. So make sure you make some time for this. Again, 2 or 3 is good but that does not mean 5 or 6 is even better.

6) Get a good pair of shoes

Good shoes need not necessarily be the most expensive shoes or the most well known brand. i bought a RM 175 pair of Reeboks and it works fine. Initially i tried some other expensive brands all well above RM200, but it did not feel right... so i decided against getting them. When you try out the shoes for the first time, it should automatically feel "right". If it doesn't, then its not the right one for you. If you walk around a bit and still not sure, then it definitely isn't the shoe for you. You must get that feeling of comfort immediately. Just because 5 of your closest friends all swear by one shoe, it does not mean it will be right for you.

Those are just some basic tips to help you train and prepare for your run. I have been doing practice runs in Lake Gardens on the weekends and i will be doing one this coming Sunday. I shall post up the time later once i confirm with friends. But all of you are more than welcome to come and join us for this run. My target is to complete 10km on that practice run. So hope to see some of you then. As usual look forward to hearing your comments.

Protein helps to trigger weight loss

2011-10-18T10:23:00.006+08:00

Protein is one of the essential macronutrients that we all need. In fact, we need to have protein to stay alive as it is "essential" for life. On a daily basis, our body requires what is called essential amino acids to live. When we do not get essential amino acids from our diet, your body will begin stripping its own muscle to provide the body with essential amino acids to live... and wasting away muscle is a bad thing. It not only affects your muscles ability to perform but it will also lower your metabolic rate.

When it comes to weight loss, you need to have protein in every meal. I know many dieters who think they are doing themselves a favour by just consuming salads or worse still, some people try to eat cereal for dinner in an effort to lose weight. Granted, that cereal does have some amount of protein, but its not going to be enough. To effectively lose weight, you need to up the amount of protein in your diet.

So why is protein so important for weight loss? Here are just some of the reasons why
1) Protein takes longer to digest - because protein molecules are more complex, it takes longer to digest. This also translates to keeping you full for longer, hence reducing snacking in between meals. Carbohydrates do a good a good job by filling you up quickly, but if your meal is only made out of carbs, you will notice that you will get hungry really fast. So make sure you add some protein into your diet.
2) Protein also encourages the release of Glucagon - which helps to release fat from fat stores and also decreases the body's ability to store fat. Double yes if you want to lose fat.
3) Protein also does not store as fat easily. Unlike carbohydrates which turn to sugar almost immediately, protein does not do that. It is possible to break down protein into sugar through a process called Gluconeogenesis, but this is only done as an absolute last resort.
4) Protein releases a natural weight loss hormone called PYY. When released in the gut, this hormone helps to reduce hunger. Eating protein rich food will help your body to easily release this hormone
5) Protein helps to maintain muscle mass, which is essential to maintaining a health metabolic rate. So if you want to keep your metabolic rate at high, then you must eat enough protein everyday - regardless of whether you are working out or not

Those are just some of the reasons why you need to have a healthy intake of protein everyday. Now i know most of you are thinking - wow... that means i can eat all the KFC i want. Well the answer is not really. The idea here is to get lean protein into your system. KFC does have lots of protein, but it also has lots of other things which you don't want. So i would not recommend it, unless you are able to provide your body with enough activity to burn it off.

So what are some good sources of lean protein?

1) Egss - it can't get simpler than this
2) Tuna in water - you can buy the cans and use them
3) Lean meats - red meats are fine as long as they don't have too much fat around them. However, my first choice would be chicken breasts
4) Fish - fish is one of the best ways to get lean protein. So if you eat out a lot, try to opt for fish, whenever you can.
5) Low fat milk - can't get easier than that. Make sure you have some low fat milk in your fridge at all times. If you are lactose intolerant like me, then soya is a good substitute. Only down side is most soya milk has sugar. If you can stomach the sugar free soya, then great. I opt for normal soya milk but i don't go over board with it. Usually just 2 cups a day.
5) Protein Powders - i highly recommend that you invest some money and get a good protein shake that you like. Protein powders is not just for body builders. Everyone can consume them and yes, to all my women readers you can too. You won't bulk up like the pictures you see on the tub of protein powder. Protein powders just takes the guess work out of getting lean protein and its so easy to prepare. PLUS, you can actually use it to replace meals. I would prefer this over meal replacements shakes.

So are you getting enough protein in your diet? To lose weight, just make sure you get protein in every meal you have. If you can do this, i am sure you will see the results you want. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Back in Action

2011-10-11T09:37:00.002+08:00

Hi guys... wow... no post in almost 3 weeks. My sincerest apologies. Was caught up with shooting a TV program with Kementrian Kesihatan and some local celebrities called Sihat 1, which is due to be aired on RTM 1 or 2 sometime soon. Will keep you guys posted on that. It was indeed a very interesting experience and it was nice. Am definitely looking forward to more opportunities such as this. Been also busy tying up some loose ends on my e-book... which should be out soon.

Anyway during my TV shoot, i met many people who asked loads of fitness questions. It was nice to hear from lay people as they really didn't know much about these things. And i guess i had forgotten what are some of the basic concerns that some people have. When you are into fitness, you focus on more technical things and forget that many lay people out there have very simple questions and concerns. So i have compiled them and here are the answers.

How do i reduce the fat around my belly?
This is obviously referring to spot reduction, which doesn't work. Whether you are looking at losing fat around your arms, hip, face or tummy - its all the same thing. You need to provide your body with a calorie deficit which will cause your body to burn that additional fat. Doing crunches does not focus on burning the fat around your belly. You will make your muscles stronger and more toned, but you won't see anything if its covered with layer of fat. But won't crunches be a good exercise to burn calories. Well doing crunches will use up some amount of calories but crunches alone isn't enough to create the deficit required to see the results you want. So no... crunches alone is not going to work.

Should i do cardio to burn fat
YES, that is one effective method of burning fat. But weight training will also be able to help you to burn fat. Doing loads of compound exercises in super sets is also extremely effective in raising your heart beat and melting fat. So cardio is NOT the only way to burn fat. You can use weight training.

I am skinny, can i really bulk up?
Why not? I was skinny once and i turned out ok... if i can, so can you. With the proper nutrition and the proper training routine, you can achieve it.

I heard that training your biceps and triceps on the same day is a waste of time.
Why? There is absolutely no scientific evidence that supports this. Now i know some muscles should not be trained together as it will dampen your performance of the second exercise. Eg. Doing triceps and then doing bench press - ya... you will notice a significant drop in your bench strength because you do use your triceps for bench press, and if you have worn it out, then you will feel it. But biceps and triceps are antagonistic muscles... meaning when one is working, the relaxes... hence if you are going to choose two muscles to work on, i would choose antagonistic muscles as my first choice. In fact that's what i do now. I train my chest and back on the same day and biceps and triceps on the same day as well. Because it is antagonistic, you don't have to worry about losing performance.

Will i become short if i lift heavy weights over my head?
I think i wrote about this some time back. NO.... your height is predominantly determined by your genetics as well as your nutrition during growth. Weight training has no effect on your height. This is just a myth.

These are just some of the questions i received and the answers that i shared with the people who asked me. In most of these questions i had to explain in detail as many people had formed "beliefs" and its not easy to shake someones beliefs. But i am glad i managed to answer the questions in a manner that enlightening to them.

Anyway... now that all this is done, i do hope i will be able to post more regularly.... my apologies again for the long silence. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Functional Strength

2011-09-22T18:28:00.004+08:00

Hi guys, my sincere apologies for the lack of postings over the last month or so. Been busy with an e-book which will be launched real soon.. Can't wait for its launch. We have also been invited by ASTRO to open a booth for their Safety and health week at the end of this month... so been busy finalizing things for that too. Also I am also working on some other projects including a possible TV show- so yeah, schedule has been crazy. Things should slow down a little by next month, so i hope i will be able to post again as usual from next month.

Anyway, this week, i decided to cover a controversial topic called functional strength. Over the last few years, i see many people using this term so much that i feel that this term has lost its real meaning. What gets me the most is people coming up with gimmicks and claiming that it helps to develop functional strength... but in reality, it doesn't really. Well i guess it develops the "new definition"of functional strength which actually doesn't mean much.

So lets get into it. What exactly is functional strength? By definition, functional strength refers to the ability for an individual to perform functional / purposeful movement. Originally, this referred to strengthening our muscles and body to improve day to days tasks that we do, such as lifting a box of the ground or carrying suitcases up a flight of stairs. So exercises like squats, deadlifts, bench press, shoulder press etc are great functional strength exercises, because there will be a real life application to it. But today, people have jumbled up everything and claim that it develops functional strength when in actual fact it doesn't. One such case is training on an unstable surface like balancing on an exercise ball.

I have seen so many equipments and training routines out there that claim that training on uneven or imbalanced platforms help to increase functional strength. does it really? Lets look at this in more detail. Lets refer back to the law of SAID - Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. If you keep doing something, you will keep getting better at it. If you start to do squats while balancing on an exercise ball, then bravo, eventually you will get good at doing just that. But is that really functional? Well only if you perform in a circus where you are constantly balancing on something. The instability itself does not add any advantage. But what about sports? Shouldn't you be doing this type of training if you are a sportsmen so you are more conditioned? Well lets see what the experts say.

A recent article in the NSCA Journal of Strength and Conditioning seemed to de-emphasize the importance and effectiveness of this type of training. Till today, there has been no clinical evidence to prove that training on unstable surfaces improve sports performance. In fact it can be counter productive. Lets take a person who needs to throw a ball really fast.... like a baseball player. So he practices this several times a day on the field. Law of SAID.... he starts getting better as his neuromuscular system starts memorizing this movement. Then his coach comes and says, lets stand on a ball and start throwing it. Time that could be spent on actually improving his throw is spent on balancing not. Secondly, he now confuses the original neuromuscular pattern of just throwing the ball as fast as can. As you can see, it becomes less productive.

But wait. Unstable surfaces allow us to gain more strength. Hmmmm.... lets look at that in detail before we decide. To become stronger, you need to provide your muscles with enough resistance that will allow it to recruit enough muscle fibers. The more practice you have at recruiting more muscle fibers, the stronger you become. On an unstable surface, you automatically reduce the amount of weights you use to allow your self to balance and perform the exercise. By reducing the weights you use, you recruit less muscle fibers and therefore you are training yourself to recruit less muscle fibers... which also means training yourself to be weaker. No doubt your sense of balance would have improved, but not your strength... so its a NO for strength as well.

In short, all exercises are technically functional for some sort of movement. For an individual who doesn't exercise and only eats and walks, then by doing these tasks daily, isn't he developing functional strength in that area anyway? Law of SAID - if you keep doing it, you keep getting better at it. Since this individual only eats and walks, then doing that everyday is training to be better at it. So to claim that your exercise machine or routine develops functional strength, actually doesn't mean much at all. Before buying into any of these, just ask yourself this simple question, do i need to get good at doing this? If the answer is no, then that exercise machine or routine is not functional to you. It may be functional to someone else, but not you.

So there you have it. Functional strength and how it has been misused in the fitness industry today. Hope this sheds some light on the topic. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

PS: My e-book will launching soon, so stay tuned to this blog for more details

Anabolism and Catabolism

2011-09-06T17:05:00.004+08:00

Hi guys, firstly my apologies for not writing earlier. My grandmother just passed away last Monday and it was rather sudden, so everything has been a bit chaotic. Getting back some resemblance of normalcy now so i thought i better post something before i get whisked up in other things again.

Over the past few weeks, i have been writing on tips about how to stay at optimal health during the month of Ramadhan. I used the word anabolism and catabolism a lot and i have received quite a few emails asking me to explain what this means. One email sender said "from what i gather, anabolism is good and catabolism is bad, but what are these 2 actually?" So i thought for this weeks post it would be best to address these terms so everyone has a clearer picture.

Before we jump into anabolism and catabolism, there is another "lism" word that we need to understand first. And that word is Metabolism. Now i know most people know what this is and use it quite frequently, but here is the actual definition from Medical News Today -Metabolism refers to biochemical processes that occur with any living organism - including humans - to maintain life. These biochemical processes allow us to grow, reproduce, repair damage, and respond to our environment. In short, metabolism is a process that allows us to utilize what we consume to fuel our day to day functions.

Now there is anabolism, also known as constructive metabolism and catabolism which is destructive metabolism. Let me explain further.

Anabolism is called constructive because it involves the building up of things - a series of chemical reactions that constructs or synthesizes molecules from smaller components, which usually requires energy in the process. The body uses simple molecules to create complex ones. In the same way a builder will use small bricks, to create a house, Anabolic reactions utilizes a few simple chemicals / molecules to manufacture (synthesize) a vast array of finished products such as muscle growth increasing bone mineralization.

Anabolism uses monomers (simple molecules such as amino acids) to build polymers (large complex molecules such as protein). So many monomers put together form a polymers and this process is known as anabolism.

Catabolism is known as destructive because it involves the breaking down of things - a series of degradative chemical reactions that break down complex molecules into smaller units, and in most cases releasing energy in the process. Catabolism provides us with energy so our bodies are able to perform physical activity. Now this activity includes everything, from the most minute activity at the cellular level all the way up to whole body movements. So in other words, catabolism breaks down complex stuff to release energy which allows us to live and move. But for our purpose in fitness, lets concentrate on how catabolism helps to provide us with energy so we are able to complete movements and exercise.

Another important point to note is that anabolism requires energy where else catabolism releases energy.

So now lets put all that together in terms of fitness. When we exercise, we force our body into a catabolic state ie breaking down our stored energy to allow us to perform our activities. We need to do this so that our body has the energy it needs to perform the exercises that we want. When we are done exercising, we need to re-fuel our body. Hence drinking a protein shake or eating anything after that, will help our body to switch from a catabolic state to an anabolic state. As the popular saying goes, "You don't grow in the gym, you grow when you are resting", and this is so true. In the gym, you are breaking down the muscles and when you are resting - you are rebuilding everything. The process of rebuilding everything is the anabolic process. The process that helps your body get the energy it needs is called catabolism. In short, that what they are.

So, now the big question.... Is a catabolic response bad for you? No its Not. You need it to live. Without it you won't be able to live and move around. So it is a necessary process. But staying in a prolonged state of catabolism is bad, because it will begin to break down your muscles as well, and you don't want that to happen as muscle is healthy weight which you want to always preserve. Hence why you want to stop the catabolic process as soon as you can after you are done with your workout, so your body can begin repairing itself.

Workouts and exercise are strenuous activities that causes damage to the body. Once you are done, its important to help fix it up, or else it will just get more and more damaged. The way to fix it, is to shift our body into an anabolic state which allows it to begin repairs. Repairs cannot begin while your body stays in a catabolic phase.

So there you have it... a simple definition of what anabolism and catabolism is and why the both are so important to us. Now that you know, you will have a better appreciation for what happens inside our complex body. Hope this helps to answer all the questions i have been receiving. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Night Run at Lake Gardens

2011-08-22T11:54:00.002+08:00

What do most of us do on a Saturday night? Well here are some of the usual favourites of most Malaysians:

Go for dinner
Catch a movie
Watch a DVD at home
Go teh tarik with friends
Grab some drinks at your favourite pub.

Well i have done all of the above and this Saturday all i had was plans for dinner and nothing else after that. So i was intrigued when a friend of mine asked if i wanted to go jogging with him at Lake Gardens at 10pm. Now as you know i am not a huge fan of running and do it just to burn some extra calories and of course maintain a good cardiovascular endurance. So after some thought (and with persuasion from wifey who is a bigger fan of running than me) i decided why the heck not. So i told my friend and he was excited that i would be joining him.

The reason we chose 10pm is because we were waiting for another friend who also wanted to join and could only join us after his Terawih prayers. So i said sure... i got nothing else planned for the rest of the night.

So i went for dinner at about 8pm in Old Town and decided since i was going to go jogging, i decided to keep my dinner light and save it for after when i am done jogging. I don't fancy eating heavy and then doing something physical after that. But i did treat myself to some pre-jogging calries... ie. ice cream at old town about 10 minutes before we left.

Anyway we arrived at Lake Gardens and waited for our friend who would join us after his Terawih prayers. Once he came, we did some quick warm ups and stretching and we were off. Just for the record, i usually only jog for about 3 to 4 km when i do my routine runs, and these guys were planning on 15km. Yikes. I did not do the full 15km unfortunately, but i did complete 6km. The furthest i have done so far and it felt good. So yeah... new milestone in running for me.

Anyway the route we chose was pretty good and had its fair share of uphills and downhills. It was pretty quiet and it was kinda nice to run at night.... yet another thing i have never done before. The temperature was far cooler than my usual evening jogs, so i believe that made a difference in how much i could run. Also, the company. Usually when i jog around my housing area, its either me by myself or just me and my wife. But this time, there were 4 of us and we were just chit chatting non stop, so that made a huge difference.

So after 2 rounds, one of my friends said his leg was hurting and wanted to stop. So i decided i would stop to as i don't want to over push my limits. I was feeling fine, but i thought this is my first run in the past 3 weeks (yes, i have been skipping my jogging sessions lately), so lets not push it. My wife and one more friend continued running for one more lap. So they completed 9km while me and another friend completed 6km.

My friend also introduced me to this Android App called Run Keeper, which tracks your timing and distance via GPS and gives you a full report after that. So you can see the full course you ran. I have downloaded it to my phone, and can't wait to try it out. Will update you on this once i try it out.

After the run, we had to go to a mamak and have teh tarik... after all, we had earned it right. While running, i told myself i would have one Maggi Goreng, but alas, i was destined not to eat that as they were all out. So i just shared a Mee Goreng with a friend.

All in all, it was a fun night and it was very different. I liked it. Not sure if i wanna do this every single weekend, but it sure is a fun thing to do with friends. Sorry, no pictures to share, but i will definitely take my camera for the next one. When? i am not sure yet. So what do you think of night runs? Any of you done anything crazy like this before? As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Fitness Tips for Ramadhan: Working Out Part 2

2011-08-08T17:57:00.003+08:00

Wow... time really flies. We have come to our final edition of fitness tips for the Month of Ramadhan. Last week we discussed which would be the best times to workout. This week, we will cover some general tips on working out during the month of Ramadhan. So hopefully these tips will help you to stay as active as possible during the month of Ramadhan.

Tip 1: Go Slow and expect a drop in performance
Because you are fasting, you may find it difficult to push yourself as you normally would during normal days. Hence i highly recommend that you consider turning your workout routine down one notch.

However, if you can still muster the same amount of effort during this fasting month, then by all means go ahead. This advice will be more helpful for people who may get demotivated when they see a drop in performance. Don't worry. Remember that you are fasting, and hence its OK to drop things down a notch for this month. You can then build yourself up again after that. So don't worry about it.

Tip 2: Fuel up after your workout
Regardless of whether your goal is gaining muscle or losing weight, it is very important that you fuel up after your workout. Hence, refer back to last weeks post and find a routine that works best for you. Preferably one that allows you to fuel up immediately after your workout. If you can't fuel up, your body will remain in a catabolic state and you will end up losing more muscle.

Tip 3: Hydration helps with performance
Its no doubt that staying hydrated during your workout makes a huge difference in your performance. Hence, once again, choose a time that will allow you to consume water so you can stay hydrated and get more from your workout. If you really can't fit it in, then try to workout just before Buka Puasa and make sure you fuel up on fluids as soon as you can after that

Tip 4: Gaining Muscle Mass
During the month of Ramadhan, its almost impossible for you to gain muscle mass. I tell many of my clients that if you can maintain what you have through out this month, its already more than good. So understand this and don't get demotivated. Just do your best to maintain what you have for this month and then you can go crazy after Raya. You may also notice a loss is strength, so you want to can consider reducing the weights and going for more reps during this month. Again, it may not be great for building muscle, but it will do great in helping you maintain as much as possible.

Tip 5: Weight Loss
The month of Ramadhan provides you with an excellent opportunity to lose a lot more weight than other months. Why? Because your caloric intake is less than usual. So use that to your advantage. If you follow my tips for Sahur & buka Puasa, i guarantee that you will lose weight especially once you throw is some exercise into the whole mix. So use it to your advantage.

Tip 6: Recovery may be slower
Because your body is deprived of nutrients, it may take longer for your body to recover than it would normally. So bear this in mind if you feel like your muscles are taking longer to recover, and hence you may not be able to train a specific body part as often or do the same exercise as often. So you may need to
a) space things out a little to allow more recovery time
b) move things around so you can add in some additional healing time
c) go slower so your muscles aren't taxed as much and hence you are able to hit it more often.

The important rule is listen to your body. Don't ignore the warning signs.

So there you have it. Some general rules / tips when it comes to working out during the month of Ramadhan. Always remember, that since you are fasting, your body will go through some physical changes as well, but if you know what to expect, you can work around it. At the end of the day, you can still work out during this month, but you must make some tweaks to your workout to ensure you get the most of it. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Fitness Tips for Ramadhan: Working Out - Part 1

2011-08-01T16:02:00.006+08:00

Working out during the month of Ramadhan is always a hot topic. I get many questions on this topic and the most frequent one is, when is the best time to workout. But before i go into that, another frequently asked question is, whether or not you should workout during the month of Ramadhan. My answer is, YES. It will be more challending to workout during the fasting month, but that does not mean you should give your body a month break. When it comes to working out during the fasting month, do bare in mind that the timing of when you are going to workout is going to be extremely important.

So below, i would like to share what some of my Muslim Fitness buddies do, and let you decide which is best for you, as well as sharing my opinion on each.

Working out before Sahur
One of my fitness buddies, likes to go for a run early in the morning, comes home, showers, has his Sahur and then begins his fast. This is an excellent idea but there are some challenges to this.
1) You have to wake up extremely early. He gets up at 4am. So this also means going to bead earlier or you will be zzzz for the rest of the day.
2) If you are lifting weights, i don't think any gym will be open at that time. But it is a great chance to do cardio, if that is your fitness goal.
3) I would not recommend this for muscle gaining workouts as after your post workout meal (which will be high is protein and calories), you will feel hungry again real soon within the next 3 to 4 hours. Depending on how heavy you are lifting, your body will need that much nutrition to help it fix itself. So if you can't supply it what it needs at that time, choose a better time.
4) This timing is fine if your goal is weight loss. This way you kick start your day in the right way, fuel up on some good food and then let your fasting do the rest.

Working out during Lunch Hour
I had another friend who would use his lunch hour to go workout and come back. His logic, since you can't eat anything, might as well put that lunch hour to productive use. My biggest concern with training at this hour is dehydration. And remember, you can't refuel your water till much much later. He told me its all in the mind, i don't know. I can guzzle down quite a bit of water when i workout. My other concern is nutrition after the workout. He was doing weights and i told him that the workout gets wasted if you can't fuel your body immediately after that. After a heavy lifting session, your body is highly catabolic and it needs loads of nutrition to shift it into an anabolic phase. Without food, your body will continue to be in a catabolic phase. But he said it makes no difference as all he was doing was maintenance workouts. I would not recommend this to anyone due to the 2 points i made above. But if you have tried this or will try it, do share your feedback with us. How it feels, how difficult it was and of course the results. Again, i would personally not recommend this to anyone.

Just before Buka Puasa
Here is one of my favourite times to workout. Just about an hour before you buka puasa. This way, you can give everything you got and guess what, you will get to load on up loads of food right after that. Also, doing your workout just before buka puasa also allows you really indulge in your buka puasa meal and not worry about gaining weight. Only concern i have is, that you will be very weak and tired by this time, so you will see significant drop in performance. But like i said, this would be my 2nd favourite choice to workout during the month of Ramadhan for the fact that you can fuel up almost immediately after that and that it helps to ward off fat storing when you do indulge.

Small Buka Puasa > Workout > Big feast
If you ask me, this is the best technique or time to workout. Many body builders i know practice this and they swear by it. When it comes time to buka puasa, they break fast with lots of water and have a small high protein meal. Eg. Tuna & Egg sandwich on wholemeal bread. Then after about 30 minutes, they hit the weight room and train like normal (or as normal as possible). Once they are done, then they go out for their big feast or the "real" buka puasa deal. This technique is the best becuase:
1) it allows you a chance to fuel your body before you workout, hence giving you a chance to perform at almost your normal level
2) You can drink water during your workout
3) You can push yourself as much as you want, because you can have a big feast after that.

This would be the best time to workout, regardless of whether your goal is weight loss or muscle gain. So open small, lots of fluids and some protein and carbs. Then workout as normal and then feed yourself accordingly after that. This is one of the preferred techniques for body builders as it allows them to train at almost the same intensity as they would during non fasting days. Also, it allows you to really fuel up after your workout.

So which timing / technique are you going to use during this fasting month. It will indeed be more challenging to workout during the month of Ramadhan, but as the saying goes, "if there is a will, there is a way." Does anyone have any other tips of working out during Ramadhan? Would love to hear about them. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

PS: Next week, i will share some useful tips on working out during the month of Ramadhan, and hopefully that will further help you with your working out. So look out for it.

Fitness Tips for Ramadhan: Sahur

2011-07-26T19:24:00.003+08:00

So continuing on with our tips for staying fit and healthy during the month of Ramadhan, last week we shared some tips on how to buka puasa healthily. As promised, this week, we will cover what kinds of healthy foods should be taken for Sahur. Sahur refers to the meal consumed my Muslims early in the morning before they begin their fast for the day during the month of Ramadhan. As this is technically your last meal before you begin your long fast, its extremely important to note what kinds of food will be good for you and what kinds of food you should avoid. So below are some kinds of food you should be loading up on as well as why we recommend that you do that.

Pick meals that are high in protein
Protein is far more complex than carbohydrates, and because of this, it takes longer to break down. Longer to breakdown also means, it keeps you feeling full for longer. Quite a good thing, especially since you won't be consuming anything for the next 12 to 14 hours. Also, because we are worried about the catabolic effects during the fasting month, loading up on lots of protein before and when we break fast, helps to reduce the effects on our body. So for these reasons, it is highly recommended that you load on high protein foods.

Fruits & vegetables
Fresh Fruits and raw vegetables are great foods to load on as well. Because fruits and vegetables have a high fiber content, it will help to keep you full longer as well. Remember, anytime you have food that helps you stay full for longer, its a good thing for the fasting month. I highly recommend eating raw vegetables and fresh fruits as opposed to cooked vegetables, for the sole reason that raw vegetables have more nutrients compared to cooked vegetables. Steaming vegetables are fine, but when you cook it and make it into a curry, almost all the nutrients are lost. Most of the nutrients in vegetables are very delicate and highly sensitive to heat. Because of this, over cooking it will destroy all these nutrients and just leave you with mass of fiber.

Carbohydrates
I would generally recommend to keep carbohydrates low, because they fill you up quickly but then you get hungry really fast as well. The problem is, when you get full quickly, you have less space for other useful food items which are high in protein. You become hungry really fast, because all simple carbohydrates turn into sugar almost immediately once it enters the system. Once it turns into sugar, it is either used or stored away as fat. Once that is done, your body starts sending out signals of hunger to tell you that it wants more food. The last thing you want is to feel hungry and not be able to eat. So try to cut out carbohydrates id you can. If you must, consume it, but keep the portions small.

Coffee: Yes or No
This seems to be the never ending debate on whether coffee is good for you or not. Some say no, others say yes. But i am not going to go into that. There is the other argument that it dehydrates you and thus it should be avoided. The argument is that coffee acts as a diuretic, thus making you want to answer natures call more frequently. Well drinking lots of water can give you the same thing, ie make you feel like you have to go. The fact is, mild amounts of coffee won't affect you so i wouldn't worry about it. So YES, go ahead and drink that cup of coffee if you need to, but remember to keep it to a mild level or something that you are used to. If you up to it a dose that you are not familiar with, then it could result is some additional dehydration. But ideally, i would opt for water instead of coffee, but if you must have that coffee in the morning, don't feel bad about it. Its OK, just as long as it comes in small amounts.

So ideally, your Sahur meal should be high in protein and vegetables and low in carbohydrates. This will help to keep you feeling full for a longer period of time plus it will help to reduce the catabolic effects of fasting on our body and muscle. Remember, you won't be able to ward off a catabolic response 100% during the fasting month, but where possible you would like to minimize it, and these tips will help you to do just that.

There you have it. Some simple tips to help you plan your meals for Sahur. Before i end, i would like to take this opportunity to wish all my Muslim friends and readers "Selamat Berpuasa". As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

PS: Next weeks post will be on exercising and how and when to exercise during the fasting month. So look out for it.

Fitness Tips for Ramadhan: Buka Puasa

2011-07-18T09:19:00.009+08:00

The month of Ramadhan is just around the corner, and already i am getting tons of emails and requests about how to stay healthy during this fasting month. So i thought this would be a good time to post up some tips on staying fit and healthy during the fasting month. I will cover several topics over the next few weeks which will zoom in and give you a better understanding on how to stay healthy during the fasting month. Since this topic is a big topic, i have decided to break it down to several topics so that i can give lots of detail for each topic.

During the fasting month, Muslims have to abstain from food and drink from dawn till dusk, which is usually 12 to 14 hours. Because of this, you will need to make some tweaks / changes to your workout routine and nutrition plan so that you are in line with the fasting month, while maintaining your fitness level.

For this weeks post, i am going to cover some tips on how to "buka puasa" healthily. Many people i know end up gaining weight during the fasting month, and i can safely say that 90% of it is due to bad habits during the fasting month. So here are some useful tips to remember when breaking fast the healthy way.

Eat slowly

So you are 5 minutes away from breaking fast, and you have already loaded up your plate with huge amounts of food and you are sitting there just looking at it. The second you hear the Azan Maghrib on the radio or TV, you dig in and start going through your food faster than the speed on light. Then when you are done, you loosen your belt and say "oh boy, i ate too much". Sound familiar? I know that when it comes time to break your fast, your hunger reaches an unimaginable stage and the temptation to over eat is at its peak. So its understandable that you would like to chow down food like a lion. But many people i know end up eating way too much food when they break fast. Sometimes you eat more than you would have during your normal daily intake. Meaning if you usually eat 2500 calories a day split into 3 meals, some people can end up eating 3000 calories just for their buka puasa feast. The reason for this overeating is because you are eating fast. Slow down and enjoy your food. It takes time for your brain to register that your stomach is full and tell you to stop eating. When you eat too fast, you surpass this signal and end up eating more than you need. So avoid the temptation to eat too much by slowing down your pace of eating. Yes, you are hungry, but remember that eating slow will not harm you. So slow down.

Avoid breaking fast with too much simple carb0hydrates.
When it comes time to break fast, i notice that most people end up eating way too much carbohydrates. Now unless you are going to instantly use up all that energy, i would advice against loading up on carbohydrates. The reason being, when it comes time to break fast, the sugar level in your blood will be extremely low. Any carbohydrate you take will instantly be turned to sugar. If there is no use for this sudden surge of sugar / energy, your body will instantly store it away as fat. Remember your body just came out of a highly catabolic state and thus it thinks your body is going through a femine. Now, you are going to want to take some amount of carbohydrates , but i would recommend against loading up on too much of it. Go for complex carbohydrates if you can, but as a general rule of thumb, i would keep it to a low amount.

Break fast with plain H2O instead of
Most people i know like to have a quick drink when they break as their throat is dry from fasting all day. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is, to break fast with a sweet and sugar filled drink like Sirap, Soda etc. As mentioned above, your body has just been in a highly catabolic state for so long and the last thing you need is a rush of humungous amounts of sugar into your blood. Its better to break fast with plain H2O and then later on you can enjoy your sweet drink. Not saying that sweet drinks should be totally banned during the fasting month. You can have them, but save them till much later, instead of when you just break fast.

Avoid those midnight snacks
During the fasting month, i notice that many people like to hit their favourite mamak joint or fastfood joint well after their Terawih prayers. Near my house, i notice many people hitting the A&W well after 10pm to get a snack like waffle and ice cream, root beer float etc. This is absolutely fine if you are going to bed at 2am or so. But if you are going to eat that and go off to bed straight away, i would advice against it. Remember, the same rules apply. Don't load up on huge amounts of food before bed.

So for this Puasa Month, do something different and try the tips above. I am sure it will make a huge impact helping you watch your waistline during the fasting month. I know many people who end up putting on weight during the fasting month, and i truly believe that you can avoid that by simply following the tips above. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments

PS: Next weeks post, we will cover tips on Sahur and what kinds of foods you should be eating. So look out for it.

Workout Essentials

2011-07-12T20:58:00.004+08:00

Off late, I have been bombarded with emails and questions about work out programs and what works best etc. Although most of the emails and questions are quite unique in nature, I did notice one similar trend in almost all the questions. Almost everyone asked me why is it that we stop seeing positive results after a while. So for this week’s post, I thought I would tackle this issue by providing all of you with information on what is essential for a workout routine. Hopefully this will serve as a guide and will help you to correct your current routine and start seeing amazing results. So here are some tips on what your workout should have for it to be an effective one

Keep your workout to an hour

Sometimes in life, we feel that more is better. For example, having more money is of course better than having less money. Though generally that is true, but that is not the case when it comes to working out. Yes, more is better, but only up to a point. After that, your body’s ability to respond to the given exercise reduces dramatically. On top of that, doing too much can be counterproductive as your body starts becoming more catabolic. For me, I like to keep my workouts short but intense. Just because it’s a 1 hour workout, doesn’t mean it can’t be effective. Keep your workouts to about an hour or less if possible, but make it count

Progressive Improvement

When you first start working out, you would probably start at a pace which you are comfortable with. Now it’s OK to start slow, but it’s important to progress as you go along. If you started with bench pressing 30 pounds for 10 reps and 6 months later you are still doing the same thing, then that’s not going to work. When it comes to seeing continued improvement, you need to keep getting yourself out of your comfort zone. If you can run 20 minutes without breaking a sweat, then you need to up it till it becomes challenging again. Your body is constantly trying to adapt itself to whatever stress you throw at it. The problem is, once it adapts to the stress, you are going to stop seeing results. So push yourself when you are in the gym or when you workout. Stop doing light bicep curls and before you even feel anything you put down the weights and call it a set. That’s not going to work. Continuously challenge yourself and aim to reach higher levels.

Mixing it up

Now besides making it more difficult as your move along, it’s also important to mix up your routine from time to time. If you usually ride the exercise bike for 20 minutes, try switching it to running on the treadmill for 20 minutes or using the elliptical. If you always do bench press, try switching it dumbbell flies for a change. The point is, by changing the exercise, we are essentially using our muscles differently and that again helps to prevent our body from adapting and thus allowing us to continuously see results. Whether you are training to gain muscle mass or lose weight, mixing it up really works wonders. How often should you change it up? Ideally you should change it around every 3 or 4 months. Or you can change it whenever you hit a plateau in your workout. But don’t change it up for every workout as this will be counterproductive. So be creative and keep mixing it up from time to time.

Nutrition

No workout routine is complete without the proper nutrition added to it. If you are trying to gain muscle mass and don’t eat enough protein, you can lift as much as you want, but you will never see results. It’s just plain science. If you are trying to lose weight and you keep eating more and more, you are not going to see results. So tailor your nutrition plan based on your goals. AND YES, nutrition is very very important to the whole equation. Your results are only as effective as how good you feed yourself. So remember that. Working out is only one part of the equation, the bigger and more important portion is what you do after your workout when you walk out of the gym.

So there you have it, some simple tips that need to be considered whenever you plan your workout. If you want the results, you need to ensure that you follow the tips above. If you want to continue seeing results till you reach your goals, you must follow the 4 tips above. So go through your current workout routine and make the changes you need to ensure that it meets all the requirements above. If it does, then I guarantee you will see amazing results all the time. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments

The Gym With The Most Beautiful View

2011-07-06T12:59:00.011+08:00

2 weeks ago, i took a trip to redang island and by far, redang has to be one of the best beaches i have ever visited. White powdery sand, and crisp clear water that looks like a swimming pool, it was really gorgeous. in fact this is the first beach hotel i have seen where everyone is in the sea and the swimming pool is empty. Why go to a man made pool when you have natural pool which is just as clear.

Me and wifey went there with Berjaya Air, so we flew from Subang and it was a direct flight to redang island itself. I liked this because it cut our traveling time to just an 1 hour and 15 minutes. As we arrived we were taken by a bus to Berjaya Resort (which has now changed name and changed management). After checking in, we were taken to our hillside rooms. I was a bit skeptical about the room because we got it on promotion but was i shocked when i walked in. It was a newly refurbished room and it was beautiful. Check out some of the pics below.

This hotel was undergoing a transformation at that time, so we were basically enjoying 5 star service at 4 star prices. The hotel management is being changed and the plan is to upgrade it to a 5 star world class resort. So it was nice to be pampered for the 4 days that we were there. We went for some deep water snorkeling but it wasn't as impressive as Tioman. Tioman had far better and more colourful corals to checkout. But beach wise, i would give Redang a thumbs up over Tioman anytime.

Activities - there are load of activities to do from snorkeling, to diving to island hoping. Best thing i liked, just outside the hotel is a small gerai makanan, so if you don't fancy spending RM 50 per person for a meal at the hotel restaurant, you have an option of eating at an affordable price outside. There are also kedai runcits just outside this hotel so you can easily stock up on your supplies if you need to. But bear in mind, it does cost a bit more than KL but that's because there is the logisitic factor of bringing these things into the island. I even found out that 1 year ago, you couldn't even find ice cream on the island. You can find ice cream now, but be warned, its more than twice the price in KL.

And yes, the gym. I noticed the gym while i was swimming in the sea. It was up on the hill and i was curious to what it was. Then i saw people moving in there and upon a closer inspection, i found out that they were exercising. Imagine running on the treadmill and having the view below?
I mean watching TV while running on a treadmill is ok... but this view? I went and personally checked it out and besides having gorgeous view, the gym was also very well equipped. For a resort gym and for the space available, i was impressed with the choice of equipments they made. Was hoping to talk to the Manager of the gym, but i never saw him. I saw him occasionally while i was swimming, but never got a chance to speak to him. But for me, this is definitely one of the gyms with best views i have ever seen. Kudos to who ever designed it.

All in all, thumbs up to Redang and i highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in an awesome beach holiday. Best i have been to thus far. Another beach destination to add to my belt of awesome beaches. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Omit the Cheese

2011-06-28T21:32:00.005+08:00

Hi guys, sorry for not putting up any posts last week. Was busy with my corporate training as well as made a trip down to Redang Island. It was really awesome. Will share more about that holiday in my next post. Will also share with all of you some of the gorgeous pictures i took of Redang Island. Definitely worth another visit.

Anyway, this week i wanted to cover a simple topic called Omit the Cheese. Reason being lots of people keep asking me how to make an unhealthy meal healthy, and one of my best received tips was, omit the cheese. Let me explain further.

In almost all restaurants, how can you instantly make any dish more delicious? You got it... just add cheese. Think about the many different kinds of food we have which we have added cheese to.
Cheese fries - melting cheese over already unhealthy fries
Cheese Naan - Adding cheese to naan
Cheese in your sandwiches - How do you make a boring sandwich taste better? Just add cheese
Pizza with Cheese crusts - Just in case pizza doesn't have enough cheese already, lets just add more cheese into the crust
Adding Cheese to your burgers - It always seems to taste better doesn't it.
Cheesy garlic toast - Add some cheese to garlic toast
Nachos El Grande - How do we make it better? Just add cheese
Healthy Salad - Lets make it better by grating some cheese in
Pasta - Mmmmm.... some grated cheese will go well with it.

The list goes on and on. The point is, many restaurants out there seem to add cheese just to make dishes more delicious. Don't get me wrong. Not saying there is anything wrong in eating cheese. But if you are on a weight loss program, you should understand that cheese adds in a lot of additional calories which you can do without.

The big question i have is, does adding cheese really add that much more flavour to the dish? Or are you just ingesting additional calories but you can't tell the difference? In some cases, yes, the cheese is an integral part to the dish. Without it... the dish will taste very.... plain. Eg. Pizza. If you are going to eat pizza, then yes, the cheese does make a huge difference in taste. But in almost all other dishes, i found that it really doesn't make much of a difference.

Have you ever tried eating a Subway sandwich without the cheese? I have... and honestly, i can't tell the difference at all. Have you tried eating a chicken fajita without the cheese? again, i really can't tell the difference because there are so many other flavours in there, that the cheese just gets blanked out. Cheese naan... i have tried some where you can taste it... and some, which honestly you can't taste at all.

If you can't taste it, can you easily omit it from the dish? Absolutely. Here are some dishes which i have found makes absolutely no difference whether you have cheese in it or not

Sandwiches - almost 99% of the sandwiches i have tasted out there tastes just the same without the cheese. If you can't tell the difference, why add it?
Burgers - If you eat burgers in places like Hard Rock Cafe, TGIF etc, i have noticed that the cheese has a very small part in the overall taste.
Tortilla Wraps - If you like to eat mexican, i have noticed that most mexican dishes taste the same with or without the cheese. This includes your fajitas, tortilla wraps, tacos etc. Of course some dishes like enchilladas, where the cheese is melted on top... then yes, you can taste the absence of cheese. But besides that, most of the time, you can't tell the difference
Salads - almost all salads i have eaten taste just the same with or without your cheese shavings.
Pasta - Ever tried adding some parmesan cheese sprinkles? By the time you mix it up, you can't really tell the difference. Of course if you empty the whole container, then you would, but most of us sprinkle very sparingly.... and honestly, that small amount makes almost no difference to the taste.
The point is, if you can't tell the difference in taste, then why add it to your dish? Yes most of the times the amount of cheese added to any dish is small, but hey, when you are watching your calories, any amount you can save helps right? What more when you can't tell the difference.

Now it is also important to note the kind of cheese you use makes a huge difference. Some cheeses have a strong tangy taste... so you are more likely to taste it. But most of the time, you will get either cheddar slices, swiss cheese, mozerella cheese or parmesan cheese. All these cheeses don't really add much taste at all to you dish. So you can easily leave it out and the dish will taste just as great.

Again, if you are going to eat pizza or something, then by all means enjoy it. Please don't ask them to omit the cheese from your pizza. But for all other situations, just give it a try and see. If you can't tell the difference in taste, why not leave it out. And guess what, you just made that dish of yours a whole lot healthier.

So what are the other dishes t you can easily omit cheese from? Are you one of those who must have extra cheese on the dish? As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

How do you get those veins in yours arms to pop?

2011-06-14T20:36:00.005+08:00

Many people who i know always ask me how i got those veins in my arm to stand out. I never really knew what to say at first and so i couldn't really recommend any particular exercise for it. My usual advice was advising them to reduce their body fat %. As far as i know, if you can successfully reduce your body fat%, then you will almost immediately see your veins popping out. I didn't know that it was a particular workout routine that i had that was giving me the results i wanted. But recently, due to some mishaps, i discovered what it was which made the difference. And now, you will be able to do the same and enjoy the same results.

Some months ago, i injured my left arm (actually it was more like a year ago). Anyway to cut the long story short, i had this aching pain in my elbow when i did certain exercises... especially my favourite "modified one arm preacher curl". So i swapped it with concentration curls, and surprise surprise it didn't hurt. So yes, i could continue to work out. Why do i call it modified one arm preacher curl? Well i do it a bit differently than you would imagine. I extend my arm all the way down, then pull the dumbbell up about 1/4 of the way. Then I lower it down all the again and after that pull it up all the way. This counts as one rep. I usually aim to get about 7 to 8 reps this way. It usually burns like hell as i do it. how did i find out about this? Funnily enough, i was reading Men's Health in the US many many years ago (circa 2000)... and the author recommended doing this to help you break your plateau in preacher curls. Well i didn't really have a plateau or any kind, but it sounded interesting so i tried it. And i liked the way it felt, so i stuck with it.

Anyway i continued doing concentration curls for a good 6 months until i was 100% sure that whatever i had in my elbow was gone. It finally was gone. So i slowly reverted back to my modified one arm preacher curl. i just started it about 2 months back. Now before you start wondering where i am going with this useless banter... let me explain. During the 6 months when i was doing concentration curls, i noticed that my arms lost quite a bit in size as well as form. No matter how much i tried to lift, i just couldn't get it to grow or look pumped. Also, i noticed that the veins that were usually very prominent in my arms were now almost all gone. In fact, my arms started looking like i wasn't lifting. Most of my friends who saw me kept asking me what happen? Are you losing weight? your arms don't look so pumped anymore. Have you stopped going to the gym. It was frustrating to hear this when i WAS going to the gym 5 times a week as usual. The plain fact is, i was doing everything the same. The only thing i did was swap my one arm bicep curls with concentration curls. All else remained the same. Including the weights i was using.

But now that i am back to my modified one arm preacher curls again, voila... i am back in business. Arms look more pumped, and the veins... yup... they are popping out again as usual. I get strangers asking me for fitness advice again (yes, this all stopped for about 6 months when i was going through "hell")... and i get the usual "do you work out?" from strangers. My arms are bigger (a whole 1 inch more, i measured and saw) and my veins... well lets just say it pops out from the sleeves of my t-shirt again... i sure missed them.

Now i know all you fitness scientists out there are saying "This does not make scientific sense". And i agree. It doesn't. I can't seem to find a logical explanation. But you can't deny the results. As ridiculous as the modified one arm preacher curl sounds, it does work. Can anyone explain this? I really want to know. Unfortunately i don't have any before pics to share.

But back to our question on the post... how do you make the veins in your arms pop out. Well here are some tips that will help you.
1) Try reducing your body fat%. If you can get your body fat% to below 20% and you lift a lot, your veins will naturally start popping out
2) Do the modified preacher curls i mentioned in the post. It really works. Also, i feel it really helps to boost your arms from skinny twigs to mighty tree trunks.
3) I also find that training your biceps twice a week helps tremendously. I usually train once heavy, and then another maintenance work out (usually very light and i aim for more reps till it burns) about 3 days later. So one heavy and one light workout per week.

Those are just some of the tips that will help to make those veins in your arms pop out. You don't need to pump steroids to see those kind of results.

So what do you guys think? Anyone have an explanation for the query above? Also i do hope you try out the modified one arm preacher curl i mentioned above. Its one of my favourite exercises because it really delivers results. If you have been training your arms for awhile and now want to take it to the next level, try it and see. You will absolutely love it. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Cut down on Garbage Foods

2011-06-07T16:14:00.005+08:00

I was talking to a friend the other day who is currently trying to gain muscle mass. He is a bit of a hard gainer (meaning not so easy to put on weight) so he has read everywhere that staying anabolic is essential for muscle growth. How do you stay anabolic? Ensure you have enough calories coming in and better still if you can surpass it slightly. This tip has worked tremendously for him, but he told me that he is starting to feel flabby. Yes, he has gained some good weight, but he has also gained some bad weight as well...around the mid section.

He has been doing zig zagging for awhile now, meaning he would stay anabolic on muscle gain days (meaning eat past your calories requirements for the day) and weight loss days (where he would eat slightly below is caloric requirement for the day). So it worked great in the beginning, but he is starting to see the unsightly bulges appear slowly. So what can he do to maintain the healthy mass he has built (or better still actually build up some more) while trying to reduce his body fat %. I explained to him to its going to be hard to do both on the same day. So we took a closer look at his food intake during muscle gain days and found the problem.

Though it is OK for you to consume some unhealthy stuff which is high in calories during muscle gain days, you also have to keep in mind that you need protein to help you gain muscle mass, not just empty calories. Some carbohydrates are great in helping you achieve the high calorie requirement, but not so good at providing you with the protein you need. Hence we both cam up with the term "garbage food".

What exactly is garbage food? Garbage food is kinda like junk food, but the scientific definition we came up with was Food that is high in fat content or high calorie, but zero or no other nutrition, especially protein. In other words, there are many foods out there which are just plain high in calories and fat content, but provide you with almost zero nutrition. Let me give you some examples:

Cha Koi - Oh boy... Malaysians sure do love these oily deep fried flour sticks. Cha Koi is basically dough that is deep fried and it expands tremendously in the ho
t oil. Yes, i too succumb to this guilty temptation from time to time, but its extremely oily and almost zero nutritional value.

Junk Food - Most junk foods in packets are like the name suggests. Just plain junk. Again, a medium sized bag of junk food could give you a whopping 500 calories, but again, with no other nutritional value

Roti Canai - Yes, Malaysia's most popular dish that since transformed into various other forms such as roti tissue, roti bom, roti pisang, roti susu.... the list just goes on and on. Again, roti canai is high in fat and calories and not much other nutrition can be found in there. Not saying that roti canai has 0g of protein, but if i had to choose between 2 boiled eggs and a roti canai for my protein source, you know which one i will go for

Mee goreng, maggi goreng etc - Most people i know go to their favourite mamak shop for lunch. Though there is nothing wrong with the mamak shop, many people end up ordering fried delicacies such as maggi goreng and mee goreng. Yes, there is an egg thrown in there, but the rest of the other ingredients are almost all garbage foods themselves. From the oily yellow noodles they use, to the "flour and onion fritters", its nothing but a good mix of different garbage foods.
These are just some of the most common garbage foods out there which most people eat on a regular basis. YES, you can eat it from time to time, but the problem i have noticed is, that most people eat these foods most of the time. If you are trying to gain muscle mass, yes you want to stay anabolic by getting enough calories in, but there are loads of other healthier options to stay anabolic besides chowing down garbage food.

Instead of choosing garbage foods like the ones mentioned above, make it a point to choose foods that may be high in calorie, but high in protein content as well. Also, where possible, you want to choose foods that have lower fat content. The worst choice you can make is one that is high in calorie, high in fat and extremely low in protein and other nutrients. If you find foods like that, its garbage food, and there is only one place it belongs... in the garbage bin.

So what are of the other garbage foods out there that you can think of? Which ones do you consume regularly? As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Should you do Cardio before or after your weight training session?

2011-05-31T16:09:00.007+08:00

I seem to be asked this question quite often. Should i do cardio before or after my weight training? There seems to be a lot of debate on the internet as well as to which order is better. So let me present some facts and also my own personal preference. This question may seem simple enough, but actually it can get pretty complicated.

Whenever i get asked this question, my answer is always, well it depends on:-

what your fitness goals are. Your training and exercise program should be shaped around your desired fitness goal. Meaning you need to first decide what you want to achieve before planning your workout routine. Not the other way around. Its like asking "Are bicep curls good exercise?" Not if you don't want your biceps to grow.
How intense your cardio session is going to be. Is it just going to be a 5 minute jog or a 45 minute jog. You need to take this into consideration as well when making your decision.

Once your know the answers to the above 2, the choice is quite simple.

So when would you do Cardio BEFORE weights?

If you are a marathon runner and your goal is to increase your endurance, then YES, give your cardio session the attention it needs. If your goal is endurance, there is a high chance that you are just doing weights to shape up and firm up your muscles. So in this case, you would want to do your cardio first.
I know of some people who like to warm up by jogging on the treadmill for about 5 minutes, before hitting the weights. This is fine, though it would not be my preferred method of warming up. But to each his own. But please don't jog for 30 minutes and say it is a warm up.

Unless your fitness goals is one of the above, it will be better to do your cardio AFTER your weight training. Here's why

Lifting weights requires you to maintain proper form through out the ROM. If you have already taxed your body physically with a 45 minute run, it becomes that much more difficult to maintain proper form, since your body is already exhausted. This also means higher risk of injury. Imagine trying to squat 100kgs after a 40 minute run.
If you are lifting weights, i am assuming you are lifting heavy. To lift heavy, you are going to need all the energy you have. Especially for pushing out those last 2 or 3 reps when you feel like you just can't do anymore. After a 45 minute run, you will not be able to lift as heavy or push yourself as much as you would. In other words, your lift becomes a secondary workout, because your main focus was cardio
Personally, i find it easier to do weights and then run compared to the other way around. Whether its a psychological preference or an actual physical conditioning, i am not sure. But i just find it easier to do it this way

But what if i want to just lose weight and firm up my muscles here and there, then what? If this is your goal, i would still recommend doing weights first and then doing your cardio. Many people don't see it and still disagree, but doing weight training is CARDIO. A good weight lifting session will cause you to burn lots of calories. Many people out there still believe that the only way to burn calories is to do cardio like running, cycling etc. Weight training is an EXCELLENT method to burn calories as well, so yes, it does work.

Unless your weight training routine consists of you swinging some light dumbbells around like a magic wand, for all other purposes, it is still recommended that you do your weight training FIRST and then followed by your cardio. For me personally, i don't like doing too many things at one go. I like to keep my workouts to an hour or just slightly less. Hence this is why i have muscle gain days and weight loss days. On muscle gain days, i focus on just building muscle and on my weight loss days... well i focus on burning fat. Meaning i don't mix cardio and weight training on the same day, let alone one after the other. However, there are some times, when i do go for a jog on my muscle gain days, but it is done much much later in the evening. Spreading out your workout like this would be the best technique, rather than one followed by the other. But if you lack time and want to spend 30 minutes on weights and 30 minutes on the treadmill, go with the weights first.

What is your take on this big question? Or which one do you prefer? As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Poll Results - Weight Loss Options

2011-05-20T18:29:00.003+08:00

It's time for the much awaited discussion on our recent poll. Let me apologize for not updating anything in over 2 weeks, been busy traveling and just never got a chance to sit down and type this out. I know its a Friday... and i could wait till Monday to post, but i decided, lets not wait that long. So here you have it.... a post on a Friday. so do enjoy.

Anyway, lets get down to business. There was a total of 68 votes this time around for the question "If you had to spend RM 2,000, to lose 10kg, which weight loss program would you choose?" The options were

Taking a miracle pill for 30 days
Exercise with a qualified PT for 30 days
Meal Replacement
Slimming center solution

The answer, much to my surprise was Exercising with a qualified PT. Well i definitely voted on this, but i am surprised that over 64% of the votes were for this option. Why am i surprised, because almost everyone i meet is always asking me for some shortcut to lose weight. So i personally felt that this option would be the least popular one, but turns out i was wrong. Oh well. This is why we run polls to test our guesses. So i was proven wrong again. But then again, the answer could be skewed because most readers of this blog are already actively working out, so for them, hands down, this is the most sensible solution. I am just guessing. anyone care to share your thoughts?

2nd place goes to meal replacement. Though far away from exercising with a PT, meal replacements received a total of 13 votes. Guess more and more people are opening up to the idea of meal replacements. Again, i am in support of using meal replacements, but i disagree if you replace all your meals with meal replacements and don't exercise at all. Exercise provides you with a whole host of other benefits besides just burning calories.

Slimming center received a total of 7 votes. Honestly i thought this would win hands down. Looking at the number of slimming centers sprouting out everywhere, they are like mushrooms after a rain storm. If you go to Damansara Uptown, you can easily spot about 5 or 6 different slimming centers in that area. But only 7 out of 64 felt that this would be their choice. Again, i am guessing this could be due to the fact the readers of this blog are fitness-a-holics.

Lastly, the ever popular (or not so popular) miracle pill only received 4 votes. My guess, most people are just not comfortable with this because of the constant horror stories we hear about slimming pills causing drastic side effects. Honestly, if i had to rate which one is my least likely option, it would be this compared to the rest. YES, i would choose a slimming center over a miracle pill... but ONLY if i absolutely had to.

So there you have it folks. The votes are in and the people have spoken. What was your vote and what was your reasoning behind that. Do share your thoughts wit us. As usual, look forward to hearing from you.

Thor's workout

2011-05-02T14:38:00.007+08:00

I originally planned on doing a review of the poll results for this weeks post, but then i changed my mind. I just watched Thor last night and the movie was absolutely brilliant. I had my doubts about Chris Hemsworth playing the mighty God of Thunder, but i must say, he did a good job and pulled of the role really well. If i had to initially choose who should have played Thor, i would have said WWE superstar HHH... since he is already really BIG and has the long blonde hair for the role. But nonetheless, i felt Chris Hemsworth did an awesome job and they did manage to bulk him up for the role. I mean really bulk him up.

So now the BIG question on everyone's mind is, how did manage to bulk up so much. The secret:-
1) Intense weight Training
2) Lots of high protein meals and shakes
3) Enough Sleep

Lets go through each one to give you a better idea of what he did.

1) Intense weight training
Chris Hemsworth is an active guy already, but he never did much weight training prior to preparing for his role for Thor. So weight training was relatively new to him. Most of his activity was surfing, so he had the typical lean surfer's body rather than the big built body you saw on screen. To prepare for the role, his trainer Michael Knight (no relation to Knight Rider) had to train him hard and helped him gain 20 pounds of muscle mass in just 3 months. That's really astonishing. The secret to gaining so much muscle so fast - Chris's workout was mainly made up of compound exercises. Compound exercises are exercises that utilize more than one muscle group to complete the full movement. Exercises such as squats, deadlifts, bench press etc are great compound exercises that hit a few muscle groups at once. So the first phase of his workout was to bulk him up. In fact his trainer did such a good job at bulking him up that 3 weeks before shooting began, the directors said that he was too big they had to make him cut down as he was too big and could not fit into his costume anymore. To lean him out, his trainer used a technique called the shrink wrap effect, which basically tightens the skin around your muscles to give you that ripped look which looks awesome on camera.For a full picture of his workout, you can check out the link below:-

http://chrishemsworthworkout.com/

2) Lots of high protein meals and shakes
As we all know, exercise is just one part of the equation and the other BIG part of it is nutrition. To bulk him up, Chris was put on a super high protein diet and he had to consume a lot more food than he is used to. His diet was about 40% protein, 40% complex / good carbohydrates and 20% fat. Chris admits that he is not used to eating such huge amounts of food everyday.

"The eating was the biggest thing; since stopping shooting I probably work out the same but don't eat as much, and I've probably lost 15 pounds or something. Chicken breasts and protein shakes, boiled chicken . . . clean meats, the right carbs. Sickly stuff." - Chris Hemsworth

Chris also made it a point to eat 6 meals a day or every 2 to 3 hours that he was awake. An example of what Chris's meal would look like is as per below:-

* Breakfast: 2 eggs a slice of avocado, small steak, and 1 cup of oatmeal
* Snacks: a protein Bar
* Lunch: tuna wrap or chicken salad
* Snacks: a whey protein shake, protein bar and an apple
* Dinner: broiled fish or chicken, brown rice and vegetables
* Snacks: protein shake

3) Enough Sleep
The third piece of the puzzle which most of us urbanites ignore or take lightly is sleep. I'm guilty of this too. Chris Hemsworth says that he ensured he got plenty of rest and sleep to allow his muscles to rest and grow. As we know, your muscles don't grow in the gym, but actually grows once you are done. It gets broken down during your work out session and grows while you are resting.
"It was purely eating, eating, eating, working out and working out, trying to sleep as much as you can — that's the other third of the equation." - Chris Hemsworth

Why is sleeping so important to this equation? Proper sleeps helps your body prepare for its future workout sessions. Also during sleep, our hormones (namely growth hormone or GH) are at its peak production and GH is extremely vital for stimulating muscle growth and maintaining the muscles mass we have already put on. So if you are always feeling tired and feel like you are not getting enough sleep, here is another reason why you SHOULD give sleep a priority, just like you do with exercise and diet. Most of us just focus on exercise and diet and give sleep the least of our priorities.

So there you have it. How Chris Hemsworth built his body for the role of Thor. Looking back at this as i write, i am also re-evaluating my workout routine, nutrition and sleep habits. Off late, i have been losing weight regardless of how hard i train in the gym. I am guessing that i may need to get some extra hours of zzzzz to let my body grow again. Oh well.... will try to fit into my schedule. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Carb Cycling

2011-04-27T17:33:00.003+08:00

Carb cycling seems to be the buzz word in weight loss and lots of people have been asking me about what i think and should they consider doing it. So after dozens of people asking me this question, i thought it would be best to share carb cycling with all of you here. it is pretty similar to zig zagging of you ask me, but many may disagree. people have also asked me to design a weight loss program using carb cycling, but honestly, its real easy to design your own program, once you understand the principles behind carb cycling.

What is carb cycling?
Carb cycling is a method of cycling / changing the amount of carbs you take, to ensure that you don't always consume to same amount of carbs all the time. Most of us have a certain routine when it comes to eating and carb cycling helps to break up this routine. so instead of eating a steady amount of carbohydrates every day, the idea is to vary it and confuse your body.

What are the benefits of carb cycling?
oh boy... i could go on and on about why this is beneficial, but below are just some of the main benefits of carb cycling

Its not boring - most people quit their diets because they just get bored with the limited food they are allowed to eat. With carb cycling, it allows you to lose weight while indulging in carbs every once in a while. So you don't feel deprived and you are able to continue your diet program for a longer period of time
It prevents muscle loss - too many diets out there focus on just reducing your caloric intake drastically to see weight loss results. The problem is, if you cut down your calories too much and maintain that for a pro longed period, you end up losing healthy muscle mass. Every weight loss program should be focused on losing fat... and nothing else.
Your metabolism won't go down - With most diets, it works well for a while, but eventually your body will get used to it and your metabolic rate will drop as it adjusts itself to the amount of food that is coming in. Ideally, you should try to keep your metabolic rate up, so you burn fat even when you are resting.

OK, those are just some of the many benefits of carb cycling so you can see, it is a really good weight loss plan. But how exactly does it work? Well there is no hard and fast rule about how exactly you should do carb cycling, but in general, you are going to divide your days in Low carb days and high carb days. During low carb days, you are going to drop your carb intake to about 150 to 200 grams of carbs per day and on high carb days, you will be allowed to consume between 300 to 400 grams of carbohydrates a day. Of course this is just a recommendation and will vary from person to to person based on age, gender, physical activity etc. Some carb cycling diets even include a zero carb day... which means you only consume 25g of carbs or less on that day. So this again really depends on how serious you are with it. It is extremely important to note that regardless of whether its a high carb or low carb day, you must ensure you get enough protein at all times. How much?

For the average joe who doesn't do any exercise, the minimum protein you will need is 0.37g of protein per pound of body weight. so if you weigh 150 pounds, then you are looking at about
0.37 x 150 = 55g of protein. this is the minimum recommendation.

For more serious workout-holics and fitness junkies, it is usually recommended that you take about 0.5 to 0.8g of protein per pound of body weight. if you are lifting heavy and want to gain muscle mass, lean toward 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight. So if you are 200 pound heavy lifting superman, you are looking at about 160g of protein a day.

The most basic plan of carb cycling i can think of is doing low carb days for 3 or 4 days and then switching to a high carb day for 1 or 2 days and then just repeating after that. So lets just say Monday - Thursday is your low carb day... then friday and saturday will be your high carb day. Through out this period, you are going to maintain the amount of protein you take... regardless of what day it is. The only thing that changes is the amount of carbs you take.

Ideally, you want to keep your high carb days on days that you do workout. The reason is, you are going to use up that energy, so its best to have high carb days on workout days and low carb days on non workout days. So now that you understand the basic concept of carb cycling, you can play around with it and find something that works for you.

Some plans do zero carb for 2 days, low carb for 2 days and 2 days of high carb days and then repeat. Some do 5 days of low carb and 2 days of high carbs. So you really can mix this around anyway you want. ideally if your aim is weight loss, you want to ensure that you have more low carb days per week compared to high carb days. This is just a general rule of thumb.

So should you try carb cycling? Why not. It may be tiring at first to figure out how many grams of carbs you are allowed in the beginning, but once you get the hang of it, its pretty easy. I honestly think its an excellent weight loss technique and its easy enough for anyone to do. You can adjust the difficulty based on your own preferences and seriousness so it really is flexible. Best part is, its not a starvation diet that denies you from any guilty pleasures for long periods of times. So that is a definite thumbs up for me. Try carb cycling and see. Mix it around, start slow and see what kind of results you get. As you get used to it, increase your number of low carb days and cut down the amount of carbs you take on both high carb and low carb days. You will be amazed with the results. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Sometime Food & Everyday Food

2011-04-18T11:26:00.007+08:00

I went to a buffet for lunch yesterday and as usual, i got the same comments from the group i was with "Apa ni, fitness instructor eating ice cream and other unhealthy food?" I know they meant it jokingly and didn't mean it in any hostile manner. But it got me thinking that lots of people out there think that fitness instructors are like monks who refrain from the pleasures of life. So i thought i would like to set the record straight.

Yes, i am into fitness and YES i do like to take care of my body, but that does not mean that i go overboard with it. Yes i drink alcohol from time to time, eat roti canai every once in a while and even the all sinful KFC ever so occasionally. My point is, what i advocate to people is doing things in moderation and not going to either extremes. To be honest, it irks me when i read articles written by so called fitness gurus who advocate no salt, no sugar, no this and that 24/7. I can't live like that, and neither do i expect anyone else to do that as well. If you can and you like that sort of thing, then go ahead. But for me, i advocate a path of moderation that is easier to follow and stick with. anyone want to follow me on this? you are more than welcome to join the fun side of fitness.

Hence there is the concept of sometime food and everyday food which i absolutely love and would like to share it with you guys. In short, its important to identify what is it that we eat most of the time, and what is it that we eat some of the times.

Sometime food - These are the foods that you eat occasionally to celebrate or just to indulge. Think of an expensive bottle of wine or champagne. You save it for that special occasion and it should not be taken with your dinner every night. For that, you would use dinner /table wines which are more affordable. So the concept here is similar.

Everyday food - Now this the food you are going to be eating most of the time. How often? At least more than 70% of the time. This is just everyday foods like bread, rice etc.

Now in order for this concept to work for you, you need to be clear on what foods you put in your sometime food category and what foods you put in your everyday food category. its simple, your everyday food, should be all that healthy stuff - Fruits, raw vegetables, lean meat, brown rice, chappati, thosai. You get the picture. Sometime food, is the food that you go out an indulge, not all the time, but some of the time. In here, you are going to throw in all the so called unhealthy foods such as you fast food, roti canai and anything else that is sinful. The problem i notice with most people is, that their everyday food is unhealthy and when they feel guilty (maybe after that annual medical check up) they decide to go on a diet or go healthy for awhile. Because they can't sustain it, they end up swinging back to their old habits of eating unhealthy food again. Most people's everyday food is unhealthy, and their sometime food is the one that is healthy. You need to turn it around.

If you are one of the people like i mentioned above, then you clearly want to take action and start changing your sometime food and everyday food. I would suggest that you do it slowly and progressively. Just like you can't run 10km on your first day of training, similarly you can't switch your diet overnight just like that. start slow and keep changing more and more things as you move along.

So back to my buffet story... why is it that i was eating everything under the sun? Well i don't eat buffets everyday. At most, maybe once in 3 or 4 months. So this is really something that is sometime food. when i do go to the buffet, i am going to eat as much as i can... or indulge, because i don't do it all the time. If you work in the hotel and eat the buffet everyday, then you will need to be more careful and you can't indulge in everything like i did... because then, the buffet has become your everyday food... and everyday food should be the healthy stuff, not the other way around.

Now that you understand this concept, your will also understand how it is you see slim people eating unhealthy food, and yet they stay slim. They don't do it everyday, they do it some of the time. So what is your sometime food and everyday food? Once you understand this concept and use it properly, you will be able to see great results. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

What Supplements Should I Take for Optimal Health

2011-04-05T17:34:00.006+08:00

For optimal health, our body needs a steady supply of vitamins, phytonutrients, anti oxidants and minerals. Ideally, we should try to get these nutrients from our food, but in today's hectic world, ensuring we get enough from our food alone is a huge challenge. With most people eating processed food and eating out all the time, it really becomes difficult to ensure your body gets enough of all the essential ingredients it needs to keep itself in optimum health.

The solution - supplementation. Its no wonder that hundreds of companies out there saw the need for supplementation and believe me, it is big business. Now the key here to note is that the supplement capsules you take should be used to supplement the deficiency of certain nutrients from our food. It should not be used as a replacement. So where possible, you still want to make sure you try to eat healthy food. But it is a good idea to still supplement your nutrition daily just to ensure you get enough for to maintain optimal health level.

So there was a problem, and then there is a solution. However, the solution has given rise to yet another problem. If you were to walk into a pharmacy today, there will be hundreds of possible vitamins and supplements that you can take. From garlic extract to Omega 3 to milk thistle, there are just so many supplements out there to choose from that it can be confusing. The big question is, should i be taking all of them? If you were to ask the person in the pharmacy, they will tell you YES, Garlic extract helps to promote A,B,C and prevent D,E and F while milk thistle helps to do G,H and I and so on. Ever get caught in this situation before? I know i have. All you want is a supplement to ensure you get enough essential nutrients to stay healthy. I don't want to take 30 tablets and capsules a day. Is there a solution?

Yes there is. You really don't need to swallow 30 different tablets to get all the nutrients you need to stay healthy. Like i mentioned earlier, most of nutrition should come from your food. So if you do have a relatively healthy and balanced diet, you won't need to swallow so many tablets. Unless you have a specific condition or deficiency, you really don't need all those products. To see what each vitamin and mineral does and whether you should invest in it, check out the link below. Its gives you a brief explanation of what each vitamin and mineral does

http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/health_advice/facts/vitamins_which.htm

As for me, here are the supplements that i take daily to stay healthy.

One multivitamin a day (this covers most of your daily vitamin needs)
1000mg of Vitamin C
Nutrilite Double X
Omega 3 (to help balance out the ratio of Omega 3 & 6. Most chronic health problems today are being attributed to too much Omega 6 and not enough Omega 3 to balance it out. )

Now you are probably wondering what double X is. Double X is essentially a supplement made from plant extracts such as alfalfa, parsley, acerola cherries and other plant materials recognized as being nutritionally beneficial. In short, double X helps to take away the guess work in nutrition supplementation. One serving of Double X a day ensures you get enough Vitamins, Minerals, Phytonutrients and anti oxidants all in one. Best part about Double X is, its 100% natural and comes from plant extracts, and not synthesized like other vitamins out there. So one dose of Double X really helps to ensure you get enough of everything to stay healthy. The other supplements, i am sure you are familiar with.

So what supplements should you be taking? I would highly recommend that you follow something like me unless you have a specific condition that requires additional supplementation. What i take daily is just the basic to ensure your body has enough of what it needs to maintain optimal health. i think most people out there will benefit tremendously by following my simple supplementation formula. Don't get tricked by the sales people in pharmacies. Do a little research to discover if you truly need anything else besides what i mentioned above. Again, the supplements i recommended up there are to be used as a supplement and not as a replacement. The best source is still your food. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Eating Fruits & Vegetables Made Easy

2011-03-28T14:11:00.006+08:00

The American Heart Association recommends that on average, we should eat 3 to 4 servings of vegetables per day and 3 to 4 servings of fruits per day. So that's about 8 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. One serving size is roughly about the size of a coffee cup. The question is, are we all able to consume this amount of fruits and vegetable each day?

The problem with most working adults today is, nutrition and diet is the least of their priorities. Most people i know just eat to please their pallet and their stomachs. Because of this, many people end up eating unhealthy food all the time and don't get enough fruit and vegetables in their diet. Also, if you are eating out all the time, then there is a higher chance that you are falling short of proper nutrition everyday. Even if you do load up your plate with vegetables in the mamak shop, its not the best vegetables to eat as most of them are overcooked and soaked in oil.

So how do you ensure you get enough fruits and vegetables in your diet each day? Well here are some helpful tips

1) Eat some fruits and vegetables before each meal
Make it a point to chow down some fruits and vegetables of your choice before you start your main meal. The reason is, most people have the good intention of eating fruits after their meals, but end up being too full that they skip the fruits after their meal. So eat it first. Also, this is a great tip for weight loss as it ensures you don't over indulge in your main meal. You fill yourself up with fruits and you are less likely to over indulge in your main meal after that. 2 in 1.

2) Carry fruits and vegetables with you as your snack
You know you are going to get hungry at about 4pm. SO instead of hitting the cafeteria and having a curry puff, why not eat some raw fruits and vegetables. If you are carrying it with you to work, you want to choose fruits and vegetables that a dry and easy to eat. These include carrot sticks, celery sticks, bananas, apples, grapes, oranges etc. These fruits and vegetables are easy to eat and does not cause a mess, so its ideal to carry it with you anywhere you go

3) Mix fruits into your protein shake
If you religiously take a protein shake like me post workout, then this is a good way to ensure you get one good serving. I just tried this the other day. A friend gave me some mangoes from her garden and i decided to experiment with my plain flavoured protein shake. It really tasted great. Any sorts of berries, bananas and mangoes will go well with most shakes out there. So feel free to experiment and see what works for you. You are going to drink your shake anyway, so might as well add in some more goodness to it. Note: If you are mixing fruits into your shake, make sure you consume it within 10 to 15 minutes after you blend it. You don't want to keep it (even in the fridge) for too long as most blended fruits tent to separate and change colour.

4) Have a fruit salad for dessert
Instead of eating a chendol or ABC for dessert, how about having a fruit salad. If you are at home, this becomes even more convenient. Just cut up and mix up a bunch of your favourite fruits, squeeze some lemon juice over it and drizzle a little bit of honey. Give it a quick mix and Voila, a delicious fruit salad that tastes awesome. All you need to do, is stock up your fridge with fruits that you like so you can easily make this anytime. You can also experiment with other kinds of dressings. i am just recommending one that is simple and easy to do.

5) Puree your vegetables and add into your cooking
I read this recipe book called Deceptively Delicious, which teaches parents how to hide vegetables in food and make their kids eat vegetables without them even realizing they are eating it, and one of the best tips i got was making vegetable puree. If you are making dark meat burger patties or meatballs, you can puree some spinach and mix it into your mix before cooking. There are recipes for pureeing cauliflowers and carrots and adding that to your pasta sauce. So this is another way to ensure you get enough vegetables into your diet. I tried adding the spinach puree into my lamb burgers the other day. Couldn't taste any difference. Maybe i shall add a bit more next time and see what happens. Here's a tip. Puree all your vegetables and put them in separate containers and freeze them. When you are cooking, just pull out the one you need, thaw it and it will be ready to use. So this ensure you don't waste too much time cooking and trying to make fresh puree.

So there you have it. Some simple tips to easily incorporate more fruits and vegetables into your diet for a healthier you. I would still recommend that you take some sort of supplements just in case you still fall short of your daily requirement. What kinds of supplements should you be taking? Well i will cover more of that in next weeks post. For this week, i hope this post has inspired all of you to eat more fruits and vegetables and as you can see, it is easy to do and tastes delicious. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Insanity

2011-03-21T10:03:00.005+08:00

Have you met people in the gym, who come religiously 5 times a week for 2 years, only to notice that they have become fatter than when they first started? Or people who ask you for advice, you tell them, but then weeks later you see that they have reverted back to their same old routine. When you ask them what happened, they tell you they were not comfortable with the new routine, so they went back to what felt familiar. Well that's fine, but do you really expect to see a different result by doing the same thing over and over again?

Well i meet a lot of people like this in the gym and it makes me wonder why people keep trying things that don't work. If you are doing something and not getting the results you want, then there is obviously something wrong with what you are doing. To get a different result, you have to do something different. That's how the world works, and in fitness, its no different.

Some time ago, i attended a seminar where the speaker spoke about people getting out of their comfort zone. Your comfort zone is basically your usual routine which you are familiar with and of course comfortable with. When asked to do something that is out of this routine, is basically asking you to come out of your comfort zone. And then he shared this gem of a quote from Albert Einstein - Insanity, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Do you fall into this trap? If you do, then its time to change things up in the gym.

If you have been training for a while and still not getting the results you want, then you really need to look at what you are doing and make the necessary changes, or you won't see results. For the longest time, i was doing a particular arm routine and just could not see any progress at all. Then one day, some one suggested another routine, i tried it and started seeing results. So obviously, i was doing something wrong, hence why i was not getting the results i wanted. had i continued with that flawed routine, i would not have seen any results at all till today

So what should you do if you are not seeing results from your current routine? Do something different. Here are some general tips which will work well for both muscle gain and weight loss

1) Change the exercise you are doing
I find this to be extremely effective. If you are doing dumbbell curls and not seeing results, then swap the exercises with other exercises until you find one that does work for you. Try an exercise for at least 2 months before you decide to chuck it and try something else. Eventually you will find an exercise that works wonders for you and then you will know that this is what you need to be doing. If you are doing the stationary bike and not seeing the weight loss results you want, then try the treadmill or running outside. Again, changing the exercises you do is a great way to change the results you are getting.
2) Increase the intensity
I have seen this too often in the gym. Guy walks into gym in 2008. Starts benching an empty bar. in 2011, he is still benching an empty bar. Buddy, you ain't going to get big by benching an empty bar. You need to keep increasing the intensity to see results. If you are currently benching 50kg and doing 15 reps, try increasing it to 55kg or 60kg and drop the reps to 10 to 12. This alone could give you great results within weeks. If you are running on the treadmill for 20 minutes at the same speed, and not seeing any weight loss, try running faster, increasing the incline, increasing the time or do interval training. The point is, if whatever your are doing is not working, then you may need to increase the intensity to see results.

3) Hire a qualified PT
Sometimes, we become so used to the exercise we do, that we could have the wrong technique which has now become blind spots for us. Or you could be using a routine which has absolutely no point, but you are unsure how to change it. For situations like these, its best to seek professional help. A qualified PT will be able to guide you through a routine which he / she has tested and knows will give results. Also, the PT will be able to point out whats wrong in your current routine which is not giving you the results you want. So if you are serious about results, sometimes you just have to fork out the money. It is an investment on... you.

4) Play around with your food
I don't mean literally, i mean changing up your diet. As most of us know, nutrition plays an equally important role in staying fit as is exercise. To see different results, you have to change your nutrition plan as well. If you are sweating it out in the gym 5 times a week and still not seeing any weight loss, there is 99% chance that the problem may lie in what you are eating. Changing what you eat can have drastic results to your body. Similarly, if you want to gain muscle mass and just can't seem to squeeze in even one more pound, look at what you are eating and you may have to up your daily food intake. So yes, mixing things up is not confined to only the gym. In fact, i personally feel that people don't see the results they want because of poor diet choices. So if you are not seeing results, take a good look at what you are eating. I was suddenly losing too much weight over the past few weeks and everyone i met kept saying i lost weight. i weighed myself and turns out, i lost a good 3kg. So i have been beefing up my nutrition intake to get the results i want.

So there you have it. Some simple tips to follow to ensure that you always see the results you want. Don't be insane and do the same thing over and over again, while expecting a different result. The same applies for life as well. If you are not happy with your job or your salary or anything out there, make it a point to do or try something different to get a different result. If you don't like your job, get a new job. To get a new job, you need to update your CV and start sending them out. If you are not sending out your CVs even though your are extremely unhappy with your job, then... well you know what i am getting at. :-)

So stand up and do something different. Yes it will feel weird and different, but only for awhile. eventually you will get used to it. If you really want something bad enough, then its worth all that discomfort. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Treadmill vs. Running Outdoors

2011-03-09T18:26:00.003+08:00

I am often asked these questions with regards to running and treadmills:-

1) Is running on a treadmill equivalent to running outdoors?
2) If i can run on the treadmill for 20 minutes, will i be able to run for 20 minuted outdoors?
3) Which is more effective to burn calories, running on a treadmill or running outdoors.

So i thought, its best that i clarify this topic properly so everyone understands why running on a treadmill is different than running outdoors. At first glance, the 2 may seem similar, but actually, there are quite a few differences.

Here are the answers to the questions:
1) Very similar, but not 100% similar
2) Not necessarily. Running outdoors is more challenging than running on a treadmill
3) Running outdoors at 6km/h for 20 minutes burns more calories than running 6km/h for 20 minutes on a treadmill.

OK, let me explain in more detail so all the answers make sense. Though the treadmill allows us to mimic a very similar movement of running, it is actually quite different. Running on a treadmill is actually easier than running outdoors. Why is it easier to run on a treadmill compared to outdoors?

For several reasons such as:-
a) There is no wind resistance when running on a treadmill. Because your body is stationary, you don't experience any wind resistance, which makes it easier.
b) The terrain is always uniform on a treadmill, where else running outside is never uniform. Because of this, your body is constantly working to adjust and balance itself to ensure that you can keep running and not fall down. Even this takes up extra energy... a little, but if your body is doing this constantly for 20 minutes, the little bit adds up.
c) Treadmill helps to propel you forward. In a treadmill, moving forward is assisted by the belt of the treadmill. Because of this, there is almost no energy used to propel you forward. Only energy being used is to keep your feet moving. When running outside, you have to move your feet and propel yourself forward, which makes it that much more taxing. Running on a treadmill is equivalent to running on the spot. I have read that adjusting the treadmill to a 1% incline will make it just as challenging as running outdoors.

Because of the reasons above, running outdoors is more challenging and burns more calories that running on a treadmill. Now, with that being said, it doesn't mean that all treadmills should be junked away immediately. There are some pro's that a treadmill has:

1) its not weather sensitive. Rain or shine, you can have a run at any time you want.
2) If you are a beginner to running, the treadmill provides you a safe and comfortable environment for you to build up your endurance / skill.

If you are training to be an outdoor runner (eg. running a marathon), then as far as possible, your training should be more outdoors than on the treadmill. Treadmill is a great place to get in a workout when the weather is not favourable, but overall, you should spend more time running outdoors.

So there you have it. The verdict on treadmill vs running outdoors. I still do the treadmill once a week, and i usually play with the incline and speed to make it more challenging and less boring. If you are a more serious athlete or fitness buff, than running flat on a treadmill for 20 minutes might put you to sleep. So feel free to play with the adjustments available to keep your workout challenging and effective for your fitness level. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Does eating fat make you fat?

2011-02-28T18:11:00.005+08:00

I have been reading this topic a lot in many blogs and i thought i would like to address this issue as well. Many of the blogs i read say that fat doesn't make you fat, its consuming more calories that your body can use that makes you fat. This statement is true. There is no denying that.

Though the statement above is very true, this is only half the story. People forget that there is another essential part to this statement. Without this second part, you will give people the wrong impression. The second part should be - however, it is important to note that it would take less fat than carbohydrates to make you gain fat. Confused? Let me explain.

See it is true that fat alone does not make you gain weight. If you eat lots of fatty food and your calories in is still less than you calories out, then bravo... you will not gain fat. Because in order for you to gain additional unwanted weight, you must have a surplus of calories which your body cannot use. This is true. So it is possible to eat butter and other high fat foods and still get away with it.

Now on to the second part. If you were to only focus on eating fatty food all day, you can only eat very little, and trust me, you will be extremely hungry the rest of the day. This is because 1g of fat has 9 calories, where else 1g of carbohydrate only has 4 calories. As you can see, 1 g of fat has more than twice the amount of calories as fat does. So, you could eat twice as much on a full carb diet compared to a full fat diet. Which one seems more appealing to you now? To be able to eat more or to be able to eat less?

Lets look at it this way. One stick of butter (roughly about 110g) has about 800 calories. If you need to consume 3,200 calories a day to maintain yourself (assuming you are pumping iron really hard and work as a labourer), you can only eat 4 sticks of butter or about 440g of butter for the whole day. That's it. Anything more will cause you to overshoot your caloric intake for that day. How full do you think you will feel? Can you really survive the entire day with just 4 sticks of butter? And remember, to spend 3,200 calories, you will be doing LOTS of activity. Highly unlikely i think.

1 slice of white bread has about 80 calories. To reach 3,200 calories, you will be allowed to eat 40 slices of white bread. Now which diet do you think will keep you full longer. 40 slices of white bread or 4 sticks of butter. Can you see my point? It IS possible to get fat on fat, because faty foods are very high in calorie. So it makes it that much easier to surpass your limit.

So yes folks, though technically fat itself does not make you fat, but it can, when done in exaggeration, just like anything else. You can even get fat on a pure fruit diet, as long as you consume enough of it. So knowing this, what should you do? Should you cut down your intake of fatty foods such as cheese and butter or should you just continue as usual? Since the statements now seem contradictory.

Well, here is my take on that question. As you know, losing weight is a pure numbers game. Calories in vs. Calories out. As long as you know how to manage these numbers, then you are fine. But because its a numbers game where your aim is for the lowest score, eating lower calorie foods would help you achieve a lower score compared to foods with high calories. Food with high fat content (which will also naturally mean higher calorie content) means you can eat less. Again, you want to be able to eat and stay full and not where you feel hungry and uncomfortable.

So you know yourself best. If you are the kind who will put in the work after eating an unhealthy meal, then yes, go all out. If not, then you can increase your chance of success by staying away from fatty foods, because it CAN make you fat. So staying away from fatty foods will give you a huge advantage in succeeding. But at least, now you know the whole story and not just part of it. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Is Wholemeal Bread really better than White Bread?

2011-02-21T16:23:00.011+08:00

Hi Guys, firstly sorry for not posting up anything last week. Was busy traveling and didn't get a chance to post up anything. Kinda burnt out from all the traveling and looking forward to having regular workout sessions again. Was away for Iron Maiden's concert in Singapore (which was awesome, although there were some sound problems) and later i was away at Fraser's for a seminar. My weight lifting routine came in real handy for the concert as i was standing near the front of the stage. The crowd got a little too excited and we were continuously being pushed everywhere and it was a challenge to stand still. One of my friends came out of the concert with a back ache. See... working out is important for everything... even rock concerts. My body probably didn't feel anything because it is used to the stress of lifting weights.

Through out the week i barely worked out and was eating loads of crap. So now that it is back to my good old routine, i hope to get back in shape as quickly as i can. This morning's workout was tough, but felt good to start the machine moving again. But yeah.. haven't been working out properly since CNY and there are some small bulges starting to show up so i'm on a mission to trim it back down.

Anyway, just the other day, i was buying bread from 7-11 and happened to compare the difference in calories between white bread and whole meal bread. Did you know that the difference is only a mere 11 calories for 2 slices of bread? That means 5.5 calories per slice of bed. Meaning that whole meal bread is just 11 calories less than white bread. If this is the case, is it worth the effort to eat whole meal bread or should you just switch back to white bread. After all, 11 calories seems hardly enough to throw your diet off course.

For me, putting on weight is not too much of an issue as i know how to balance my nutrition and activity level. When i feel like i am eating too much and gaining more fat, i make it a point to do some extra running or balance it back the next day by eating smaller meals.
So i choose white bread coz it just tastes better. But if you are trying to watch your diet, then you want to go for whole meal bread... not because its 11 calories less, but because it is more complex and takes longer to break down.

Let me explain. Though it is true that weight loss depends on calories in vs calories out, there are other factors to consider as well. One main factor is, how fast a particular carbohydrate is changed into sugar. As you may know, 1g of pure protein has 4 calories and so does 1g of pure carbohydrate. They both have the same amount of calories, yet protein is considered "belly friendly". The reason why people advocate a high protein low carb diet is because protein is more complex and takes longer to breakdown. Simple carbohydrates (like white bread) break down into sugar almost instantly, and if you are not going to be using that energy anytime soon, guess where it goes... yup, stored as fat. save it up for a rainy day. Complex carbohydrates (whole meal bread) on the other hand, take a longer time to breakdown and get converted into sugar. Because its a slower process, the amount of energy being released is also released slowly, reducing the chance of excess energy being stored away as fat.

Also, when you eat simple carbohydrates and sugar, your body releases insulin to regulate your blood sugar. Insulin is a storage hormone and because of this, you are more likely to store this unused energy as well. There are heaps of other reasons why protein aids weight loss, but we shall discuss that in another post. For now lets go back to our scenario of white bread vs whole meal bread.
So, with whole meal bread, it takes longer for it to break down into sugar, hence you get a more regulated release of insulin in the blood stream which ultimately means, less storage. Don't get me wrong, white bread is perfectly fine if you eat it and then go for an intense workout or help your friend to paint his house for the next 3 hours. But if you are just going to be sitting in front of your computer and do work, then whole meal bread will be a safer bet. Not just because of the 11 calories, but because of how quickly or slowly, it turns into sugar. All carbohydrates have what they call a glycemic index which indicates how quickly a particular food turns into sugar. The higher the index, the faster it turns into sugar. The lower the index, the longer it takes to turn into sugar. So whole meal bread not only has less calories but also a lower glycemic index than white bread.

Now before you swear off white bread completely, its also important to consider how much bread you eat. If you are only eating 2 slices of bread a day, then i would say, go ahead. knock yourself out and eat the white bread - unless you really really enjoy the taste of wholemeal bread. But if your diet is one loaf of bread a day, then you might want to stick with whole meal bread as it is healthier. But if its just 2 slices, i am pretty sure you could eat it and still get away with it.

So is whole meal bread really healthier? Well now that you know the facts from above, you can make a better decision. It really depends on you and how much you are eating. So consider all these facts before making a decision. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

PS: Please also take a moment to cast your votes on our latest poll on the top right hand side

What's your Learning Modality?

2011-02-08T17:00:00.006+08:00

Being a corporate trainer, i have to be aware of people's learning modalities because different people have different preferences when it comes to processing information. What you say to some people may make absolute sense, but you might have others giving you a blank stare. that's because you are not conveying the information in their preferred style. In short, there are 3 different learning modalities and we are all capable of all 3, but we have our preferred and of course our least preferred modality. So below are the 3 and a small description of each

1) Visual Learners - learn best through visual aids or when they see pictures. Don't tell them about something, show it to them.
2) Auditory learners - Learn best from listening to people. These are the people who can easily understand road directions on the phone. Visual people would understand better is you drew them a map
3) Kinesthetic learners - learn best by actually doing it. So they understand how to do something better once they do it themselves. They are also known to be more empathetic than other learners.

As you can see, when i give my trainings, i have to ensure that i satisfy the needs of all 3 modalities or else i would lose the crowd. If i I only talk continuously, then i would satisfy the needs of the auditory learners, but the rest would be yawning out of boredom. So i have to ensure i meet all 3 modalities. But like i mentioned earlier, we have all 3 in us, its just that 1 of it will be our dominant and most preferred style.

Now what does all this yapping about learning modalities have to do with fitness? Well interestingly enough, i discovered that if you understood your learning modality, you could find ways to easily motivate yourself better when you train and exercise? How? Let me explain further.

Lets take jogging as an example. If you are an auditory person, running without music will be extremely boring for you. In fact, you would feel unmotivated to give it your full if you had to jog without music. My wife is an auditory person and she can't run much without her trusted MP3 player. So for her, as long as she has music, she is fine. Me, i am more of a visual person. Being a visual person, i don't like going round and round the same block. i need to see new things to keep me motivated in my running. So i have to run a random course which is visually appealing to me or i will feel bored and fed up. My wife, she is fine with running around the same block 20 times... as long as she has her music. See the difference? Kinesthetic people are also emotional learners and for them, they will be encouraged to go further if they are running with someone or if someone continuously encourages them that they can do better. They would not enjoy running alone.

Lets look at the weight room. Auditory person, no problem. Blast some music and they will be able to lift heavy. Visual people would probably want to wear more fitted clothes that shows off their muscles, as this would inspire them to lift heavier. They would also love to see themselves lifting if possible. Kinesthetic, if you are spotting them, make sure you give them loads of encouragement as how much they lift, depends on how they are feeling.

So now that you know all this information, your next questions would of course be "so how do i find out my learning modality? Well easy. Go to the site below and take the quick test.

http://www.businessballs.com/howardgardnermultipleintelligences.htm#vak%20learning%20styles%20free%20quick%20test

From there you will easily learn if you are an auditory, visual or kinesthetic learner. Now remember, just because you have a low score in one, it doesn't mean you are not capable of it. It just means, that that is your least preferred style.

There is actually a 4th learning modality which is new and that is known as the digital learner. I can't find an online test for that, but if you were to buy the book Law of Connection from Michael J Losier, then you can take the test there. Digital people like sequences that make logical sense and they need a lot of information before making a decision. The reason i didn't add this is in earlier, is because i am not quite sure how Digital learners would benefit in fitness. when i did the test, my most preferred style is Digital, Visual, Auditory and lastly Kinesthetic. So my 2 preferred styles are Digital & Visual. Probably explains why i love watching TV so much. :-)

Anyway, just thought i would share that there is a 4th one and like i mentioned, not too sure how it fits in for fitness, even though i am a digital person myself. But I do know how to motivate myself visually.

So what is your learning modality. Take the test and find out and you will even discover why there were certain things you couldn't do or just hated doing. But with the right stimulus, you can easily motivate yourself to do much more. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments on this.

Does weight training help you burn fat?

2011-02-03T13:00:00.003+08:00

In one word, absolutely. I was in the gym the other day and someone asked me if I watch my food religiously. I said, no, although I am a bit conscious about what I eat but I am not anal about watching every calorie that I consume. I do indulge every once in a while, but for the most part, I try to make a healthy choice. He then asked me if I eat rice. I said YES. I make it a point to eat rice at least once a day (since I am currently going through a Muscle Gain phase). So he was shocked and asked how is it I can eat rice once a day, do mainly weight training and yet look so slim. He does loads of cardio everyday in the gym and found it difficult to lose that unwanted fat. From his understanding, if you only do weights and eat normally, you will become big like weight lifters and not slim and fit. Yeah you will be strong, but no way will you look slim and fit. The only way to lose weight is to do cardio and lots of it. Oh and not to mention, he believed that you must be extremely careful with your food. Now, nothing wrong with that concept. It’s a good one, but at the same time it’s not the only way for you to lose fat.

There seems to be this common misconception that you can only lose weight with cardio and weight training makes you BIG and bulky. The more you lift, the bigger you become and if you lift heavy, you have to be fat. I have to explain this concept with a lot of my new clients, coz they expect me to take them through a pure cardio session when they want to lose weight. When I introduce weights, the first question is always – “Are you sure we should be touching dumbbells if we wanna lose weight?” or the other classic one is “I am not interested in building muscle, I just want to lose weight”. No, you want to lose FAT but inevitably, you will need to preserve whatever muscle you have or probably even build a little more. You want to look slim, and having a little more muscle helps you with that goal. You can look super slim and have some extra muscle mass at the same time.

Anyway, back to my buddy in the gym. So I explained that weight training does help you to burn fat. A really heavy weight lifting session can burn more calories than a slow paced cardio session in the gym. When I lift, I lift real heavy and most of my sessions are done in supersets. Does it get my heart pumping, YES. Am I using massive amounts of energy to complete my task, YES. So if you are using energy, you are using up calories… YES. If you are using up calories, is that an effective fat loss strategy? Absolutely. Most people don’t realize that a heavy weight training session uses an immense amount of energy and like I said, can easily be more effective than a cardio session.

The other benefit of weight training is, that it helps you to build muscle tissue. The more muscle you have, the more calories you are going to burn even while at rest. This is because muscle is active tissues that need to be constantly fed just to stay alive. Because it needs to be constantly fed, you will require that extra amount of calories to keep and maintain those hard earned muscles. If we were to take 2 identical people who had identical activity levels each day and identical diet, but one person had more muscle mass than the other person - the person with more muscle mass will require more calories than the guy who has less muscle. So because of this, maintaining muscle mass is extremely important, even if you ONLY want to lose weight to fit into that dress, you want to maintain whatever muscle you have. Muscle is healthy mass and healthy tissue. Fat is bad. So don’t lump them both together.

So can you lose fat by just doing 100% weight training? Absolutely. You can have an extremely low body fat % if you eat right and do just weight training. No harm in doing some cardio to help you reach those goals, but if you did NIL you would still be OK.

PS: Today is the first day of the Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese Calendar, so let me take the opportunity to wish everyone Gong Xi Fa Chai and may the year of the Rabbit bring you and abundance of health wealth and happiness. I am currently in Singapore celebrating CNY with my family so I shall give all of you an update once I am back in KL.

Moativational Medicine™

2011-01-25T17:28:00.006+08:00

Have you ever heard of real life stories such as these:

A guy who doesn't smoke, doesn't drink alcohol and is a vegetarian and exercises regularly, suddenly dies of a heart attack at age 40?
People who seemingly live a "bad habit" lifestyle and is supposed to be at high risk does not get cancer, where else another person who has a healthy lifestyle and a much lower risk of cancer ends up getting it?
People who have nagging ailments that have been going on for years, and despite all the drugs / treatments and medication can't seem to cure it?
Why some people can recover from cancer while others are not able to.

There are many other puzzling scenarios like the ones above, and over this last weekend, i attended a 2 day seminar on Moativational Medicine™ (still pronounced as Motivational, in case you were wondering) which helped to answer the questions above. Now before i go on, i am sure the one question on all your minds is, what the heck is Moativational Medicine.

Moativational Medicine™ which was created by Richard Moat, PhD, which demonstrates the direct link between our emotions and our physical ailments. Doctors and respected members of the medical community are confirming that our physical health is directly linked to our thoughts and emotions. They admit to not having all the answers and are embracing complementary and allied approaches to getting people back on the road to wellness.

Below is an excerpt from http://www.moativationalmedicine.com/ website which gives a clearer picture on what Moativational Medicine™ is all about.

******************

The fundamental principle which underpins Moativational Medicine™ is that, of all the factors that can influence our state of physical health - diet, lifestyle, environment, thoughts, feelings and genetics - it is the realms of thoughts and feelings, the psycho-emotional aspect of our being, which is the most influential.

This also appears to be the least understood aspect, although over the last twenty years it's emergence as the most widely researched area of medicine - formally known as psycho-neuro-immunology, or PNI - suggests it is likely to prove both significant and revealing as we search for answers to questions such as 'What has caused my illness?' and 'How do I get better and stay well?

Since medicine was first recorded, the psycho-emotional make-up of an individual seems to have been a necessarily observed factor in assessing the cause of an illness. Study any number of health and healing philosophies and practises from around the world and you will find plenty of evidence to support this as being a critical area.

Over time, Western medicine seems to have lost sight of this aspect, preferring instead to create a pill for every ill rather than understand, explore and treat what might be at the root of those ills. Today the term stress is widely and loosely used to conveniently bundle together any number of possible causes, leaving much room and desire for specific answers and solutions.

When we look deeply and honestly at the major causes of stress today, it is wise to observe that it is the thoughts and feelings we generate in response to life's events that hold the key. Our beliefs, values, feelings and behaviours are all inter-twined to create an unconscious way of being and relating in the world, a combination which suffers from the distraction of suggesting that events, people or circumstances are the cause.

This distraction has been so successful that we exist in a time when more people have more unwanted physical conditions - and for longer - than at any other time in history. Moativational Medicine™ is the result of exploring the lesser-trodden paths for answers, re-discovering and re-presenting in an easy-to-understand-and-apply manner what has always been true.

Moativational Medicine™ explains and demonstrates as simply as possible the role our thoughts and emotions play in the on-set and maintenance of the illnesses, ailments, symptoms and dis-eases that can befall any one of us at any time.

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Through the 2 day seminar, i learned some of the techniques that Richard Moat uses in his treatment for ailments. No pills or injections, its a technique of discovering what emotions you have been holding on to and how do you dissolve these dis-empowering and damaging emotions once and for all. By dissolving these emotions from your system, you are able to almost immediately clear the physical ailment that you are suffering from. Over the years, Richard has successfully treated over 2,700 people. Now its important to note that Moativational Medicine™ does NOT deny that factors such as diet, lifestyle and habits do play a role in ailments. No one is denying that. But its also equally important to note that a bigger part of ailments is actually caused by emotions and not just external factors.

Below are some of the people that have been successfully cure by Richard:

Kevin Patton was in hospital on life support with terminal leukaemia. Doctors said that he had 5 days to live. A experiencing a "dose" of Moativational Medicine™, 2 weeks later kevin walked unaided out of the hospital.

Andy Whitfield, star of Spartacus: Blood & Sand was diagnosed with Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma and his oncologist could not offer an explanation as to why he had contracted the disease. After one session with Richard, he was able to discover the cause and set about reversing the condition.

The list of testimonials go on and on, but i guess you get the picture. This stuff REALLY works and its highly effective. So if you are only concerned with being physically healthy and think that it is the end all to staying healthy, think again. Emotional well being plays a huge role in your health and heck even how long you live. So its extremely important to take care of that as well.

So what are your thoughts on this? As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

PS: As promised to some of my other blogger friends, i recently purchased a rare memorabilia and i am extremely proud of it. Many of you who are close to me will know that i am avid fan of the movie Troy and an avid fan of swords. Being in Malaysia where everything is banned, i really thought there was no way i could ever get my hands on this. But i did. Check it out, it is the Achilles's sword from the movie - ok i admit, its not a 100% replica but pretty damn close. Its made from 100& stainless steel (not plastic) and is full length and size.

So for all you movie buffs out there who like collecting replicas and collectibles from your movies, check out this site

http://www.toyrebels.com/

and get in touch with them. These guys specialize in rare movie / comic / TV collectibles that are extremely hard to find in Malaysia. Don't forget to mention my name so you can get some discounts on your purchase. This site sells everything from costumes to figurines to swords to whatever else you can think of so you can have a slice of Hollywood in your home. My next purchase is probably going to be the 300 sword, Highlander sword or.... i dunno. Check it out. You know you want it. Also look forward to hearing your comments on this.

Updates & Poll Results

2011-01-18T17:46:00.000+08:00

Last Sunday, i ran my first ever public fitness talk and it was indeed a HUGE blast. We had over 60 people attending and i hope i managed to impart some useful tips to all who attended. A big thanks goes out to everyone who took time from their Sunday Afternoon to come for the talk. I also hope that this was an eye opener to many that staying fit and healthy is not that hard to do and anyone can do it.

Also, i want to take this opportunity to thank a few people who contributed a lot and made the whole event a great success.

1) Arfian of Corporate Athletes - He was a huge help with running the body fat % tests after the talk. Thanks again bro, i owe you a huge makan.
2) Veron - Who was my MC for the day and also helped to handle the PC and run the videos. Thanks again.
3) Syukran of Simple Wellness who let us use his wonderful facility in PJ and also helped a lot in the marketing.
4) Most importantly, wifey for helping me run lots of logistics, collecting payment and also helping with the body fat % scans. Without her tremendous help and support, this talk would surely have fallen flat.

Thanks again guys. I owe all of you one. So when is the next talk? Uhmmm.... i dunno, with the success of this one, i am itchy to run another soon. Well we will keep all of you posted on the next one. You want to see some pictures of the talk? ARGGHH!!!! unfortunately i was so busy running here and there, brought my camera, but completely forgot to snap pictures. Next time will be better... i promise.

Anyway, this weeks post i wanted to cover poll results of our recent poll. We had a total of 38 votes, and the number 1 winner is "Losing Weight on a Malaysian Diet" which had a whopping 21 votes. Honestly, my personal vote went for "Eat Crap & Lose Weight" coz i thought it was catchy, but unfortunately, that only got about 4 votes, of which, 1 was mine. The other titles also didn't do very well all fetching only about 2 to 4 votes each.

If you haven't already guessed, the reason i ran the poll this time is, i am seriously considering writing a book on weight loss, and the concept i had was, how to eat crap / junk and lose weight. Wouldn't that be something? Lots of people find it hard to stay true to a diet, so i wanted to share some tips on that. I did cover some of this in my talk last Sunday so for those who attended, you now know some secrets on how to indulge and lose weight. Seeing that "Losing Weight on a Malaysian Diet" is the number one pick, maybe i need to reconsider the topic. Maybe i should run a public talk titled "Losing Weight on a Malaysian Diet" and see how the response is before deciding. Hmmm.... i dunno. Lots of plans, not enough time. Anyway, thanks once again for all your votes, it gives me something tangible to work with. Do share which title caught your attention the most and why as this will give me a lot of useful feedback for my book project.

Before i sign off, just one last small announcement to make. Hope all of you will take the time to check out www.active.com.my which is an online fitness e-zine / portal / website which features loads of information about staying healthy. This project is being run by my good friend Arfian from Corporate Athletes. So do check it out when you have the time and i have also included a link to his page on the right hand column.

OK... that's about it for now, lots of updates and i am definitely looking forward to hearing your comments.

When Temptation Lurks: Tips on Eating Healthy in Any Situation

2011-01-10T18:52:00.006+08:00

This week, we have a guest post from our friends from "An Apple A Day" blog which is an overseas blog featuring simple tips on how to stay healthy. I was contacted by one of their team members who was impressed with Fitness Malaysia's blog (ahem ahem) and asked if they could write a guest feature. I said sure thing, and so they were kind enough to email me a blog post. How kind of them? Thanks again Tara for organizing all this.

Anyway, enough ramblings from me, here is this weeks post from our friends at "An Apple A Day". Please do check out their blog as well as it is fun, simple and extremely informative. You can click here to check it out.

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When Temptation Lurks: Tips on Eating Healthy in Any Situation

Edward Stern is a guest blogger for An Apple a Day and a writer on earning your nursing degree for the Guide to Health Education.

When you cook for yourself at home and follow your own schedule, it is much easier to stick to a diet and eat healthy. Where many dieters trip up is outside the house. Parties, festivities, and road trips present all kinds of food temptation: snacks, desserts, chili cheese dogs, and other high-calorie food can sabotage healthy eating habits.

However, you don't need to be a hermit to keep eating healthy. There are compromises you can make to indulge a little during special occasions but also keep on track with your dieting goals. Oftentimes, the most successful dieters are the ones who know how to make these compromises. Read on for tips on eating healthy in some common situations that have the potential to wreak havoc on a diet.

Game Day

When tailgating or huddling around the big screen with close friends, chips and dip are a staple of any pre-game spread. Having a couple handfuls of chips won't hurt a diet, but drowning them in dip will. Avoid nacho cheese and other processed dips, especially any containing ranch or sour cream. Instead, enjoy pico de gallo and other more natural salsas, and add a little homemade guacamole (store-bought brands tends to have a lot of added sugars.)
Go easy on the beer—alcohol is full of empty calories that do nothing but expand your waistline and shrink your head. Nurse one or two light beers if you're going to drink, and leave it at that.
If you're going to the game, don't eat the junk sold at the concession stands. Hot dogs are chock full of fat and calories and won't fill you up, and much of what else is sold is heavily processed. Eat beforehand at a tailgate and try chicken sausage, which tastes great and has a quarter of the fat of a bratwurst. It'll keep you thin and your wallet fat.

At a Party

When you’re attending parties with appetizers, eat slowly. It's very tempting to overindulge in the cocktail weenies and other gourmet snacks offered by wolfing them down, but that leads to overeating and the intake of too many calories and too much fat. Pace yourself, eat one thing at a time, and you'll be amazed at how full you get off so little.
If a buffet is offered, load up on healthy options like fruits, vegetables, rice, and pasta dishes. These healthy and high-carb foods are filling and will give you energy to be your most social. Just watch out for any pasta salads—creamy dressings are high in fat so eat sparingly.
If dessert is offered, you don't need to deprive yourself. Try just a little bit of everything, and really watch your portions. Many diets are wrecked by cravings and binge eating, so if you treat yourself with a slice of cake occasionally, you'll stay on track. If you're being really good, scrape off the frosting—it's pure sugar and empty calories.

On the Road

Road trips are notorious diet-wreckers for the constant snacking many partake in. Forget the Cheetos and Hostess desserts. Instead, buy fruit or trail mix. Nuts are a great source of protein and fiber which fills you up. If you have to have chips, try baked brands or the new Pop Chips—both use significantly less oil.
It's inevitable that at some point you'll make a trip through the drive-thru. Order diet soda (or better, just water) and a grilled chicken sandwich and/or salad which many fast food chains now carry (sorry, no bacon or ranch sauce, and if you're being really good, no mayonnaise or cheese). Fries are very unhealthy, but if you have to have them, get only a small order.
It's tempting to want to eat out every night, but restaurants are a drain on your funds and your dietary ambitions—the temptation on the menu is often too great. Make a couple trips to the grocery store along the way to your destination where you can stock up on sandwich fixings and fruit. Many grocery chains have food to go, such as hot soup and pre-made sandwiches, and these are a good way to go.

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There you go guys. Simple and useful tips for all situations. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

PS: Don't forget to keep yourself free for our talk "7 Habits of Healthy & Fit People" this coming Sunday (16 January 2011) at 2:30pm. Tickets are selling fast, so do email me if you want to book your seat before its too late.

Diet Vs Exercise

2011-01-03T17:39:00.010+08:00

Welcome to 2011 everyone. Hope you are all geared up for a fantastic year and most importantly, i hope you achieve the goals you have set for yourself this year.

Before we jump into this weeks post, just got one small announcement to make.

To kick off 2011 with a bang, Fitness Malaysia is organizing its first ever public health and fitness talk titled:

7 Habits of Healthy & Fit People

What is it that healthy & fit people do differently that allows them to look good all the time.

Come for this 2 hour power packed seminar and learn the secrets that healthy and fit people have been using to:-

• Live a longer healthier life

• Lose weight quickly & look their best

• Never starve themselves and still stay slim and healthy

• Enjoy Life to the fullest

Date: Sunday, January 16, 2011

Time: 2:30pm to 4:30pm

Venue: DVI Studio, B05-02, Dataran 3 Two, Jalan 19/1, PJ

Ticket Prices:

RM 25 per person (normal Price RM 55)

1 FREE ticket for group buy of 5 tickets

RM 35 per person for walk ins on talk day

Seats are extremely limited, so book your tickets today to avoid disappointment. I usually charge RM 55 a person for this talk and have run it many times for many special groups. But i am giving a special discount as this is a public program which is open to all.

To book your seats, email me at rajanrj@hotmail.com

As an added bonus, all attendees will be entitled to a FREE body fat % test so that you can learn what your current health & fitness level is. Also, this will be a great opportunity for everyone to network and meet other fitness enthusiasts.

Do pass the word around to your friends and lets kick off 2011 with the right Habits.

OK, now that that piece of business is out of the way, lets get down to this weeks post. Over the holidays, i went to numerous friends houses for dinner parties and the conversation of losing weight naturally came up. Of course, with new years eve just around the corner (at that time), everyone was making resolutions to lose weight and live a healthier life. From my conversations, it suddenly dawned upon me that most people would prefer to starve themselves than to eat normally and exercise. Whenever i recommended doing some simple exercises, almost everyone told me that exercise is not their thing, no time to exercise, yadda dadda daadaa and the list goes on and on. But if you were to tell me to stop eating this and that, i would much prefer to do it and i think that is easier to manage.

So after hearing all this, i have a theory. Malaysians in general are not keen on exercising to lose weight, but would much rather starve themselves or drink shakes in replacement of meals to lose weight. Hmmm... no wonder there are so many diet programs out there which are a hit.

So today, i went for lunch with some friends and decided to put my observation / theory to the test. I asked a few friends. I have a way for you to lose 5kg in 1 month. But there are 2 options.

Option A: I will give you a specific food guide for every meal, and you must eat exactly like i tell you to for a full 1 month.

Option B: You can continue eating like you are eating right now, but you have to work out 3 to 4 times a week with a specific exercise routine.

Guess what the answer was... no surprise here. Everyone chose Option A. So i asked everyone why Option A and the response i got were

It's a no brainer... just do as you are told and voila you see results.
Little effort on my part.
I don't have time to exercise these days.

Honestly, i am quite surprised with this, because i always thought that watching your diet strictly is far more challenging than exercise... at least for me it is. I will definitely be addressing this topic in my talk on January 16. But for most people, they would much rather watch their diet to lose weight compared to exercise.

So what do you guys think? Heard the same responses as i have? Which option would you choose? There is no right or wrong option, its just a matter of your preference i guess. So, as usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Tips to Stay Fit and Healthy during the Holidays

2010-12-27T17:00:00.006+08:00

Firstly, before i forget, let me take this opportunity to wish everyone Happy New Year. This is the last post for 2010 and you can look forward to many more posts in 2011. What a year its been and it sure did zoom past at light speed.

With December being a festive month, where lots of people are on leave and traveling, the urge to eat more than our usual is always there. Almost everyday i meet someone who tells me how they have put on weight this month, or how its impossible to watch your figure in December. Well i admit that it is harder than other times, but definitely not impossible. So i decided to do a post on tips for staying healthy during the holidays.

1) Plan your meals
If you are going for that big dinner party tonight, then maybe you want to have smaller meals through out the day to save the additional calories for your big dinner party. The problem is, many people continue eating like normal and then pig in even more during the party. So if you are going for a dinner party and planning to go all out, reduce your intake for the rest of the day. This way you can enjoy your dinner party without guilt. So start planning your meals and you should do just fine.

2) Do some extra exercise
Now i am not sure how full your social calendar is going to look like, but if you can, try to fit in some time for a jog or walk in addition to your usual workout routine. If you could throw in an additional 20 minute jog every other day, it will go a long way in preventing your festive luncheons and dinners from going straight to your waist. So if you are going to eat more than usual, make sure you balance it off with some exercise. If you are traveling, make sure you bring along your running shoes. This way there is no excuse of why you can't squeeze in a quick 20 minute run somewhere.

3) Alcohol Consumption
OK, i am not going to say NO alcohol at all during the holidays, as i know sometimes we just want to relax and unwind. PLUS, when its festive season, its that much harder to say no. If you are consuming alcohol, do your best NOT to have a huge feast after your drinks at the end of the night. Also, your 20 minute jog the next day after your drinking session becomes extremely crucial. So once your hangover dies down, make sure you do some exercise. While our body is breaking down alcohol (which is toxic to our body), our fat burning system is turned down low. Which is why you want to avoid that post drinking feast. This is one of the main contributing factors to why people put on weight when they drink. One way to reboot our fat burning system is to exercise. So if possible, do some exercise the next day. It does not have to be as intense as your other days, but some exercise is way better than none.

4) Eat slowly
Whenever we eat a meal, it takes time for our brain to register that we are full and signal us to stop eating. So if you eat extremely fast, there is a high chance you are going to overshoot that stop signal, overeat and feel over-stuffed. So slow down your eating and ENJOY your food. After all, what's the hurry. This way you get to prevent yourself from overeating and passing your "stop when full" point and you will stop just at the right spot.

5) Reduce sweet drinks if possible
Sweet drinks are really just empty calories. they do very little to fill you up but it adds massive damage to your calorie intake. I know we all crave to have a sweet drink here and there, but be mindful of it and don't go overboard. For me personally, i would prefer to save those calories for food rather than sweet drinks. So yeah, have your sweet drinks if you must, but keep an eye on it. There is nothing worse than sipping sweet drinks and cola all night only to realize you consumed a good 1 liter of it through out the entire night.

There you go... some simple tips to help you stay fit during the festive holiday season. All these tips are so easy to do, so i really hope you guys try them out. As you would have noticed, these tips are not about don't eat this and don't drink that. You are allowed to enjoy yourself, but you just have to be a little more mindful of things if you are concerned about your waistline. At the end of the day, i personally believe that moderation is key. As long as you remember this rule and follow it, you will do just fine during the holidays.

Do you guys have any other tips to share on how to stay fit during the holidays? If you do, please do share. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Is running outdoors dangerous?

2010-12-21T18:55:00.006+08:00

I recently gave a fitness talk and was asked many interesting questions. From what kinds of food we should eat pre & post workout to how to gain muscle mass. I rarely get asked about muscle gain during my talks, so it was refreshing that there were so many questions on it. Many also asked how they should exercise to see optimum weight loss. It really was an exciting and very interactive talk. One question which caught my attention the most was if running was bad for you? So i explained that its not, as long as you do it properly. So i wanted to cover this topic in this weeks post.

As many of you know, i am not too fond of running... but recently, i have kinda developed a small addiction for it. I think i just like challenging myself with something that i am not good at. and i am making great progress, which makes me want to do it anymore. I am actually looking at joining a 10km race sometime next year... maybe mid next year. Anyone care to join me?

Many people out there believe that running outdoors is extremely bad for your knees and that using a treadmill is safer. Well it is probably less risky than running outside, but running outside is far more superior in terms of building your cardiovascular endurance and burning calories. Why? Because when running on a treadmill, all you are doing is replacing your steps, while running outside requires you to actually pull your body weight through the distance. in short, running on a treadmill is like running on the spot. Secondly, the uneven terrain and speed makes it more challenging than a treadmill. For these reasons, it is far more difficult to run outdoors than it is to run on a treadmill. If you can run on a treadmill for 20 minutes non stop, it does not mean you can run run outdoors for 20 minutes non-stop as well.So is it recommended that we run on treadmills instead of running outdoors? Lets look back at history to our ancestors. Before there were cars, and horse carriages, mankind depended on their legs to get around everywhere. Because of this, people developed strong legs to carry out these duties. Today, in our sedentary lifestyle, we don't need to do such physical demanding tasks anymore, so in other words, our muscles and bones are kinda "pampered". Just because it is pampered does not mean that you shouldn't work at improving it. Law of use and disuse - If you don't use it, you will lose it. What i am trying to say is, we are NOT incapable of running outside. We just need to start developing this slowly.

Here are some tips to running outside without injury

Get a good pair of shoes - I can't emphasize this enough. If you like running outside, invest in a good pair of shoes. So far the best running shoes i have used are New Balance shoes. For about RM 300 to RM 500 you can get a decent pair which will take you far. A good pair of shoes is not necessarily the one with the most amount of padding and cushioning. Too much padding and cushioning can cause foot muscles to atrophy while shortening and stiffening our foot’s tendons. This over cushioning and pampering of our foot can lead to more injury.

Correct technique - Avoiding injury in any sports comes down to technique. If you run using the right technique, there is no reason why you should injure your knees or any other part of your body. There are various techniques to running safely which you can google easily. Try googling Pose running technique. If you can watch some You Tube videos on this, it will provide an excellent tutorial to you on the proper techniques of running. I will cover more tips on proper running techniques in one of my upcoming posts. Its too long to post here.

Do "them Squats" - Like mentioned earlier, because of our sedentary lifestyle, many of us probably have underdeveloped leg muscles which need to be strengthened before you can run a decent distance. So start doing those squats and other leg exercises and start strengthening your leg muscles, core and back. It will go a long way in protecting yourself from running related injuries

Stretching before and after your run - Stretching before your run and after your run is essential in preventing injuries. So take about 2 or 3 minutes to stretch out your muscles before you head out for your run and another 2 or 3 minutes after your run. I personally find that this also helps with the post workout pains. I usually take a slow walk for about 1km after my run to cool down and then stretch for about 2 to 3 minutes. To warm up, i walk for about 2 minutes and then start my jogging.

Start slow and progress at your own pace - I cannot emphasize this enough. I have seen too many people who get excited and force themselves to run 5km on their first run... then get injured and give up running altogether. Start slow and make it a point to progress, at your own pace. Just because someone you know could progress 1 km a week, does not mean you have to keep up with them. Progress at your own pace and based on the goals you have set for yourself. Everyone is different, so your development needs will be different too.

Running on grass vs concrete - Running on concrete / road will have more impact on your joints compared to running on grass. If you are really worried about injuring your knees, i highly recommend starting on a grass field first. Then as you gain confidence and perfect your running technique, you can attempt running on the road. Again, running on a grass field is still far more superior than the treadmill.

So there you have it. Some simple tips to help you prevent injury when you run outside. For me, running outside is not dangerous. It only becomes dangerous when done wrongly, and done without the right precautions. Just like driving. It can be dangerous if not done properly, but that does not mean we should avoid driving because of the potential risk. With the right precautions, you can avoid injury.

If you follow the simple tips above, running outdoors does not have to be dangerous or harmful to you. Running on a treadmill may be safer, but can be dangerous if done wrongly as well. So go ahead. Try these tips and enjoy you runs outside. Running outside does not have to be dangerous. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

How Many Calories Should Each of My Meals Be?

2010-12-14T17:01:00.005+08:00

I was recently asked this very interesting question from a friend of mine and i decided that this will make an excellent blog post. he asked me how many calories should each meal have? Meaning would a 600 calorie meal be considered too much or is it OK?

Well i thought about his question for awhile and then i told him, well that truly depends on a lot of things and its hard for me to just say if that is too much or not.

Firstly, it would depend on what your goals are. If you are looking to gain weight, then your calorie per meal would be different than that of someone who is trying to lose weight. Secondly, it would depend on how much activity are doing for that day. If all you are doing is sitting at home and watching the CSI marathon, then you are not going to need much. Thirdly, it would depend on what you are going to be doing for the next 3 - 4 hours after your meal. if you are just going to watch TV, then you won't need as much as someone who is heading to the gym or going for a jog. It would also matter how many meals per day you are eating.

With a puzzled look, he asked me. OK, lets just say i am an average Joe who just wants to lose weight and eats about 3 meals a day. Then how many calories should i be looking at for each meal. He says he always goes to a restaurant and is not too sure how much to eat because he just doesn't know how many calories he should be eating for each meal.

Well again it would really depend on how many calories you need to eat in a day (based on your body and activity level) and you need to eat less than that to see weight loss. So for example, if your Daily Calorie Requirement is 1,500kCals a day and you eat 3 meals a day, then roughly, each meal should be around 500kCals. To find out how many calories you need in a day, you can check out one of my previous posts by clicking here. Now to lose weight, you want to eat less than 1,500kCals a day. So in this case, lets say you want to reduce it to 1,200kCals per day... this would mean that each meal should be roughly around 400kCals.

So i told him though it is OK, to follow this rough calculation of just dividing, its still better to eat as per your activity level. So i offered him some tips as below which help to make his calorie decision for weight loss more effective:-

1) Eat lower calorie meals when you know you are going to be inactive after the meal. Like dinner. You don't need to as much calories for dinner as you would for other meals.

2) Eat higher calorie meals before or after a workout or when you are going to do intense activity. So if you are going to laze around, eat less calories. If you are going to spend those calories soon, you can eat more

3) If one meal is higher than what you should be eating, make sure you adjust it for the next meal. Let's say you are aiming for an average of 400 calories per meal and end up eating a 600 calorie meal. Then be sure to subtract 200 calories from another meal to ensure you don't go above your target.

4) If your target us weight loss, then its always better to eat less than more. Meaning if you are deciding between foods and trying to justify that the higher calorie food is still OK, but you are not too sure, then go for the choice which has less calories.

5) It is also important to consider what i like to call the fill up factor of the food. A bag of Twisties has about 500 calories but does little to fill you up. A Fillet-O-Fish in McDs will be about 450 calories. Eating 5 apples will be around 250 calories. Which one is more satisfying to your hunger?So how many calories should each meal have? Well firstly you need to calculate how many calories you need in a day and then start doing the math. Its OK to just divide evenly and have each meal have the same number of calories but its far more effective to eat according to the tips i presented. If your goal is weight loss, then following the tips above will make a huge difference in the results you. From there you will be able to make a better decision on how much each of your meals should be. Try it out and see. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Weight Room Ethics

2010-12-08T16:44:00.006+08:00

One of the main reasons why i get up so early in the morning to go to the gym, is because the weight room is not over crowded at 6:30am. There are usually only 3 or 4 people in the weight room at this time, and that's how i like it. This way, i get to go in, do my work out quickly with minimal interference and be out of there. Secondly, i realized that here in Malaysia, a lot of people are unfamiliar with what i like to call weight room ethics. These are just simple unwritten rules that everyone should know when stepping into a weight room. Now i know these are unwritten rules and not legally binding. But at the same time, i think following these rules (if you want to call it that) is just plain courtesy to the others. But sadly not many people are aware of this and don't follow it and it really irks me sometimes. So here are some of the things that should be followed when you are in a weight room.

1) Re-Racking your weights
If you are done with the weights you are using, please put them back. The reason for this is, 1) it keeps the weight room looking neat and not to mention safer so no one trips on your dumbbell 2) it lets people know that you are done with it. Just this morning i saw a guy jump from the decline bench press, to the incline bench press and then the bench press. As he went a long, he just left the weights there and moved on. Come on buddy... you can recycle the weights. Meaning that you can transfer the weights you were using on your decline for your incline and so on. This is one method of clearing of the weights while re-racking your new bench. It takes the same amount of effort and time as pulling new weights from weight rack. So please... the next time you are done with something, put it back. I have seen incidences where i walk into the weight room at 6:30 am (i am the first use of the weight room for that day) and i see all the dumbbells scattered all over the floor and all over the weight room. It makes it difficult to walk around and a chore to find the dumbbell you are looking for. Situations like these should not be happening

2) Sharing your bench
Now it is OK to share your bench with someone else between sets. After all, you are not doing 3 sets of bench press back to back without any rest. So while you are resting, whats wrong with sharing it someone else. I usually get 2 responses when i walk up to someone and say "Hey buddy, you mind if i work in with you?". 1) some of them just say OK and then take everything and run away. This has happened to me many times. I am not kidding. 2) OH i still got 5 more sets. YES, i know you have 5 more sets, but can i jump in for a few sets between your sets. I don't understand why people just can't share it. What irks me the most, is he tells you he has 5 more sets and then he is busy chatting with his friend who is hogging the incline bench press. Jeez dude... if you want to chat, why don't you let someone else use it while you are chatting. You get this a lot when you go in the evenings when the gym is crowded. I have experienced this so many times when i attempted going to the gym in the evening after work. This is one of my main motivation factors to stay away from overcrowded weight rooms in Malaysia. When i was in the States, it was a general understanding that people jump in between sets. In fact, that's how i made so many friends. It just makes everything better. Plus, you now have a spot.

3) PT's can't share equipment with normal folk.
Personally, this has never happened to me. The PTs that train their clients in the morning are really cool and i have loads of respect for them. They usually ask me if they can share the bench with me and similarly i have also asked them if i could jump in for sets while their client is resting between sets and they are OK with it. But i know friends who have experienced snobbish PTs who won't share and worst still, being shoo-ed away by the PT, because they want to use the bench you are using. Well they don't literally shoo you away with words, but they ask you in a nasty way and then just stand about and look at you hoping to intimidate you. This should not be happening. As a PT, you should not be setting the wrong example in the weight room. Or maybe PTs are resorting to this because of reason number 2. Hmmm.... makes me wonder.

4) Don't stand in fron of the mirror and block someone else
If a guy is using the power rack to do squats, please don't stand right in front of him and do bicep curls and block the mirror. This is just plain rude. Whenever you are doing an exercise, take a look and see if someone else is using the mirror first. If there is someone else behind is using the mirror, find another spot to do it. Don't plant yourself right in front and block that person. Its just rude. This has happened to me enough times and i really feel disgusted with this.

5) Spotting someone correctly
Maybe i should write a post on how to spot someone properly, because generally, most people don't know how to spot properly. Over and over again, i have seen one person doing bench press, while his spotter is doing bicep curls at the same time. Group workout???? When you spot someone, you are not supposed to lift as much weight as you can so that the other person doesn't have to do much. I understand when you are helping someone move houses, you would like to help as much as you can, but when it comes to lifting weights, its not the same.

You are supposed to stand by just in case of an emergency and offer minimal help to get them through their sticking point. That's it. Please don't attempt to do bicep curls while i am doing my bench press. When you are spotting someone, ask them how many reps they are going for and ask them how many reps they think they can get on their own. This way you have a better picture of how much help to offer and when to offer it. If i am aiming for 8 reps and say i can do 6 on my own, try not to touch the bar before 6 reps... unless i really get stuck, then yes, do jump in. But otherwise, please don't start your bicep curls from the first rep.

So here are just some weight room ethics which is at the top of my list. What about you guys? Have you experienced any other "irk-ing" scenarios that you wish to share? Or did i miss out any other weight room ethics worth sharing. Do share your thoughts and as usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

What Colour is Your Food?

2010-11-29T17:44:00.008+08:00

I was watching Oprah the other day where she was featuring celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, who has a new show in the US called Food Revolution - not sure if this show will hit our shores any time soon. This show aims to help people understand the importance of eating healthy and staying healthy and he goes around educating people how to make simple yet healthy foods in their own homes. Food Revolution is a spin off from Jamie's previous show in UK which aimed at getting school cafeterias to start serving healthier foods to the school children in UK. After all, a healthy lifestyle is best cultivated when you are younger.

I honestly think Food Revolution is such a brilliant idea and i hope someone in Malaysia will do the same. Anyway, from watching some of the little snippets of the show, i picked up this really cool and important tip from Jamie, which i want to share with all of you.

During one of the snippets, he visits this family which is already obese. The father, the mother the kids, everyone is just way overweight. So Jamie Oliver goes in to find out what their diet is like and its mainly frozen foods such as fries, corn dogs, TV Dinners, Frozen pizza, fried chicken etc. The reason for this poor choice in nutrition is the usual excuse - we have no time to prepare proper food. Basically, their children have been brought up eating nothing but frozen food. Yikes.

So then Jamie heads to their freezer and takes out everything they have stored in there. He opens up the boxes / packets and starts pouring everything out onto the dining table (see picture below). He then asked the mother, what colour do you see in all these foods. With tears in her eyes, the mother answers "golden brown". Which is so true. Everything on the table is just one colour. Golden brown.This is when Jamie Oliver tells her that their family is seriously missing out on many essential nutrients which is vital for a healthy life. Ideally, the food they eat should be multi coloured. You need to have your greens, your oranges, reds and purples. The different colours in fruits and vegetables gives us different nutrients that we need which also has different functions, so its best to eat foods which have as many different colours as possible. Yes, golden brown is permitted, but it should not be golden brown all the way.

So what are you putting on your plate? Just take a quick glance and see if you have many colours or is all just predominantly one colour. Lets take a look at some of our local favourites and see if it is multi coloured or just one colour.

Hmmm....As you can see, its quite easy to fall into the same trap as the family i mentioned above. If you eat out most of the time, then its quite easy to miss out on all the different colours that we need and just eat one colour. If i were to eat without thinking and just follow my taste buds, yeah, i would do the same. Its called eating on auto pilot.

So how do we prevent this from happening? Simple. The next meal you have, just a take a quick glance and see what colours you are eating. If you are pre-dominantly only eating one colour for all your meals, then you know you know you need to throw in some vegetables here and there. If your meal already looks colourful, then, bravo... you are doing good. Keep it up. I am not a big fan of vegetables and have a limited choice of veges that i do like to eat. So i make it a point to prepare meals that uses these vegetables as much as possible. Or sometimes i make it a point to gulp down a good serving of the veges i do like first, before indulging into my main meal. I also eat lot of fruits to balance out my diet. So again, there are ways to work around this to ensure that you do get in all the various nutrients that you need. The overused excuse of no time has no place here. If you can't be diligent with your meals, then make it a point to eat the different colours during your snack time.

So, what colour is your food? Golden brown or multi coloured. Take a glance at your next meal and see what you are eating. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Is Snacking Healthy For You?

2010-11-24T10:05:00.009+08:00

I am often asked this question by people trying to lose weight - "Is Snacking healthy for you?" Well my answer is always, "it depends what you are snacking on." Many so called weight loss experts always preach that in order to lose weight, you should avoid snacking. Well this is kinda true if you look at snacking from the traditional aspect - which is chips, goreng pisang and other tasty yet unhealthy choice of foods. But what if you were snacking on healthier stuff? Would that be OK?
Lets look at some basic principles of weight loss. When it comes to weight loss, a huge part of it is calories in vs calories out. As long as your total calories in is less than your total calories out, then you will lose weight. Its just simple science and mathematics. On top of that we also know that starvation diets don't work. In other words, depriving your body of nutrition for long periods of time is counter productive. Why? Because when you starve yourself, your body kicks in into survival mode. In this mode, your body decides to build up its reserve, should there suddenly be a situation when there is no food coming in. This way your body can survive as long as possible. How does your body build up its reserves? By storing whatever you eat as fat. So in order to avoid this situation, you need to eat regularly. With that being said, it does not mean you have a free hand to eat continuously. Remember what i said earlier... it all comes down to calories in vs calories out. So you still have a limit / quota of how much you can eat and still see weight loss. Your job is to spread it out smartly so your body does not go into survival mode.

One of the best techniques to reduce fat storage in your body is to eat every 3 hours that you are awake. This way, your body knows that there is a continuous stream of nutrition coming in, so it does not have to kick in its survival mode sub-routine. So if you traditionally eat 3 meals a day and you are awake for about 18 hours a day, you know for a fact that your body is going through long stretches without food, which is not good for your waist line. So in between those meals, it best to snack in between so there is food going in every 3 hours.

The big question is, what can you eat in between those normal meals of yours. You could eat your chips and goreng pisang, if you were a construction worker using about 4000 calories a day. Sure thing. For the amount of physical labour you are doing, you will need all those extra calories. But for most of us reading this, the most activity we get is when we work out or for some who don't work out, then your total activity for the day is very little. This also means that the total calories your body needs is very little too. So this means you will have to be careful with what you choose to eat so you don't burst your budget.

Ideally you should snack on low calories foods like fresh fruits (also a great way to get in heaps of micro nutrients like vitamins and minerals), muesli or maybe even a protein shake if you are taking one. This way you get to ensure you don't totally bust your daily calorie intake because you are eating every 3 hours.I know its difficult for those in the working world to try and abide by this rule diligently. With meetings and rushing off reports, sometimes even having a regular lunch hour seems impossible. But with a bit of planning, you should be able to do just fine. The idea here, is for you to go to work prepared. The problem why most people can't seem to do it, is because they go to work without being prepared for this.

I personally like recommending simple fruits like apples, bananas, grapes etc, because they are easy to eat on the go and you can store them just about anywhere. You don't need to prepare them before eating, so this removes a lot of the fuss. Buying loose muesli to munch on is great too, but i personally find it a little more cumbersome. Protein shakes are awesome because you can even bring it with you for a meeting. Just put it into a thermos and everyone will think you are sipping down a cup of coffee and won't even know you are drinking a protein shake. Got a long meeting? No problem... if you have your protein shake handy, you won't have to worry about it.

So the big question now is, what are you snacking on? Just because a colleague buys some curry puffs at 4 pm, doesn't mean you have to gulp those down. The problem arises when we don't plan and don't have any other healthy foods to consume. But if you came prepared, then you don't have to snack on that curry puff. Of course its ok for you to chow down that curry puff every once in awhile ( i love curry puffs), but if you are serious about your weight loss, then you know what you need to do to burn off those additional calories because of the curry puff. You will need to work it off somewhere. So do the math and decide which is more important to you - temptation of the curry puff or your figure.

Being prepared is the best way to avoid eating unnecessary unhealthy foods. Carrying some fruits with you takes no time at all to prepare, so there is no excuse as to why you can't do it. Same goes with protein shakes. Its easy, convenient and takes no time at all to prepare. So plan your snacking properly and watch the fat melt off. Its that simple. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Suspension Training Certification

2010-11-15T16:05:00.008+08:00

If you are a personal trainer who is looking for a course that will set you apart from the competition and gets you more clients, then this is the course for you. If you are gym buff / fitness junkie who is addicted to the TRX and want to learn more on how to truly unlock the full power of the TRX, then this course is for you too. If you always wanted to purchase the TRX, but was not sure on how to use it, then you definitely want to attend this course, because you will kill 2 birds with one stone.

TRX Malaysia is organizing a 8 hour certification course that is for anyone who is interested in learning how to unleash the full potential of the TRX. With the TRX gaining more and more popularity in Malaysia, more and more clients are actually asking for it by name, and being able to use it effectively and safely, sets you apart from everyone else.

For PTs who specialize in home based personal training, having a TRX as part of your exercise equipment is a definite bonus. Its easy to carry around and you are able to provide your clients with an almost unlimited array of exercises.

The 8 hours hands on course will teach you how to:

Set up the TRX in a wide variety of locations (extremely useful if you are doing home based PT sessions)
use the TRX in a comprehensive manner so its efficient, effective and a stimulating exercise tool for you and/or your clients of various fitness levels
train different client populations for optimal results

The fees for this certification course is going at a special introductory offer of RM 1,388.00 per participant. With your training fees, you will get

1 Suspension Training Course Manual
1 TRX set (P1 Model)

So if you were thinking for purchasing the TRX, now you have the option of purchasing the unit while getting yourself certified to use the TRX. Great deal isn't it?

OK, so who is going to be the trainer facilitating the 1 day course? This course will be facilitated by Marcel Daane, who is currently pursuing a Master's Degree in Neuroscience. Marcel has a Bachelor of Health Science Degree in Complementary Medicine coupled with an Associate's Degree in Applied Nutrition. With more than 15 years of experience as an Olympic Level Sports Performance Coach, his credentials also include : NSCA Certified Strength Conditioning Specialist, ACE 'Gold Standard" Certified Advanced Fitness Specialist, ACE certified Mat Pilates Instructor, AFPA Certified Sports Conditioning Specialist, and USA Weightlifting Certified Olympic Weightlifting Coach.

Years of Health and Neuroscience Research combined with Two Decades of Field Experience have enabled Marcel to develop the Body-Brain Performance Institute, through which he conducts Performance Enhancement Programs for Executive Teams of Multinational Companies, such as SAP-Asia Pacific, CISCO, and Accenture to name a few.

In 2007, Marcel conceptualized SPEED Institute, which is now one of the largest Sports Performance Training center in South East Asia.

Marcel is an accomplished Olympic Level Sports Performance Coach. With his knowledge of Resilience and Sports Performance training, he helped the Singapore National Boxing Team secure medals at the 2009 South East Asia Games and the 2010 Tri-Nations Cup, an accomplishment not witnessed since 1972.

How do you register for this course? Just log on to the link below and you can register for the course on-line.

http://trxmalaysia.com/trxtraining.html

or you can email Danny G at danny@trxmalaysia.com

Simple right? Here are a few more details of the course for those of you who are interested:

Date: December 5, 2010

Time: 9am to 5pm

Venue: No 331, Level 3, block A2, Leisure Commerce Square, Bandar Sunway

Will you be attending this course? As usual, look forward to hearing your comments on this.

Trip to Langkawi

2010-11-09T17:49:00.012+08:00

Firstly, my sincere apologies for not having a post last week. Was a bit tied up with some stuff, so didn't get a chance to sit down and post something. Secondly, Happy Belated Deepavali to all my Hindu readers, clients and friends. I had a blast for Deepavali as me and my family decided to go to Langkawi for the break. As i mentioned in my recent post on my India trip... you know a holiday is good when you feel sad to come home... and i sure did feel sad. So it indeed was a great holiday.

We stayed in the luxurious Westin in Langkawi which was near the town. This hotel truly was superb and this is my first time staying in a 5 star resort in Langkawi. My usual favourite hotel is Holiday Villa. But since my brother in law had a Starwood Privilege Card, we got the rooms at RM 380 nett....as compared to RM 1,000++ a night if you were to book it yourself... BIG difference. Is it worth the price? For RM 380, yes. I wouldn't have minded paying RM 500 or RM 600 for the room, but RM 1,000 is a bit much. Don't get me wrong, the room was gorgeous, but my expectation for RM 1,000 a night is a lot more than what we got.

Anyway we left for Langkawi on Friday morning with Air Asia and met up with my sister and her family there, since they were flying from Singapore. Once we checked in, me and my nieces headed straight to the pool. Yes, they are water bums like me. I brought along my trusty float and i had no idea it would be such a hit with my nieces. So much so, that i bought them each a float to take back with them. On the first night, the hotel treated us to a complimentary BBQ seafood buffet dinner. I was excited by the sound of this but was disappointed when i actually ate the food. Lots of the seafood barely had any taste and it tasted like they didn't even marinate it before grilling it. The desert was good though, so i ended up filling myself up with deserts rather than with healthy grilled food.

2nd day, we went out to the shops in Kuah town to buy stuff, especially duty free liqour. Got myself a bottle of Jagermeister (hope this is the correct spelling) and some Strongbow Cider. After that, we went to the pool some more and then at night we headed down to Pantai Chenang. Initially, the plan was to have a Chinese dinner at Pantai Chenang, but then we stumbled upon some Chinese restaurants in Kuah Town itself and decided to have dinner there instead. We then took a drive to Pantai Chenang to have a look and this place has really expanded since the last time i was there. There are a lot more shops and restaurants.

3rd day, me and wifey took my nieces out to the beach. The beach at Westin wasn't all that great, so we decided to drive up to Tanjung Rhu...we got there at late morning and we were the only ones there. Nieces had a blast making sand castles (see pics above) and of course swimming in the sea. We stopped by for lunch on the way back and was planning to head out to the pool after that. But when i got back to my room, i was just too burnt out to do anything... so i fell asleep. That night, we headed out to Pantai Chenang again for dinner. We dined at Oasis (see pic below), which is a restaurant that has tables on the beach... yes, you are on the sand. Awesome. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.Our last day was spent packing and rushing off to Kuah town for some last minute shopping. Our flight was at 1:30pm and Air Asia actually took off at 1:15pm... bravo... 15 minutes earlier than schedule. By the time we reached home, it was 4 plus and boy, it sure was a tiring but fun holiday. It truly has been too long since i last had a holiday that i enjoyed so much.

On a side note, the breakfast at the hotel was really great. Besides your usual stuff like the egg counter, bun counter etc, they had a "blend your own shake" counter. You get to choose if you want milk, yogurt or Soy milk, and then your choice of fruits, nuts etc. And then it is blended just for you after that. How cool is that? So for those who want to be health conscious during your holiday, here is one way to do so. They also had a pancake and waffle station which made fresh pancakes and waffles only when you order. Really great stuff.

Anyway, hope you guys enjoy the pictures i posted and as usual, look forward to hearing your comments.PS: These mini's were up for rental while you are in Langkawi. RM 888 for 8 hours. Anyone fancy renting one? Wifey took pictures with the cars as this is one of her dream cars.

PPS: This is also my 100th post. So happy "centennial" post?

PPPS: I finally have a new poll / survey out. Please vote on it and let me know your thoughts.

Certified Law of Attraction Facilitator / Trainer

2010-10-26T18:33:00.005+08:00

Have you guys heard or read the book Law of Attraction? If you have read the book The Secret, then you will be familiar with this. I read the book about a year ago, and after reading it, i was an instant fan of Law of Attraction and finally understood how i was attracting certain "unwanted" things into my life and also learned how to start attracting the things i want into my life. From money, to friends, to relationships - you will be surprised. In fact, i use Law of Attraction all the time even for running Fitness Malaysia, and honestly, the results have been awesome. I have attracted so many clients into the business, just by using Law of Attraction. If you are looking for a good book to read which will help you improve your life, get this book. It only costs you RM 41 from MPH and its an easy read and a definite life changer.

As you may already know, besides running Fitness Malaysia, i am also a free lance Training Consultant and a lot of the corporate training programs i run, are based on Law of Attraction. So when i heard that the author of Law of Attraction, Michael J. Losier was coming down to Malaysia to run a series of seminars, i jumped at the opportunity. One of the seminars he was running in KL was the Law of Attraction Certified Facilitator Program, which i attended and i am proud to say, i am now a certified Law of Attraction facilitator / trainer, having being certified by Michael himself.

The 4 day program was absolutely wonderful and i learned so many little things to improve my skills as a trainer / facilitator / speaker. Before this, all i did was just plan my talk and then deliver it. I try to make it as funny as i can, and that was about all i knew in terms of engaging a crowd. But with the program, i learned so many other tips on how to engage your audience, how to get their buy in to your topic, using Accelerated Learning Techniques as well as many other secrets. He even thought us about room arrangement, crowd control, venue selection and many other tips. So before teaching us all this, he invited all of us for a public seminar where 300 people attended. So he did his magic of engaging the audience of over 300 people and we were all wondering how he did it. How did he get everyone so engaged? How did he get people to write down everything he wanted them to do? How did he get everyone to learn so much in 2 hours and then test them and they still remember everything. Well, thats what we learned after that. He showed us all his little secrets, hand gestures etc and how we can also do the same... and now i know the secrets of becoming a top notch speaker. It was like watching that show on TV, breaking the Magician's code... you see the magic trick first, and then they reveal everything to you.

In addition to that, he also shared with all of us, his life story and how he managed to make it big and be the famous author that he is today. He has appeared 4 times on Oprah and is constantly traveling the world to educate people about using Law of Attraction for their lives. My favourite quote from him during one of our chit chat sessions:

Me: Good Morning Michael, how are you doing today?
Michael: I am doing great, coz that's how i planned my life.

So what was Michael like in person? Very down to earth, loves sharing with people and has a true passion for life. He keeps telling us he is actually a shy person by nature, but honestly, when he walks on stage, he takes command of it. His biggest passion in life is touching people's life through his books & seminars.

The program also taught us how we could start marketing our very own seminars, or better still, how we can run our own Law of Attraction seminars. The whole idea is for us to start running seminars and make money from doing something we love. I love giving talks, and touching people's live and now i know how to make this into an income generating hobby. So all in all, it was one of the best courses i have been too.

Whats all this got to do with fitness? Well not much actually. Just wanted to share my excitement with everybody. One thing for sure, the next time i do a fitness talk, i am sure going to use all the techniques i learned to engage my audience and to get everyone's buy in. So you can expect my talks to be much better, more engaging and of course everyone will learn something that they will remember, even after the talk.

So, have you read the book Law of Attraction? What are your thoughts on it? As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Are Meal Replacements Really That Bad?

2010-10-19T09:29:00.005+08:00

OK, i decided to tackle this topic because i have been reading some fitness blogs and other sites and the general consensus about meal replacement are that it is considered cheating, its for whimps etc etc. In short, most people have a very negative view with regards to using meal replacement shakes as a mode of weight loss. Now i used to feel the same way too until some time back i spoke to one of my clients and we decided to give meal replacements a try and it worked wonders for her... of course this is in addition to an exercise routine which i coached her on. So the big question is, are meal replacements really that bad? Is it really considered cheating? Well here is my opinion on it.

Meal Replacement are basically low calorie shakes which is consumed in place of a normal meal. So instead of eating your usual meal, you replace your meal with this low calorie shake. They usually taste very good and have anywhere from 80 to 100 calories... which is pretty low for a meal. It is also usually pretty thick and this is important as it needs to be able to fill you up. If its watery, then you are less likely to get full on it and will feel hungry and probably munch on other things because you feel hungry. Also, its important to note that most meal replacement products are still designed to give you all the nutrients you need from a normal meal, but just without the heavy calorie baggage. So all in all its actually a good product and i don't see any harm in people using this to lose weight.

Lets look at some of the arguments that usually arise with regards to this and my opinion on these.

Its Cheating
When it comes to weight loss, there are hundreds of products out there which promise weight loss without effort. From slimming centers to brain surgery to the swallowing worms, you name it some one has thought of it and is already marketing it. Hence even with Meal Replacements, its considered that you are taking the easy way out. This is true, its an easy way out, but if there are no harmful side effects, then whats wrong with it? Let me put it in a different way. If you are looking to build muscle mass, chances are you are consuming some kind of protein shake to ensure you get enough protein in your system. Isn't a protein shake cheating as well? Shouldn't you just tough it out and eat boiled chicken breasts and egg whites to get all the protein you need? The reason you drink the protein shake, is because you are not able to diligently eat that much protein. Hence you supplement it with a protein shake which is convenient. Same goes for taking vitamin supplements? We take it because we know our diet really lacks these minerals and hence why why do it. Same goes for meal replacement shakes. Its just a convenient way for people to ensure they don't over eat.

Its for whimps
OK, usually this comment is followed by because people don't want to exercise and depend on the meal replacement shakes all the way. Personally for me, i don't think anyone should replace all their meals with meal replacements. what i usually recommend is that you swap one meal per day with a meal replacement shake... ideally its the meal which you know you cannot control and will end up overeating. I am aware of some people who sell meal replacements tell you to drink ONLY the shake and nothing else 3 times a day and this is because your shake will finish faster and you will have to buy more and that person makes more profit from you. This is not effective because how long can you honestly go on without eating solid food? a week, maybe 2? then what? This is why i recommend exercise along with swapping of maybe one meal with the shake and the results i have seen are pretty good. And i know its healthy and safe, because it is only one meal a day. So yes, i agree with the rest that consuming this 100% is not the way to go, but at the same time, i think don't think it should be completely thrown out your plan.

Its Expensive
Yes it is expensive but so are protein shakes. My point is, if people are willing to spend that little extra to see better results, why not. Why should we stop them from this? I am not saying that meal replacements are mandatory for weight loss, but if you can afford it, why not? The usual comparison made here by others are that people are willing to spend so much money on these products rather than just jog outside for free. Point taken... but again, i like using meal replacements as a method to turbo boost your weight loss progress. If its works and its safe, why not? Again, not all your meals, just one meal a day.

So would i recommend meal replacements to people who want to lose weight? Absolutely. Would i recommend it with exercise... YES. Would i recommend meal replacements with no exercise? NO, but then you must understand that everyone has their own ideas and a hard headed sometimes. You can tell them what you want, but its up to them to decide after that. Honestly, just drinking meal replacements with no exercise is still better than no exercise and no meal replacement and just maintaining the status quo and continue being overwieght. Which do you think is healthier? So again... if it works and its safe, why not.

What do you guys think of meal replacements? YES or NO in your books? Do share your comments and as usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

TRX in Malaysia

2010-10-11T15:00:00.005+08:00

Last Saturday, i was invited for the official launch of TRX in Malaysia. Before this, getting your own TRX unit in Malaysia was difficult and many people actually resorted to going to Singapore to order it or mail order it through the internet. Well now, you don't have to go through so much hassle, as TRX is now in Malaysia and can be purchased easily via a simple phone call to the distributor Eco Lifestyle Fitness Sdn. Bhd.

For those who are unfamiliar with the TRX, let me give you a little history on what the TRX is and how it was developed. TRX is a simple piece of exercise equipment consisting of a handle and adjustable straps that you latch on to a solid beam, tree or door. Once you strap it on, you can do hundreds of exercises and honestly, you are limited only with the creativity of your own brain. You can train your arms, chest, shoulders, back, legs, abs... you name it, you can train it. You use your own body weight as resistance and you can increase or decrease the resistance by simply changing the angle of your body. Go to youtube and type in TRX exercises and voila.... you will be able to easily create a workout routine. Each TRX unit you purchase, comes with a DVD set which gives you instructions on how to use your TRX as well as some exercises you can do. The TRX is also getting lots of publicity now as it is used a lot by The Biggest Loser Asia.

Whats my favourite feature about it. It weighs about 2 pounds and you can carry it anywhere. I travel a lot for holidays and now with this, i can have a quick intense workout anywhere at anytime. Now the TRX is great to tone your muscles and help you lose weight. But you are not going to be able to build much muscle mass by just using the TRX. With that being said, when i travel, i may not be able to get the same workout as i would in the gym with weights, but hey, it is still better than not working out at all, right? So in a sense, you would be doing some basic maintanence workouts, which is better than skipping and trying to rebuild once i return. I also like how it creates a lot of unstability which is great for your core muscles.

OK, down to its history. TRX ws born in the US Navy SEALS by a former US Navy SEALS Randy Hetrick. The idea came about when US Soldiers who were out in the battle field for long missions, needed a means to work out and stay fit. Being a soldier takes tremendous amount of fitness so you will need to stay at your best shape, escpecially when you are out in the field. Bringing heavy dumbbells and gym equipment to the field was out of the questions. So Randy and his team put together pieces of parachute webbing sewn together with a boat repair kit to form a crude version of the TRX we know today. This idea caught on quickly and soon other Navy SEALS began using it too. In short, the TRX was born out of necessity.

After retiring from active duty, Randy went on to get his MBA and soon realized the potential of the TRX when he took it down to a campus gym to workout. He got dozens of curious onlookers wanting to know how it worked and if they could have one. Hence he went on to develop it with industrial designers to develop the refined TRX which we have today.

Now i have known about the TRX for some time now and thought it was a decent piece of equipment. But after going for the launch and seeing the versatility of it, i am totally blown away and now i am a HUGE HUGE fan of it. Whats more, for attending the launch, they gave a free unit of the TRX to take home. YES, i cannot believe my luck. I actually got a TRX for FREE. My sincere thanks goes out to Danny G of Eco Lifestyle Fitness for his generosity in giving me a unit of the TRX. It will be put to good use, not only by me, but my PT clients as well.

So, if you are looking for an exercise equipment to invest in, which can be easily used at home, very very mobile and yet is able to train multiple muscles with varying resistance, i truly recommend you to invest in the TRX. The price is RM 1088 per unit, but compare that with say, an exercise bike. For a decent unit, you are going to spend well over RM 1,000... and all you can do is cardio. With the TRX you can do circuit training which provides you with great cardio benefits, strengthen your core and tone your muscles. So which would you rather invest in?

For those who are interested in knowing how they can purchase their very own unit of the TRX in Malaysia, you can log on to www.trxmalaysia.com for more details. One thing for sure, i am going to start using the TRX for all my PT clients. So if you like the TRX and not so sure about it, well you do have the option of signing up for some PT sessions with me and i will bring in the TRX for your sessions.

So what do you guys think of the TRX? As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Weight Loss Through Brain Surgery

2010-10-06T17:23:00.005+08:00

Medical science - sometimes we are thrilled with the advancements that they make, but other times, you just shake your head and say "What the ....".

I was watching Oprah this morning and got the shock of my life at the topic that was being featured. She was having an interview with Dr. Oz and the topic of discussion... you guessed it. Weight Loss Through Brain Surgery. Now of course at first, many may not be able to see the connection here, but basically, our brain controls a lot of our bodily functions, including our appetite, which can lead to obesity.

So the surgery involves drilling a hole in your brain and placing 2 electrodes in there which discharges a small electrical pulse which is supposed to affect the part of your brain which is responsible for your appetite. This electrical pulse is supposed to suppress your appetite somewhat, hence making you eat less, which equals to weight loss. The electrical charges start with a very low voltage and is increased slowly in the months to come. According to doctors, it will take several months before the patient actually sees results.

These electrodes get their power from two pacemaker type devices which are implanted in the patients chest and has a wire running from your chest to the brain. The whole surgery takes about 3 hours to complete and supposedly they have been using the similar technology to treat Parkinson's disease.

So, has this revolutionary medical procedure been tested on an actual human subject? But of course. Carol Poe, the 2nd recipient of this procedure said she has tried everything from diets, to exercise, to stomach staples, but nothing ever worked. (really or you just didn't try hard enough) But now she claims that she can actually control her cravings thanks to this wonder..... whatever you want to call it.

According to Doctors there are no side effects from this procedure as they have been using it for many years on patients with Parkinson's Disease, and thus they are confident it is safe. The other point for adding to your feeling of security (just in case you had any doubts) is that the voltages start at a very low rate and can be manually adjusted, hence doctors are able to monitor their patients carefully before increasing the voltage.

So guys, what do you think about this procedure? Is it sane or insane? Is it really that hard to lose weight that you have to resort to such extreme measures? is exercise really that hard to do? Oprah said she would never attempt such a procedure. So what are your thoughts on this? As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Weight Lifting Myths

2010-09-27T15:55:00.006+08:00

Time and time again, i meet people who have a fitness question or 2 to ask and i realize that many people have fallen victim to many weight lifting / fitness myths out there. Today, i want to de-bunk 3 of the most popular myths with relation to weight training and i hope.... i truly hope, that this will finally put these myths to rest.

Myth 1 - You will become short if you lift heavy weights over your head.
i don't know if this is just a Malaysian myth but many many Malaysians out there truly believe that if you lift heavy weights over your head you will become short - especially if you lift at a younger age when you are still growing up. I haven't heard this for the longest time and then just the other day i was having a chat with someone and he was telling me how he used to lift weights during his younger days and the reason he is short is because he started lifting when he was 16. This sounds as crazy as the myth i grew up with - eating Maggi Mee will cause you to lose your hair.

Weight training has absolutely no effect on your height. Your height is determined mainly by genetics. Diet plays an important role too, but not as much as genetics. Certain people have the ability to grow taller because of their genes and some people just can't grow taller because they have bad genes. You can eat all the protein and calcium you want from 8 years old, but you will still be short if your genes are bad. Lifting weights over your head has nothing to do with it. How do you explain Arnold? He started lifting weights at the age of 14 or 15 and he is still taller than most Malaysians who don't lift. So please, don't use this as an excuse not to lift weights.

Myth 2 - Your Muscles will turn to fat once you stop lifting
This one is real popular and i have heard this at least a 100 times. If only i got a dollar for every time i heard this. Best of all, i recently heard this from an uncle of mine who just joint Fitness First and he told me the PT he hired in Fitness First told him this. This is his reason for recommending a cardio workout, rather than a routine involving weights. Reality Check amigo... as a PT, aren't you supposed to ask your client what they want to achieve before recommending a program? Or do you just assume that everyone who walks in the door wants to do some running and lose weight? How do these people even become PTs? What if my unlce is interested in having broader shoulders or inprove his swing strength for golf. How does you cardio workout help?

I truly wonder what certification this PT has. Muscle fibers are muscle fibers and fat tissue are fat tissue. Just like your arm can't grow into a leg due to lack of use, your muscle cannot turn into fat. YES, you may put on weight once you stop lifting, but that is caused by the lack of activity. Your muscles CANNOT turn into fat. Can you turn an apple into an orange by keeping it in the fridge and not eating it for 2 months? NO? Well if you can't do that, then you can't do that with your muscle as well. They are 2 different tissues and cannot interchange from one form to the other. You gain fat, yes, but its not all that muscle which is going through a metamorphosis to achieve this.

Myth # 3 - Women who lift weights will become body builders
This is the favourite myth amongst most women i know. Most women generally belive that it is easy to gain muscle mass and hence even if they lift a little, they will bulk up. I need to get them to speak to Aizan of Fitness Junkie Wannabe. Gaining muscle mass is not easy. Ask her and she will tell ya. Firstly, most women will not be able to gain a lot of muscle mass, because they do not have enough testosterone in their body to facilitate this. Secondly, even if they did have more testosterone, you still need to lift a lot... i mean a real a lot before you can see this. The ONLY way for a woman to become like the women body builder below is through the use of steroids. No other way.

So even if your routine was 100% lifting heavy weights, you will not turn into a woman body builder as shown above. Its just not possible. There really isn't any worry about this.

There you go folks. 3 very common myths i am sure you will face out there, so i hope this post puts an end to these myths once and forever. What are some of the other weight lifting myths you hear out there? Do share with us. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments on this.

Zerobese Institute

2010-09-20T14:39:00.019+08:00

Fitness Malaysia is proud to launch Zerobese Institute - the only weight loss program that empowers you to take control of your weight loss and keeps you motivated till you achieve your desired result. Zerobese is dedicated to 1 goal - that is to burn fat so you can look your best, and live life to the fullest. How does Zerobese work? Well check out the details below:

What is Zerobese Institute?
Zerobese Institute is a weight loss program that not only gives you the physical exercise you need to lose weight (in the form of group personal training) , but also gives you an education on nutrition, health, wellness, weight loss and fitness, so at the end of program, you are empowered to take on this lifestyle change yourself. Zerobese also aims to break the mindset that you need to have a gym membership to be healthy and fit. With Zerobese, our PTs come to you to train you at a location of your choice, so you don't have to buy expensive gym memberships, get stuck in traffic jams, go around in circles looking for parking. We save you money and trouble so you can give your full attention to losing weight and keeping it off forever.

We realized that the missing link in most weight loss programs out there today is that they either focus on exercise or focus on nutrition only. No one really focuses on both because most people are either an expert in nutrition or an expert in exercise. Zerobese combines both nutrition and exercise by bringing the various experts in various fields to you. so you come to one spot and we give you everything that you need without you having to shop around for the missing pieces.

Why is it called an institute?
For many reasons. For 1, the program is designed to run for 3 months or what we call a semester. There are classes 3 times per week (group personal training) as well as complimentary wellness talks from doctors, nutritionists and wellness consultants which will be held over the weekend. So you as the participant get to pick and choose which talks interest you the most. There is an exam, but don't worry - unlike your school and university exams, you don't have to study for this exam. When you join, a health and fitness assessment is done for you to determine your current fitness level, body fat % etc. At the end of the semester, the same assessment is done once again to gauge your progress over the semester. At the end of the day, we want everyone to achieve progress.

Why is it being done as group personal training sessions?
Where do we start. 1, it makes it affordable for everyone to get the training they need. PT sessions are expensive, and this way, you get to cut your cost dramatically. 2, it helps you to stay motivated for the entire semester. Most people fail to see results because they lose motivation over time and feel alone. With group personal training, you are always benchmarking yourself with others and everyone helps to keep everyone else motivated. 3 - its just much more fun when its done in a group compared to by yourself. We could go on and on with the benefits, but as you can see, this is the BEST way for you to lose weight quickly.

So how much are these sessions
well that depends on how many people are in the group. Below is the breakdown of the cost.

1 person - RM 120 per 1 hour session
2 people - RM 60 per person per 1 hour session
3 people - RM 40 per person per 1 hour session
4 people - RM 30 per person per 1 hour session
5 people - RM 25 per person per 1 hour session

No other hidden charges or costs. That's all you pay.

We recommend that you do the sessions 3 times per week but if possible, no less than twice per week. So if you were to sign up for twice a week with 4 of your friends or family members, this program will cost you only RM 400 per month. You get a PT which comes to your house twice per week. How great is that?

But purchasing a gym membership is cheaper, right?
If you were to purchase a gym membership, you will pay around RM 180 per month. This is just the gym membership with no personal training or any training direction for you. so you are basically left on your own to figure out what to do and whether you want to do it or not. Most people go diligently for about a month, maybe 2 months and then drop off - why? because there is no motivation for them to continue. the sad part is, you would have paid RM 180 x 12 months upfront to the gym, so even if you don't go, you will still be paying them.

With Zerobese Institute, we help to keep you motivated all the way so you don't drop off and waste your money for things you don't use. Plus you get a trainer who comes to you. If you were to get a PT in the gym, they would charge you RM 100 per session plus your RM 180 per month.

On top of that, with Zerobese, you get to learn about nutrition, health and wellness from our qualified speakers. Unlike in the gym, where the PT just trains you for an hour and then you are left alone again.

So let's do the math.

Gym Membership - RM 180
PT sessions - (RM 1oo) x (2 sessions per week) x (4 weeks)

If you were to join a gym, you would be forking out RM 980 (say ouch) a month to get the same benefits as you would with Zerobese Institute which would only cost you RM 200 per month. We still haven't factored in your joining fees, traveling cost, parking and time wasted... after all, they say time is precious. so which one seems better now?

What about these talks by nutritionists, doctors etc... do we have to pay for these?
No. Once you join Zerobese Institute, you will get to attend these talks for FREE. You don't have to pay for any of these talks. In fact, we encourage you to bring along your friends for these talks as well. Its open to everyone who is interested to learn more about health, nutrition and wellness. We will send you invites for these talks as well as post it up here in this blog.

Do i need to find my own group or will i be placed in a group
Well its totally up to you. If you have friends of your own, you could choose to form your own group. Alternatively, you could also opt to join a group of new people if you like. You also get to choose how big you want to keep your group. So this is all adjustable to your comfort level.

OK, this sounds awesome. How do i sign up?
Easy. You can call us at 03 8075 8621 or email us at info@fitnessmalaysia.com.my

There you go guys. If you have always wanted to be in a successful weight loss program and want to improve your health, here is your chance. Unlike other programs which give you 10% and expect you to do the other 90% yourself, we will be there every step of the way to help you reach your goals.

As usual, look forward to hearing your comments on this.

Hari Raya Guilt

2010-09-14T21:36:00.008+08:00

Firstly, let me take this opportunity to wish all my Muslim friends, readers and clients Selamat Hari Raya.... or should i say Selamat Belated Hari Raya. Hope all of you had a wonderful break. I was right here in KL and sure as hell enjoyed zooming around everywhere... coz the roads were so empty. It still is a little empty... so enjoy it while it lasts. I am sure next week, the roads will be swinging back to normal and it will be totally crazy again.

Now, i am sure many of you out there have probably over-indulged during this holiday season. Guess what, so did I. Yes... on the first day of Raya i went to 3 houses back to back. My last stop was with fellow fitness blogger Arfian of Corporate Athletes and i think i finished a lot of his kuih & biskut Raya. Yes Yes, i know how unhealthy those things are, but i just couldn't resist and it tasted awesome. I am sure many of you out there fell for the same trap.

But now once you are coming back to your normal routine (if you have one), i am sure the feeling you are all feeling is guilt. You probably feel guilty for over indulging, went for that 2nd or 3rd helping when you should have said stop. Some of you might even look in the mirror and say "why, why did i do this?"

Oh well, don't feel guilty anymore. There is hope out there for everyone, not just those who indulged, but for people who want to make a difference in the way they look and feel. We are almost ready to launch our BIG group personal training project that everyone can participate in. Just to give you a little hint, this is unlike any other personal training or group personal training out there. Besides your regular training sessions at a lower price (see previous post), there will be classes and talks from Doctors, Nutritionists and many other qualified speakers who will teach you and educate you on how to stay fit and healthy. You get to choose which talk interests you the most and attend... of course we strongly recommend you to attend all of them. On top of that, we will do a fitness assessment for you before you start, a photo shoot and then at the end of the program, we will redo the fitness assessment to gauge your progress. This really is going to be an amazing initiative and i can't wait to launch it.

So hold on to your knickers for just a tad bit longer and in next weeks blog post, we will finally reveal everything and give you all the details you need to know on how you can join and start seeing fast results. We are currently just tying up some loose ends and then, voila, it shall be revealed.

Oh yes... one more thing. This BIG project kicks off on October 1st, 2010, and seats are limited, so once you read it, i recommend that you sign up quickly before all the seats are taken.

So how did you celebrate the recent Raya holiday and did any of you manage to stay within your plan? Or did you over indulge like me. Please do share and as usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Group Personal Training

2010-09-06T13:23:00.004+08:00

Let's face it. Personal Training is not cheap. In Malaysia, a 1 hour personal training session can cost anywhere from RM 80 to RM 150 per hour. Why does it cost so much? That's because, there is an endless list of benefits to personal training. Here are some of them:
Full attention of your PT - for that 1 hour, your PT has to give you his full attention.
Customized Program - With a PT, he will custom design a workout program based on your needs, goals and of course your body type and fitness level
The PT is able to correct your form immediately - if you are doing the exercise wrongly, the PT will be able to see it and correct you immediately
Propose a personalized nutrition plan for you - Now most PTs don't do this, but you can ask them for advice. If you sign up for Fitness Malaysia's home based PT sessions, all our trainers are trained to give you a personalized nutrition plan that helps you to get optimum results. It comes with the package.

For those who can afford Personal training, then fantastic. But if you still want the benefits of personal training, but can't afford it, what do you do? Well this is where you can join something called Group Personal Training (GPT). GPT is an interesting way for you to get the benefits of personal training, but at a fraction of the cost. This is still a relatively new idea in Malaysia, and not many people are offering services such as this.

Group Personal Training is a 1 hour exercise session where the PT trains between 2 to 5 people in the same way that a PT does, but since there are more people, the cost per person is cheaper. So if you can't afford a full fledged PT session, then group personal training is great way for you to enjoy all the benefits of Personal Training at a lower cost. Now of course, one of the most important points to note is, the group has to be a small number - usually no more than 5 people, or else it loses the personal touch and becomes a group class. This way you still get a good level of personal attention without having to pay so much. The other benefit of Group Personal Training is, that you can sign up for it with your own friends and family members, and this makes the whole training session more fun and exciting. If you feel intimated to work with a PT yourself, now you have the option of doing it together with your friends... so its less intimidating.

Fitness Malaysia will be launching its very own brand of Group Personal Training soon, so do look out for it as we will post updates about it on this blog. We are really excited to embark on this project and get even more people to lead a healthier lifestyle. So what do you think of group personal training? Have any of you tried it? As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Ramadhan Bazaar Foods

2010-09-01T19:33:00.006+08:00

Ramadhan Bazaar has become such a Malaysian icon and a huge part of our Malaysian culture, that it is no longer only visited by Muslims who are fasting during the month of Ramadhan, but also non-Muslims. As you know, Malaysians have a fascination for food, so the Ramadhan Bazaar is no exception and you will see all walks of Malaysians crowding these bazaars to sample the food.

I recently visited the Ramadhan Bazaar near my house and was fascinated with the selection of foods available. Unfortunately, i am looking at this from a fitness perspective and sorry to say but much of the selection in the Ramadhan bazaar is unhealthy, but i still managed to find some that were decently healthy.

Here are some of the things i found that were relatively healthy to eat or how you can make it into a healthier meal.

Roasted Chicken Wings - when i saw the stall selling this, i had to get it. The ones i got were spicy honey BBQ wings. It was absolutely delicious. Other roasted chicken available was of course the Ayam Percik. I also saw one stall roasting and selling whole chickens, but by the time i saw the stall, i already had too much food in my hands, so i said i will check it out next time.

Ikan Bakar - Marinated in spices and a chili paste and then wrapped with banana leaf and baked. This is another of my favourites and the one i got tasted wonderful. I always squeeze some lime over it before i eat it.

Satay - OK, satay can be unhealthy because of the satay sauce (which is usually loaded with sugar) and the little piece of fat in between. If you want to be healthy, be sure to remove that piece of fat in the middle of the satay and eat the saucce sparingly. If you can do that, you have a pretty healthy meal on your hands. If you are going to eat the entire thing, then its not so healthy. So eat wisely.

Roti John - technically this is a pretty healthy thing to eat. Its egg, chicken or beef, with onions and lettuce pasted onto a bun. Problem is, every time i have bought this in the Ramadhan Bazaar, all i could taste was Mayonaise. Thats because they drown the entire thing with maynaise and chilli sauce. So if you could tell the vendor to cut back on the Mayo and Chilli sauce, then this is a pretty decent meal to get. OR, tell him to put the Mayo and Chilli separately - this way, you choose how much you want to take. PLUS, i think it will taste a whole lot better this way.

Nasi Campur - Again, it is what you choose to put on your plate that makes it healthy or unhealthy. If you want to be healthy, choose more vegetables instead of the fried items. The one thing i saw in almost all stalls - ayam goreng with the "serbuk". OK, not sure what you call it, but this is the coating of the chicken that comes off from the chicken when you deep fry it and sinks to the bottom of the "kuali" and sits there. then these guys scrap it up and sprinkle it all over the chicken. Tasty? Absolutely. Healthy.... err.... maybe not. So just be careful once again with what you throw onto your plate.

Unfortunately, all the other things i saw were pretty unhealthy, so i stayed away from it. They had the usual selection of kuihs, dadih, drinks, nasi lemak and murtabak... which reminds me.. the one unhealthy thing i did indulge in was the the Murtabak... i really love Murtabak, so i decided to treat myself to it. Absolutely wonderful.

Overall Rating - Ramadhan bazaars aren't the healthiest place to get your meals, but you can still find some pretty decent food if you look carefuly and be careful with how you order it. I would not recommend it everyday, but hey, every once in awhile is OK. I understand that these bazaars have become so popular because most people are rushing back from work and don't have enough time to cook before its time to buka puasa. So if you go there frequently, try your best to make some smart choices as mentioned above. Its not impossible and these small steps will go a long way towards your health.

Anyway, what are your favourite foods at the Ramadhan Bazaar? Do share with us and as usual, look forward to hearing your comments

The War Against Machines

2010-08-26T10:42:00.007+08:00

Daywalker is a term usually used in vampire movies, which refers to those we can walk outside in the sun while the rest are hiding indoors. Since i left my full time corporate job, i feel like i am a daywalker. I walk around shopping complexes during the day when they are empty (except for a few other daywalkers like myself), drive on the roads when there aren't many people when previously, i could only do all those things at night like a vampire would. Hence like the vampire, most of us only come out at night, due to our full time job. But now, as a day walker, i have so much more free time on my hands. The freedom of time is amazing. You do what you want to do, when you want to do it.

Anyway the reason i am talking about this, is that i am looking for people to join me in this lifestyle and become a daywalker like me and earn lots of money together. If you are guessing what this is all about, i am looking for people who are passionate about health, wellness and fitness and want to live the life of a "daywalker" and at the same time touch and make a difference in other people's lives. If you are interested in this offer or even remotely curious about this, send me an email at rajan@fitnessmalaysia.com.my and we can discuss further. So get those fingers typing and send me your emails.

OK. Just a little bit of marketing, now down to this weeks post... which is a little late. My apologies for that. I am still adapting to my new daywalker lifestyle. Anyway, this week, i want to talk about using free weights vs machines. Some time ago, i wrote a post on doing squats and mentioned that you should use a power rack instead of a smith machine. There seems to be a growing popularity of people doing squats and bench press on the smith machine these days and sorry to burst your bubble if you are one of them, but these machines are not as effective as free weights and not to mention dangerous as well. Here is why

Smith Machines & other machines in the gym only provide you with a fixed range of motion (ROM) which also means you only train to perform a limited movement. If we were to deviate even slightly from that ROM which you are used to, you will not be able to do the movement or worse, may even get injured. In the real world, muscles work together to accomplish everyday tasks. When you reach down to pick something up, the hamstrings, lower back, glutes, upper back, shoulders, and biceps all work in tandem. There is a symphony of agonist, antagonist, and stabilizers muscles that work together to complete the task.

Muscles must learn their roles as either prime movers or stabilizers. For example, in a free weight bench press, the shoulders and lats “learn” how to stabilize the chest and arms while lift is being executed. In a fixed ROM exercise like the smith machine bench press, none of this happens. As a result, these stabilizers don't get developed along with the prime movers.

When these stabilizing muscles are weak and under developed, or when they haven’t sufficiently learned their roles as stabilizers, the body will not be able to perform real world movements away from the fixed ROM machine. This is why people can leg press 600 pounds but are not able to squat even 100 pounds. I had a friend who routinely used the smith machine for squats in the gym. One day, the smith machine was being used by another gym user, so he opted to use the power rack instead. He loaded up the same amount of weights as he did on the smith machine and he actually fell down when he performed the squat in the power rack. Why? Because the stabilizers are under developed and were unable to compensate and balance him.

You may routinely lift heavy weights on a fixed ROM machines in the gym, then find yourself constantly getting injured at work or at home whenever you try to lift something that’s not nearly as heavy as you are used to in the gym. This is because the stabilizer muscles have remained untrained, and are therefore weak. Hence, machines in the gym which are usually applaud as being able to prevent injury, will actually cause more injury to you.

The same things above applies for the ever popular hammer strength machines available in many gyms these days. These are basically machines with a fixed ROM, except instead of plates and a pin to select your weight, you load up actual weight plates. Just because you are using weight plates, doesn't make it free weights. Now with all that being said, it doesn't mean that machines have absolutely no use at all and should be completely banished from the gym. You just need to ensure that a main portion of your routine should be on free weights and a smaller portion on machines - instead of the other way around. Me personally, I love using machines as finishers to my routine, to squeeze out everything i got at the end. So i do my free weights first and then finish up the routine with some machines. Eg. for my chest, i do bench press, incline bench press and then finish up with the fly machine or cable crossovers. Machines are great for giving you that pump, so i like finishing up with them.

So if you are using the smith machine and / or other machines in the gym, i hope this post will be an eye opener to you. Its never too late to change a routine, so why not start today. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

PS: Any ideas for the next poll? Anything related to fitness that you would like to find out about? If you have any ideas, please let me know. Thanx.

Poll Results - Which one is more difficult to maintain - An Exercise Routine or Diet Plan?

2010-08-18T17:07:00.002+08:00

So, it has now come down to my very last week in Allianz. After working for 7 years, it is a little sad to leave, but I know I am moving on to a field that I am passionate about, so I am excited as well. mixed feelings are always weird. Also, now that I will have more free time on my hand, I wonder whether I will still wake up at 5:30am to head to the gym or would I go at more earthly hours. Well initially, I told everyone that I would be sticking to it, but that was before my trip to India. Since then (I took a 9 day break from working out), I am finding it extremely difficult to re-adapt to my routine. But I guess if I keep doing it, it will eventually come back to me. So I am going to stick with it. Will keep you guys updated on how that goes.

OK, so that’s just a little update on my life, now let’s jump into this weeks post. It’s time once again to review our poll results. This time around, we asked everyone which was more difficult to maintain – an exercise routine or a diet plan. No surprise here, 35 of the 49 respondents said it was more difficult to maintain a diet plan well 14 out of 49 said it was harder to maintain an exercise routine.

The fact is, watching your food is extremely hard and tricky and most people fail to see results because they were not able to stick to their diet plan. Living in a country like Malaysia, where food is just available 24/7 and a culture where people socialize / fraternize around food, its no wonder why many people find this harder than a workout routine. Maintaining a workout is easier for me (that’s why I voted for diet being more difficult). If you have a Personal Trainer, then voila, problem solved. But for those who can’t afford to have one, then it can get challenging. So here are some tips to help you stick to your exercise routine as well as your diet plan.

Sticking with an Exercise Routine
Get some gym buddies – If you can’t afford a personal trainer, get some workout buddies. Workout buddies are an excellent way to stay motivated. For one, you can all motivate each other and keep checking up on each other. Secondly, there is some friendly competition, so that will be a good driver for you to keep working out as you don’t want to be the one slacking off. So go ahead and find some gym buddies.

Set goals – This is true for just about anything in life. If you don’t have a specific goal, you are going to get bored of doing something and eventually you will quit. Imagine driving around in circles with no destination? How long do you think you can do that before you say “screw it”. So set some goals for yourself, and that way you will have a reason to keep working out. The same goes for a diet plan as well. Have some goals and you will have a reason to stick to your diet plan.

Make it a priority – Lots of people tell me they are too busy and that’s why they can’t workout. Have you ever got too busy where you couldn’t take a shower for 3 days? No? Why? Because you make it a priority. Make it a point to set an appointment which cannot be changed. For example, if you decide to workout at 8pm every day, and someone asks you if they can meet up, say NO, you already have another appointment. What I am trying to say is, that people usually choose to trade off their workouts first, before anything else. So just move it up on your list of priorities. I am in bed by 11pm everynight because I want to get up at 5:30am in the morning. So if someone wants to meet me at 10:30pm, I always say, sorry, I can’t meet you that late, I have a very early morning. Most people would oblige, and then sleep at 1am and decide to skip their workout the following morning so that they can make up for loss sleep. So it just comes down to choices.

Sticking with your Diet
Indulgence Plan – I covered this some time back and I have been recommending it lots of people. The fact is, you are going to get bored of eating the same thing everyday and if you don’t have any excape plans, you are in for trouble. Variety is extremely important, so make sure you allow yourself some indulgences. How do you indulge without bursting the buttons in your jeans? Find out more about this and how it can help you stick to your diet plan, by clicking the link below

http://fitnessmalaysiablog.blogspot.com/2010/04/indulgence-plan.html

Moderation is Key – Yes its best to stay away from all the sinful unhealthy food. But every once in awhile, you are going to slip, so its OK. Yes, Roti Canai is bad for you, but hey, every once in a while is OK. Maggi Goreng is also unhealthy, but again, once in awhile is OK. How often do I eat Roti Canai & Mggi Goreng? The last time I ate roti Canai was about 2 months ago. Maggi Goreng – Gosh i can't really remember… maybe 6 or 7 months ago? So if I decided to eat it today, sure, why not. Its OK. Just remember. Do everything in moderation. Sometime ago, I wrote a post on the 90 / 10 philosophy which you can check by clicking the link below.

http://fitnessmalaysiablog.blogspot.com/2009/07/9010-philosophy.html

If you could eat healthily 90% of time and unhealthily 10% of the time, then you will be fine. So don’t fret about being a boy scout about this all the way.

So there you go. Some tips to help you stay on course with your fitness plan and goals. What was your vote for the poll and your reasons for choosing it? Please do share as well as if you have some other tips for others on how to stick with their plan. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments