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

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

Trip To India

Before I ramble on on this weeks post, I would like to wish all my Muslim readers and clients “Selamat Berpuasa”. For those who are wondering how to stay fit during the Ramadhan period, do hop over to Kasey Brown’s blog (fellow fitness blogger) as he did an excellent post on keeping fit during the fasting month. You can check it by clicking the link below:

http://kaseybrownfitness.blogspot.com/2010/07/ramadan.html

Anyway, I just got back from my 8 day trip to India and boy… am I glad to be back. Do you know how to tell when a holiday sucks? When you can’t wait to come home – and that’s how I felt about this trip. OK, please don’t get me wrong. Its not like the trip was an absolute nightmare where I was sitting in a 1 star hotel with no water and food to eat and a mat for a bed. No, all that was fine. But as a holiday destination? That gets the thumbs down from me. Here are some things that I absolutely hate

Horn Horn Horn – Anyone who has been to India, the first thing you will notice when you step out of the airport is people love their car horns. If your horn doesn’t work, then your car is not fit to be on the road. Whenever you drive, please feel free to horn away at will to tell everyone and anyone – Hey I have a car with a horn. Beep beep. If you want to cut into somebody’s lane, blow your horn first. If somebody is trying to cut into your lane, horn at him. When you are coming to a stop at the traffic light, horn at the traffic light. If you are behind someone (which will be most of the time when you are driving), please horn to tell them you are behind. And even when there is no one else around, please check and re-check your horns every 30 seconds or so… to make sure its still working, so when you do get into any one of the situations above, you are sure your horn works.

Dust & dirt in your lungs – Yes, you read it right. The roads are amazingly dusty, sandy and dirty and the best part is, everyone (ok maybe 99.99% of them) like to drive with their windows down and no A/C – in an effort to save petrol. So any taxi you take will have the windows wound all the way down. I am perfectly fine with windows rolled down except that the air is so dusty and filled with sand particles that I kept breathing in sand and dust all day. I am not joking. The air there is really bad and you are constantly smelling dirt and exhaust fumes all the time. Go to a shopping complex and pick up a shirt wrapped in plastic…guess what, the damn plastic is covered in dust. No wonder they have to plastic wrap everything… even when its in an air conditioned shopping complex. It’s that dusty.

Kiasu-ness – Pooh, you thought Malaysians and Singaporeans are kiasu, try going to India. Everyone is always in a hurry and want to be first they will do anything. Look at the way they drive and you know what I mean. Its like a chaos in perfect symphony. Why? Because they weave in and out of traffic and you are absolutely sure you are going to bang someone or something, but yet you just never do. Its amazing. Driving the way they do takes skill. No pun intended here. I really mean it. They are some really skilled drivers. But people are just kiasu even when walking and queueing up to buy something. Enough times, people just cut my queue when I was lining up to buy stuff.

Here is what my itinerary looked like. I spent 2 nights in Bangalore (now called Bengaluru), 3 nights in Goa and then 2 more nights in Bangalore again before returning to KL. Bangalore is a big city and well known as a destination for shopping. If you do go to Bangalore, make sure you check out Commercial Street. It’s the Petaling Street of Bangalore. Besides that, there really isn’t much else to do in Bangalore. Do also check out their fast food joints like KFC & McDonalds. KFC has both a normal Zinger and a Vege Zinger. McDonalds doesn’t have a Big Mac but a Maharaja Burger, which is similar to the Big Mac, except the patties are made out of chicken. Besides that, I really couldn’t find much else to do around there. Oh yes, they have a Taco Bell in one of their malls. I sure miss that.

When we first arrived, we stayed in this hotel (it does not deserve the title of hotel - they should call it Rumah Tumpangan) called Sabari’s Inn (formerly known as Nilgiri’s Nest. This hotel was on the main road so we could hear all the honking all night long. YES, we didn’t get much sleep on the first night. Oh yah, and hot water in the shower ends by 8pm. If you want hot water after that, give the bell boy a call and 30 minutes later, he will be at your door step with 2 pails of hot water. The floor was so dusty (since it was on the main road) I actually wore my slippers everywhere. Check out the pics below. Doesn't this look like a rumah tumpangan?

Anyway I was totally disgusted with the service of this place, so the next day, me and wifey scouted around for another hotel. We found this small boutique hotel called Raintree and it was a real pleasant welcome. It was tucked away in one of the smaller roads, so no honking sounds in the middle of the night. Hot water 24 / 7 - yeah unlike the previous hotel, hot water here is not entitled to public holidays and nights off…and of course, they had Wi-Fi. For a nation that prides itself with IT, I am surprised how hard it was to find a decent internet connection. But this Hotel was far better and cheaper than our previous hotel. So we moved all our things over there and that became our base in Bangalore.

Goa – Oh Boy… here it comes. As most of you know, I am a huge fan of the beach. Before going on this trip, everyone told me things like:-

“Goa is the place to be”, “You are in for a treat”, “It’s really happening man”, “You are absolutely going to love it”

To all my friends who suggested these quotes, sorry to disappoint everyone of you, but I actually thought Goa sucked. OK, sorry to use such harsh words, but the beach was filthy and covered in rubbish and that automatically gets a thumbs down from me. The so called happening bars weren’t that happening at all – I had the picture that it would be like Kuta Beach in Bali, but it was nothing like that all. There really wasn’t much to do. We stayed in Calangute area and we first thought that maybe we are in the wrong area. We checked the local newspaper and there were advertisements for Bars and Restaurants in Baga Beach. Did a quick map check and by road, Baga beach was about 4km a way, but if we walked on the beach, it was just 2.5km. So me and my wifey decided to trek it on foot trhough the beach. OK, sure enough there were many bars and restaurants around, but I dunno, the whole area really lacked the beach feel. It looked and felt like I was walking down Masjid India and not some beach area. Do you know what I mean? So that was a thumbs down too.

Despite the beach being filthy, I just had to dip my head in the water. The waters were really rough and they had life guards available. But we were only allowed to venture in knee deep. But yeah, I tossed and a turned in the water quite a bit but kept getting called back by the life guards who thought I was going in too deep. Oh yeah, one thing I did notice, the sea water in Goa is not as salty as some of the other beaches I have been too. I have no point with this statement, just thought I would mention it. Check out the size of the waves behind me.

One positive point to Goa, was that the hotel was beautiful. Check out the pictures below. The hotels name is Resort Terra Paiso.

So anyway, after Goa, we headed back to Bangalore and spent the last 2 nights there doing some last minute shopping we needed to. By this time I was just counting the hours left before we could head back and like I mentioned at the beginning of the post, I am glad to be back home in Malaysia. Home Sweet Home.

All in all, I would not recommend Bangalore / Goa as a Holiday destination, unless you are into:-

1) Shopping for Indian themed items like sarees (other items are cheaper back here)

2) Going on a religious pilgrimage of some sort

3) Fancy breathing in dust and dirt

4) Enjoy analyzing the different types of rubbish that wash onto the beach

If you are not into any of the above, I really don’t think there is much for you to do in Bangalore & Goa. If you want good beaches, go to Bali, Krabi, Tioman. If you want to shop, go to Bangkok… its much cheaper to get there. Overall, this trip was a thumbs down for me. Of course, this is just my opinion, so I am open to hear everybody’s feedback on India even if you disagree with me on any of the points I made above – would love to hear your comments on this. So please share your opinions.

5 Meals a day for Busy People

As we all know, eating 5 meals a day has been proven to be the most effective nutrition intake plan, regardless of whether you are going for weight loss or muscle gain. For weight loss, it works great because it helps to prevent your body from storing fat during long periods of starvation. For muscle gain, 5 meals a day ensures your body has a constant supply of protein so it can continue to be in an anabolic state.

The big question is, if its so good, why isn't everyone doing it? The problem is, most of us have full time jobs and its not convenient to eat 5 times a day. Can you imagine stopping your meeting at 4pm to tell your boss that you need to feed yourself? That is one of the biggest obstacle most people face. Some other concerns i have heard include it takes too much time to prepare something healthy and its just plain expensive to eat 5 times a day.

So how do you eat 5 times a day, while keeping your full time job? Well here is how i do it, and i have divided it into muscle gain days (MG) and weight Loss Days (WL). For those who are unfamiliar with this terms, please refer to my post on zig zagging. So during each period, i will indicate what i eat / drink to give you a better picture.

OK, as most of you know, i wake up at 5:30am to hit the gym in the morning before work. So my time table starts at 5:30am, but you guys can go ahead and tweak it according to your needs

5:30am: One Glass of Soyabean milk & 2 boiled eggs - boiled the night before (MG & WL)

8:30am: Post workout - Protein Shake mixed with V-Soy (MG)
- Tuna Sandwich on wholemeal bread (WL)

10:30am: One packet of Soya + Tuna Sandwich (MG)
Loose Muesli or Fresh Fruits (WL)

12:30pm: Rice & Curry, Fast Food (MG)
Chapatti & Curry or Sandwich at a restaurant (WL)

4:30pm: Tuna Sandwich on whole meal Bread (MG & WL). On MG days, i eat a bigger portion of the sandwich on WL days, its just half a sandwich. I keep one can of my protein powder in the office. So if i know i have a meeting that day, i mix this up in the pantry before i go into my meeting.

8:00pm: Dinner - This varies based on what i make for dinner. It ranges from Pasta, to some other recipes i have. Will share more in a later post.

I am usually in bed by 11pm, so my dinner is my last last meal.

Now i am sure many will ask why do i have something at 10:30am, when the rule says i should eat for every 3 hours. Yes, ideally we should, but i can't have my lunch at 2:30pm, so i have to manage around it. So don't be too rigid about the 3 hour rule. Try to stick to it as much as you can. Just remember, that the 3 hour starts right after you finish your meal. So if you eat something at 8am, then again at 10am, the your next 3 hour meal is reset and therefore you will only eat again at 1pm and NOT 3 hours from your original 8am. Most people get caught up with trying to follow 3 hours to the dot, and when they can't, get frustrated and quit. Find a way to work around it like i did. In general most of my meals are spaced 3 hours apart, but in some occasions, i intervene based on my lifestyle.

I know there are lots of questions with some of the meals i wrote up there, so here are some tips to help you with it:

Buy some loose muesli and keep it in your office. Great to munch on and healthy for you. Some people even mix this into low fat yogurt. I like eating cereal and muesli dry, so i don't do it, but hey, if it meets your fancy, go for it.
Fresh Fruits - get into the habit of eating more fruits. Pack some apples or bananas with you to work and you can easily consume this at anytime


Protein Powder - yes, i keep one can in my office, one can in house. So this way, when you are in a fix or have to attend a meeting, make one of your meals a protein shake
Muesli Bars - This is another great thing to keep in your office drawer. Rather than keeping a Snickers Bar for the "Rainy Day", why not switch it to a muesli bar. The thing is, we consume what we buy... if you don't buy it and keep it, you can't eat it.
Milk / Soyabean milk- if your pantry has a fridge, keep a carton of milk / soyabean milk. Remember to label it with your name so nobody else accidentally uses it. This is a good alternative if you can't afford protein powder - but of course you have to consume more to get the equivalent amount of protein you would get from a protein shake.

As you can see, eating 5 meals a day isn't that hard to do. With some improvising, you can easily fit this into your schedule. I eat 6 meals a day, but that's based on my needs and my schedule. Remember, eat for every 3 hours that you are awake, and if it comes up to 6 meals, don't fret too much about it. I do it too. What i am sharing here is my routine, but feel free to adjust it to make it fit into your schedule. Easy isn't it. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Squats

Squats are often called the “King of Exercises” because it is one of the best exercises ever created. Some even say that if you could only choose one exercise to do, make it Squats. It trains your hamstrings, quads, back and abs. It truly is a functional exercise that utilizes almost all the muscles in your body. Now when it comes to squats, there have been various debates on how low you should go. The most popular is where you come to a halfway point (where your thighs are parallel to the floor). This is not the best technique and if you want to get the most from your squats, you want to go below the parallel point as low as you can as long as you can maintain your proper form and balance – preferably all the way down or what most peopole call ATG - Ass to The Ground. Unless you have a specific reason not to go so low (like a power lifter who would go just below the parallel squat where your waist is below your knees) for all other purposes, you would want to execute a full squat.

To get the most of your squat, you want to ensure you do the full range of motion (ROM) and not just half way through. Many people disagree and say that a parallel squat is safer on your knees compared to a full squat. This is not true as most of squat injuries occur during lift off (where you lift the bar off the rest and take a couple of steps back to get into position) and landing (where you step back to re-rack the weights). Almost all squat related injuries come from poor technique and not because you go all the way down. You can get just as injured doing a parallel squat if your technique is wrong. So it has nothing to do with how low you go.

This morning I was totally stunned to see a PT in the gym who was training his client to do squats. They were using a Smith Machine (Smith Machines are not very effective – I will cover why in another post) and he loaded up the weights for his client (a lot of weights). During the warm ups when the weights were lighter, the client kept going almost all the way down. As it got heavier, his descent was less and less. And finally when they reached the max amount of weight, the client barely even reached the parallel position – and best of all, the PT did not say anything! If I had to call it a name, I would call it a quarter squat, since he only did a quarter of his ROM. Then the PT caught me looking at his client and he casually just said “lower”, but it still wasn’t even near the parallel position.

It’s not about how much weight you can slap on to impress others in the gym. It’s about how much you can do while maintaining proper form through out. You don’t see people doing a half curl (actually I have seen this weird phenomenon) or quarter curl (so far I haven’t seen this…yet), so why is it that this only happens with squats. You should give it the full range of motion just like other exercises.

Here are some tips on how to execute a squat properly.

Chest Up - Keeping your chest up makes lower back rounding impossible & tightening of your upper-back easier. Your chest should be pointing forward.
Forward Look - Look down & your back will bend. Look at the ceiling & your neck will hurt. Look forward.
Bar Position - Put the bar low, on the muscles of your back shoulders. Below the bone at the top of your shoulder-blades. .
Elbows Back - Don’t let them come forward during the Squat. Pushing your elbows back prevents elbows injuries.
Foot Stance - I keep my foot stance at slightly wider shoulder width.
Toes Out - Point your toes out at about 30 degrees. Your toes must always follow your knees.
Knees in - While descending, don’t let your knees go forward past your toes. Try to keep it 90 degrees with the floor as far as possible.
Weight on your Heels - Never get on your toes. Push from the heels.
Use a power rack. Power rack is like a cage and the best place for you to execute your squats safely. Smith Machines may look like it simulates the same movement, but believe me, its far from the same.
If you have never done squats, you might want to practice the movement on a broom stick or mop stick until you get it right before attempting it in the gym with weights. Getting it right is important to ensure that you avoid injury. So practice it properly until you get it right. I would normally recommend you to get a PT in your gym to train you, but after what I saw this morning, recommending a PT in your gym will be unfair to you.

Anyway, if you are not already doing squats, I hope you start soon. Squats are a must in anyone’s workout or else your workouts will be incomplete. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Detox - Hoax or Truth

Hi guys, firstly my sincere apologies for not having a post last week. I just tendered my resignation with Allianz recently and I have been really busy. What am I going to do after I resign? I will be working as a free lance corporate trainer and I also intend to put more focus on expanding Fitness Malaysia, which has seen tremendous growth over the past 6 months. Anyway, at the moment, I am trying to focus on my job in Allianz (handing over) as well as sorting out my corporate training and expanding Fitness Malaysia. So yeah, at the moment my hands are really full trying to juggle everything. That’s just a quick update to all of you on what’s going on my life. Initially I intended to make a post about my resignation, but as you can see, that’s about all I have to say about that.

This week I wanted to cover the topic of Detox and whether it really is as beneficial as people claim it to be. There are many types of detox services available in the market today. The one I am going to cover in this post is the one where you are supposed to consume a vegetable / fruit shake which is supposed to flush your system of toxins. As you know, Malaysians are becoming a lot more health conscious these days and I see more and more detox companies opening up everywhere offering you detox services. The usual claim is that detox helps you to:
· Remove Toxins from your body
· Helps you lose weight
· Keeps you free from illness

So does it really work and do we really need it or is just another marketing scam. Let’s look at it topic by topic.

Removing Toxins from your body
Usually, when you go for a detox session, you are given this “shake” which is a mixture of all kinds of fruits and vegetables. Due to the high fiber content of these fruits and vegetabls, most people end up getting a bit of diorhea the next day. Of course this is supposed to be good thing, since its “flushing” your system of all these harmful toxins. Is this true?

Our bodies are designed to remove toxins by itself without any assistance. From our kidney to the liver, these organs primary function is to process harmful material and excrete them from the body. Technically speaking, you don’t need to detox yourself since your body is already doing this all the time. Its like trying to sit in an oxygen tank for 30 minutes a day for 5 days with hopes of detoxing your respitory tract so it functions better – after all we are exposed to carbon monoxide and other contaminents daily. Again, our respitory tract is designed to handle normal levels of contaminents, so you don’t have to sit in that oxygen tank to detoxify it.

I am not saying that doing this is bad for you or harmful, but I personally don’t see the value of it in terms of removing toxins, since the body already has this system in place.

Helps you lose weight
Does detoxing help you lose weight? Usually when you go for a detox, you are asked to replace one of your meals with this vegetable / fruit shake. This of course translates to weight loss as there is a noticeable calorie deficit when you replace your normal meal to one that is purely fruits and vegetables. Honestly, this is a great strategy to lose weight as long as you can stomach it. The question then is, for how long? Most people I know do this for a week and then get sick of it and revert to bad habits again. But if you can maintain this for a long period, then yes, go for it.

Some recommend that you only drink the shake for 2 whole days. Meaning all your meals are replaced 100% by just these shakes. You are supposed to drink a shake every 2 or 3 hours to ensure your body receives enough nutrients throughout the day. Not very convenient, but the big question is, does this help you to lose weight?

For me, doing a detox for 2 days is a great way to reboot your digestive system. My wife was having trouble shedding the last few kilos no matter how much she exercised and how much she cut back on, she just couldn’t shed it. So she tried a detox for 2 days where all she did was drink the juices. We did it over the weekend and not a working day. She couldn’t stick to the juices 100% all the way without eating, but when she felt really hungry, she just had a slice of bread or something very light. But as far as possible, she tried to refrain from eating.

The results? After the 2 days of detoxing, once she went back to her normal diet, the kilos just melted off. She lost 1 kilo within the first 3 days of returning to her normal diet, another 1 kilo dropped off 7 days later. As you know, if you were to do the same exercise again and again, eventually your body would adapt and you wouldn’t see results anymore and you would have to shock your body by doing different exercises. Similarly, our body adapts to our eating habits and the best way to shock it is to go through a short detox session. This is especially helpful when you have come down to that last 2 or 3 stubborn kilos that just won’t disappear. A detox helps to shake things up and gets your body moving again.

Keeps you free from illness
Now the believe here is that since the detox cleanses your system, less toxins means you are healthier, which also translates to you not falling sick as often. Reality check amigos. Disease is caused by viruses and bacteria. Granted that the fruits and vegetables in the detox shake are high in vitamins and minerals, but if you already have a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, you will be benefitting from this. So you don’t have to detox yourself this way. If your diet is poor in fruits and vegetables, then making a shake like this every other day (everyday would be better) will be beneficial to replenish your supplies.

So what’s the final verdict on detox? To me personally, I don’t think its bad for you but a lot of the benefits that they advertise, is not exactly right. I would recommend just typing in “detox recipes” in Google Search and you will get a whole host of recipes which you can do right at home for a fraction of the price. It does help you lose weight (when you do it properly), but I am afraid the other benefits are just not true. So what are your thoughts on detox? As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Zig Zagging

Have you ever tried to go through a muscle gain phase where you eat more, so you can lift more, gain size but end up also gaining unwated fat? Or have you tried going through a fat loss phase where you lose weight but end up losing healthy muscle mass as well? Let’s face it, it is difficult to gain muscle mass and stay lean at the same time. The reason is, most people only have one diet plan and follow it day in and day out for weeks depending on what they are trying to achieve - regardless of what their workout routine looks like. So if you are trying to gain muscle mass, you eat more and continue eating more everyday for 3 to 4 weeks everyday. Then when its time to cut the fat, you cut down your caloric intake for the next 3 or 4 weeks everyday while maintaining your workout. Needless to say, during the weight loss period, you lose fat, but you also end up losing muscle mass and strength in the gym.

So how do you gain as much muscle mass as you can without gaining too much fat? Striking that balance between the 2 is hard, but not if you know how.

The answer is a Zig Zagging. Zig Zagging is one of the best ways for you to gain muscle while keeping your fat gain at a minimum. This means you will eat according to your training days and your training days will consist of Weight Gain days (where you lift like a bull) and Weight Loss days (where you do your cardio) or where you are resting. For you to gain muscle mass, your body has to remain in an anabolic state and the only for you to achieve that is to eat more calories than you need. Of course this would mean that you would gain some small amount of fat as well as additional unused calories turns to fat. On weight loss days, you have to eat less calories than you need and this results in you losing fat. So whatever additional fat you gained during your weight gain days will be lost during the weight loss days without having any effect on your muscle mass. This balances off nicely where you get to keep the muscle you gained and lose that fat which you don’t want.

Ok let me share with you what I do, so you have good idea on how to do this yourself.

Monday through Thursday is my weight gain days. This is where I lift heavy to try and gain as much muscle mass as I can. Since these are heavy workouts, trust me, if you don’t eat enough, you are going to struggle through the routine and won’t get the most from it. So these are days where I eat more carbs and if I have to indulge in unhealthy food, I usually do it on these days – since it is supposed to be my weight gain days. So if you like to eat fast food, here is your green light to eat it during these days. Now of course how much you indulge in will depend on how heavy you are pushing yourself in the gym. The heavier you push, the more you need to consume.

Friday to Sunday is my weight loss days where is usually do cardio or just rest and relax. Usually I do the treadmill or run outside for about 40 minutes. Sundays are usually my lazy days, so following the principal of eating for what you are about to do, since I laze around most of the time, I don’t eat that much. Usually my meals are small, consisting of very little carbs but lots of lean protein. This is where you want to eat your salads and other weight loss type foods as well.

How about if I just want to lose weight and not gain muscle? Should I still do zig zaging? Absolutely. On days when you do workout, you are going to want to eat more so you have the energy to push more in your workouts, but maybe you don’t want to eat as much as a person who is trying to gain muscle mass would. On days when you are not working out (you must have this at some point in the week), you will stick to your usual weght loss type diet. The thing is, many people obsessed with what the weighing scale says and end up losing healthy muscle as well along with their fat. As you know loss muscle means lower metabolic rate. Whatever your weight loss goasl are, you goal should always be to lose fat, not muscle. So this is where zig zagging helps to ensure your body does not waste away muscle. So you look healthy and not haggard.

Eating exactly the same way all 7 days of the week is not an efficient technique at all. You need to zig zag and keep changing your meals according to what you are doing for that day. Try it out and see the results for yourself. I have been doing it and its really great. Besides helping you get the results you want, it also ensures that you don’t get bored with your diet. Most people quit their diets because its just too boring and they get sick of eating the same thing again and again. Zig Zagging allows you to add variety to the entire plan since you do get to different kinds of foods every week and still look your best. There really isn’t any reason not to do it. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Tragic Incident at Standard Chartered KL Marathon

A friend of mine took part in the Standard Chartered KL Marathon yesterday and she sent me this email about one of the runners who collapsed and passed away on the way to the hospital. I am truly shocked with this story and my condolences goes out to the family of Lim. What i cannot believe is how lightly some of the authorities took this. Below is the email that was sent to me. Please read and share your comments.


I would like to share a tragic incident that happened at Standard Chartered KL Marathon today… When i was running my final 2 km on the 10km… as i was running along the road in front of Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur, i saw a guy was sitting on the road side then soon enough he collapsed… this incident attracted my attention as a guy(a training doctor, named Irkhan) that was trying to help him was shouting for medic.. as i was a trained EFR, i ran over to see what is happening.. (it was around 1 hour into the race for 10km runners)i got to know that the guy (named Lim) has collapsed and was having seizure.. we tried to place him in recovery position… he was breathing very heavily and shortly and he was also biting his teeth very very hard… i was afraid that he will hurt himself (with either biting his own tongue or he closed up his airway).. so i tried to open up his jaw and tried to communicate wif him to have him relax and breath easily.. he then slowed down his breathing and taking deeper breath…another lady (Pei Kheng) came to help and constantly monitor on his pulse… and Dr. Visva (was another participant in the run) came over to help…Then suddenly, his pulse was gone… then we lied him flat and started on CPR procedures… we constantly check on his pulse to check whether his pulse has come back.. we did chest compression and also mouth-to-mouth breathing to Lim…as we were doing the CPR procedures, we did not sight medic anywhere.. and we tried to shout as loud as possible for medic… After awhile into the CPR procedures, "lady A" said that she could feel his pulse but was very weak.. then we stopped the CPR procedures to see whether he regain consciousness or not… After i stopped the chest compression on Lim, i started shouting for medic services again with the hope that a medic services is nearby and heard us.. but unfortunately not… we only sighted 3 DBKL Officers(with big motorcycles) just stood by the road side and just stare… the did not come over to help or to check out what happened… (it was around 10 minutes that Lim collapse and had seizure)…after a moment, Lim loose his pulse again.. we started CPR procedures again.. we still did not sight an ambulance or any EMS(Emergency Medical Services) around… after approximately 30 compression, Lim regained his pulse but was very very weak.. and yet.. there was still no ambulance or EMS sighted… and DBKL officers still stood there and did not came over to help… so I informed a passer by to run to the officers to tell them to call for an EMS soonest possible...after we performed CPR procedures on Lim for the the third time, finally a St. John ambulance came after around 15 - 20 minutes after Lim collapsed…we let the EMS officers to take over the CPR and First Aid… Dr. Visva asked whether do they have the AED(Automated External Defibrillator)… one of the person from the EMS said that they do not have it.. then I asked whether do they have a face mask with pump.. they also did not have it there… THEY PRACTICALLY HAVE NOTHING IN THE AMBULANCE!!!!!!!! -.-" EMS took him and speed their way to HKL…we were later informed that the Response time for EMS is 3 minutes but it took them almost 20 minutes to arrive… and later.. as I was reading through the Runners Guide that was provided in our running kit…There is a statement (at page 15) that states that "Medical Assistance - Medical Aid is available every 4km and at the Finish Area. Due to runner's physical condition, Medical Officials are authorized to stop runners and remove their timing chip"…every 4KM MY ROYAL ASS.. I did not see any first aider, ambulance or any sort of medical officials along my 10km route… and if 4km was true.. it definitely will not take them SO LONG to arrive...-----------------------------------------------------------------------I got a call from Dr. Visva a moment ago.. he went to HKL to check out the condition of Lim and he informed me that Lim have passed away on his arrival to the hospital…

Lim is only into his 20's and was running the 10KM distance…

Working Out in the Morning - FAQ

Here i am sitting in Singapore once again and typing out a post. i am back here in Singapore for work for one whole week. It seems like just not too long ago i was doing this. Anyway i am staying in the Concorde and i went to check out their gym earlier tpday. Pretty good. They actually have a squat rack, bench press & even a chin up bar. Yes, i should be able to get in all my usual exercises. But 1 thing that did piss me off was that their sign says the operating hours are 7am to 8pm. So i decided to ask the front desk if they could open at 6:30 for me as i need to head off for my training. When i called, they said their operating hours are 6am to 10pm. WTF? So i marched down there just now just to check and sure enough... the sign says 7am to 8pm... and typical of hotels, there was no one at the front desk. So i asked one guy who was working out and he told me it opens at 6am. so which one is which? well i guess we will see tomorrow.

Anyway enough about that. Just wanted to share that with someone and didn't know who i could share it with... so i thought this would be the best place. This week i am re-visiting the topic on working out in the morning which i wrote 2 weeks back, as I got many calls and sms-es about that post and lots of friends asking me how to go about it. wow... i didn't think that post would actually motivate a lot of people... but it did and i am happy. So i thought for the benefit of all, let me post up the questions i received and the answers i gave. Hope this helps all of you who are thinking about working out in the morning.

Should i eat anything before i work out?

Well i usually just gulp down a glass of soya and i am out the door. There was once when i forgot to drink my soya and felt lightheaded half way through my workout. The thing is you do want some sugar in your system but if you eat a proper meal, you have to wait an hour to an hour and a half before you work out. So unless you are prepared to wake up at 4:30am, i recommend just sticking to liquids. Something small like crackers or some cereal is OK... but avoid eating too much.

What should i eat after that?

well what do you normally consume after your workout? you can consume the same thing here. I am currently taking Nutrilite Protein mixed with V-Soy right after my workout. Before this i used to make Tuna sandwiches and take them with me. I still take the tuna sandwiches and eat it in between... remember, best nutrition plan to have is to eat every 3 hours... so i save my sandwiches for those odd moments when i cannot go out to get something to eat.

I feel really drowsy and sleepy after lunch.

Well to solve this, try sleeping earlier. i am usually in bed by 11pm most days and occasionally at 11:30pm. Plus you must understand that this gets some getting used to. The more you do it, the more your body will adapt...so the only way to overcome this is to sleep earlier and keep doing it till you get used to it. also try eating a lighter lunch. Sometimes mid day drowsiness is caused by a heavy meal.

I still feel sleepy when i reach the gym.

Try doing some cardio before your lift. Maybe a quick 10 or 15 minute jog. This helps to get blood pumping around. I usually do 3 to 4 warm up sets (start with lighter weights and gradually go up to your max) and that really helps to prep my body for the heavy lift. If you have consumed some sugar upon waking up, and do some light warm ups or cardio, i guarantee your body will be wide awake and ready to go.

How often should i do this?

Well how often do you workout? I do it 5 times a week and each time i go in, i train different muscle parts... enabling my body to recover. So it really depends on your routine

I don't have enough time in the gym coz my work starts early

Well there are 3 thinngs you can do.

1) split up your workout to more times a week, meaning doing less for each workout but more frequently over the week - so total work is the same, but you have to go more often to make up for the cut offs.

2) doing your exercises in super sets -this saves huge amount of time

3) lastly, maybe working out in the morning isn't going to work for you. So if you can't manage it, don't worry. This isn't for everyone.

OK. I hope i managed to get all the questions in here. If you do have any other questions, do post it up here and i will answer them. Till then good luck with the morning workouts. remember, it just gets some getting used to and it is not impossible. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

PS: The damn poll is working again. So please do take a moment to vote. Thanks guys

Have you "trained" yourself to eat more than you need?

I have been trying to gain mass & strength recently, so I have been chowing down extra food to achieve my goals. Before this, my goal was to lose fat, so I was careful with my food and only ate according to what I needed. It was pretty strict, but I lost weight pretty quickly. But now I am eating more carbs & proteins to allow me to lift heavier in the gym which ultimately translates to more muscle as well. So far so good in terms of achieving these goals. I am sure most of you will be going “Wow, eating more…that’s easy enough to do.” Well contrary to pupolar belief, I initially found it difficult to actually eat more food. I kept getting bloated and uncomfortable after my meals. The reason was, my body was used to a certain amount of food, and trying to push it above that took some getting used to. Perhaps I should have done it more gradually then I actually did. The other thing I am guessing is, my body is not used to the sudden increase in carbs and my already sensitive stomach took it pretty bad.

But now that I have been eating that way for awhile I am used to it. And then it got me thinking. For those who are overweight, you have actually trained yourself to eat that much food. So when it comes to cutting down that food, you are obviously going to feel it. It’s like trying to lift heavier weights in the gym for the first time. If you are used to benching 100 pounds, going up to 110 pounds will be difficult intially. But if you keep at it, you will be benching 110 pounds just like how you used to bench 100 pounds. Just like you trained yourself to eat so much food, now you have to train yourself to eat less food. It’s that simple.

Whenever I hear comments like “Oh, you don’t understand… I have a big appetite and its not easy”, I don’t buy it for one second. Sorry, your appetite is big, because you have trained it to be big, just like someone has big arms, because he trained his arms to be big. So, how do you train yourself to eat less? Well, here are some simple tips to help you train yourself to eat less.

Eat slowly
Most people tend to overeat because they eat way too fast. Your brain takes some time to notify you that it is full and tell you to stop eating. But if you eat quickly, by the time your brain sends the “stop I am full signal”, you have usually already surpassed your “actual” full limit. So learn to eat slowly. A few techniques come in handy. For one, put your cutlary down while you are chewing. Most of us are busy scooping up the next mouthful while we are chewing to create the continuous stream of food. Make it a point to put down your fork and spoon while you chew, and only pick it up again once you have swallowed. This slows down your eating process and you will find yourself almost automatically eating less, which will translate to weight loss. Another thing you can do is to chew slowly. This also helps to reduce your overall eating speed.

Eat till you are not hungry and stop
Most of us tend to eat till we are full or stuffed. Wrong technique. Eat slowly and pay attention to your hunger level. Once the sensation of hunger subsides, make it a point to stop. Don’t eat beyond that. You do not have to be full or stuffed to have enough food. Once your hunger disappears, stop eating. This only works if you follow the previous step. When you feel full, you have actually consumed more than you are used to. Eating till you are full all the time is essentially training your stomach and appetite to accept more food. So stop pushing your appetite to newer heights by being full all the time. Learn to train it for less.

Don’t skip meals
Here is what happens when you skip a meal. When its time to eat your next meal, you will tend to binge and overeat to compensate for what you missed out. Not to mention, skipping meals is not an effective strategy for weight loss, so there really isn’t any reason to do this. The best technique is to of course eat a small meal for every 3 hours that you are awake. This way, your body has a constant flow of nutrition so you can avoid binge eating and you will also eat less because you are not saving up your hunger and unleashing it after many many hours of starvation. So don’t skip meals and if you can, eat every 3 hours. Here is where its handy to have small things like muesli bars or fruits around so you can chew on that when its not convenient to break your 3 hour fast with a proper meal.

Do it gradually
Make it a point to reduce your food slowly. I have seen so many people get excited about losing weight, cut down their food by half, see amazing results for 2 weeks and then suddenly quit altogether. Why? Because it was too drastic and they just couldn’t sustain it. Just like how you can’t go to the gym and bench press 225 pounds on the first day, its not advisable to drastically drop your food intake overnight. Ever hear the saying" slow and steady wins the race"… yeah, because its 100% true. So be cautious / aware of how much you are eating and progressively reduce it from time to time. A good benchmark is to reduce it every week or every 2 weeks. So cut it down by about 10% and then a week or 2 later, cut it down by a further 10% and so on. But you have to be consistent for all your meals and not just cut down 10% from one meal a day.

So what is your excuse for eating more than you need now? We now know that its just a habitual thing that has been developed over years of training, and now its time to train it to accept new amounts and that is basically what you are doing here. Try it out for yourself and see. You will be amazed with the results you get. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

PS: Please take a moment to vote on the latest poll.

How do you keep yourself motivated?

I wake up at 5:30 every weekday morning, leave the house by 6:00am and I begin my workout by 6:30am. Have a quick yet intense work out, shower and then head off to work. As most of you might have guessed, lifting weights at 6:30 in the morning is not exactly the easiest thing to do. Whenever I tell people about my routine, they always ask me “How do you get motivation to do that every morning?” My answer is that I want to avoid the traffic jam, so that’s why I wake up and leave my house so early so that I get to avoid the jams.

Although a lot of you might say that “traffic jams” can’t really be categorized as motivation, I choose to view it differently and that is how I use it and turn it into motivation for me. That’s the thing about motivation. Motivation doesn’t necessarily have to be people cheering for you or people saying, “Hey you look like you have lost weight”. Of course motivation like that is great and who doesn’t love it. But the key to working out, is to take all the unexpected things around you and turn it into motivation and you will be surprised at how much more these small things will add up. So, here are some tips for you to derive motivation from just about anything.

Play out the “what if worst case scenario”
Just like my traffic jam example, every time I wake up in the morning and feel like I just can’t do this, I play out the worst case scenario. If I don’t go to gym, then I am going to get stuck in the jam. Not only do I have to deal with annoying drivers, I could be late and if that happens, I will never hear then end of my boss yelling and screaming. So with all that in contrast, a quick 1 hour lift doesn’t seem that hard to do. So weighing the consequences, I think I would rather just go for my workout than to skip it. Also, if you are a person who trains regularly, you know that if you skip this work out, you are going to feel guilty about it all day. So rather than feel crappy all day, I might as well get it over it.

Remember that after working out, you will always feel good
This has actually been scientifically proven. Working out actually triggers your body to produce adrenalin and endorphins, which are hormones that act as natural feel good drugs. So though it might be difficult to get out of bed or get off that sofa and start your workout, think about how good you are going to feel once you complete your workout. If you are feeling lazy and down, tell yourself that this will all change once you sweat it out and finish your work out.

Don’t think about it. Just do it
Working out for me, has become part of my routine. Just like you would brush your teeth every morning when you get up, working out at a particular time has become part of my routine. I have actually programmed myself in such a way that I just do it without thinking anymore. Sometimes when I look back, I can’t believe that I have stuck with this same routine for more than 8 years. That’s a long time.
So whenever you feel lazy or feel like you just want to skip it, re-program your mind immediately. Tell your self that you just have to do it. Every time a negative thought comes to your head, push it away and say “I just have to do this”. Don’t let these negative thoughts rule your mind and make decisions for you.

I am not like everyone else.
When you wake up at 5:30 every morning, it’s hard to tell yourself that you need to go the gym and start working out. All sorts of thoughts race through your mind. The one that always races through mine is “Why do I have to do this? Everyone else is still fast asleep.” Of course the answer to that question is always “I am not like everyone else and I don’t want to be like everyone else”. You will be surprised at how effective that is.

Get a gym buddy
This is actually one of the easiest and most fun way to stay motivated. Get a friend who shares your enthusiasm for working out and make it a point to work out together. Not only is working out together fun, it is also great for keeping each other motivated. You get to compare yourself with someone, and this creates a competitive spirit which all in all is a good thing for working out. Besides that, having a gym buddy also helps when you start slacking off. When you don’t feel like going or if your gym buddy doesn’t feel like going, you can push each other to go. Plus, if you cancel, you are not only canceling your own plans… there is someone else who is depending on your plans as well. So start persuading your work mates, family members, friends or college mates into getting fit. Having a gym buddy is always the best way to work out.

Take a break from time to time
This is an extremely important tip. Lot’s of people who start off as real enthusiasts suddenly quit after awhile because they don’t feel motivated anymore. Often times, when you do the same thing over and over again, you tend to get bored with the routine, hence making you feel unmotivated and the feeling of wanting to quit.
To avoid this, make it a point to take a one week break from your routine every 4 or 5 months. During the one week, take up other activities like swimming or playing football or any other kind of sport. Once the one week break is over, you will probably feel guilty that you haven’t worked out for awhile and this will give you more drive and motivation to work out again.

Keep Reading Fitness Malaysia's Blog

Yes, this is the best way to keep yourself continuously motivated. OK OK, jokes aside, but I really do mean this. Reading this blog will help you stay motivated because you are always learning new tips which you can’t wait to try at the gym. So make sure you check out this blog every week to keep yourself motivated all the time.

So now that you have an arsenal of motivation tips, make sure you put them to use. Don’t let yourself feel down and lazy resulting in you quitting. Working out takes time to see results and a lot of times people quit because they don’t see the results. Believe me, the results will come to all those who work for it. The only thing you need to do is to keep working at it without quitting. Easy isn’t it? As usual, look forward to reading your comments.