What Supplements Should I Take for Optimal Health

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

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

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

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?

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?

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?

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?

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™

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.

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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

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.