You can eat healthily anywhere - Mamak

In my last post, I got some very interesting feedback on how its impossible to eat healthily outside and why the ratio 90/10 philosophy won’t work. I believe the term “crappy cafeteria food” was one of the comments I received for the previous posting. In addition to that, I have received many comments from people who say “when you eat out, it’s impossible to stay fit” or “only way to eat healthily and stay fit is to eat food that tastes like cardboard”. I also hear other comments like “healthy food is too expensive” and “I have no time to make food and take from home”.

Well I hear you guys loud and clear and I understand that it is indeed difficult stay fit and healthy when we have to eat out most of the times. But the fact is, you can eat healthily virtually anywhere and I take this as a personal challenge to show you how to eat healthily anywhere. So if you think of a place that is impossible to eat healthily, please let me know and I will show you how to eat healthily there. So please send in your requests and I will publish them here.

Before I start, just a quick disclaimer so I don’t get slammed for sucking the fun out of everything tasty in life. If you only eat in this place once in awhile, then I say go ahead and enjoy. But if your visit this place regularly, then you might want to follow these tips carefully to ensure your gym workouts don’t go to complete waste.

So to kick of these series of “how to eat healthily anywhere”, my first choice is every Malaysian’s favourite joint – The Mamak.

I know most of you probably visit a Mamak at least 3 to 4 times a week, and if you do, follow these tips and you will be eating healthier than most other people. So here’s how to eat healthily at the mamak.

Healthy Foods
Tandoori Chicken – Lean Protein which is baked so the fat drips off in clay oven.
Chapati – Each chapati is roughly 150 calories depending on size. The good thing is, its made out of whole wheat flour which is absorbed slower into your blood compared to polished white flour.
Thosai – Each Thosai has about 100 to 120 calories. It’s light and filling. Some Mamak’s have Thosai Telur – add in an egg to the thosai to increase it’s protein content. I normally get full on 2 rava thosai’s
Telur Separuh Masak – If you lift heavy and need extra amounts of protein, this is good meal to add to your normal meal. 2 eggs are pretty filling and each egg only has about 70 to 80 calories. Not to mention, swallowing 2 of these will make you half full, hence you only need a smaller portion of other foods to fill you up.
Nasi Campur – If you have to take mixed rice, make sure you load up more vege on your plate. Instead of fried chicken or fish, try curried chicken or Fish. It’s slightly healthier than the fried kind. I would recommend to try the items above more often than rice. But when you eat rice, be careful with what goes on your plate. Remember, more vege & Tauhu, less rice, less starchy dishes like potatoes etc.

Foods that you must Avoid
Roti Canai – This goes without saying. It is nothing but solidified oil
Goreng Goreng – Where possible, please avoid your Maggi Goreng, Nasi Goreng, Mee Goreng and all the other goreng goreng stuff. It’s just bad stuff
Nasi Lemak – The names says it all (Fat Rice)

Drinks
Cutting out sweet drinks from your meals will automatically shave off 200 to 300 calaories. Quite a big saving. Besides “Ais Kosong”, you can go for Diet Cola’s as an alternative. But I make it a point to drink plain ice water whenever I can. It costs less and is better on my waist line too. If you must have a sweeter drink, avoid those with milk like Milo, Bandung etc…. milk increases the calories in drinks significantly.

Pop quiz: If you had to choose between Sirap Bandung and Limau Ais, which one would you choose?

So, as you can see, even if you visit the Mamak 3 to 4 times a day, you can eat a different healthy meal everyday. So you don’t have get bored of eating the same thing. So go ahead, make some small changes and you will be surprised with the results. As I mentioned, if you do have a place which you feel is impossible to eat healthily, let me know and you will be surprised at how you can turn it around with a few simple changes in the choices you make.

Look forward to hearing your comments on this as well as your suggestion for “crappy cafeteria food”.

90/10 Philosophy

I was reading a US based fitness magazine yesterday, and there was a personal trainer who introduced a very interesting concept. It’s called the 90/10 philosophy. The philosophy is really quite simple. What you need to do, is eat healthy 90% of the time and treat yourself (with unhealthy stuff which we all love) 10% of the time.

So if you were to break it down by each week, your eating plan would look something like this.

If you were to eat 3 meals a day, that is a total of 21 (3 meals x 7 days) meals for the whole week. This is of course assuming you don’t snack on anything in between. Now out of those 21 meals, you will be entitled to 2.1 meals or let’s just round it up to 2 meals, where you can let loose and eat that pizza, fast food or anything else which other diets ask you to stay off.

What if you do snack a lot? Simple, make sure you are snacking on healthy stuff, and you can use your quota for “treats” to eat some unhealthy snacks once in a while. If you are snacking on unhealthy stuff, well need I say what you need to do?

So I took a look at my current daily eating plan. Everyday, I make sandwiches for breakfast which is very healthy. I usually try to eat a light home made dinner. My main problem area is lunch and of course the weekends. Looking at it now, I am probably doing a 70/30 philosophy currently. So instead of jumping straight to 90/10, I thought of easing my way into 80/20 and then after a few weeks, jumping to the 90/10.

So what I recommend for you, is to take a look at your current eating habits. If you snack ocassionaly on unhealthy stuff, knock it off completely. Since its occasional, you probably don’t really need it. If you snack regularly, then this will count as one meal and you will have to make a concsious effort to make sure you start snacking healthily. What are healthy snacks? Muesli Bars, high fiber crackers, fruits (try freezing fruits like grapes, rambutan and manggoes – sucking on it makes it taste better than candy), dry and loose muesli, high fiber cereal. As you can see, you do have quite a few choices. So make the switch. Most snacking is psychological and you just eat because you want to put something in your mouth – and not that you truly desire that goreng pisang or Twisties.

Once you have roughly determined what % you are at, you can start planning on how to increase the healthy portions while reducing the unhealthy treats till your reach a 90/10 ratio. Once you do, you can feel proud of the results you have achieved.

What’s so great about the 90/10 philosophy?
1) It does not say “no treats at all”. It actually allows you to enjoy and live a normal life… which translates to you actually sticking with this, rather than quitting.
2) It is an open system anyone can adopt. Whatever your eating habits are right now, you can quickly apply this. You don’t have to make drastic changes to the number of meals you have just to make this work
3) It answers the all important question – How often am I allowed to indulge or Is it OK for me to eat that cheesecake? Well now you know.
4) You can start from where you are right now and progress slowly – You don’t have to set next Monday as the dreadful day your tongue ceases to taste anything good. Move slowly and swapping certain meals each time. It’s easier to do.
5) It works – If all of you really follow this, you will actually get to see results. Best of all, without that much pain and suffering.

So go ahead. Track what you eat for one whole week. Mark the number of meals that were healthy and the number of meals that were unhealthy. Now you will know your ratio. From here, you can start your journey towards healthier eating. Try it and see. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

The Mighty Exercise Ball

Me and wifey went to Sunway Pyramid yesterday to look for some exercise stuff for the house. She asked me what we should get without having to rob a bank and I told her that the Exercise Ball or Swiss ball is a must. My wife does almost all her exercise at home, since her work schedules and calls makes it difficult to workout at a gym. Hence since she does most of her exercise at home, we decided that it was a valuable investment…not to mention, I will also get to use it over the weekend, should I need to supplement my workout with that extra kick. Besides the ball we also bought an exercise bike from Fitness Concept, which is due to be delivered this coming Wednesday.

Anyway, at first, she was skeptical with the ball thinking it can only be used for doing crunches, but once I got it home and pumped it up, I showed her an array of exercises to do, and she was surprised with the number of things you can do on a simple bouncy ball. From pushups, to sit ups, to squats, to leg raises – the number of things you can do with the exercise ball is limited only by your own imagination. She tried it herself and she said its tough work. So if you could normally do 30 crunches on flat ground, you might only be able to do 20 crunches on the exercise ball. Why? Because balancing on the ball is tough and tiring.

Even though a particular exercise looks like it only focusing one body part, in actuality, your enitre body is at work hard continuously trying to maintain the position you are in. So all your other muscles are constantly flexing and relaxing to maintain and balance your body at the position you are in. I just played with the ball for a while doing some crunches and leg raises and I could feel my arms and legs working out hard at the same time. What does this mean? The more muscles that are working at one time, the more fat you are going to burn… not to mention tone and strenghten everything as well. It’s like a whole body workout, with additional focus on the body part of your choice.

I have attached some pics of just some of the exercises you can do right in the comfort of your own home using an Exercise Ball. Unlike other exercise equipments that costs thousands of Ringgit, the exercise ball only costs around RM 60 to RM 80, so I think anyone can afford it.

If you workout at home a lot, and if you had to choose 1 piece of home fitness equipments that allows you to workout your entire body without emptying your life’s savings, this would be my recommendation. It’s fun, challenging and most importantly – it can workout the whole body.

Let me know if any of you have tried it and of course any other cool exercises you can think of and of course look forward to hearing your comments.

Dealing with Muscle Injuries

I just re-started my gym workout after 1 whole week of being off and man it feels good – except I got to start slow, so that’s a little bummer. Reason for being off for one whole week– my trip to Sabah and also it’s been awhile since I let my body rest for a whole week. So the rest and break in between the workouts from time to time is actually a good thing.

But anyway, that is a different topic all by itself. What I want to talk about in this posting is how to deal with muslce injury, and as luck might have it, I pulled a muscle or tendon today. Just as I am getting back in the groove, I might have to take another break while this heals.

So the big question is, how do you deal with muscle injury. Does it mean that you have to stop your workout immediately? Not necessarily. First thing you need to do, is rate the severity of the pain. Of course there are many types and classifications for muscle injury, but for layman purposes I came up with my own simple scale. And this scale covers the most common injuries we are likely to face while working out.

1 – Only hurts when the injured part is bent or stretched in a certain position
2 – Continuous pain even when at rest, but not severe
3 – Severe and continuous pain which prevents you from performing your normal day to day activities.

What I have is a Level 1 pain… it only hurts when I bend my arm in a certain way and really squeeze it. It’s annoying, but I can get by. So here is what your need to do depending on the severity of the pain

Level 1
Usually I would advise people to stay away from working out for a couple of days till the pain subsides, but if you are as crazy as me, I know you are going to hit the gym anyway. What I would advice is, you can go to the gym, but avoid exercises that puts your body in the position that causes the pain. For example, I currently feel an annoying pain when I bend my arms all the way… so I will need to avoid any exercise that mimics this movement as well others which may cause the pain. Needless to say, you want to try every exercise with a light weight first to see if the pain returns. If it doesn’t, then gradually increase the weights to your full strength. If it does return, stop doing that exercise immeidately. Pain is a signal to tell you that something is wrong, so when the signal goes off, stop doing it immediately. Most people find pain a nuisance, but I see it as a way for my body to alert me that something is wrong.

Usually, this kind of pain will disappear after a day or two of not repeating movements that cause the pain. So you just need to be careful with how you move and what you do for a couple of days, and you should be scott free after that. However, if the pain is still present after a week, you will need to see a doctor and get it checked out. Also, if at any point, the pain becomes worse or permanent, you will need to rest for awhile and get your doctor’s advice. If when the pain comes and it is the kind that is very sharp and painful, please see your doctor as well.

Level 2
If you feel a continuous throb or pain after your workout, it is pretty serious and you may need to see a doctor immediately. By pain, I am not talking about the usual post workout muslce intensity or aches. This is a pain which you know something has gone wrong. The worse thing you can do for this is to pop pain killers without seeing your doctor, let the pain disappear and then workout normally as if nothing happened and then keep popping pain killers to not feel the pain. You are probably going to make the injury worse.

A lot of injuries become permanent because people continue stressing the injury till it reaches a point of no return. Hence early intervention and and rest can prevent the injury from becoming a permanent injury. So whenever you get a lingering pain, you need to see your doctor immediately. He or she is most probably going to advice to rest for a week or 2, give you some pain killers and the usual “we will see how it goes after that”. It’s probably the best thing you can do, so follow your doctor’s advice and you should be fine. For those super hardcore fitness enthusiasts, its better to miss 1 month of working out, than missing a lifetime of working out because of a permanent injury.

Level 3
If you are experiencing this kind of pain, what are you doing still reading this blog? You need to be admitted to a hospital.
OK on a serious note, if you do experience this, it means it is something very serious like a torn muscle or ligament, and this will need long term rest and recovery. One or 2 weeks rest ain’t going to cut it. More like a month or more of rest depending on how severe this is. This kind of pain rarely happens suddenly. Usually, people will have level 2 pain for a long time, ignored it and continued pushing on as usual before suddenly having level 3 pain. Of course there are very rare occasions when the wrong angle or too much weight can suddenly tear something and cause this pain immediately, but usually, it is a progression from level 2 pain.

So if you get this kind of pain, the first thing you need to do is run to a clinic. If the GP there thinks its serious, he will refer you to a specialist for further evaluation. I hope nobody gets this kind of pain from working out, but if you do, please see your doctor immediately.

OK, this is just a simple guide on how you should deal with muscle injuries. Most of these pains usually happens to heavy lifters, so if you are lifting heavy weights, this will be a useful guide to you and not just the usual “run to your doctor” articles. Just as a precaution, whenever in doubt, please refer to your doctor. Every person’s body and injury is unique, so that’s why your doctor who sees you will be a better judge of what to do.

Have any of you experienced any muscle injuries before? I have numerous times, and this is how I have dealt with it, and so far, so good…. Still going strong.

As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Trip to Sabah

I just returned from my trip to Kota Kinabalu, and it was a blast. I spent 2 nights in KK town itself and another 2 nights in the much talked about Nexus Karambunai… a beach resort that is totally isolated from everything and 6KM of prestine beach with crystal clear water.

I booked my flights for this trip about 4 months ago with Air Asia and managed to get it for RM 174 for a return flight for 2 people. What a deal. The rooms for Nexus is advertised at RM 880 on the net, but I managed to get it at RM 299 per roon per night from the MATA fair. Travel tip to all… book early and save loads of money.

Anyway KK town itself was great. We stayed in the Hyatt, which was centrally loacted to a shopping mall, the jetty and many restaurants – all within walking distance. What do you do in KK town? Shopping and my personal favourite Island Hopping. We booked a private boat that took us to 3 islands off the coast of KK – Manukan, Sulug and Mamutik. The water in all these islands were crystal clear, I could stand with water up to my neck, and when I look down, I could still see my feet. I managed to do some snorkling in these islands and the boat would come to pick us up whenever we want. Sulug was an abandoned island and the story is, they did try to set up a resort over there, but constant battering of waves caused the structure to be destroyed and hence now it is just abandoned. A whole day in a sea of clear water sure does wear you out.

While following wifey for shopping, I stumbled upon this cool T-shirt which has a skull on it and it says “Borneo Head Hunters”. How cool is that. But most part of the shopping was done buying gifts for colleagues and checking out the Phillipino Market…. And there a lot of Phillipino’s in Sabah…. Don’t ask me why. Maybe because it is close by.

After 2 days in KK, we travelled by taxi to the luxurious Nexus Karambunai. Honestly, this hotel is great and all, but I think it is a little over rated. The hotel is nice and beautiful, but it is a little old and not everything works as it should… which is a thumbs down in my book. The other thing I didn’t like about it, was that you are fully dependent on the hotel for everything, since you are cut away from everything else. The food choices in this hotel aren’t too bad, only complaint is, it a little over priced. But I figured that if you can afford to stay in this hotel, they expect you to be able to afford the food there as well.

The best part of this hotel – 6 KM of a private beach and the water is clearer than the tap water we get in our houses. It’s mainly a sandy beach, so not much coral or fish to see. But if you are a beach bum like me, it’s all you can ask for. They have loads of water and land activities from jet skiing to horse back riding. Again, didn’t try any of these activities as it was way way over priced.

Anyway after 5 days of being a beach bum and soaking in the sun, my skin is burnt and peeling away. The question on my mind now is “Where is my next holiday going to be?” Any ideas? Look forward to hearing your comments or sharing your Sabah experiences.

Hot Wraps - Recipe

I have been experimenting with some tortilla recipes, and I think I finally hit one that is light, healthy and most important – tastes good. The good thing about all these tortilla recipes, it only takes about 20 minutes from start to end. So it’s easy to make. I call these “Hot Wraps” and if it becomes famouse, please tell everyone you read about it here.

So here is the next recipe for you guys to try out.

The meat that goes into this is up to you. My favourite is using ham slices, but you can also do grilled chicken, cut it up and then put it into the wrap.

Ingredients
1) Tortilla or Chapati (if you want to be healthier)
2) Grilled Chicken, Roast Beef, Ham – any kind of meat preparation is good. Just stay away from sausages and instant burgers like Ramli
3) Onions (Yellow ones are better since the red ones have a very pungent taste when its raw)
4) Bell Peppers (the green ones have the best taste.)
5) Tomatoes
6) Lettuce
7) Chilli Flakes (Dominos Pizza has super chilli flakes or you can used dried chilli and chop it up finely)
8) Mayonaise
9) Cheese (this is optional. If you are a health freak, you can ommit this. But if you are like me, a little cheese goes a long way in taste. Mozerella tastes the best I think, but you can use other kinds as well)


Method
1) Spread a light coating of Mayonaise on the tortilla. You only need to spread for half.
2) Place your meat down first ensuring the it also only takes up half the tortilla.
3) Dice up the Onions, Bell Peppers, Tomatoes and shred some lettuce and top it over the meat. You don’t want to overdo the vege as it will make it difficult to close if it’s too full. Lettuce is bulky, so go slow on it. Add these vegs based on your taste and preference.
4) Finally, sprinkle some chilli flakes and shredded cheese over the whole thin and fold it in half. You will need to press it down a little so it holds it shape and doesn’t open up.
5) Get your fryer nice and hot, and just toast this over the fryer without any oil. Once the tortilla is crispy and slightly browned, flip it over to taost the other side. Once it is done take it out. This process should only take about a minute.
6) Get a sharp knife and cut it up as shown.
7) Serve and enjoy.

So hope you guys give this a try. It is easy to make, tastes great and healthy. So do try it out and as usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

PS: Anyone have any great recipes for grilled chicken or other meats? I usually just copy the recipes from Liscense to Grill on AFC and use that for sandwiches and even my wrap. But if anyone has any other good recipes for grilling chicken and other meats, please do share.

Psychology of eating in Buffets

Over the past three days, I have been attending training at a hotel. As most of you know, when you attend training / seminars, they really feed you well. Morning break, Buffet lunch and evening break. I don’t think anyone comes back from a training and said “I wish they provided more food”.

Anyway, the problem for me is when it came to lunch. Buffet lunches are always my weakness. I love to try new and different things and of course since it is unlimited, I like to put that “unlimitedness” to the test. Meaning stuffing my face as much as I can, especially since it’s free. And then, like most of you, I feel sick and of course bad for eating so much.

So I sat down and started thinking why we put ourselves through this everytime we visit a buffet. What I discovered was, that most of the times, all of us overeat at buffets, because of the psychology behind buffets. We have a mindset which causes us to over eat and then complain about it after that. OK… I am not going to tell you to just eat the salads and stay away from dessert and drink plain water. When you go to a buffet, you want to enjoy, but what I am saying is, is to enjoy sparingly so you don’t feel sick and guilty after the buffet. Also, the point of these tips is to make you feel satisifed with your buffet experience and not to undereat (feel like you wasted it) or overeat (feel like vomiting).

The basic psychology about a buffets is, we want to try everything that is displayed out there. That is what is running through our minds when we walk in. The problem is, most of us load our plates with a few dishes in the beginning, and then when we are full and have no space for the other items on the spread, we shove it down our throat anyway. And that’s where everything goes wrong. So if you walk through the rice and curry section, we fill our plates like we would at a Nasi Campur shop… meaning one full meal. By the time you are done with that, you are probably too full to try the other main dishes and of course… the desserts. But hey, since it’s a buffet, let’s force it in… and most of us end up eating twice as much as we normally would for a normal meal.

How to overcome this.

Tip #1
Take a quick walk and examine what is available on the spread first. As you walk, start ranking the foods
1 = I absolutely must have that or I’ll die
2= Oooh…I haven’t had this in awhile
3= That’s good, but I can have this any time I want outside.

I hope not everything on the spread gets ranked as 1. Most people just start from the entrance and fill their plates to brim. Then discover something they really want to try, and although they are full, they force it in anyway.

Tip #2
Next, now that you have identified the foods that you must have (ranked 1), start taking those foods first. I highly recommend that you take small portions of it… no matter how badly you want it. And I mean really small portions, usually just a mouthful for each type of food. The idea is, you just want to try it… not get full on one particular dish. The idea of a buffet is to provide you with a variety of food… not just to get full on 2 or 3 dishes.

If there is still space after I have tried all the food ranked 1, I move on to food ranked 2. I usually stay away from food ranked 3, because I can eat it anywhere I want. Example of this would be Nasi Goreng, Mee Goreng, Roti Canai etc. You can visit any mamak you want and get it, so save the space for the expensive and rarte stuff which you won’t get to eat all the time.


Tip # 3
Eat till you are about 80% full and stop eating the main dishes. The other 20% is to be saved for dessert. If you are not a dessert person, then go all the way. I love dessert, so I make it a point to save some of my hunger for it. Most people eat till they’re overflowing or full and then stuff in more dessert. Bad idea. You should feel a tad bit more hungry when you approach the dessert.

Tip # 4
When you feel full, stop eating. I know it’s a buffet and you need to eat everything, but if you followed Tip # 1 to Tip #3 above, you will be very satisfied with everything that you have tried, which makes it that much easier to stop when you are full. So you don’t have to overeat… contrary to what most people do at buffets.

So… the next time you are at a buffet, try these tips and see. Like I mentioned earlier, it’s not about starving yourself at the buffet, but to ensure you enjoy and eat just right. Most of us eat buffets only once in a while, so what’s wrong with enjoying something sinful every once in awhile. The idea is to keep in line and reduce, keep you satisfied and reduce the damage on your waistline.

As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Why dieters can't lose weight

Take a quick poll of your friends and i am sure you can easily name 5 people you know who are on a diet or just plain careful with their food. what gets to me, is sometimes people tell me about their amazing diets (like i only eat fruits and have been doing so for 6 months) and then they tell me that they just can't lose weight and ask me what's wrong. Of course i am perplexed with this as how do i answer this. The diet soundsz pretty extreme and i know for a fact that if you did follow such an extreme diet, you will lose weight... may not be healthy weight, but you still would lose weight.

So after some thought i decided to tell some of these clients to do a food diary. A food diary is essentially a diary that records down everything that you eat a drink and i usually recommend my clients to do it for 1 week. This means, for 1 week, they jot down everything that goes into their mouth. Be it a sweet, chewing gum or just a bite of somebody's curry puff.... you need to jot it down. Believe it or not, lot of them never came back to me and none of them asked me the answer for question again after that... because by doing the food diary they realized what was wrong.

But i forced them to share with me the findings in their diary and here is what i found out. Yes, you may be very strict for Breakfast, Lunch and dinner, but its the stuff in between which gets you. And lot of these people didn't realize what they were doing until they saw it in their food diary.

Sweet drinks - I know lots of people who don't eat rice, don't eat fried food, eat small portions etc.... but then gulp down about 8 to 10 glasses of sweet drinks per day. This varies from Coffee, to Milo, to Soda... you name it, this person is downing it. 8 to 10 glasses of sweet drink will give you a good 1500 to 2000 calories... which is the amount of calories you need a day. which means, anything additional to that... is more than you can use and will be stored as fat.

Munchies - I had this lady swear to me that she eats only boiled vege for Lunch and dinner and just a little bit of cereal for breakfast and yet she can't lose weight. Upon inspection.... she sure did eat only that for lunch, and dinner... but the problem, she has a serious case of the munchies... or nibbling things in between. From biscuits to goreng pisang .... i would say the nibbles in between were more than her actual meals. The problem is, because she ate so little, she was always hungry and had to nibble other foods in between.... which usualy was unhealthy food. She also has a habit of eating off other people's plates.... nothing wrong with that, but just because someone else bought it, doesn't mean you won't get the calories that come with it when you eat it.

High Protein Low Carbs - Oh boy.... this is has to be the most misinterpreted diet plan of all time. many people think that eating half a chicken is better than 2 mouthful's of rice. If you fall in this category, please stop. YEs proteins are better to eat than simple carbs, but it does not mean you can eat as much as you want. if your body does not utlize the protein, then it will be turned into fat. so unless you are lifting super heavy weights like Arnold which needs that much protein, an average human only needs about 50 grams of protein per day and nothing more. half a chicken will run you about 50 to 60 grams of protein... which means it is more protein than you body needs. So watch the protein in take and remember that it needs to stay small as well.

Alcohol - As most of you would have guessed, drinking is one of the main contributors to putting on weight despite eating very little. as i have covered in my previous postings, alcohol does contain a high amount of calories and it slows down your fat burning furnace.... so if you drink a lot and can't lose the weight, now you know why. I am not saying you can't drink at all, just know the facts... drinking will add on weight... if you are OK with the additional weight, than go for it. but if you are struggling to lose weight, and don't know why.... ta-daaaa.... now you know.

So, are you watching your food and not seeing the pounds come off? Take a closer look at your diet plan and also the amount of exercise / activity you do in a day. That should give you an indication. Also, i recommend, that you try to keep a food diary, so you can see what and where you can cut back a little.

Look forward to hearing your comments on this.

PS: Do take a quick second to take the poll on the right. Hope you guys dig the Yoda smoking pic.

How to stay fit when you travel for work

As promised in my last posting, here is a simple workout routine you can do while you are traveling for work. I spent the most of last month traveling for work so I had little or no access to a gym. So rather than take a one month break from my exercise, I got creative and came up with some simple routines which anyone can do with little or no equipment.

Or, if you don’t have a gym membership, you can easily adopt this and make it into a home workout as well.

Below is a set of exercise which you can perform without using any equipment, and the idea of this routine is to do the exercise back to back without rest and to keep your heart beat elevated. Doing exercises back to back with little or no rest is called Circuit Training and this is one of the most effective way to strength train and burn fat at the same time. So here are some things you can easily do at home or your hotel room.

Push Ups – if you can do normal push ups, then go for that. If you need to build your strength first, then you can do knee push ups first as shown below. Do as many as you can before proceeding to the next exercise

Squat jumps – Come down to the squat position as shown below hold for one second and then jump up as high as you can. So you will leap from the squated position as high sa you can. Once you land, immediately squat down to the ssquat position below and repeat. Do as many reps as you can.

Sit ups – Lie on the ground and do sit ups as shown below. Do as many as you can. When you can’t do any more, pull yourself up to position 3 below, go down to position 2 and back to 3. Squeeze as many half sit ups as you can before you give out.





Leg raises – Lie flat on the floor, raise your legs straight up till it is 90 degrees with floor. Lift your bum and hips as high as you can. In short you want your legs to reach as high up as you can. Do as many reps as you can.




Dips - Get into the position below dip your bum down as low as you can and push yourself back to the starting position. For those who are stronger and need something more challenging, you can rest your feet on another chair (of equal height) and then perform the dips that way.



Other Tips to stay fit during your travel
Besides doing you very own routine in your room, most hotels these days also come equipped with a gym, so make sure you make good use of the facility. They have most of the basic equipments, so you can easily use the machines and free wieghts to get your own workout done

Almost 90% of hotels in Malaysia has a swimming pool. The other 10% are probably small hotels or Rumah Tumpangan type hotels, which I doubt you will be traveling to for work and definitely not your choice of stay during your holiday. a good 30 minute swim, burns twice as much as 30 minutes of walking. Of course floating around in the water does not count. Talking about 30 minutes of continuous swimming vs 30 minutes of continuous walking. To me, this is the best ofr of exercise. It’s fun and gives you a whole body workout in one go

If you are by the beach area, nothing beats taking a simple jog by the beach in the morning. Truly an amazing experience and hope all of you will try it. Not to mention, doing this will make you feel super energized for the rest of the day. If you are not by the beach, you can still jog around your hotel… just that it won’t be as amazing as by the beach

So, there you have it. Simple and easy to follow tips to stay fit even when you are away traveling for work or leisure. Should you have any other tips please do share and as usual, look forward to your comments.

What is your reason for staying fit?

Firstly, let me begin by apologizing for the long silence on my part. I have been travelling a lot for work which caused me to be out of the office and my regular routine for the most of May, and most times, I had no access to a computer… so I was unable to post up anything. Hence the lapse in postings.

Now that I am back and my calendar looks relatively empty for the next month or so, you can expect more frequent postings like the earlier days. All that travelling and not being able to hit the gym regularly has put quite a strain on my workout routine, but I must say I managed to keep pretty fit during the whole time even when I had no access to a gym. How did I do it? That will be the topic for my next posting. So check back next week.

For today, I would like to talk more on the Survey results on the right.

We got a total of 40 votes, slightly more than the previous one, and I must say that I am happy with the results, as I figured as much, that staying healthy and looking good are the primary reasons for people slogging at the gyms. My answer was to look good… and I must admit, I am a little vain when it comes to how my body looks.

5 people actually voted that they go to the gym to pick up members of the opposite sex, and maybe for some, members of the same sex… if that is what meets they fancy. I don’t know if this were honst answers or just jokes, but I am not surprised as I see many people just coming in 2 or 3 times a month, and all they do is “oral exercise” with whoever they are trying to prey on.

For sports… only 1 person voted that… surprised a little with that as I thought more people were into sports these days (even older people who are usually into golf) and working out was a means of improving their game. Oh well… I will let the results speak for itself.

So that’s all for now. Do feel free to share what your vote was and as always look forward to hearing your thoughts on the results.

Thanks for voting and look out for next weeks posting.