Cut down on Garbage Foods

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So when would you do Cardio BEFORE weights?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Poll Results - Weight Loss Options

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thor's workout

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

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

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

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

http://chrishemsworthworkout.com/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Carb Cycling

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sometime Food & Everyday Food

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What Supplements Should I Take for Optimal Health

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.