A Second Chance ...

For those who are unable to stick to their new year's fitness resolution, fret not as here's your second chance for year 2012. You see, In Malaysia we have new year according to the western calendar, which is on 1st January every year. While we also celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year for 15 days, which is ending today. So this is your second chance.

Here are the important ingredients needed that could help you stick to your resolution; Desire, Knowledge and Action.

For a matter of fact, you already have the desire to be healthier and fitter when you make your fitness resolution. So the first part is already checked!

Next would be the neccessary right knowledge to achieve your fitness goals. You can't be doing something without knowing about 'that something', isn't it? So be clear about your goal(s) that you want to achieve, and acquire the neccessary knowledge from the right source ( there are too many fitness myths out there ) to steer yourself towards your goal(s).

Last but not least, Action! Notice I said acquire the NECCESSARY knowledge? This is to avoid acquiring too much knowledge and not putting them into action in later stage. Considering that there are so many fitness theories out there, each claiming to be better than another, chances are you read so much that you get confused on where and how to start. Knowledge without applied Action would be useless.

So now, what's the Desire that is driving you to acquire the neccessary Knowledge for you to take Action ?

Eating During The Festive Seasons - What I Think

One thing I notice during any festive seasons on fitness magazines, blogs is that, they have advice on how to eat, what to eat and what not to eat during the festive seasons to avoid weight gain.


For me, to write about eating during the holiday and festive seasons' weight gain is pretty much pointless.


Let me quote an unknown author; People are so worries about what they eat between Christmas and the New Year, but they really should be worries about what they eat between the New Year and Christmas.


Same principle can be applied on other festive seasons, whether it's Chinese New Year, Hari Raya or Deepavali. However one factor that must be accompanying the eating is, keep yourself active during the festive season. Its not necessary that its must be an intense workout at the gym, even a 15 minutes walk would be fine.


Give yourself a break during the festive seasons, Embrace and be in peace with yourself and your surroundings. Happy Holidays !


P/s: The above statement is only applicable to those who are already healthily active. Those who are still sluggish and living a sedentary lifestyle, reading the statement above doesn't give you the justification to continue eat and be unhealthy.

Throw The Weighing Machine Away, Use The Measuring Tape Instead

Remember the take home message from this blog post?

Engage on healthy weight management and not quick fix. The weighing scale numbers don't mean much, choose to reduce the number on your waist and hip instead. Above all, focus on your body composition.

For those who are more visual and need a picture to understand the above statement, look below.

If you're women, the same principle applies to you. Not to worry about the overly muscular man in the picture, you can't be that muscular unless you are injecting male hormones into your body.

In our body, it's either fat or muscles. Lose the fat and gain muscles, or lose the muscles and BE FAT. Look at the photo above and decide what you want. If you don't want to be fat, then gain your muscles, BUT if you don't want muscles, then you'll be fat.

Don't worry about the numbers on the weighing scale, instead be glad when the numbers on the measuring tape is reduced.

No, I Don't Want You to Do Any Sit-up(s) !

" Why I don't see any Sit-up(s) on my programme? I want a flat tummy!" is not an unusual question and statement I always get from my new clients.

Let me first explain the myth of spot reduction. Spot reduction is the worst ever fitness advice given to anyone by anyone, that you can lose fat on a particular body part by just working out on that body part. Example - 1. Your arms are flabby and you want smaller arms? Do bicep curl and tricep extensions. 2. You have a large tummy and you want a flat tummy? Do 500 sit-ups ! These are stupid advice that whoever even mention about them should be shoot.

Fat lost happens as a WHOLE, and not just a particular area. It also depends on other factors like your genetics, gender (hormones) and age. For fat lost to happen, it depends on your lifestyle (choice of food, calories input and output, stress level, sleep time etc). To me, exercise is just 30% of fat lost, the rest comes from your lifestyle.

So if you want a flat tummy, make the changes in your lifestyle and move your ass around more!

And back to sit-ups. Some uneducated trainers thinks that by doing sit-ups you work your CORE muscles. If they even know what is CORE to begin with. Core muscles are NOT just limited to your abdominal muscles (or what you call them as ABS, the 6 packs). The core IS actually a system that allows you to stabilize yourself in any given situation - that includes standing up from the chair, carrying a baby from the floor, picking up a box and even when you slip and fall, how much you can decelerate the impact of falling depends on your core system. The core system is what protects you when you lift something heavy, and balance yourself in situation that you need to like falling when you stepped on the banana skin.

If you are still not convinced about not getting a workout for your abdominal muscles, try exercises like deadlifts, squats, and push ups IN PROPER and CORRECT form and see how much your abdominal muscles are working.

If you are still not convinced. Then keep the good work up, keep doing your sit-ups and you'll have 6 packs like the guy above. Cool?

On a serious note, think about this. If sit-ups are able to give you a flat stomach, why are there still so many people walking with a big bulging tummy despite doing hundreds of sit-ups?

Skinny females ... ?

I can't help but to post the caption and photo below after seeing Scott Sonnon posted on his facebook page.

ATHLETIC VS SKINNY: When trying to lose weight, you mean you want the body to lose fat. There's no reason to lose weight unless you're competing in a weight classed sport. To reduce fat, you MUST re-educate the body's ability to burn fat as the main source of fuel. When you burn fat, you don't get hungry and you don't crave: the KEY to permanent body composition change. Unfortunately, most "weight loss" programs temporarily starve off weight (including muscle) by merely depriving calories. 99% have been proven failures, for the body hasn't converted to a fat burning fuel source, and the "weight" returns when the cravings, and the "diet" ends. Ask, HOW will these dietary changes help my body restore its fat burning natural state? - Scott Sonnon 

Why I Choose to Avoid Sugar ?

In my previous post I shared about my experience on how good I feel after starting to avoid sugar in a conscious manner. This post entry will explain the effects of sugar.

According to Dr William Coda Martin, refined sugar is poison because it has been processed to the extend it has been depleted of its vitamins and minerals. There is nothing left in sugar except refined carbohydrates. And because vitamins and minerals are missing from sugar, your body cannot effectively utilize this refined carbohydrates, which then causes problem in your digestion and metabolism system. When your body cannot effectively metabolize this refined carbohydrates, various negative changes will take place in your body.

According to holistic health expert Paul Chek, Pyruvic acid would accumulate in the brain and nervous system causing abnormal sugar level to accumulate in the red blood cells. When this happens, your cells will be affected as they could not get enough oxygen to survive and function the way they should be functioning.

The consumption of sugar also causes over-acidity condition in your body. To neutralize its effect of over-acidity, your body starts breaking down minerals from your bones and teeth in order to neutralize the effect of over-acidity. In another word, calcium is being broken down by your body, FROM your bones and teeth to neutralize the acid level in your body.

Next is your liver which its function is to store excess sugar in form of glucose (glycogen), will expand to compensate for the liver's limited capacity. Excess glycogen will then be released into the blood as fatty acids which then store in every part of the body as fat, especially at the belly, buttocks and thighs. Think about big belly and sagging ass, its damn ugly!

After fatty acids are stored in your belly, buttocks and thighs, they will then be distributed in your organs - heart, liver and kidneys - and these organs begin to slow down on its functions. Your whole body to be affected as your organs' function is no longer normal.

Besides all that are mentioned above, your pancreas will release insulin when you consume processed sugar, a hormone that is responsible to reduce blood sugar levels. When this happens, blood sugar crash or better known as hypoglycemia will take place in our body. This is due to the slow feedback mechanism that signals the brain that blood sugar has returned to normal. At the same time, our body will release cortisol, a stress hormone to trigger the liver to release stored glycogen to raise the blood sugar level. Due to the release of sugar from the liver, plus with the sugar that you've consumed from your junk food and drinks, this process will start all over again, bringing you on a roller coaster ride. Because of your addiction to sweetness, you'll continue riding the roller coaster over and over again, causing your body to be insensitive to insulin overtime. And the first thing you'll start seeing an apple shaped appearance on your stomach, and slowly stepping towards having diabetic with you.

The roller coaster ride do not end with just a ride, but over time your adrenal glands will be overworked, getting exhausted from producing too much cortisol, causing hormonal system unbalance. With that, the chances of developing various diseases such as kidney disease, liver disease, heart disease, osteoporosis, colon cancer and the list goes on, will increase.

Consciously Avoiding Sugar

It started as an experiment for my own body, and I've been avoiding sugar consciously since May this year. Refined sugar to be exact. Basically what I do is not to add a single drop of sugar into my coffee, tea and any other food that I prepare myself. That includes no brown sugar.

And the results has been great, I feel more energetic than I was before.

However 5 days ago, I decided that I wanted to have a cup of teh tarik at the mamak store. The result that took place was feeling sloppy and drowsiness within 45 minutes after I finished my cup of teh tarik. Not convinced, 2 days ago I repeated the same thing, and the same result took place. I did not enjoy my cup of teh tarik either, I find them too sweet to my liking.

I came to a conclusion that there is no need for me to add sugar into my food anymore. And honestly, even now chocolates doesn't taste as good as before. I find them very sweet.

Being said that, there are times where I cannot avoid consuming food with added sugar when I eat outside. For instance, most of the local malay food ( and yes, I love the local malay food more than the chinese food ) such as sambal, masak merah recipe are added with a lot of sugar for some reasons. Other than that, I do not add a single drop of sugar into my food and drinks.

You could give this sugar fasting a try and see how much more energetic you will feel.