Lunges ( a sneak peek )

Position A : Stand up straight, widened your legs as wide as your shoulder, hands on hips

Position B : Without changing your position or move your body, push your other leg to the back

Position C : Slowly bend your knee to 90 degrees

Tips: To keep your balance, locking your core is a must and do not push your leg too far because your targeted muscles are your harmstring and glute

Finally!

After all this time waiting for this weekend to happen, I finally made it! Yes. I managed to aspire to my dreams and my optimism is restored. At least two of my dreams. It's still in editing process, hope to be published soon.

Deep November and Good Weekend

This month is the month where I put my deep thoughts and efforts pursuing my dreams or maybe to make my optimism come true. After one publisher cancel to publish my book, I soon made another option which I will be working on next week. More exercises will come to this blog.







"waiting my moment to come"

New Year is Coming

I was making my lesson plan when I realised that we are so close to the end of year 2008. This made me think and looked back what I have done and happened during this year. The way I would describe my 2008 is a roller coaster ride in the storm. The year commenced with tears and I thought I could never live again. In spite of this, I made a choice that I have to stand up and picking up the pieces. It kicked off in the good way. Well..I did it at least in a term of losing weight which brought lot of impacts. One of them are my self esteem escalate steadily and discovered many things in life,fitness, exercise, diet and living well. And then again, another storm came to hit me again and I was very close falling to the ground. Thanks to fitness and exercise..I could cope with it.

So am I busy making resolutions?hmmm..I havent figured out yet. At this point, I will be just continuing what I have been doing...attaining my goals, my passions, my dreams, and my wishes.
As matter of fact..I dont need to wait for new year to come to start making my one of dreams come true.

PS : Thanks to Elen who has been so patient dealing with my whinings and my sister who introduced to the world of blog.

GymWalking : Celebrity Fitness FX part 3

Alia + Everton

Went to FX today after absent for almost a week, spent more time at Pondok Indah Mall. The result a happy big smile after Latin Dance class...oh yeah..I found new love on this instructor, Everton Torres. Not of physical appearance but more to the way he teaches...He's the most most cheerful and energetic instructor I've ever seen! Look at his face! He always smiles, happy, "bouncy" and he plays really happy music. When I joined his Global Dance, I was almost died but looking at him and smiling my spirit raised again! And today, I was sulky, a bit sad ( you know..love life ) and he played that music and started smiling...wheww...Salsa all the way! He's quite bulky and I was hesitated if he could dance..but wow...he CAN DANCE! I mean he can shake his booty but still very manly.
Boy, I had fun today...no one could tell if I just brokenhearted. So..if you want to put a big smile on your face..pack up your bag and head to the gym or sign up to your nearest gym.

Hmm...this is my sweet and favorite spot in the Celebrity fitness FX, sort of my sanctuary. No interruption from bulky men ( they can be found in free weight area ) who often grunting and dropping weights.Thanks to my personal trainer who taught me how to use this machine.

Craving for Comfort

Experts believe that there is a strong association between food and emotion for many women, and this poses a serious challenge to healthy eating.
This research reinforces the idea that it's not the hunger for the particular food itself, but the feeling it provides that brings on a craving.
There are 5 things that trigger women to crave which are :
- Anger
- Hopelessness
- Lack of control
- Feeling unappreciated
- Boredom

If you fit into any one of these five profiles, try sitting down with a piece of paper and brainstorming to find alternative behaviors to eating.
Remember that healthy eating doesn't mean you can't indulge yourself. Cutting out certain foods entirely is a negative approach that will only set you up for failure.
Try to maintain a balanced diet that includes lots of whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and lean sources of protein. Prepare healthy snack options instead of heading to the vending machine. And don't forget that healthy eating goes hand-in-hand with exercise.

Endorphin and BrokenHeart

It might be a silly love life that many women experienced and which I just have been through.. but let me relate it to health. What do you do when you brokenhearted? Crave for sweets? lock yourself in the room? go out and get drunk?

Here's one alternative ( which I always do ) where health takes part in your emotional issue. Go to the gym! Yes..instead of going to clubs, I prefer to go to the gym. Have Body Combat class, run on the treadmill or just join dance class or have outdoor sports, when you finish see yourself and be honest what you feel afterward?

Whats the relation between exercise and brokenhearted? By exercise your body releases a hormone called endorphin. This is a happy hormone..increases your self esteem, helps you to reduce the stress and enhances your immune system. Again..don't over exercise you will end up in injury.
Cheers

Obesity

According to Wikipedia obesity described where the body has excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that health may be negatively affected It is commonly defined as a body mass index (BMI = weight divided by height squared) of 30 kg/m2 or higher. This distinguishes it from being overweight as defined by a BMI of between 25–29.9 kg/m2.

The research shown that the major cause of obesity are combination of excessive calorie consumption and sedentary lifestyle. There is little evidence to support the commonly expressed view that some obese people eat little yet gain weight due to a slow metabolism. What has been found, however, is that some obese people underreport how much food they consume compared to those of normal weight.

Historically, overweight or obese is a sign of wealth and only rich people who is suffering with obese. Now, even the poor people can be obese or overweight. The reason is because they are malnourished. The food they eat are often cheap, industrialized, mass produced. These kinds of food usually contain high carbohydrates, high sodium, high sugar and high preservatives.

The health impact by being overweight or obese are lead you to develop heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and astheorithritis ( I hope I get this right ). So how to fight the obesity? Again changing your diet by cutting down carb, sugar, bad fat, sodium and exercise. How about for the poor people? They may want to start exercise by walking which is no cost and easily done. For the food? Please avoid mass produced food and simply prepare your own meal.

Sunday Morning Wishes ( EDITED 16/11/08 )

There are so many wishes and dreams...or can I mix and dreams and wishes? Well either way here they are ( please be reminded they are not in order ) :
I wish and dream to live and work near my gym in FX Sudirman
Light weight laptop like Sony Vaio or Mac Air
Free Nike apparels and shoes every year
Have own professional website
Famous writer
Work from home or self employed
Free personal trainer
and....................( this is really personal ) :)
Hundreds of free voucher of face, body, hair and nail treatment from my salon in oakwood
Jakarta is like Singapore
Capability to put on make up
Visiting or pay my best friend to Jakarta ( since she's far away in US ) and hang out in Starbucks

Hmmm...come to think of there aren't many..hehehehehehe

Reading Nutrition Facts

Reading nutrition facts can help you make wise food choices and not relying on phrases like "low fat" or "fat free" or "healthy"

Start with the serving size. Serving sizes differ on each food label and may not the same as your serving size, which usually leads to misleading.If a package of cookies contains six cookies and a serving size is equal to two cookies, that means the entire package contains three servings, not one.

In the calories and calories from fat sections tell you the total number of calories in each serving of the food and the number of those calories which are derived from fat. Calories provide a measure of how much energy you get from eating one serving of the food. If you are trying to manage (lose, gain or maintain) your weight, the number of calories you consume counts. For example, one serving of macaroni and cheese may provide 250 calories, with 110 calories from fat. If you ate 2 servings, you would consume 500 calories and 220 of those calories would be from fat.

Now, look out for sodium content. High sodium diet will lead you to high blood pressure. This sodium is usually hidden in processed food.

Identify the total carbohydrates, this number will tell you how many carbohydrates you consume in a package.
Be vigilant about the amount of "Sugar". This is the amount of sugar you consume if you consume one serving of the food. Some carbohydrates become sugar when digested in your body, so you may be consuming more sugar than what is on the label.

See the "Percent Daily Value". The asterisk (*) after this heading refers to the information at the bottom of the label, which states “% daily values (DVs) are based on a 2,000-calorie diet”.

Finally, don't forget to look at the "Information at the Bottom of the Label".This chart is based on a 2,000-calorie diet. This information must be on all food labels, although the chart that follows is not required on small packages if the label is too small. However, the information is dietary advice from public health experts for all Americans and is the same for all products. This is applicable also in many other countries, following dietary advice provided by individual an country's food advisory experts. It shows the upper and lower limits for each nutrient based on a 2,000-calorie diet. Let's use the macaroni and cheese example. One serving would provide 18% of the Daily Value of the possible 100% Daily Value for your total fat intake. That leaves 82% that you could consume from other sources for that day. If you ate two servings, you would consume 36% of your DV for fat, leaving 64% to be consumed from other sources.

Happy reading nutrition facts :)

Health Benefits

Health Benefits of exercise and physical activity :
- Reduce the risk of premature death
- Reduce the risk of developing of heart disease
- Reduce the risk of developing diabetes
- Improve psychological well being
- Reduce and/or maintain body weight and body fat
-Build and maintain healthy muscles,bones, and joints

High Carb Craving

After being hospitalized for 4 days because of gastric, I regain my appetite. This time I'm craving for high carb..yes people...as low carb dieter I'm craving for high carb and spicy foods. When I got home from work I had french fries with melted cheese on top..HOW DELICIOUS! To justify it...well I'm on recovery ( heheheeh ). Going to the gym tomorrow though, let's get back to the old routine..but tonight let me crave for the carbs.

What is your choice?

I didn't have plan to write a blog tonight but there's something tickle me. If you were obese or overweight what would you choose? Do you choose to stay being potato couch or tell yourself that you need to lose weight in order to be healthy ?

I respect whatever the people's choice but if you could think for a while what you want to become when you are old? You might not feel anything and you feel fine with potato couch lifestyle but.... do you want to have heart disease? do you want to get stroke and won't be able to do anything? do you want to have high cholesterol? or do you want to be healthy? live longer, see your grandchildren ?

My mum died at the age 53 because of stroke, some of my relatives and my grandmother died of the same cause...stroke. From that, I have chosen to live healthy and exercise. Yes we are all eventually will die but don't you think when you alive you look after your body and health so you can contribute something or make your life more meaningful?

Life is about choice, have you made your choice?

Gym Ethics : Are you familiar with them?

Celebrity Fitness FX free weight area

You have decided that going to the gym is part of your life and we have seen more and more people sign up to become a member. But are you familiar with rules? They might not written on the wall but these are you should follow when you workout.

Wipe Down
Some gyms provide towels as part of the service some don’t. If your gym does not provide towel, please ALWAYS bring your own towel. It is nothing worse than lying on a bench, sweaty from the previous user. Use your towel to wipe your sweat away and don’t forget to wipe out the bench or any fitness equipment after you use it.

No Grunting Please
Grunting is something unnecessary and does not sound cool. I have seen many men doing it, and frankly speaking, it is annoying to hear. When you lift heavy weights, stay on breathing properly, you might be exhaling when you muscles contracted and you do it loudly, that is acceptable. But no grunting, screaming or moaning!

Dropping Weights
This is still related with grunting as you drop the weights, the weights can make loud noise when you drop them. If you are not careful you might drop them on somebody’s else foot! There is better way to do it, place them on the ground quitely even if you can’t bend down.

Put the Weights Back
Finish with your sets and reps? Do always remember to them back. I have noticed that some people just leave the weights lying on the floor. Light weights are quite easy to put back, ( and I don’t really mind to put them back into the racks )but how about those big and heavy plates? Have responsibility after you use them.

Cable crunch

Bored with usual crunch? This is another variety of crunch using cable machine where you can add resistance


a. Lie on the bench without arching your lower back.
b. Bend your knees to 90 degrees
c. By gripping the handles, set your arms to 90 degrees



a. Slowly contract your abdominals, bringing your shoulder blades off from the bench
b. Exhale as you come up and keep your neck straight, chin up and pull the cable
c. Hold at the top of the movement for few seconds, keep breathing

BTW, since it is quite difficult, I can only do this crunch for 12 reps each set. But the result is better than 50 sit ups.

Low Carb Diet vs Low Fat Diet

In the term of the way to lose weight and nutrition , not everyone shares the same opinion. The old fashioned view is the diet should be low fat and high in carb. Fat, as we are told makes us fat, by eating less of it is the sure way to keep lean and healthy and we need carb as main fuel for daily activities.
These days to cater the demand of low fat diet, manufacturers now producing many items that can be advertised as low fat. Trouble is, when you look at the label you will find different types of sugars and rich in carbs

Personally speaking, I’m more comfortable with low carb diet although I’m not a follower of any popular low carb diets that already exist. I invented my own low carb diet by combining all the popular low carb diets.

My conclusion :
We all have different dietary requirements and the right balance between protein, fat and carbohydrate can vary from different people. For both plans ( either low carb or low fat ) you should make sensible choices. My own golden rules in dieting are : avoid junk foods, processed foods, limit sugar, don’t do any extreme diet, go natural and exercise.

Health is everything

Health is everything, I was reminded again how important being healthy. I was hospitalized for 4 days because severe gastric. Barely couldn't eat anything. Sad, because I had to miss my dancing classes, no spicy foods for while, no ice cream, no pastries, missed blogging and miss the celebrity fitness fx grand opening.

How did I get this gastric? I've been having it since high school when I lost weight with fad diet. This time is worse, I was so busy with my work, forgot to eat and my diet fell apart, last thing I know..I ended up in emergency room with infusion.

There's nothing good being healthy. Without health what can you do?

More About Sugar

In the last weeks, sugar has caught my attention and what I notice is most people don't realise that they actually consume lots of sugar everyday. I see many commercials who claim as healthy products and people just buy them without think further. For example, there's yoghurt commercial says it is good for your digestion. What it doesn't tell you is the yoghurt product contains bunch of added sugar. Sad to see that many people think they are eating something healthy but it's not.

Also, when you stress or tired you crave more for something sweet.

There are many types of sugars, some are added to foods and some occur naturally such as in fruits and milks. The main difference between added sugars and natural sugars are in the nutrient value. Natural sugars tend to be high nutrient and low calories, while processed foods or drinks are the largest sources for high calories and low nutrients.

So, how much sugar do you need in a day? Unfortunetely no recommendations have been made for total sugar intake in a day, therefore there is no daily reference value ( % Daily Value ).

If you are trying decrease your sugar intake, your focus should be in added sugars. These sugars are mainly found in processed foods and drinks such as candy, soda, cakes and, flavoured yoghurt, pastries, jam, canned fruit, even sport drinks.

Oh yeah, don't trap yourself with label "low fat", " fat free" or whatever, because they tend to be high in sugar as well.

Here are the tips that I've done and might work for you :

• Go natural with your meal or drink. Try to enjoy different taste instead of sweet.
  
• Read food labels. This is a must, at the end I usually put the food/drink back to the rack and go back to the fruit stalls.
  
• Drink water instead of sweetened juice,tea , juice or something like that.


• Choose plain yoghurt and mix with fresh fruits instead processed fruit yoghurt.


• Since I'm a commuter and often stuck in traffic, I always keep healthful snack like strawberries and nuts.
  
• Spare your time to prepare your own food.

Anyway, after reading this post, please don't make sugar as your enemy. Consume sugar moderately and sensibly and read the labels are the important key.

Weight Training Do's and Don'ts

DO's :
- Do use spotter when you try the major lifts : Take advantage of your gym buddy or personal trainer as your spotter. Having a spotter beside you, help you eliminate the injury.
- Do keep your back straight when lifting : This to protect your lower back from injury or lower back pain.
- Do use proper lifting technique.

- Do wear proper shoes.

- Do make sure the equipment is in good condition.

DONT's :

- Don't breathe in and out too fast. You may faint when you and lose control of your weight. Breathe out when you lift weight.

- Don't continue lifting when you feel pain.

- Don't exercise any set of muscles more than 3 times a week.

- Don't lift more than you know you can lift safely.

Bittersweet Sugar Facts

• Sugar is a carbohydrate that occurs naturally in every fruit and vegetable.
• Sugary foods provide lots of energy and can be used immediately after consume it.
• A sugary drinks and foods give you energy boost but the effect soon fades and soon you want another drink or food.
• Sugar doesn’t provide anything beside calories. That’s why it’s called empty calories.
• Too much sugar will end up having holes in your teeth.
• Sugar can be used as preservative ( e.g. jam ).
• Sugar releases energy quickly.
• According to the studies 33% of added sugar can be found in soft drinks.
• Extra sugar can be attained in low fat or fat free products ( make sure you read the labels ).
• The body actually uses all sugars the same way- it changes them to glucose, which is what our body uses for energy.
• Sugar has other names such as : glucose, fructose, galactose, sucrose, lactose and maltose.
• Skipping meals can lead to sugar craving.