Fitness Tips for Ramadhan: Sahur

So continuing on with our tips for staying fit and healthy during the month of Ramadhan, last week we shared some tips on how to buka puasa healthily. As promised, this week, we will cover what kinds of healthy foods should be taken for Sahur. Sahur refers to the meal consumed my Muslims early in the morning before they begin their fast for the day during the month of Ramadhan. As this is technically your last meal before you begin your long fast, its extremely important to note what kinds of food will be good for you and what kinds of food you should avoid. So below are some kinds of food you should be loading up on as well as why we recommend that you do that.

Pick meals that are high in protein
Protein is far more complex than carbohydrates, and because of this, it takes longer to break down. Longer to breakdown also means, it keeps you feeling full for longer. Quite a good thing, especially since you won't be consuming anything for the next 12 to 14 hours. Also, because we are worried about the catabolic effects during the fasting month, loading up on lots of protein before and when we break fast, helps to reduce the effects on our body. So for these reasons, it is highly recommended that you load on high protein foods.

Fruits & vegetables
Fresh Fruits and raw vegetables are great foods to load on as well. Because fruits and vegetables have a high fiber content, it will help to keep you full longer as well. Remember, anytime you have food that helps you stay full for longer, its a good thing for the fasting month. I highly recommend eating raw vegetables and fresh fruits as opposed to cooked vegetables, for the sole reason that raw vegetables have more nutrients compared to cooked vegetables. Steaming vegetables are fine, but when you cook it and make it into a curry, almost all the nutrients are lost. Most of the nutrients in vegetables are very delicate and highly sensitive to heat. Because of this, over cooking it will destroy all these nutrients and just leave you with mass of fiber.

Carbohydrates
I would generally recommend to keep carbohydrates low, because they fill you up quickly but then you get hungry really fast as well. The problem is, when you get full quickly, you have less space for other useful food items which are high in protein. You become hungry really fast, because all simple carbohydrates turn into sugar almost immediately once it enters the system. Once it turns into sugar, it is either used or stored away as fat. Once that is done, your body starts sending out signals of hunger to tell you that it wants more food. The last thing you want is to feel hungry and not be able to eat. So try to cut out carbohydrates id you can. If you must, consume it, but keep the portions small.

Coffee: Yes or No
This seems to be the never ending debate on whether coffee is good for you or not. Some say no, others say yes. But i am not going to go into that. There is the other argument that it dehydrates you and thus it should be avoided. The argument is that coffee acts as a diuretic, thus making you want to answer natures call more frequently. Well drinking lots of water can give you the same thing, ie make you feel like you have to go. The fact is, mild amounts of coffee won't affect you so i wouldn't worry about it. So YES, go ahead and drink that cup of coffee if you need to, but remember to keep it to a mild level or something that you are used to. If you up to it a dose that you are not familiar with, then it could result is some additional dehydration. But ideally, i would opt for water instead of coffee, but if you must have that coffee in the morning, don't feel bad about it. Its OK, just as long as it comes in small amounts.

So ideally, your Sahur meal should be high in protein and vegetables and low in carbohydrates. This will help to keep you feeling full for a longer period of time plus it will help to reduce the catabolic effects of fasting on our body and muscle. Remember, you won't be able to ward off a catabolic response 100% during the fasting month, but where possible you would like to minimize it, and these tips will help you to do just that.

There you have it. Some simple tips to help you plan your meals for Sahur. Before i end, i would like to take this opportunity to wish all my Muslim friends and readers "Selamat Berpuasa". As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

PS: Next weeks post will be on exercising and how and when to exercise during the fasting month. So look out for it.

Fitness Tips for Ramadhan: Buka Puasa

The month of Ramadhan is just around the corner, and already i am getting tons of emails and requests about how to stay healthy during this fasting month. So i thought this would be a good time to post up some tips on staying fit and healthy during the fasting month. I will cover several topics over the next few weeks which will zoom in and give you a better understanding on how to stay healthy during the fasting month. Since this topic is a big topic, i have decided to break it down to several topics so that i can give lots of detail for each topic.

During the fasting month, Muslims have to abstain from food and drink from dawn till dusk, which is usually 12 to 14 hours. Because of this, you will need to make some tweaks / changes to your workout routine and nutrition plan so that you are in line with the fasting month, while maintaining your fitness level.

For this weeks post, i am going to cover some tips on how to "buka puasa" healthily. Many people i know end up gaining weight during the fasting month, and i can safely say that 90% of it is due to bad habits during the fasting month. So here are some useful tips to remember when breaking fast the healthy way.

Eat slowly

So you are 5 minutes away from breaking fast, and you have already loaded up your plate with huge amounts of food and you are sitting there just looking at it. The second you hear the Azan Maghrib on the radio or TV, you dig in and start going through your food faster than the speed on light. Then when you are done, you loosen your belt and say "oh boy, i ate too much". Sound familiar? I know that when it comes time to break your fast, your hunger reaches an unimaginable stage and the temptation to over eat is at its peak. So its understandable that you would like to chow down food like a lion. But many people i know end up eating way too much food when they break fast. Sometimes you eat more than you would have during your normal daily intake. Meaning if you usually eat 2500 calories a day split into 3 meals, some people can end up eating 3000 calories just for their buka puasa feast. The reason for this overeating is because you are eating fast. Slow down and enjoy your food. It takes time for your brain to register that your stomach is full and tell you to stop eating. When you eat too fast, you surpass this signal and end up eating more than you need. So avoid the temptation to eat too much by slowing down your pace of eating. Yes, you are hungry, but remember that eating slow will not harm you. So slow down.

Avoid breaking fast with too much simple carb0hydrates.
When it comes time to break fast, i notice that most people end up eating way too much carbohydrates. Now unless you are going to instantly use up all that energy, i would advice against loading up on carbohydrates. The reason being, when it comes time to break fast, the sugar level in your blood will be extremely low. Any carbohydrate you take will instantly be turned to sugar. If there is no use for this sudden surge of sugar / energy, your body will instantly store it away as fat. Remember your body just came out of a highly catabolic state and thus it thinks your body is going through a femine. Now, you are going to want to take some amount of carbohydrates , but i would recommend against loading up on too much of it. Go for complex carbohydrates if you can, but as a general rule of thumb, i would keep it to a low amount.

Break fast with plain H2O instead of
Most people i know like to have a quick drink when they break as their throat is dry from fasting all day. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is, to break fast with a sweet and sugar filled drink like Sirap, Soda etc. As mentioned above, your body has just been in a highly catabolic state for so long and the last thing you need is a rush of humungous amounts of sugar into your blood. Its better to break fast with plain H2O and then later on you can enjoy your sweet drink. Not saying that sweet drinks should be totally banned during the fasting month. You can have them, but save them till much later, instead of when you just break fast.

Avoid those midnight snacks
During the fasting month, i notice that many people like to hit their favourite mamak joint or fastfood joint well after their Terawih prayers. Near my house, i notice many people hitting the A&W well after 10pm to get a snack like waffle and ice cream, root beer float etc. This is absolutely fine if you are going to bed at 2am or so. But if you are going to eat that and go off to bed straight away, i would advice against it. Remember, the same rules apply. Don't load up on huge amounts of food before bed.

So for this Puasa Month, do something different and try the tips above. I am sure it will make a huge impact helping you watch your waistline during the fasting month. I know many people who end up putting on weight during the fasting month, and i truly believe that you can avoid that by simply following the tips above. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments

PS: Next weeks post, we will cover tips on Sahur and what kinds of foods you should be eating. So look out for it.

Workout Essentials

Off late, I have been bombarded with emails and questions about work out programs and what works best etc. Although most of the emails and questions are quite unique in nature, I did notice one similar trend in almost all the questions. Almost everyone asked me why is it that we stop seeing positive results after a while. So for this week�s post, I thought I would tackle this issue by providing all of you with information on what is essential for a workout routine. Hopefully this will serve as a guide and will help you to correct your current routine and start seeing amazing results. So here are some tips on what your workout should have for it to be an effective one

Keep your workout to an hour

Sometimes in life, we feel that more is better. For example, having more money is of course better than having less money. Though generally that is true, but that is not the case when it comes to working out. Yes, more is better, but only up to a point. After that, your body�s ability to respond to the given exercise reduces dramatically. On top of that, doing too much can be counterproductive as your body starts becoming more catabolic. For me, I like to keep my workouts short but intense. Just because it�s a 1 hour workout, doesn�t mean it can�t be effective. Keep your workouts to about an hour or less if possible, but make it count

Progressive Improvement

When you first start working out, you would probably start at a pace which you are comfortable with. Now it�s OK to start slow, but it�s important to progress as you go along. If you started with bench pressing 30 pounds for 10 reps and 6 months later you are still doing the same thing, then that�s not going to work. When it comes to seeing continued improvement, you need to keep getting yourself out of your comfort zone. If you can run 20 minutes without breaking a sweat, then you need to up it till it becomes challenging again. Your body is constantly trying to adapt itself to whatever stress you throw at it. The problem is, once it adapts to the stress, you are going to stop seeing results. So push yourself when you are in the gym or when you workout. Stop doing light bicep curls and before you even feel anything you put down the weights and call it a set. That�s not going to work. Continuously challenge yourself and aim to reach higher levels.

Mixing it up

Now besides making it more difficult as your move along, it�s also important to mix up your routine from time to time. If you usually ride the exercise bike for 20 minutes, try switching it to running on the treadmill for 20 minutes or using the elliptical. If you always do bench press, try switching it dumbbell flies for a change. The point is, by changing the exercise, we are essentially using our muscles differently and that again helps to prevent our body from adapting and thus allowing us to continuously see results. Whether you are training to gain muscle mass or lose weight, mixing it up really works wonders. How often should you change it up? Ideally you should change it around every 3 or 4 months. Or you can change it whenever you hit a plateau in your workout. But don�t change it up for every workout as this will be counterproductive. So be creative and keep mixing it up from time to time.

Nutrition

No workout routine is complete without the proper nutrition added to it. If you are trying to gain muscle mass and don�t eat enough protein, you can lift as much as you want, but you will never see results. It�s just plain science. If you are trying to lose weight and you keep eating more and more, you are not going to see results. So tailor your nutrition plan based on your goals. AND YES, nutrition is very very important to the whole equation. Your results are only as effective as how good you feed yourself. So remember that. Working out is only one part of the equation, the bigger and more important portion is what you do after your workout when you walk out of the gym.

So there you have it, some simple tips that need to be considered whenever you plan your workout. If you want the results, you need to ensure that you follow the tips above. If you want to continue seeing results till you reach your goals, you must follow the 4 tips above. So go through your current workout routine and make the changes you need to ensure that it meets all the requirements above. If it does, then I guarantee you will see amazing results all the time. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments

The Gym With The Most Beautiful View

2 weeks ago, i took a trip to redang island and by far, redang has to be one of the best beaches i have ever visited. White powdery sand, and crisp clear water that looks like a swimming pool, it was really gorgeous. in fact this is the first beach hotel i have seen where everyone is in the sea and the swimming pool is empty. Why go to a man made pool when you have natural pool which is just as clear.

Me and wifey went there with Berjaya Air, so we flew from Subang and it was a direct flight to redang island itself. I liked this because it cut our traveling time to just an 1 hour and 15 minutes. As we arrived we were taken by a bus to Berjaya Resort (which has now changed name and changed management). After checking in, we were taken to our hillside rooms. I was a bit skeptical about the room because we got it on promotion but was i shocked when i walked in. It was a newly refurbished room and it was beautiful. Check out some of the pics below.



This hotel was undergoing a transformation at that time, so we were basically enjoying 5 star service at 4 star prices. The hotel management is being changed and the plan is to upgrade it to a 5 star world class resort. So it was nice to be pampered for the 4 days that we were there. We went for some deep water snorkeling but it wasn't as impressive as Tioman. Tioman had far better and more colourful corals to checkout. But beach wise, i would give Redang a thumbs up over Tioman anytime.

Activities - there are load of activities to do from snorkeling, to diving to island hoping. Best thing i liked, just outside the hotel is a small gerai makanan, so if you don't fancy spending RM 50 per person for a meal at the hotel restaurant, you have an option of eating at an affordable price outside. There are also kedai runcits just outside this hotel so you can easily stock up on your supplies if you need to. But bear in mind, it does cost a bit more than KL but that's because there is the logisitic factor of bringing these things into the island. I even found out that 1 year ago, you couldn't even find ice cream on the island. You can find ice cream now, but be warned, its more than twice the price in KL.

And yes, the gym. I noticed the gym while i was swimming in the sea. It was up on the hill and i was curious to what it was. Then i saw people moving in there and upon a closer inspection, i found out that they were exercising. Imagine running on the treadmill and having the view below?
I mean watching TV while running on a treadmill is ok... but this view? I went and personally checked it out and besides having gorgeous view, the gym was also very well equipped. For a resort gym and for the space available, i was impressed with the choice of equipments they made. Was hoping to talk to the Manager of the gym, but i never saw him. I saw him occasionally while i was swimming, but never got a chance to speak to him. But for me, this is definitely one of the gyms with best views i have ever seen. Kudos to who ever designed it.

All in all, thumbs up to Redang and i highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in an awesome beach holiday. Best i have been to thus far. Another beach destination to add to my belt of awesome beaches. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Omit the Cheese

Hi guys, sorry for not putting up any posts last week. Was busy with my corporate training as well as made a trip down to Redang Island. It was really awesome. Will share more about that holiday in my next post. Will also share with all of you some of the gorgeous pictures i took of Redang Island. Definitely worth another visit.

Anyway, this week i wanted to cover a simple topic called Omit the Cheese. Reason being lots of people keep asking me how to make an unhealthy meal healthy, and one of my best received tips was, omit the cheese. Let me explain further.

In almost all restaurants, how can you instantly make any dish more delicious? You got it... just add cheese. Think about the many different kinds of food we have which we have added cheese to.
Cheese fries - melting cheese over already unhealthy fries
Cheese Naan - Adding cheese to naan
Cheese in your sandwiches - How do you make a boring sandwich taste better? Just add cheese
Pizza with Cheese crusts - Just in case pizza doesn't have enough cheese already, lets just add more cheese into the crust
Adding Cheese to your burgers - It always seems to taste better doesn't it.
Cheesy garlic toast - Add some cheese to garlic toast
Nachos El Grande - How do we make it better? Just add cheese
Healthy Salad - Lets make it better by grating some cheese in
Pasta - Mmmmm.... some grated cheese will go well with it.

The list goes on and on. The point is, many restaurants out there seem to add cheese just to make dishes more delicious. Don't get me wrong. Not saying there is anything wrong in eating cheese. But if you are on a weight loss program, you should understand that cheese adds in a lot of additional calories which you can do without.

The big question i have is, does adding cheese really add that much more flavour to the dish? Or are you just ingesting additional calories but you can't tell the difference? In some cases, yes, the cheese is an integral part to the dish. Without it... the dish will taste very.... plain. Eg. Pizza. If you are going to eat pizza, then yes, the cheese does make a huge difference in taste. But in almost all other dishes, i found that it really doesn't make much of a difference.

Have you ever tried eating a Subway sandwich without the cheese? I have... and honestly, i can't tell the difference at all. Have you tried eating a chicken fajita without the cheese? again, i really can't tell the difference because there are so many other flavours in there, that the cheese just gets blanked out. Cheese naan... i have tried some where you can taste it... and some, which honestly you can't taste at all.

If you can't taste it, can you easily omit it from the dish? Absolutely. Here are some dishes which i have found makes absolutely no difference whether you have cheese in it or not

Sandwiches - almost 99% of the sandwiches i have tasted out there tastes just the same without the cheese. If you can't tell the difference, why add it?
Burgers - If you eat burgers in places like Hard Rock Cafe, TGIF etc, i have noticed that the cheese has a very small part in the overall taste.
Tortilla Wraps - If you like to eat mexican, i have noticed that most mexican dishes taste the same with or without the cheese. This includes your fajitas, tortilla wraps, tacos etc. Of course some dishes like enchilladas, where the cheese is melted on top... then yes, you can taste the absence of cheese. But besides that, most of the time, you can't tell the difference
Salads - almost all salads i have eaten taste just the same with or without your cheese shavings.
Pasta - Ever tried adding some parmesan cheese sprinkles? By the time you mix it up, you can't really tell the difference. Of course if you empty the whole container, then you would, but most of us sprinkle very sparingly.... and honestly, that small amount makes almost no difference to the taste.
The point is, if you can't tell the difference in taste, then why add it to your dish? Yes most of the times the amount of cheese added to any dish is small, but hey, when you are watching your calories, any amount you can save helps right? What more when you can't tell the difference.

Now it is also important to note the kind of cheese you use makes a huge difference. Some cheeses have a strong tangy taste... so you are more likely to taste it. But most of the time, you will get either cheddar slices, swiss cheese, mozerella cheese or parmesan cheese. All these cheeses don't really add much taste at all to you dish. So you can easily leave it out and the dish will taste just as great.

Again, if you are going to eat pizza or something, then by all means enjoy it. Please don't ask them to omit the cheese from your pizza. But for all other situations, just give it a try and see. If you can't tell the difference in taste, why not leave it out. And guess what, you just made that dish of yours a whole lot healthier.

So what are the other dishes t you can easily omit cheese from? Are you one of those who must have extra cheese on the dish? As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

How do you get those veins in yours arms to pop?

Many people who i know always ask me how i got those veins in my arm to stand out. I never really knew what to say at first and so i couldn't really recommend any particular exercise for it. My usual advice was advising them to reduce their body fat %. As far as i know, if you can successfully reduce your body fat%, then you will almost immediately see your veins popping out. I didn't know that it was a particular workout routine that i had that was giving me the results i wanted. But recently, due to some mishaps, i discovered what it was which made the difference. And now, you will be able to do the same and enjoy the same results.

Some months ago, i injured my left arm (actually it was more like a year ago). Anyway to cut the long story short, i had this aching pain in my elbow when i did certain exercises... especially my favourite "modified one arm preacher curl". So i swapped it with concentration curls, and surprise surprise it didn't hurt. So yes, i could continue to work out. Why do i call it modified one arm preacher curl? Well i do it a bit differently than you would imagine. I extend my arm all the way down, then pull the dumbbell up about 1/4 of the way. Then I lower it down all the again and after that pull it up all the way. This counts as one rep. I usually aim to get about 7 to 8 reps this way. It usually burns like hell as i do it. how did i find out about this? Funnily enough, i was reading Men's Health in the US many many years ago (circa 2000)... and the author recommended doing this to help you break your plateau in preacher curls. Well i didn't really have a plateau or any kind, but it sounded interesting so i tried it. And i liked the way it felt, so i stuck with it.

Anyway i continued doing concentration curls for a good 6 months until i was 100% sure that whatever i had in my elbow was gone. It finally was gone. So i slowly reverted back to my modified one arm preacher curl. i just started it about 2 months back. Now before you start wondering where i am going with this useless banter... let me explain. During the 6 months when i was doing concentration curls, i noticed that my arms lost quite a bit in size as well as form. No matter how much i tried to lift, i just couldn't get it to grow or look pumped. Also, i noticed that the veins that were usually very prominent in my arms were now almost all gone. In fact, my arms started looking like i wasn't lifting. Most of my friends who saw me kept asking me what happen? Are you losing weight? your arms don't look so pumped anymore. Have you stopped going to the gym. It was frustrating to hear this when i WAS going to the gym 5 times a week as usual. The plain fact is, i was doing everything the same. The only thing i did was swap my one arm bicep curls with concentration curls. All else remained the same. Including the weights i was using.

But now that i am back to my modified one arm preacher curls again, voila... i am back in business. Arms look more pumped, and the veins... yup... they are popping out again as usual. I get strangers asking me for fitness advice again (yes, this all stopped for about 6 months when i was going through "hell")... and i get the usual "do you work out?" from strangers. My arms are bigger (a whole 1 inch more, i measured and saw) and my veins... well lets just say it pops out from the sleeves of my t-shirt again... i sure missed them.

Now i know all you fitness scientists out there are saying "This does not make scientific sense". And i agree. It doesn't. I can't seem to find a logical explanation. But you can't deny the results. As ridiculous as the modified one arm preacher curl sounds, it does work. Can anyone explain this? I really want to know. Unfortunately i don't have any before pics to share.

But back to our question on the post... how do you make the veins in your arms pop out. Well here are some tips that will help you.
1) Try reducing your body fat%. If you can get your body fat% to below 20% and you lift a lot, your veins will naturally start popping out
2) Do the modified preacher curls i mentioned in the post. It really works. Also, i feel it really helps to boost your arms from skinny twigs to mighty tree trunks.
3) I also find that training your biceps twice a week helps tremendously. I usually train once heavy, and then another maintenance work out (usually very light and i aim for more reps till it burns) about 3 days later. So one heavy and one light workout per week.

Those are just some of the tips that will help to make those veins in your arms pop out. You don't need to pump steroids to see those kind of results.

So what do you guys think? Anyone have an explanation for the query above? Also i do hope you try out the modified one arm preacher curl i mentioned above. Its one of my favourite exercises because it really delivers results. If you have been training your arms for awhile and now want to take it to the next level, try it and see. You will absolutely love it. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

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.