Health & Fitness - The Operation Thigh Gap

I have been requested to write about this new trend among female teenagers worldwide, and this is something that bothers me much. As I was googling to find out more, I discovered that there is even a pinterest topic called 'Operation Thigh Gap'! I briefly browsed through the photos and realised there are like-minded people like me who commented to say that this obsession is not healthy. Well, so what is this obsession over thigh gaps about?

Firstly, girls out there, please do not obsess over not being able to achieve a thigh gap, in other words, this should NOT be in your list of fitness goals. Why so?
1. Everybody's legs are shaped differently.

A. Straight - You are lucky to get this leg shape, straight and non-bandy.

B. O-shaped curvature - This is a congenital bone deformation where only your ankles touch in standing position, making your legs form a letter O.

C. X-shaped curvature - Another congenital bone deformation where your knees touch in standing position, making your legs form a letter X.

Looking at this, I'm sure you can identify what kind of leg shape you have. Very often when your legs are slightly O-shaped, your thigh gaps are larger. Vice versa for A. Straight and C. X-shaped. I'm no osteologist so I'm nobody to judge on the different types of leg shapes but I do have a slight X-shaped curvature (a little bothered!).

2. Whether you have thigh gaps or not will also be dependable on the size of your hips (of course and the leg shapes will then come into picture). You will only be able to reduce the fats around your hips, but unfortunately, unless you can cut the hip bones at the sides (sounds really silly), your hip size is rather fixed genetically.

Conclusion, do not think that just by losing weight (healthily or not), you will be able to achieve this because we are made differently! Instead, try focusing on your fitness goals to live healthily, exercising/working out regularly, eat well, having ample rest; having a healthy lifestyle will lead to longevity, which is much more worth it than obsessing over getting thigh gaps. 

If you have been following me on FB and Instagram, I think you might have already heard of Brandnewstart SG. Do check it out if you are looking for a personal trainer to kickstart a fitness regime, OR, if you know of somebody who needs such help! Our team of trainers are ever-ready to help! 

These are the 4 main programmes that Brandnewstart offers:

For ladies who are looking to burn fats and tone up!

For men out there who are looking to shed some flabs and that beer belly!

For men and women who are looking to gain some quality muscles!

Lastly, for men and women who are athletes or are looking to train up to be one!

Take your pick and simply email enquiry@brandnewstart.sg if you are already sure of what programme you are interested to sign up for, otherwise, feel free to look up www.brandnewstart.sg for more information!

I know I promised HEALTH TIPS! Coming up next! Have a great weekend ahead! 

More about → Health & Fitness - The Operation Thigh Gap

Fitness & Nutrition: How important nutrition is

I took a long time to prepare this post because I have been contemplating posting this as it'll be a societal shock to our modern lifestyle and diet, and to many of you out there. The other reason for the delay was to carefully put all the technical terms into a simpler version so it'll be easier for everyone to understand.

Do bear with me on this post as I'll be stressing a lot on the most challenging part of your fitness journey AGAIN. I need to keep emphasising on the fact that nutrition should be the root and the foundation to your journey to perfecting health and fitness, well, not just that, but going slightly ahead, especially if you are a competitive athlete or sportsperson.

There is an apparent reason, to me, why the sports industry is not blooming and moving forward in Singapore. Yes, as you can guess right now, the reason is NUTRITION.

As you can see from the triangle above, this is the Crossfit Dietary Prescription (CDP). I guess some of you may have seen this, may have understood this, and some of you may think this is irrelevant because you don't crossfit. But hey, take a minute (or few) to read what I have to say because if you are disciplined enough to give it a try and spread the good news, maybe the sports industry, and even the SAF (Singapore Armed Force) in Singapore will see the enlightenment and improve the current sports and fitness education.

Today, I'll be attempting to simplify this prescription so this can apply to everyone and instill into your lifestyle.

Ever heard of 'You are what you eat!'? This is the summary of CDP. Your nutrition is the foundation and will break or make you in your fitness journey. A good and well-balanced diet will ensure increment in health, energy and sense of well-being; it is also the deciding factor  of whether your body is reducing fats, building quality muscles and optimising performance in and out of the gym.

Sport - performance

Strength training (aka weight-lifting) - control of external weight

Gymnastics - control of our body in space

Metabolic conditioning - cardio/respiratory

Nutrition - solid molecular foundation

I do not even have to elaborate and tell you more about the other 4 factors if you don't know how to keep your nutrition in check. SO here goes:

Macronutrients - what I have been referring to as macros, are your protein, carbohydrates and fats. Micronutrients, as you may guess, are then vitamins and minerals. Carbohydrates affects the production of hormone insulin, that derives energy from your bloodstream in your cells to be used as fuel. Though it is an essential in the body, too much of carbohydrates in your body will result in diabetes type II, coronary heart disease, depression, obesity, etc. Protein, goes the same way as carbs, will result in fat storage if consumed in excess, however if in deficiency, will break down muscles to make up for the necessary protein requirement. Fats are then your optimal energy source and it contains almost twice the amount of carbs and protein. Of course I'm referring to good fats such as nuts, seeds, fish and avocado.

So where am I deriving at exactly? 

I'm trying to encourage and promote a diet that is a combination of 2 individual popular diets and one that you can keep and instill into a lifestyle, that will ultimately increase your performance in your sport, in the army, or even, in your pursuit of health and fitness for life.

Diet 1: Paleo Diet

Paleolithic diet is all about meat, seeds, nuts, vegetables, very minimal starch and NO sugar. YES, you read me right, NO SUGAR! Alot of crossfit athletes don't consume sugar AT ALL, which means they even avoid fruits that are high in sugar. It's really up to you though, I personally feel that as long as you don't go overboard with the grapes, bananas, mangoes and cherries, a little won't kill but hey, #YOLO! You know what your body needs and wants.

Diet 2: Zone Diet

The Zone diet emphasises on both the quality and quantity of your macros - calorie counting, which everyone irks. 

To optimise performance, you will need a mixture of both diets (sounds complicated and difficult uh?).

Bottomline - your diet should consist of more lean meats, vegetables, seeds, nuts, some fruits, little starch and NO SUGAR. Also, you need to keep the intake of your macros to support your workout, not your body fat. WHICH MEANS, you don't eat less because you want to lose weight, you cut on what you eat for a purpose to maximise your performance in the gym, sport or even in the armed forces. The CDP recommends 30% of your diet to consist of lean protein, 40% low-glycemic carbs (low GI foods) and 30% of good/monosaturated fats.

So then, how do you know much much to eat for each meal? Remember I mentioned before, that your different body type will determine how you should be eating? There you go..

The CDP has defined that:

1 block of protein = 7 grams of protein (cooked)

1 block of carbs = 9 grams of carbs

1 block of fats = 1.5 grams of fats

Now look at the table below and you will be able to find out how many blocks are recommended for you on the different meals. 

Give it a try if you are game for it, and have the plans to optimize your performance in the gym, as a professional athlete or sportsperson. I hope I managed to deliver my message well. Do come back to me if you have burning questions about CDP. Start cutting out SUAGRS from your diet everyone!

To those who have emailed me and waiting for my reply, kindly be patient with me, I'll definitely get back to you ASAP! Keep those emails coming in! (=

One of the nights while I was marinating my food for easy cooking - used cajun & ginger ground

Yay, finally got a photo taken with Zheng ge ping!

Saturdays with LOVE

Have a great week ahead everyone! I'll be back with the recipe I promised to share! (=

More about → Fitness & Nutrition: How important nutrition is

Health & Fitness: Myths about Female weight training

I have been explaining about this to my family and friends OVER and OVER again, this topic about females not having to worry about gaining bulky muscles when they start lifting weights. So recently I came across an image that looked something like what I created (couldn't find the exact one that I had seen but yea, the idea is the same).

So, ladies, you only get your body at its peak and most beautiful when you start lifting weights, or at least be doing some exercises. Otherwise, if you are not on a caloric deficit and generally eating more than what you need daily (say 1lb), you will be gaining 365lbs in a year, which will be worse off if you don't even workout to start with. ISN'T that scary?!

The biggest problem of women that boils down to that fear of looking like a she-hulk, to me, is a complicated war of the will and flesh. Very often, you ladies genuinely and sincerely want to get your butts down to working out, but the flesh is reluctant, and so the misconception part comes into place, where excuses of the fear to look like a she-hulk seeps into the minds.

Let me simplify some of the myths that you have heard:

1. Weight-training will make me look like a she-hulk.
There is definitely no way a woman is able to build muscles like men because of the fact that we women do not naturally produce as much testosterone as men and testosterone is one of the main hormones that contributes to muscle-building. The bulky and intimidating images of professional female bodybuilders must have scared you away from the gym and weights, I do understand that. BUT, they do not get to those sizes without using anabolic steroids and other drugs to reach that high degree of masculinity. Even so, without all the drugs and steroids, it is not easy, takes heavy weight training, right diet and many years for men to build big and visible muscles, SO, when is it even our turn?

2. I want to get toned, don't have to necessarily be stronger. Can I just run?
I'm not saying running is not effective here, I still run (though seldom) and do other forms of cardio but that is not my main forms of workout. There are 3 main subjects that comes into this argument of fat-burning all the time:
1. Cardio
2. High Intensity interval Training (HIIT)
3. Weight Training

So which is most effective and why?
First of all, the reason why cardio should not be your main training is because though you burn fats, you not only burn the fats but the muscles (whole theory of muscle-loss=fats storing comes into play again). What's more, you only burn the fats during the cardio, nothing after that. It is still a good and healthy way to work the heart and keep your heart healthy.

HIIT, on the other hand allows you to burn fats during and up to 4 hours after the workout and by having HIIT in your training routine you burn more fats than a person who just does cardio day in day out, while sleeping.

Lastly, weight training allows you to target specific muscle groups and build lean muscles. By doing so, you will be able to gain quality muscles and then improve overall metabolic function. The functional training moves like squats and deadlifts will also improve your mobility in everyday activities, thus preventing injuries. Weight training also improve body composition (more lean muscles, less fats at the same bodyweight) and increases bone density which prevents the onset of osteoporosis. It also improves circulation, coordination, balance and bone and ligament strength.

So what is the verdict?
Add all 3 subjects into your training routine for best results!

3. When I stop weight training, my muscles will turn into fats and make me look flabby!
Muscles CANNOT turn into fats and fats CANNOT turn into muscles, I repeat, Muscles CANNOT turn into fats and fats CANNOT turn into muscles! This is equivalent to "metal CANNOT turn into gold". These are 2 different entities that must be clarified. Simply explained, when you stop exercising one day, your muscle cells will just get smaller and thinner, and your fat cells will not multiply too. If you do not watch your fat intake after you stop exercising, your muscle cells will decrease in sizes and your fat cells will grow bigger and bigger, that's how people get fat and overweight when they stop exercising altogether.

4. I should not be doing heavy weights because it is dangerous.
Well, there 1 main reason why I think women should progressively lift heavier. Here goes, if you have been doing weight training (which is good), you will ultimately reach a plateau where everything seems too light and simple for you, that is when your body is at its comfort zone and is used to doing the usual weights, therefore restricting or slowing down your progress. Generally, our body and muscles respond to resistance and when there is very light or even no resistance, then there is no way your body can change and evolve.

These are the usual questions I get from my family and friends and I hope to be able to clarify the burning questions of yours with these answers. Personally and honestly, one of the main restrictions to people not working out is the 'priority' issue. When health and fitness is your priority after God (if you have a religion) and family, there is no reason for you to not be able to find time to workout and keep fit. At least for Jason and I, we have a common priority after God and family, to eat and workout well, strengthening and protecting the only place we live in.

"You don't workout only when you have the time, you make the time to workout!"

This article is specially done for www.singasports.com and I'll be covering a specific topic every month to add into collection of articles on the page so do check the web out! I'm glad to see many like-minded fitness lovers out there and hoping to see more! Do email me if you have other burning questions and I'll try my best to help, apologies if I may take longer to reply though.

Before I end the post, I need to share my progress on the legs since 2009. Had a good time giggling over the skinny me in the past. I also have evidence of being a snack-junkie then (that bag of ruffles ewwwww! HAHA). Happy to see my progress over the years!

New recipe up next! Stay tuned and hang in there, it's midweek tomororrowwwww!

More about → Health & Fitness: Myths about Female weight training

Health & Nutrition - Quinoa, the wonderful Supergrain

I am going to share the recipe that you have all been waiting for!!

Quinoa with pan-fried chicken and asparagus

Ingredients:
- 30g asparagus
-  whole chicken breast
- Cajun seasoning (you may use your favorite seasoning)
- 1 cup of Organic quinoa (serves approx. 6)
- 2 cups of water
- 1 chilli padi

*I do not have photos of the entire process so bear with me with whatever I have :)

1. Prep the quinoa, make sure the ratio is 2:1 (2 portions of water: 1 portion of quinoa)

2. Wash the quinoa thoroughly with water, squeezing the quinoa while washing and the rinse the quinoa.

3. Pour the quinoa into a pot, drizzle a little olive oil and stir until quinoa is almost evaporated. Be careful not to burn the quinoa, keep the heat low.

4. After which, add the 2 cups of water into the pot and stir for a few rounds, then leave it to boil.

5. Once the water is brought to a boil, lower the heat to the lowest you can and leave it for 15 minutes (using a timer is advised).

6. While waiting, prepare the whole chicken breast, remove the skin (if there is) and chop them up to as little or as big as you like.

7. Add your favourite seasoning and mix the chicken with it. I use cajun seasoning because it's so yummy and goes with anything.

8. Wash the asparagus and chilli padi and then chop them up as many pieces as you like (as usual).

9. Pre-heat a saucepan/frying pan and drizzle abit of olive oil. Put in some garlic and onions if you like, (I used homemade pre-blended ones) and fry till slightly brown. Then put in chicken and fry for about 2-3 mins before adding the asparagus to fry together. By this time, your quinoa should be ready!

So, VOILA! You get healthy yet yummy food!

Why did I use quinoa (pronounced as 'keenwah') and what are the benefits?

• Quinoa is rich in protein as it contains all nine essential amino acids
• Quinoa has a lot of Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) - help create proper energy production in cells
• Quinoa contains twice the amount of fiber as compared to many other grains
• Quinoa is rich in iron 
• Quinoa is rich in manganese - an antioxidant that help protect red blood cells and other cells from injury by free radicals
• Quinoa is high in lysine - essential for tissue growth and repair
• Quinoa is rich in magnesium

I had ICECREAM during the weekend ZOMG! But it tasted heavenly because I haven't had it for ages. Spent the weekend working out as usual, and then spent some time with JasonJJ, since he just booked out on his first weekend and an advanced birthday celebration for the boy too.

The awesome company at The Daily Scoop!

Happy Birthday JasonJJ

Hope your weekend had been great and that your Monday is treating you well so far! Have a good week ahead! Feel free to ask me if you have any doubts in the recipe and do follow me on IG if you haven't, @limaranagustina. Till the next!

More about → Health & Nutrition - Quinoa, the wonderful Supergrain

Health and Fitness - The harsh reality hits you

Whether you like to hear/see this or not, I know there are many people (both male and female) who are still living in denial, thinking that they are satisfied with their bodies, they make do with what they have or blame it on genetics. Somehow they envy people who works out, somehow they believe that no matter how ugly, how flabby they become, somebody will still love them (duh, of course!), somehow somewhere out there deep buried in their minds, there is a portrait of a dream body. The problem is, where is the determination, where is the dedication and where is the discipline? They're all in self-delusions. Well, I don't know about you, but I have a dream physique in mind and I'll not give up till I get there, no matter how long it takes, whether family-planning comes into the picture or not.

Yesterday, I went for a body analysis at my gym and since the last I did mine, right after we came back from our honeymoon (June 2013), my bodyfat percentage has dropped by 2%, my weight remained unchanged, muscle mass has increased (not sure where the last body analysis slip was). Well, you may think 18.2% isn't very low but this had shown me how much my hard work is paying off and I'll continue to work hard (even though BMR is still slightly on the lower side though).

As mentioned in my last post, I would like to share briefly about bodyfat percentage and here are some images you can refer to if you do not have access to get your body analysis checked.

For men:

For women:

So, what do you think your bodyfat percentage range is? which one can best describe your physique right now? And which is your ideal physique? 

Remember I said weight is not a good indication of your fitness level and how toned you are? By having more lean muscles in your body, your weight may maintain or even increase because muscles are denser than fats and therefore weigh heavier than fats. The images above are also just rough guides, different body types may produce different results on bodyfat percentage too.

Why do I say muscles weigh heavier then?

The same weight of fats and muscles look very different because muscles are very dense and compact as compared to fats. Would you then, rather have 5lbs of fats or 5lbs of muscles?

Some examples that I found (credits to photo-owners):

This lady has obviously worked out, looking at the slightly rounder shoulders, flatter and more defined abs and you can spot that her butt is perkier and legs slimmer, but she actually weighs heavier than before. Oh, and her posture had also improved (back to that in future posts).

This guy, similarly, has worked out (HARD) and achieved good lean muscles, yet still weigh the same.

So guys, stop obsessing over that little weight gain here and there if you are working out fine. Instead, the mirror is the best judge and of course if you can and want to, get a proper body analysis done.

I will be attempting to perfect my oat tomorrow morning and will post a proper recipe after that. HAHA. Please bear with me while I attempt the best recipes I can to share with all of you. 

What I had been up to during the week so far.

Went for a last tan before I start work next week! On that faithful bloated day..

Thinking that watching this in broad daylight will be less scary, but no, I did not finish the movie. HUR

My beyond-presentable oatmeal

My beloved company for the past 2 days <3

TGIF everyone! Have a great and restful weekend filled with love, health and fitness! Till the next.

More about → Health and Fitness - The harsh reality hits you

Health and Fitness - The greatest fear

I have been very busy running around this week, which is good especially now that I'm unemployed, the least I can do is to keep my days busy and productive.

Confession: After about 2 years of training, the greatest fear of stagnation finally occurred to me, which is very very bad. I cleaned out my diet so much, worked out as hard or even harder now, but there's still something wrong somewhere that caused me to retain that amount of fats. SO, I'm going to be a real testimony of IF (Intermittent Fasting or you can also call it Intermittent Feeding), together with Edric and Jen (@thefitbean), I'm going to track my progress for 10 weeks, however I'll be doing IF for the rest of my life after the 10 weeks, still keeping my feeding during the 8 hours as clean-paleolithic as possible. I hope to achieve this before the baby comes into the picture (Hurhur, I know Jason is waiting for that to happen soooon). I will try to take photos of what I eat during the feeding hours and what kind of liquid diet I take during the fasting hours and I hope to be able to see improvement!

I get a lot of emails (Thank you for the emails, keep them coming!) asking questions regarding the type of diet and workout since I started writing and I must emphasise that whatever I suggest may not be the best way to attain your fitness goals. You need to read up and play around with what you think may work for you. It takes years of experience, sometimes, to even try to find out what body type you are, genuinely understanding your body and how it reacts to different diet and workout. The bottomline is, don't give up! If you fail (which I do and my gym buddies too), pick yourself up, learnt what works for you and what doesn't, and start all over again. If you feel the need to correct your form and need to start with light weights, accept it and start over again because you know that you will definitely be stronger and wiser than the first round. One diet may work for me but may not work for you, and you need to recognise what your body needs as a basic, and then work your diet into your lifestyle around the basics that your body needs. Your body is unique, as your character and personality are.

I hope everyone gets what I'm trying to say :/ I'm still learning too so please don't quote me. I'm still exploring what works best for me and it's going to be a lifelong journey! Buck up and don't give up!

I'd love to share this video that Jason got me watching, about Steve Cook explaining how to plan and grocery-shop and what he does when he's preparing to get lean for a show. Enjoy and learn as much as you can! Simply click on the title if you need to enlarge.

Backtrack to what happened last Sunday afternoon, we attended Houston's 1st Birthday party and here are some of the photos I got. He's such a love!!

Have a good rest everyone and I'll be back soon to cover more on the IF I'll be going through. All the best to me! It's FRIDAY tomorrow!

More about → Health and Fitness - The greatest fear