Life & Love - My birthday week

Birthday celebrations kickstarted on tuesday with Jason. We had our workout in the morning before we head to Ikoi for lunch. Having heard so much raves about the buffet, we finally decided to give it a shot. The place looked like a flashback from the 90s and besides the staff, who were conversing in Mandarin and minimal English, everything else looks retro and Japanese (seen in jap dramas though I've not been to Japan. hurhur).

Started with the sashimi and we ordered almost 10 servings of salmon.

We started ordering cooked food after we were finished with the raw ones and found out that they were not worth the sinning at all! We could not bring ourselves to finish the cooked ones and left feeling only satisfied with all the sashimi we had. The soups were very good though! 

Went for an interview on Wednesday morning, followed by gym, before going back to freshen up to meet the RB girls! Been so long since we last caught up with each other. We had a great gossiping session (signs of aging)!

Yes, I had salmon sashimi again the following day. HUR

Almond ebi temppura which tasted soooo good!

Geri left for her flight after dinner so we adjourned to tcc for cakes, coffee and more gossipping!

Thursday was spent with dear Jessline @jesslinet, whom was my gym buddy and shopping companion for the day. Thanks for taking time off just for me and thanks so much for the pretty gift babe! <3

Had our post-workout meal at CBTL and had salmon again! You guys should try this if you haven't, Coffee Bean now serves all-day breakfast and this is my favourite, salmon scramble! It costs us $9.10 with a mug of tea. 

Thursday night, Jason and his gang of brothers picked me up at 10pm after finishing off work the entire day. We started our adventure to the end of Singapore, tip of Johor Bahru for our long-awaited ktv session. Had a quick meal after the long drive in and off we go to ktv! The night ended early in the morning and it's been such a long time since we stayed up late. Thanks once again guys for being so sweet!

We slept in on the actual day and went straight to the gym after lunch with my in-laws. Finished our session, had dinner, headed home to rest while Jason watches NDP and at almost 7pm, we went to the fitness corner for my birthday wod just because I wasn't satisfied with the first session I had in the gym. SOOO MUCH LOVE from the guys!

JJ doing a perfect toe-to-bar

I ended my week with a short workout yesterday with Jason in the gym. It was supposed to be a rest-day but we were determined to do something light and quick to burn off the lunch we had a Houston's 1st Birthday party so we rowed on the rowing machine for 30 mins and did 30 cleans and 30 thrusters with some abs exercises.

To sum up my birthday week, I managed to do everything I wanted to, still working out and keeping working out as my priority before I start enjoying my birthday. YOU are the only one who can make the difference in your own life because you decide how you want to prioritise your life. I am also proud to have a mother who does yoga and pilates at least 5-6 times a week, and a grandmother who never fails to do her workout early in the mornings so there is no reason for me to slacken. It's never too late to start and it'll never be too late to put health and fitness as one of your priority in your lifestyle habits so start now if you haven't! The beginning of change is challenging but once you get into it, your life will change for the better!

Have a great week ahead everyone! :)

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Health & Nutrition - Intermittent Fasting

I'm very excited to be able to share something really good with all my readers because I have real-life testimony of Edric who has gone through 5 weeks of intermittent fasting, which I will be covering in details. First and foremost, let me introduce who Edric is. He is Jason's younger brother (who is taller than Jason, standing at 1.88m). His body is a combination of Mesomorph and Endomorph (aka meso-endo or endo-meso) and it was more difficult for him to lean down as compared to his elder brother. So seeing him lean down so much now with so much discipline in dieting and working out, makes me feel very proud of his current progress (do note the lighting may be different with photos taken at different places.

Week 0 - no abs

Week 1 - definition is showing but very flat

Week 2 - definition is out clearer  but still very flat
with bulge on lower abs

Week 3 - abs starting to thicken

Week 4 - abs have thicken, lower abs a lot flatter

Week 4 - A LOT thicker abs

Week 5 - proof that everybody's abs are different

Week 5 - proof that everybody's abs are different

Edric is undergoing a 12-weeks cycle of intermittent fasting and he has intentions to instill into his lifestyle because he feels this form of dieting suits his body type and compliments very well with his workout routine. I have to stress the point that not every diet suits everyone. It comes with experience and knowledge to know what diet suits you and not. Very often, with little or no experience and knowledge in dieting and working out, diets that are good turn into bad fad diets, thus implicating largely on your workout; strength and endurance, as well as your overall confidence. Edric did not chance upon this diet, he did his research, lots of reading up and after trying other ways and means to attempt to lean down, he finally found the right one.

Wanna be updated of Edric's progress? Follow him on Instagram @edrictimothy for more real-time updates! I'll be recording the remaining of his progress when he finishes the 12 weeks. 

SOOOOO, what is intermittent fasting (IF) then?

As the term intermittent fasting says, you basically take intermittent fasting (with no solid food at all) and try to fit it into your lifestyle, simple as that. You can do a long IF or a short IF. Long IF is fasting for 24 hours for 1-2 times a week and short IF works daily. Depending on what your body needs and working around it correctly, generally you start feeding your body the moment you are awake for 6-8 hours. After the 6-8 hours window, you stop having solid food or no food at all. Like I have not stressed enough, I do not want anyone to try this on their own and end up in starvation mode (especially if you are an ecto-combination body type), because your body will start using up your muscles for energy and sustenance, then you lose muscles, store fats (the vicious cycle). So please learn to know your body well and alter the diet according to what your body needs. For Edric's case, he stops eating 8 hours after he wakes up everyday (yes EVERY SINGLE DAY). This, I warn, requires awesome discipline and I salute him for this. It has changed him so much as a person too. He will still drink and sometimes have a small serving of salad during social gatherings (which he cuts out so much too) but during the 8 hours, he feeds himself quality food, very clean and healthy. He prepares his own meals and smoothies, still works out 1-2 times a day with a 5-day workout routine, he keeps his protein intake high and he eats a lot of fruits and veg.

How else besides aesthetical benefits will IF get you?

In the long run, instilling this diet into your lifestyle will help in reducing blood glucose and insulin levels, thus improving the state of the overall glucose metabolism. IF will also assist in increasing fatty acid oxidation with increased FFAs (through increasing lipolysis hormones GH, glucagon and adrenaline). Lastly, if done correctly and effectively, IF will increase various health factors (lower inflammation, lower blood pressure, reduced oxidative stress, increased protection against neuro-degenerative diseases, etc). 

I hope to let my readers bring back a very important point after this post, about dieting. Dieting will NOT work if done short-term. Instead, work it into your lifestyle so you will enjoy eating healthy and not binge-eat when you feel deprived during a dieting phase. Healthy eating is a form of enjoyment, not the other way round. So, remember not to overeat especially for my muslim friends during this festive season and enjoy cheating meals but train hard too! 

Selamat Hari Raya and Happy National Day! 

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Life & Love - My fruitful weekend

I hope you guys have had a great weekend because mine could not have been any better! The weekend officially started on Friday, which was dinner with the happy ladies, so we called ourselves, in an attempt to cheer everyone up during a rather difficult period 2 years ago (or 3?). We had dinner at Shirokane Tori-Tama and I thought they serve very good yakitori, though prices are a little steep (Sorry I did not take photos because we were too preoccupied chatting away and gobbling food down our throats, we are such hungry monsters). Celebrated Yannie's and my birthday together, like every year and Aimin bought this super yummy cake from Flor (Yes, I do eat cakes!).

My saturday started early with a quick 30-minutes on the step machine before going ahead to meet my loves of 11 years. We had brunch at Cafe Melba, our favourite hangout for now. We had a VIP that day, who is turning ONE next week! Houston is the first baby in our group and he's growing up tooooo fast! So much love for this cheeky little boy!

After a fulfilling brunch with the ladies, we had plans to do something out of the ordinary and so the 4 of us decided to take a quadcycle at ECP, without much expectations, only to find out that our quads were all burning after an hour of cycling (considering the total amount of body weight inclusive of the weight of the quadcycle that we had to carry). We stopped by at a fitness corner and did a quick wod (for those who do not know, wod = Workout Of the Day), which was when I got bruised trying to perform some stunts. Jason and I were inspired by a photo we saw on IG and decided to attempt some acrobatic moves (HURHUR). It was a fun-filled, though tiring day.

In case you are wondering how a quadcycle looks like. HAHA we definitely had fun!

 

Sunday was much simpler, church at noon followed by our metcon session after a short nap. Nic and Ashley joined us today and I think we killed the workout (LOL). I'm sure we had fun! We did 2 sets of 3 rounds each:

First set (for the ladies):

20 box jumps

20 bodyweight shoulder presses

10 hanging knee raises

20 single-arm db snatches

20 Inclined flex arm hang

First set (for the guys):

20 box jumps

20 bodyweight shoulder presses

10 toe-to-bar

20 single-arm db snatches

20 pushups

10 pullups

20 handstand pushups

Second set (improvised Naughty Nancy for both ladies & guys):

Sprint (not sure about the distance)

10 thrusters

25 vertical crunches

Us, after "killing the workout"!

We try to keep our rest days as fulfilling with workouts that are out of the ordinary, out of the gym so the body gets different variations of training. You can try to infuse this into your workout routine too, for more excitement and fun!

This coming week will be my birthday week and I'm expecting a lot of feasting and cakes, which I AM SO GOING TO STAY  STRONG! I will be working out doubly hard and will be gradually attempting a new diet recommended by Edric, who has been on the diet for 4 weeks. I will be writing about his diet and how it works, as well as sharing his current progress so stay tuned!

Time to crash so good night y'all! Have a productive week ahead!

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Health & Fitness - What is your body type?

I would love to start the post with my buy of today! If you think I'm just a gym-addict/every-day-at-the-gym-with-no-other-life kind of girl, let me prove you wrong because I not only have a soft spot for snacks, my soft spot is shopping (well, I suppose this is a soft spot for many other ladies out there, no surprise). I have not been shopping for a loooonnngg time (if you know me personally, this is an achievement!) and today I made an exception at the expense of making Jason angry of course, with a $19.90 buy from ZARA! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the $19.90 tag and checked the other sizes on display, still could not believe it and asked the staff. YES it was really $19.90, what a steal!

Tadahhhhh!!!

Sorry for the initial digression, let me get back to the topic. Today, I'll be sharing some tips on how you can recognize your body type (usually a combination) and then attempt to customize your workouts and diets accordingly, especially for the ladies, as a beginner.

First and foremost, we need to understand that there are 3 major body types; Endomorph, Mesomorph and Ectomorph, which I had covered in a post on one of my long-lost blog (of course, I'm going further in details this time). Knowing your body type is important because you will require different sets of workouts and different kinds of diet plans accordingly. If you are reading about this for the first time, you are in for a treat! I did not start my fitness journey recognizing my body type, I tried different ways and means, trials and errors to finally realise what combination of body type I am. Sit upright, hang in there and read on!

From the image above, you can see that there are rather drastic differences in the different body types, kindly note that everyone is unique and different and we are all created in the likeness of God. So, no matter which body type you are, don't be discouraged and I'm not here to judge too. I just believe everyone can look their best, with knowledge, initiative, determination, enthusiasm (I can go on and on) and love for your own body and health.

Endomorphs:

The endomorph body type is solid and generally soft. People who fall in this body type gain fats very easily and are usually of a shorter build with thick arms and legs. Muscles are strong, especially the upper legs. Endomorphs may find that they are naturally strong in leg exercises like the squats. Endomorphs are encouraged to combine cardio with resistance (weights) training. Adele is a good example of this body type. If you tilt more towards an Endomorph body type, that is not the end of the world! You will just need to alter your diet to something that is less heavy, have more vegetables, fruits instead of grains, keep your protein intake high and replace bad fats with good fats like avocado and nuts. Drink lots of water and avoid sodium as much as can because you will find yourself tending to retain water in the limbs.

Mesomorphs:
A mesomorph has a large bone structure, large muscles and a naturally athletic physique. Mesomorphs are the best body type for bodybuilding as it is relatively easier to gain and lose weight. They are naturally strong which is the perfect platform for building muscle. The mesomorph body type responds the best to weight training. Gains are usually seen very quickly, especially for beginners. The downside to mesomorphs is they gain fat more easily than ectomorphs. This means they must watch their calorie intake. A combination of weight training and cardio still works best for mesomorphs, coupled with a high level of protein intake. Pink is a very good example of a mesomorph body type. If you think this is the best body type when you are more on the mesomorph-spectrum, think again. Unless you control your diet with good discipline, you may end up looking like an athlete gone out-of-shape with those bulges that stick out of your muscles at the tummy area, hips (for ladies) and arms, making ladies look manly and bulky.

Ectomorphs:
Ectomorphs find it very hard to gain weight. They have a fast metabolism which burns up calories very quickly. Ecto’s need a huge amount of calories in order to gain weight. Workouts should be short and intense focusing on big muscle groups. Supplements are definitely recommended. Ectomorphs should eat before bed to prevent muscle catabolism during the night. Generally, ectomorphs can lose fat very easily which makes cutting back to lean muscle easy for them. This body type looks like the dream body of many of the girls all over the world, looking like a skinny supermodel. However, if not maintained with proper diet and workout (female ectomorphs tend to think they do not need to watch their diet and workout to look skinny), you will gain skinny fats, which will eventually turn to flab, droopy and soft especially as you age. You will then notice your limbs getting flabby (but they only gradually gain in size) and your tummy getting very round, looking like you are constantly bloated. You need to eat quality carbs in terms on grains as well as fruits and vegetables, still maintaining a high protein intake and good fats in your diet.

Nobody is 100% of only one body type so the above guide only refers to bodies that are more tilted to each type. Still not sure what body type you are? Feel free to bombard me with you pretty and handsome photos at limaran@gmail.com. I'll try my best to assist you to find out which body type you are more inclined to be under. Good night errrbardy and TGIF tomorrow! 

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