Health Blog by YinTeing

When you eat out, there are often many mouth watering dishes that you can feast on, generally involving fast food or anything that is sweet and high in fat. Things that come to mind- lasagna, spagetti with mushroom sauce, curry mee, nasi lemak, Indian rice (with the complete side dishes and spices), etc. And to top it off with ice lemon tea, ice blended with cheese cake or chocolate mud cake as desserts.

For many sedentary people, eating this type of food would start triggering food cravings. If you have a set lunch consisting of this type of food combination, you will find that you may want to search for something to nibble in the afternoon or get hungry again in the evening. When the craving arises, sometimes it is hard to resist and if you were to succumb, you will almost end up feeling bad or rotten about yourself. Or you will feel so tired and bloated after that full lunch that you may end up getting yourself a Hazelnut latte (Hazelnut latte is really very high in sugar).

The cause lies in your lunch selection and what you choose to eat may influence how you feel for the rest of the day.

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Here’s my strengths & weaknesses:
Cardio- Improving.

• Treadmill: Spend a lot of time running at the treadmill, at the speed between 8.5 to 9.0 km/hr which I am able to maintain for 10 min. Then I will do brisk walk for about a minute or two before increasing the gradient of the machine to 4.0 or 5.0 and do a uphill jog between 6.5 to 7.0km per hour, maintaining the speed for about 7min.
• Cycling: Cycle at effort level 4 or 5 and try my best to maintain at 80 to 90 rpm for about 8 min. Normally will stop when the caloric meter indicate 50 calories. As much as I can, I do cycling without holding on the handle so that my limbs work much harder and I had to activate my core in order to prevent myself my sliding off the bike’s seat. The time I am able to stay still and cycle without sliding off is increasing with practice. But the exercise is tough so normally I will not do more than 10 min.
• Normally I will do one round of cardio, but quite intensive for about 10 to 20 minutes, then I will proceed to do something such as stretching, weights or attend exercise classes and come back to do another round of cardio, followed by stretching as a cool down. In other words, I break down my cardio sessions (within the same workout session) to avoid injuries or over-straining.

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City folks mostly led busy lives- work late and by the time we get home, we just pop in convenient meals. Who has the time to go to the market to buy chicken meat, marinate and cook for meals? Most of the time, we resort to either eating out or just having a quick-fix meal.

For those of us who are into exercising and into toning/muscle building, we may resort to taking less carbohydrates and more protein. If we are constantly on the go, having demanding careers, trying to find time to balance the rest of the time between family, exercising and social life, we would just have time for processed food.

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From my personal experience, caffeine intake right before exercise affects exercising in the following ways:

• heart beat much faster than normal
• dizziness
• gastric
• weakness in limbs— especially if you drink Ceylon tea prior to exercising
• sometimes headache

The signs are felt more strongly especially if the caffeine dosage is high, for example in latte or expresso. I felt these signs even though I am so used to caffeine that I have no problem sleeping even right after a latte from Starbucks at night.
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More and more people are discovering that abdomen crunches and sit ups alone just will not flatten the tummy. Because of so many conflicting info that I’ve received, I’ve decided to try if it works. It doesn’t, as evident on a previous Tummy Project that I have tried- focusing on crunches. Now, I am no longer doing crunches- not on the stability ball, the abdomen weight machine or on the floor. And I am seeing better results.

There’s an article writen in Daily Muscle: Strong, Sexy Abs, Why Don’t I See Them? provides an excellent explanation on the only way to make your tummy smaller is via cardio and controlled food intake. Similar explanation is given by IntenseWorkout: Abdominal Exercises (The Truth).

And through my personal experience, what is mentioned in both articles above are very true. Here are the changes I’ve made and I see much better results compared to 70 crunches that I used to do:

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My colleague is planning to start another exercise program for our department. He sent an invitation asking everyone in our department to meet every Wednesday after work to exericse together in a nearby park. He used to be an avid gym goer but stopped because of work commitment (work very late hours and he had other commitments, so the gym membership had to go). Still, he always loved to exercise.

Previously, he had organised this activity but because it was nearing rainy season, slowly the number of people who came was reduced and eventually, the activity was discontinued. But in order to support folks in my unit to exercise, I will try to join him and our other friends on Thursday coz I can’t make it on Wednesdays. Last time I used to loathe jogging but now, I’ve love to jog and run because of the adneraline high. So it will be nice to jog in a windy park rather than an air-con gym room.

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I’ve asked a number of my friends what made them hesitate to join the gym or just commit to an exercise program. The excuse I frequently get: “aiya, don’t wanna join la. I heard that once a person who goes to the gym stops exercising, the weight will just ballon up like nobody’s business. There, that’s what happened to that so-and-so- she stopped the gym and now see what had happened to her… so scary!”

Hmmm…. afraid to join the gym or exercise because worried will gain more weight than before?
Interesting…

If you are one of those who agree with my friends, then please answer this question that I have:

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Any forms of addictions such as addicted to booze, fags, food, work, sex and caffeine almost have a deeper underlying reasons- the cause may not be just superficial. Sometimes, people who do not suffer from such addictions may be quick to blame those who suffers from it.

For instance, someone I know weights at least 300 pounds. To me, she’s a walking time bomb, even though she does not have any apparent health problems. Anyone’s first reaction, including my own, will be to ask her to cut down on food and to start on an exercise program. I have hinted to a mutual friend that I would not mind planning an exercise program for her. But I was told that it is a sensitive issue for her friend, for anyone who tried to ask her to lose weight will end up upsetting her. In fact, this friend once mentioned that she’s the only person she knew who never asked her to do something about her weight.

This got me thinking- this lady basically suffered from serious food addiction. She literally eats non stop (she loves meat and food that is high in fat) and do not attempt to control her food intake. She has everything in life- lots of money, property, a big house with an elevator, a good husband, successful kids- so there is no reason that she is unhappy. But on the few times that I have seen her, I sensed a kind of unhappiness in her. Probably something in her personal life is making her unhappy that she does not reveal to us. Well, every family have skeletons in the closets, don’t they?

Therefore, cases where you see people overeating or having eating disorders- there is a much deeper cause other than laziness and lack of self control. Something deep inside must be making the person feels very unhappy or there is an inner turmoil or conflict that the person is choosing not to address. Probably an inner emptiness that the person is trying to fill up with food, booze, sex or whatever. Sometimes, if the underlying issue is lack of self confidence or bad self image because of the weight problem, the problem is normally resolved if the person is able to stick to an exercise program and successfully lose weight. Most of the time, people who had lost a lot of weight will report feeling more confident, and the confidence levels flow into other areas on their life such as career, relationships and allow them to accomplish other personal accomplishments. And that motivates the person to continue.

On the other hand, there are those who had lost weight, but later regained it back. Then the person tries again, lose weight and later regained it again. Each time the person regains weight, it’s a huge blow to the person’s self esteem, making the person feel more small, unworthy and like a failure. Check also the initial motivation driving the person to lose weight- did the person do it naturally through sensible eating and exercise instead of yo-yo diet or punishing exercise routines or worst eating disorders like aneroxia or bullimia? Was it to please someone else because we feel that we are never good enough for them? Or because it was due to intense peer pressure to belong or to look like a certain celebrity? If so, then perhaps the person will need to seek help, not from an exercise specialist, but from a therapist or counselor first.

Deeper issues that are not being addressed and solved will resurface back again and again in our lives. It comes back to haunt us for as long as we do not face, understand and let them go. Once we resolve our inner conflicts and trauma, only then we are able to move ahead in life. With this out of the way, we would stand a better chance of succeeding in anything, be it a plan to lose weight or built healthier relationships.