Gina's Advice of the Day

When you eat cut fruits or vegetables, you should eat it as soon as possible. Otherwise ( although you are eating fibre), the nutrients contained in it have all disappeared!...i did not know that..

Record Taking No.2

Record Taking No.2: After 2 weeks of entering into Get Healthy!!, it was time to monitor our progress and see whether we had accomplished anything. The overall results for those who came to measure (next one this Sunday guys!): loss of 1-2 kgs and loss of average of 2" of the body! Great going! This has made me feel really happy to see our efforts had paid off. (For those who were wondering, Record Taking No.1 was the first day we started..)

Gina Yong- our onsite nutritionist, weighed and examined me with her fancy machine and my Body Fat Percentage and Body Mass Index had also gone down by about 1% or so!I am beginning to really like this fitness thing and its giving me the push to do better.

After all of the excitement and a warm up session, Prem (our very patient trainer) showed us simple lightweight exercises to do at home for the next week. It included:

Chest- Chest + Press ( lying down with dumbells) 2 sets 10 reps ( all the exercises consisted of this set)

Back- Dumbell Row (against the wall)

Legs- Squats (against the wall)

Shoulders- Shoulder press (sitting and dumbell)

Abs- Crunches

I have to admit that after doing the simple exercises with Prem, both Naga and I felt really light headed and could not stop yawning..( ok soooo unfit!) For those who would like to know how to do it, just contact Naga or me and we will show you.

One of the participants ( who i shall not mention names) had actually put on a little bit of weight despite being on a salad diet. I need to find out exactly from the person and Gina, what happened there but I am suspecting that whilst there was control of food, no exercise was done. Exercise really makes a difference i bleieve. Anyways will keep you posted why that happens!

Tips!

I love reading Prevention Magazine, which is an American based magazine on smart ways to live well. It has such a holistic approach to health which I really appreciate. So periodically, I thought its a nice idea to take some excerpts from the magazine..

November 2009- if your GOAL is

To build Strong Bones: 'Strength training is the key to having strong bones for the rest of your life' says Ronald Zernicke, PhD of the Univeristy of Michigan Bone and Joint Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation Centre. Lifting Weights causes your muscles to pull on your bones, which in turn become denser and stronger. Choose weights that are heavy enough so you can do 2 sets of 8 to 10 reps.

To Slim Down:

Have a Food Diary! ( Thank you Gina!)

Peppermint Plant: The cheapest hunger buster ever! People who sniff peppermint throughout the day consumed nearly 3,200 fewer calories a week in a recent study. You can take a whiff before exercising toperk up for a workout too.

(Hmm..I did not know that! Maybe I can put the peppermint aromatherapy burner at home too. I am going to try this out!)

Lake Gardens 2

We had fewer members for our Sunday walk this morning.Few called in with family engagements but a number called in sick! wow! After a week of activity the body was already showing up.My! We REALLY need to get healthy!

We had some new 'recruits' namely the trouble some duo, my nephews Ilyas and Taqif, Ozzie Michael and Shankar.I am beginning to love the morning walks as I breathe in the smell of the foliage, nature and my eyes has a chance to heal looking at all the greenery around me. We bond we laugh and we push each other to go further.

Annie and Baskaran had a gentle stroll around the lake and I followed Hannah's pace by going round the lake 3 times! I reckon we must have done about 4.5 km that morning. My legs were getting a little bit wobbly but i noticed it was stronger than last week. This was all in pursuits of Hannah's 'we got to trick our body and not make it complacent'. Err,ok! By the end of the walk, i was seriously looking for the ice-cream man! I deserve it!

Annie

Annie is a fellow Rotarian whom I have known the past year and a half. She is also a participant of Get Healthy! and I just realised how little I knew about her until today. This is her story.....

' My excuse for my weight gain is the tumor which was in my body. It was detected inAugust and in Sepember I had the operation to take it out,.since then (around 2004) I have put on a lot of weight. Eventually, my body was experiencing a severe lack of cortisol so my doctor put me on steroids. It has only been a year that the doctor is taking me off it and since thenm i have lost some of the baby fat but a lt more has to go.

Cortisol is at its highest level in the mornings so that is when i am at my strongest, but by evening i am really exhausted. Stress can also wear me out. My energy level is actuall half than normal people.

So my challenge in this Get Healthy! Campaign is to lose weight without tiring myself out and overdoing it. If I over exercise I can fall ill. At my age i also need to look after my weight and be easy on my kness.The gentler exercises are better for me which includes walking.

Being in this Campaign is good for me as I get the group support and I consciously remind myself everytime I eat what i put in my mouth. My husband is my greatest supporter!' .

Annie's battle with her body and her desire to be healthy has inspired me. There is so much I take for granted that it never occured to me that she could have been going through something like that,.I am glad that Annie opened up and shared her experience. What is clear to me is that whilst Annie is facing her challenges, her inner strength shines through by her constant smiling face and detemination to heal her body.

Silat

Ancient Malay Martial Artis so subtle,hidden and beautiful the steps comes more like a dance than a potentially deadly weapon. Its a dying art and need some serious resurrecting!

We spent an evening with a Silat Gayung Guru JD who said that silat is all about knowing oneself and our own body. Each breath taken, each step made has its meaning which he would teach us in the weeks to come. We did some very simple warm ups which caused me to glow like a cow! (Glow..not Look!)

He gave us the 'kuda kuda' position (horse) and the' kuda kuda angkat siling' (horse holding the ceiling) position.

'Kuda kuda'- Standing with legs apart them move down slowly to a gentle sitting position. Then stay them for a few minutes then repeat.

'Kuda kuda angkat siling'- As above but with both hands faced upwards for a few minutes, then hand slowly move to the side, then in front.

Potentially painful but i intend to do it at least 10 times every morning to see its effects on me. I really have to say that some of the terms i have used here is probablyy not inthe actual Silat lingo but i have just stated it to make me understand the movements!! Sorry Guru! :)

My arms ache a bit this morning..but i really must do these exercises.

Second Record Taking of our measurement is next week!!

The Energy Side

On Monday evening, we ran an Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) session on the Emotional Blocks to Weigh Loss. It was wonderful to see newbies totally embracing the session and allowing themselves to FEEL about their weight gain. New age believers are often of the opionion that the physical ailments that we experience is a manifestation of the emotions we go through.

Essentially, during the session we discovered that our bodies help us to keep our fat to PROTECT us and to buffer from the 'cruel' world. It keeps us safe. Yes, sometimes we do not allow our bodies to lose the weight for our own emotional reasons (whether we realise it or not). For example..? People don't take me seriously at work if I am slim and gorgeous,the boss must look big andprosperous, i will attract men again and they will hurt me...get what i mean.

The weight only leaves us when we feel emotional safe to do so and give our bodies permission to be slim again. ( i know, where do i come from?...sigh..it takes all kinds!)

I can ,I can, can !

Our first group activity was on Sunday morning last week at Lake Gardens. We started off together but within minutes we could spot the weak, the strong and the ugly. Gradually everyone was walking at their speed of comfort. We were told not to push ourselves too hard as some of us had not seen their running shoes for a long while and had to pull it out from under the mountain of cobwebs!

We walked at a comfortable pace for 10 minutes and for the next 3 minutes did a brisk walk then went back to the normal pace. We repeated that throughout the walk.

By the second round the lake, I could feel my legs shaking but was inspired when i saw Hannah's pin hat slowly bobbing up an down on the OTHER side of the lake. Well, if Hannah can do it so can i!!That gave me the push to end my second round. Allan, looked a bit shaky when i finally arrived because he felt his hand swell and had things moving up and down his arm..ah yes, i think its called blood circulation! He was fine after a few minutes.

The group finished off happy , a bit tired but well satisfied.

The Temple

I had always taken my body for granted. Over the years, it had whispered and nudged about the things i should do to protect it, but the arrogance of youth often dismisses it as a sign of weakness and old age. Over the years, my body has given me more than the gentle nudges (maybe a few hard knocks and one or two breakdowns!!) in order for me to finally pay attention. It has made me grateful for the years of never ending service my body has given me no matter how i have abused it.

They say that our body is our Temple and so it is. It is the vehicle that captures our sacred beliefs about ourselves, treasured secrets and a place of solace when things go seemingly wrong. It is a place of worship. I believe that once we take steps to heal ourselves (in whatever way) be it physical, emotional, spiritual or mental- we actually have taken the important step of honouring ourselves. A holistic approach is needed. Its about time, isn't it?

What started as a joke a year ago ended up with a good friend of mine paying me money for the amount of weight i lost. This money i used to donate to the various charities that i liked. Then in a Rotary meeting one day Paul made a joke to the same effect..which got me thinking..the Universe is talking to me!! I should create a campaign where people reach their target health goals (lose weight/ lose inches/increase stamina) and at the same time raise money for our community service projects!! Get Healthy! was born!

So...

1. How many times have you said 'I will start Tomorrow' or 'its only 2 pieces of fried chicken' or ' my boyfriend/girlfriend loves me as i am...' ( although deep down you know whats happening to you is not healthy)

2. How many times have you said ' oh i will donate to the so and so ' but never had the time to do it??

3. This is your chance to do both!! Target your health Goal AND raise money for Charity!

4. Sign up with Get Healthy! And start helping raise funds for community service projects with the Rotary Club of Danau Desa.

5. Get a Sponsor(s)for every Kg or Inch or increased in stamina that you want to achieve

6. You are not Alone..( i hear a song coming on!) a group of like minded people will get together a few times a week to participate in the planned activities to suppost yo in a holistic healthy lifestyle

7. Get Healthy! Creates fun unique and enjoyable ways of getting a healthy life.

The 12 or so of us the Dirty Dozen (why not?) are doing the trial run of the Campaign before the launch targeted sometime in the next few months.I will chronicle our journey to share with all of you. Should you be interested to join us at some point point, let me know!!