Like you, I eat aimlessly  when I’m on vacations, ice cream of every flavor, pastries ,second serving of everything and desserts that  I can barely pronounce its names but I know if I never eat it now, I’m never going to get the chance when I  am back, and if like something I would basically eat it everyday for the entire trip, I remember Japan, I ate red bean cake every 2 hours, in Paris I had a tart in all sort of flavor in every bistro I stepped into, Geneva’s chocolates, don’t even get me started. Thailand, it was street food, I felt bad for the vendor so I bought what they sold, in Las Vegas all I wanted was tacos , and the list goes on.  

There is no secret in weight gain like how there is no secret in weight loss, firstly my main advise is not to be to extreme and cut out everything and go into a strict-diet mode, there is no need to be ashamed if you still enjoy a piece of chocolate or 2 during your tea break or if you decide to share an ice cream with your other half. I know a lot of women out there, they come back from their holidays and the first thing they do is go on a juice cleanse, trust me its not a very smart move, from a scientific point of view on how your body would react. There are better time to do a cleanse, but not right after a holiday. Imagine if you have not train for a marathon and decide to do a marathon tomorrow, how would your body react? 

those bars was the size of a bread loaf!

So here are 5 tips on how to get you on track!

Drink Water.
Being on a plane, a different time zone and another country, we forget to hydrate ourselves. Water also helps us to sustain our hunger since our body can't differentiate between thirst and hunger, aim for 8 oz of glasses per day, if you have not read the benefit of water, if you don't like water, click here for tips to make it taste better.

Bring Lunch to work.
Obviously if you bring food to work, you would know what you're eating, for a matter of fact you would save money and nothing is healthier than home cook food, unless of course your bringing chili crab to work, replacing 1 meal with home cook food could help you cut down calories.

Track your Activity.
Did you know our phone are so smart this days! Not only does it allow you to make phone calls and video call your mates half way across the globe, it allows you to tract your steps! since all of you own a phone, I am sure, even my niece who's 7 carries an iPhone. Download specific apps to help with your progress  and no you don't need any fancy gadget, your phone does it all!
here are some Apps that are pretty fancy!
Runtastic Pedometer Step Counter & Walking Tracker for apple users or click here for Android users.
There are so many out there, feel free to Google. 

Add some Resistance Training.
If gym is not your thing, use your body! add squats, push up, jumps, lunges, dips for 10-20 minutes before engaging in your usual cardio session.  The more muscle you have, the better your body is capable of burning fats and increase its capacity of calories expenditure throughout the day, that is why I lift weights.

Do not skip meals.
Especially breakfast, skipping meals throw your blood sugar level all over the place. At the end of the day you would eat a bigger lunch or dinner, trust me on this, happens to me all the time when i skip breakfast, man i eat dinner for 3, I could relate to this meme.

Lastly, always be positive and  give credit to small improvement! lets get it straight you are going to have to work just as hard when you took to lose that 5 pound but hey you know what, at least you have a goal, you know what you want and with the right set of mind, you would be able to overcome anything , your weight is just a minute detail of your life, so if today went bad after lunch, make sure dinner is better, i believe in you.

first girl on the left, Wany.the chin up! Notice that her palms are facing towards her during the pull. the underhand grip uses the biceps more. The latissimus dorsi muscle (lats) that forms a V shape of your back, especially the lower part gets more engagement in this variation,do not be fooled this movement may be the easier from all the other variation but focusing on pulling with the back rather that rounder the shoulder forward requires some practice.

The Wide grip pull ups or the regular pull up engages  the entire lats, if you want a bigger lats this my friend is the exercise that you should be doing, the wider the grip the more engagement of of the lats as compared to a closer grip. For women do not fear a bigger lats, it does make your waistline look smaller.

The  parallel pull up uses more biceps and arm because the arm are so close to each other, you are isolating the muscle, this neutral grip may seem easier for someone who have done a ton of bicep curl, i kid you not, it takes a while to be able to engage the back, therefore starting with the arm is easier. 

sorry to burst your bubble , still do not have the capacity to perform this, therefore stole this photo from a crossfit website, the muscle up or the bar muscle up are by far the most difficult of them all, not only that you got to have your upper body over the bar, you need to straighten your arms at the end of the position , i can't explain how to do this since I've yet to mastering this, i don't believe in telling you in what i do not know, but go to Crossfit Singapore Website and email coach Kevin on how he can help you or join a Box(Crossfit Gym)

 
You can get fancy and perform the towel pull up, single hand pull up, clapping pull up,weighted pull up,yes they all exist, but firstly get your pull ups before adding all this variations, unless you have walked before crawling, being one of the most functional exercise, the pull ups don't get much credit, if you have missed on my recent post on how to get a pull up click here for your progression drills.

Its been awhile and i do wish i could blog more, do drop me comment on what you fancy on reading, ill try my best to post stuff up as soon as i can which is after work-house work and walking Simba my fur ball till there keep pulling up and share with me your progress on Instagram, just tag me and i am more than happy to check on your form!

In every gym I've been to, a swiss ball is always presence. Of course u could do more than just sitting down on it. While performing any exercise on a swiss ball, its best to keep your mid section tight therefore you do not feel any pressure on your lower back. 
This two exercise is a little tough but challenging nonetheless, try it at the end of your workout, 3 sets of 10 slow and controlled repetition.bam

Creating a habit of regular exercise doesn’t require special gadgets or even equipments. Walking instead of taking the bus and climbing the stairs could be good enough for most folks. But if you’re bored and want to be on your toe with your results or enjoy using technology to enhance ordinary tasks, there is so many electronic exercise gadgets and digital devices available for everyone!

As someone who likes to keep active every day and workout regularly, I have been searching for a fitness band for some time as I have always wanted to monitor and track all my fitness and lifestyle related metrics such as distance walked, distance ran, number of hours slept, and calorie consumption, i do it not to lose weight but just to know my body better.

So my search began and I found out that there are many fitness bands available out in the market today such as the Garmin Vivofit, Basis, Nike+ Fuelband SE, Withings Pulse, Jawbone UP24 and Misfit Shine, among others. They all have different features and each one of them is styled differently. The one that recently caught my eye though is the Fitbit Flex. 

Although there are many other Fitbit style of fitness bands, the Fitbit Flex in my opinion is the best one of the lot as it offers a long list of features making it the most complete product of its kind and the best fitness tracker you can buy. It is also one of the best and most competitively priced trackers available, offering many more features than its competitors, and is priced much cheaper than similar products such as the Nike + FuelBand and Jawbone UP. Alot of my clients are seen with the Fitbit Flex.

Some of its features include the ability to track the number of steps you have taken, your sleep quality, the amount of calories you have consumed, and a silent wake alarm that gently vibrates to wake you at your desired time. The Fitbit Flex also automatically syncs all the data collected wirelessly to either your PC, Mac, iOS device, and select Andorid phones, providing the user with real-time access to all the stats on the Fitbit dashboard at any time of the day. 

As I scoured the net in search of the best price for the Fitbit Flex, I noticed that today was the launch of the LAZADA 100 SALE on http://www.lazada.sg/lazada100/. It turns out that Lazada Singapore are celebrating 100 days since the launch of their website in Singapore and they are having a sale featuring their TOP 100 Best Selling Items at prices of up to 90% off!

Imagine my delight when I found that they are offering the Fitbit Flex at the unbeatable price of only $109.00! Not only that, 3 lucky shoppers who take part in this sale will stand to $100 shopping vouchers!

The sale starts on the 28 August 2014 and will end on 10 September 2014. So don’t forget to check it out where they have many other products besides the Fitbit Flex ranging from mobiles, tablets, cameras, and consumer electronics to toys, fashion, health and beauty products.

Check out the sale here! à http://www.lazada.sg/lazada100/

And grab the Fitbit Flex here http://www.lazada.sg/fitbit-flex-fitness-tracker-lime-98897.html

Don’t forget to like the Lazada SG Facebook for more promotions! https://www.facebook.com/LazadaSingapore

In order for you to get your chin over the bar, i always prefer chest over the bar because i am able to engage my back even more,  there are of course some prerequisites for you to have just for safety sake before moving on to some progression.  I'm not saying don't take risk I'm saying that getting injured is a pain so here are 3 most important ones.

No injuries:
If you do have shoulder pain, back pain or any joint problem especially the elbow its best for you to address the pain! Never my friend let pain decrease your performance as a human being.

Healthy weight and slightly lean:
If you have excess fat, I suggest you focus on a different goals first because trust me pull up is already hard for moderately strong people, having excess weight means you have to work extra harder, its science. I’m not bursting your bubble, you can attempt to get a pull up but its not going to get easy without a certain degree of leanness also extra weight means extra pressure on your joints.

Willing to work for it:
Your not going to get it in one day, therefore keep going until you do if its your goal. 


So here are some progression.

its not a reverse pull up, you should do lat pulldown for a while to develop a basic level of strength in your lats and biceps that will help you with pull-ups down, if your overweight, its best to begin with this for safety , also it teaches you to engage the posterior muscle.

So want to try something more challenging? grab a box and jump up on a pull up bar and slowly lowering yourself down, best to count down to 5 second, do as many as you can until you cannot control your movement because its very demanding,you do want to look after your joints . This was the bulk of pull up practice i did everyday because i couldn't afford bands and there's not many fancy gadgets then!

Today I bump with my very first gym instructor in my gym that I came across when I was 16, back in the days when I got curious about exercises and what others was doing, I kept all my question to my gym instructor, though most of his answers was very straightforward that I thought I already know, I guess I just wanted to hear a magic exercise or a magic repetition to get a certain result.

 I always wanted to do pull ups! I would see all the massive dragonboaters performing them in the gym and I wanted to do just 1! Basically I just wanted to be the first girl in the gym to do a pull up, I’m competitive like that.

Its all hard work that is also why you don’t see many people using the pull up bar but just isolating their upper body to appear more cut or whatever they call it and many of this ripped guys, not all but many cant string 10 proper pull up.

One of the best back exercise along side with heavy deadlifts and row the pull ups are said to be the foundation of a solid back program and hey your bicep would get some work too while pulling yourself up!

According to fat loss expert, let me just quote him :

“Josh Hillis notes that a woman who can do three pull-ups and three dips almost always has her bodyfat issues locked down. Strength in this movement seems to have an odd correlation with a woman being “rockstar fit”, as Josh says.”

 
So will you lose fat while doing pull ups? Most definitely, they are so physically demanding that it requires the effort of the entire body, your core and even your butt is engage when pulling yourself up!

Will you get strongers? If you can bench a decent amount of weight but you cant crank 1 pull up, then you need to readjust your programing unless of course if you are a power lifter. Balancing the amount of pulling and pushing exercise is essential to prevent any injury of the shoulder.

The best thing I love about pull ups, it take so little time to hit so many major muscle of the upper body plus a girl who could do pull up in the gym is always a badass and guys it’s a requirement in the army need I say more.

 

So stay up for part 2 and tips on getting your very first pull up!


photo credit :DS SAY / LEE (FITBODYASIA) 

There's no shortcuts to weight loss, some people lose weight just by taking the stairs everyday and some change their entire lifestyle, but at the end of the day if you can create a calorie deficit on a daily basis, simply put it if your activity outweigh what you consume, lets not go in depth on how different food secretes different type of hormones that increase fat burning blah blah blah.

This 3 tips can be practice year round that have work for me in keeping a healthy weight and maintaining my muscle mass ( this my friend is very important) once you start lifting weight your body becomes a furnace, it burns more fats throughout the day even when your not doing anything, your muscles are helping you burn your fats.

Drink when your thirsty, drink a gallon a day, whatever work for you just make sure you drink up, it keep you full, helps you with your digestion and your body is mainly made up of water.

Every month i would do a food log sheet and save it on my desktop and at night before i sleep i would type every single thing that went in my mouth, some days i would notice that i have eaten more than required some days i could do with more food, therefore writing it down and seeing exactly what i eat help with making tomorrow better and being more cautious with what i am allergic too. 

I am never hungry because i travel with snacks every where i go! i have a protein bar and a bag of nuts , if i have a little more time i would pack some eggs with me! but the idea of having a snack is never keeping your body from starvation because you would eat way more during your next meal to fill the void, never deprive yourself from food, listen to your body if its hungry, feed it even if its 10pm i would eat nuts, yes its calories but i care for my well being and i never want to be HANGRY(angry because i am hungry)

Sorry for spoiling this folks to those who have yet to catch Hercules! The Rock look so massive in the movie! i wonder if he actually ate all of his 12 labors during his battle with them. If you don't know the legend, i'm still confused, there is so many versions of Hercules but this one is probably one of my favourite not because of the Rock, but because of Ingrid Bolsa Berdal, also know Atalanta from Amazon, at first glance you could mistaken her for Nicole Kidman, but this Norwegian actress look so solid in her warrior costume and also being the only female , i was just looking at her abs throughout the whole movie.

What stole my attention was that she's fair and she didn't need any tanned skin to make her abs or arm definition look visible. So i came home and did a bunch of research about her. (stalker mode) i am mesmerise by strong character in movies especially women! because that body wasn't given she work her as off, but abs my friend are made in the kitchen! i know  i know i  still don't have much but following a bunch of fitness model on Instagram, they pretty much eat the same thing day in and out, a lot and a lot of protein! the main building blocks of muscles.

 curious to know what she eat?....

look at her arms and yet so feminine! 

I don't know what she's doing here but you might see a lot of guys dressing like that guy at the back for haloween this year! 

so beside her intense training with her stunt double, who look just amazing on set,google (Dayna Grant) she my friend had to clean up her diet to look that lean and below is the only thing i could find about what she said regarding the diet she follows.

so yes she did eat the same way The Rock ate, not the same amount of course, but to break it down to simply understand her diet a little bit more here it is, this is base on the Rock working for 12 hours on set and training 2x per day! reason why they can consume that amount of carbs in 7 meals is due to the intense training throughout the day and to sustain such energy definitely require more food, after all we are not killing  a Nemean lion or slaying enemies on the battle field, so adjust the amount of food according to you activity needs.

MEAL 1
PROTEIN ( fillet and egg whites)
CARBS( oatmeal/cream of wheat ) (high carb)

MEAL 2
PROTEIN (chicken)
CARBS(white rice,broccoli) (high carb)

MEAL 3
PROTEIN (fish)
CARBS(white rice, asparagus) (high carb)

MEAL 4
PROTEIN (chicken)
CARBS (bake potato, broccoli) (high carb)

MEAL 5
PROTEIN (fish)
CARBS( white rice, asparagus) (high carb)

MEAL 6
PROTEIN (fish)
CARBS (bake potato,salad) ( high carb)

MEAL 7
PROTEIN (casein, egg whites) 
CARBS ( onion,pepper,mushroom) (low carb)

also who wants to know the Rocks Training Routine?
till then  :) 

Click here if you have missed part 1 of my post, I never really paid attention to Sam food because Kayla is mainly the highlight of every photo, some of her clothes are pretty ridiculous but thats just Sam! Love her for being quirky and i wouldn't mind Kayla wardrobe really! 

Today i paid a little attention to Sam Food and still am convinced she bought all of that and place it nicely on a plate! haha but of course i know she whips them up by herself, best thing is that she shares her food with Kayla. 

Kids don't learn if you tell them what to do, but if they watch you do they would imitate and follow, so what Sam is doing amazes me! getting a child to eat an array of vegetable is no doubt a task for many Mom!  Most parents i've come across would rather feed anything from a bag or chips because its so tasty the kids would eat it for sure and man! kids take forever to eat,seriously. I don't have kids of my own but i've had 2 nieces that i had to feed and look after when i was barely 14 and i sang every freaking song in the nursery rhyme book, dance around,every spoon i held took of all sort of airplane rides into their mouth. But when  i was 14 i couldn't know any better about children and relationship they have with adults or any one they come across, everyone they meet moulds them into the person they become! So good on you Sam! i'm so proud of you.

What i'm trying to say is basically if you want to start inculcating a healthier lifestyle for your children or for your love ones, you have to take the first step and show them, time is only a factor you have 24 hours a day and 1 hours could be spend doing any physical activities together! yes i know you have an 8-5 job and you are tired by the time you get home, but if you just put in 30 minute of activity once you get home every other day thats a good 1.5 hours- 2 a week and darling in the long run your body would take you. 


Here are some workout that don't feel like a workout!
1) Washing the car together.
2)Swimming or building a sandcastle by the beach.
3)Explore a different park everyweek! i just discovered there's so many click here 
4) Walk around the shopping centre(not my favourite, but everyone seems to do it)

If you do have any other suggestion do share on the comment box below : ) 


photo credit: Samantha/gorgeous sleeping beauty:Kayla

Glitters is always an option but tights is a must have! Print are here to stay! unfortunately Nike Singapore takes a while to bring in all the latest design , i promise myself not to shop before my holiday, so here i am window shopping, hoping santa will send me some of this goodies. Here Nike take all my money! click on the image to purchase them for me , haha. i'm a size S also please throw in either one of those black beauty below i am a size 8! 
Have a good day !