South Beach diet - Day 22

It has been 3 weeks since i started the South Beach Diet, and this morning the weighing scale shows 175.8 pounds, a drop of 16.4 pounds (7.45 kilo). I am targeting 170 pounds before Ramadhan and 160 pounds after Ramadhan. My target weight is 150 pounds by year end.

There has been plateaus on the way with weight not budging a few days at a stretch. When it happens, i will increase the exercise tempo and eat sparingly. I took V8 vegetable juice when i feel hungry and took some almonds to kill the hungry pangs.

My pants felt loose and i can fit in old jeans now. I have not taken any measurements yet but definitely will do it at the next milestone i.e day 30.

South Beach diet - day 11 report

This morning the weighing scale showed 181 pounds, a drop over 11 pounds (5 kilos) so far. I started with 19.2 pounds 11 days ago. It is tempting to prolong the stage one as everyday there is about a one pound drop consistently. I will decide whether to continue with stage one in the next few days.

Most probably the pounds drop comes from water but who cares? I am drinking extra water in this diet to replenish those lost and also walking 2 Km a day to turbo charge the metabolic rate.

I am quiet happy with this diet as i don't feel hungry and lethargic at all. I have not cheat so far as discipline is the key word. The important thing is that one must be imaginative in preparing the food so as not to taste bland all the time.

I have eaten steak/fish with black pepper sauce, or cook with some chillies. My protein comes from lamb steak, white fish and chicken, while carbohydrates mainly from vegetables.

Small changes now will make a big difference later!

If you are using/eating:

1.Palm oil, replace it with canola or olive oil.

2.White bread, replace it with multi grain bread.

3.Meat, replace it with chicken.

4.White rice, replace it with brown rice.

5.Frying, try baking and grilling.

6.Coke, replace it with juices.

South Beach Diet Malaysian style!

Many are disgust with their potbelly but haven't had the discipline to try Dieting. With improper diet and lack of exercise most men will store their excess fat around the waist and over time, the waist will become very ugly and unsightly. A proper diet and exercise regime will be needed to reduce this ugly potbelly. All you need is DISCIPLINE.

There are many diets to choose from and all will work with a little discipline. The most practical diet is the South Beach diet, akin to the Atkin's diet but with a small difference. You can google the South Beach diet but most food plans are not catered for the Asian taste.

For the first two weeks, one needs to eat proteins and vegetables only. Fruits and any carbohydrates are not permitted during this induction week. The purpose is for the body to lose interest and stop the craving for carbohydrates. Forget about mee goreng or durian. During this two weeks, you eat to live and the craving for carbohydrates will slowly diminish.

Expect losing 8 to 13 pounds during this two weeks, mostly will be water weight but the momentum of losing weight will induce a sense of accomplishment and it will carry your diet further. Your pants will feel a bit loose and you don't feel sleepy or lethargic. After the two weeks, some good carbohydrate will be introduce a little at a time.

Below is a sample of Asian food during the two weeks induction phase:

Breakfast
One whole omega egg and one egg white omelette
one cup of coffee with artificial swettener

snack
some almonds or peanuts

Lunch
Baked fish with vegetable (exclude carrots)

snack
some almonds or peanuts

Dinner
Steak/baked fish with vegetable

If you are hungry at any time, try taking liquid diet food e.g Xando or Shape cla Slim (buy them at the local Pharmacy).

It is imperative for dieters to exercise everyday to kick start the fat burning process and increase the metabolic rate. You can either power walk or swimming to burn some calories.

If you follow this diet plan for two weeks, you will lose between 2 to 4 kilos. Try it. Coincidently I am 5 days through the induction phase and have lost 6 pounds so far (i guess mostly water). Hopefully i will lose 1 pound a day after this.

Why women in China do not get breast cancer

Extracted from Your Life in Your Hands, by Professor Jane Plant..

I had no alternative but to die or to try to find a cure for myself. I am a scientist - surely there was a rational explanation for this cruel illness that affects one in 12 women in the UK ? I had suffered the loss of one breast, and undergone radiotherapy. I was now receiving painful chemotherapy, and had been seen by some of the country's most eminent specialists. But, deep down, I felt certain I was facing death.. I had a loving husband, a beautiful home and two young children to care for. I desperately wanted to live.
Fortunately, this desire drove me to unearth the facts, some of which were known only to a handful of scientists at the time.

Anyone who has come into contact with breast cancer will know that certain risk factors - such as increasing age, early onset of womanhood, late onset of menopause and a family history of breast cancer - are completely out of our control. But there are many risk factors, which we can control easily. These 'controllable' risk factors readily translate into simple changes that we can all make in our day-to-day lives to help prevent or treat breast cancer. My message is that even advanced breast cancer can be overcome because I have done it.

The first clue to understanding what was promoting my breast cancer came when my husband Peter, who was also a scientist, arrived back from working in China while I was being plugged in for a chemotherapy session. He had brought with him cards and letters, as well as some amazing herbal suppositories, sent by my friends and science colleagues in China . The suppositories were sent to me as a cure for breast cancer. Despite the awfulness of the situation, we both had a good belly laugh, and I remember saying that this was the treatment for breast cancer in China , then it was little wonder that Chinese women avoided getting the disease.

Those words echoed in my mind..... Why didn't Chinese women in China get breast cancer? I had collaborated once with Chinese colleagues on a study of links between soil chemistry and disease, and I remembered some of the statistics.

The disease was virtually non-existent throughout the whole country. Only one in 10,000 women in China will die from it, compared to that terrible figure of one in 12 in Britain and the even grimmer average of one in 10 across most Western countries. It is not just a matter of China being a more rural country, with less urban pollution. In highly urbanized Hong Kong , the rate rises to 34 women in every 10,000 but still puts the West to shame.
The Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have similar rates. And remember, both cities were attacked with nuclear weapons, so in addition to the usual pollution-related cancers, one would also expect to find some radiation-related cases, too.
The conclusion we can draw from these statistics strikes you with some force. If a Western woman were to move to industrialized, irradiated Hiroshima , she would slash her risk of contracting breast cancer by half.
Obviously, this is absurd. It seemed obvious to me that some lifestyle factor not related to pollution, urbanization or the environment is seriously increasing the Western woman's chance of contracting breast cancer.
I then discovered that whatever causes the huge differences in breast cancer rates between oriental and Western countries, it isn't genetic.
Scientific research showed that when Chinese or Japanese people move to the West, within one or two generations their rates of breast cancer approach those of their host community.
The same thing happens when oriental people adopt a completely Western lifestyle in Hong Kong .. In fact, the slang name for breast cancer in China translates as 'Rich Woman's Disease'. This is because, in China , only the better off can afford to eat what is termed ' Hong Kong food'.
The Chinese describe all Western food, including everything from ice cream and chocolate bars to spaghetti and feta cheese, as 'Hong Kong food', because of its availability in the former British colony and its scarcity, in the past, in mainland China .
So it made perfect sense to me that whatever was causing my breast cancer and the shockingly high incidence in this country generally, it was almost certainly something to do with our better-off, middle-class, Western lifestyle.
There is an important point for men here, too. I have observed in my research that much of the data about prostate cancer leads to similar conclusions.
According to figures from the World Health Organization, the number of men contracting prostate cancer in rural China is negligible, only 0.5 men in every 100,000. In England , Scotland and Wales , however, this figure is 70 times higher. Like breast cancer, it is a middle-class disease that primarily attacks the wealthier and higher socio-economic groups ¨C those that can afford to eat rich foods.
I remember saying to my husband, 'Come on Peter, you have just come back from China . What is it about the Chinese way of life that is so different?'
Why don't they get breast cancer?'
We decided to utilize our joint scientific backgrounds and approach it logically.
We examined scientific data that pointed us in the general direction of fats in diets. Researchers had discovered in the 1980s that only l4% of calories in the average Chinese diet were from fat, compared to almost 36% in the West.
But the diet I had been living on for years before I contracted breast cancer was very low in fat and high in fibre. Besides, I knew as a scientist that fat intake in adults has not been shown to increase risk for breast cancer in most investigations that have followed large groups of women for up to a dozen years.
Then one day something rather special happened. Peter and I have worked together so closely over the years that I am not sure which one of us first said: 'The Chinese don't eat dairy produce!'
It is hard to explain to a non-scientist the sudden mental and emotional 'buzz' you get when you know you have had an important insight. It's as if you have had a lot of pieces of a jigsaw in your mind, and suddenly, in a few seconds, they all fall into place and the whole picture is clear.
Suddenly I recalled how many Chinese people were physically unable to tolerate milk, how the Chinese people I had worked with had always said that milk was only for babies, and how one of my close friends, who is of Chinese origin, always politely turned down the cheese course at dinner parties.
I knew of no Chinese people who lived a traditional Chinese life who ever used cow or other dairy food to feed their babies. The tradition was to use a wet nurse but never, ever, dairy products.
Culturally, the Chinese find our Western preoccupation with milk and milk products very strange. I remember entertaining a large delegation of Chinese scientists shortly after the ending of the Cultural Revolution in the 1980s..
On advice from the Foreign Office, we had asked the caterer to provide a pudding that contained a lot of ice cream. After inquiring what the pudding consisted of, all of the Chinese, including their interpreter, politely but firmly refused to eat it, and they could not be persuaded to change their minds.
At the time we were all delighted and ate extra portions!
Milk, I discovered, is one of the most common causes of food allergies. Over 70% of the world's population are unable to digest the milk sugar, lactose, which has led nutritionists to believe that this is the normal condition for adults, not some sort of deficiency.
Perhaps nature is trying to tell us that we are eating the wrong food.
Before I had breast cancer for the first time, I had eaten a lot of dairy produce, such as skimmed milk, low-fat cheese and yoghurt. I had used it as my main source of protein. I also ate cheap but lean minced beef, which I now realized was probably often ground-up dairy cow.
In order to cope with the chemotherapy I received for my fifth case of cancer, I had been eating organic yoghurts as a way of helping my digestive tract to recover and repopulate my gut with 'good' bacteria.
Recently, I discovered that way back in 1989 yoghurt had been implicated in ovarian cancer. Dr Daniel Cramer of Harvard University studied hundreds of women with ovarian cancer, and had them record in detail what they normally ate. Wish I'd been made aware of his findings when he had first discovered them.
Following Peter's and my insight into the Chinese diet, I decided to give up not just yoghurt but all dairy produce immediately. Cheese, butter, milk and yoghurt and anything else that contained dairy produce - it went down the sink or in the rubbish.
It is surprising how many products, including commercial soups, biscuits and cakes, contain some form of dairy produce. Even many proprietary brands of margarine marketed as soya, sunflower or olive oil spreads can contain dairy produce.
I therefore became an avid reader of the small print on food labels.
Up to this point, I had been steadfastly measuring the progress of my fifth cancerous lump with callipers and plotting the results. Despite all the encouraging comments and positive feedback from my doctors and nurses, my own precise observations told me the bitter truth.
My first chemotherapy sessions had produced no effect - the lump was still the same size.....
Then I eliminated dairy products. Within days, the lump started to shrink !
About two weeks after my second chemotherapy session and one week after giving up dairy produce, the lump in my neck started to itch. Then it began to soften and to reduce in size. The line on the graph, which had shown no change, was now pointing downwards as the tumour got smaller and smaller.
And, very significantly, I noted that instead of declining exponentially (a graceful curve) as cancer is meant to do, the tumour's decrease in size was plotted on a straight line heading off the bottom of the graph, indicating a cure, not suppression (or remission) of the tumour.
One Saturday afternoon after about six weeks of excluding all dairy produce from my diet, I practised an hour of meditation then felt for what was left of the lump. I couldn't find it..... Yet I was very experienced at detecting cancerous lumps - I had discovered all five cancers on my own. I went downstairs and asked my husband to feel my neck. He could not find any trace of the lump either.
On the following Thursday I was due to be seen by my cancer specialist at Charing Cross Hospital in London . He examined me thoroughly, especially my neck where the tumour had been. He was initially bemused and then delighted as he said, 'I cannot find it.'
None of my doctors, it appeared, had expected someone with my type and stage of cancer (which had clearly spread to the lymph system) to survive, let alone be so hale and hearty.
My specialist was as overjoyed as I was. When I first discussed my ideas with him he was understandably skeptical.. But I understand that he now uses maps showing cancer portality in China in his lectures, and recommends a non-dairy diet to his cancer patients.
I now believe that the link between dairy produce and breast cancer is similar to the link between smoking and lung cancer. I believe that identifying the link between breast cancer and dairy produce, and then developing a diet specifically targeted at maintaining the health of my breast and hormone system, cured me.
It was difficult for me, as it may be for you, to accept that a substance as 'natural' as milk might have such ominous health implications. But I am a living proof that it works and, starting from tomorrow, I shall reveal the secrets of my revolutionary action plan.
Extracted from Your Life in Your Hands, by Professor Jane Plant.
Summary:-
1) Only one in 10,000 women in China will die from breast cancer.
2) The Chinese do not eat dairy produce!
3) Observation : Elimination of dairy products caused the cancerous lump to shrink within days

We can't stop the aging process.....

Al Pacino

Bridgette Nelson

Bridget Bardot

Cybil Shepard

David Lee Roth

Farah Fawcett

Haley Joel Osment

Jack Nicholson

Jamie Lee Curtis

Janice Dickinson

Kathleen Turner

Keith Richards

Kelly Lebrok

Kirsty Allen

Elizabeth Taylor

Mickey Rourke

Nick Nolte

Sharon Stone

Steven Segal

Val Kilmer

Fenofibrate for high cholesterol and uric acid levels

If you are suffering from high cholesterol and uric acid levels, try taking fenofibrate.

My uric acid level was 0.5 mmol/l (9mg/dl) and the acceptable range is between 0.2 mmol/l (3.4 mg/dl) to 0.42 mmol/l (7.0 mg/dl). After taking fenofibrate for a month my uric acid level is now 0.24 mmol/l (4.30 mg/dl)

My Total cholesterol level was 6.0 mmol/l (230) now it is 4.41 mmol/l (170).

I am planning to take fenofibrate two or three times a week once i finish my three months supply. The cost is only Rm 90 for a three month supply of generic fenofibrate.

Energy Pills that work

Supplement: Ginseng

Breakdown/Benefits: Ginseng is one of several herbs that fall into the category of adaptogens, substances that help the body adapt to different types of stress, be it from exercise, work or keeping your spouse happy. Since stress tends to rob the body of energy, adaptogens are supposed to revitalize you, allowing you to get more out of your exercise and speeding up your recovery. Forms of ginseng are found in Asia, Siberia and America; each has a different effect, but all are touted as having the ability to charge up the body through adaptogenic compounds called ginsenosides. The research on the many types of ginseng and their effects on energy, however, has been inconclusive at best (the claims of most makers rely on a single researcher's work), even though, anecdotally, people have been juicing themselves with ginseng supplements often enough to make them a best-seller. Do your own trial-and-error testing to see if any of the available varieties puts a little tiger in your tank.

Dosage: 100 to 300 milligrams per day. Take for only two or three weeks, then take a two-week break to reduce the impact of negative side effects. There are many brands in the market, but the best is still Korean Red Ginseng. Make sure it is from a renown supplier as the ginseng must have sufficient ginsenocides for it to be beneficial to the body.

Side effects: Generally considered safe, although the list of possible ill effects includes headaches, insomnia, anxiety, skin rashes, asthma attacks, diarrhea, euphoria, nervousness, heart palpitations, increased blood pressure, and reduced blood-sugar levels. Check with your doctor if you have hypoglycemia, high blood pressure, insomnia, hay fever, asthma, emphysema, blood-clotting problems, heart disorders, or diabetes. Take Ginseng with lots of water because of it's heatiness.

Cost: About Rm 100 to Rm 200 for a one-month supply.

Supplement: MACA

Breakdown/Benefits: Found in the mountains of Peru and supposedly eaten by Incan warriors before battle, maca is an herbal adaptogen consumed by the Andes Indians and is thought to promote heartiness. Recent research has focused on its effects on sexual performance, with mixed results. Maca is rich in nutrients, so, in theory, it should boost energy, but supporting research is lacking. Still, as an adaptogen; maca may help the body adjust to higher exercise workloads and prevent excessive damage from the stress of training. That the Andean people have used maca for countless years should be evidence enough of its usefulness. Witnessing 80-year-old men hike up the Andes mountainside with 100-pound packs as if it were a walk in the park, all while munching maca root, is very convincing.

Dosage: 200 milligrams to one gram per day. Take without other adaptogens to determine its true effects, if any.

Side effects: No known negative effects.

Cost: Around Rm100 to Rm 200 for a one-month supply.

Supplement: NADH

Breakdown/Benefits: NADH (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) is an energy-carrying molecule within the body that is partly made from vitamin B3. When you eat, your body breaks the food down, and at some point energy is passed to this NADH molecule to be turned into ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the body's energy currency. Several supplement companies have marketed NADH products, but research has been limited. (One study found that 30 percent of subjects with chronic fatigue syndrome benefited from NADH). To date, there is little promise for most normal healthy people, who have plenty of NADH floating around. But under certain types of stress (excessive exercise, ultra-endurance events, alcohol overindulgence, etc.), the body's ability to produce enough NADH can be somewhat compromised. In such conditions, NADH supplements may prove beneficial.

Dosage: 2.5 to 15 mg per day.

Side effects: Nothing serious, although there have been some reports of nervousness and appetite loss during the first days of supplementing.

Cost: About Rm 1.50 per five-milligram dose. It is not sold in Malaysia so you have to order it from the internet.

Supplement: CoQ10

Read my previous article on CoQ10. There are many brands in the market but get the Bio-solv or Q-gel as they are patented process and dissolve in water.

Ultramax Gold HGH

HGH products (Human Growth Hormone) have been around for a while. Ultramax gold is one the few products that has received favorable UNBIASED reviews.

It is a supplement that allows the body to release hormones - in this case, HGH. As our body ages past 40, hgh production drops dramatically. Proper diet, exercise and supplementing with a good HGH supplement will enable the body to produce more hgh hormones. HGH is generally released while you sleep, so this product is best taken at night before bed.

Taking a HGH supplement is generally not necessary if you are under age 30. Some studies have shown it may have limited ability in adults over 65.

Benefits of increased HGH include:

• Increased energy
• Increased muscle mass
• Improved sleep
• Better moods
• Increased libido
• Increases immune function
• Increased bone density
• Improved cardiac and lung functions

At the moment I am taking Ultramax Gold, ordered through the internet. Another good brand is Secretagogue gold. I have taken 5 sachet so far and i really feel good. I am jumping out of bed first thing in the morning and i feel energise throughout the day. There is no feeling of jitterness or any other side effects.

The only drawback(!) is that this product will burn a hole in your pocket. One sachet cost about Rm 6.50 (including shipping charges). It will cost more if you buy from GNC . I called GNC Sunway Pyramid asking them whether they stock Ultramax Gold and Secretagogue Gold. Yes folks, they have stock and the price are Rm 640 (22 sachets) and Rm 560 (30 sachets) respectively. Do your maths and figure out where is cheaper. There's a 20 % discount if you are a member of GNC.

A box containing 22 sachet (a month's supply) cost about Rm 145.00 including shipping (DHL) charges if you order from iHerbs. I am in the midst of ordering another HGH product i.e Secretagogue Gold from Swansons. I'll give another review later on.

Read another review HERE

Eating right to stay healthy

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Health is wealth.....you are what you eat..etc...

Eating right to stay healthy
Environmental Sociologist Dr Lim Hin Fui walks his talk on healthy living. He tells Karen Arukesamy how his family eats well and lives well with rare visits to the doctor.

Dr Lim : Swears by macrobiotic diet

WHAT has been keeping you busy lately?

Nutrition and health care have been keeping me on my toes besides my full-time profession. I did not have any interest in food (therapy) until 1996 when my father-in-law was diagnosed with cancer. Today I talk at public forums on food and health care.

What do you do full time?

I am an environmental sociologist by profession. I conduct studies on the impact of forest development on local activities and how it can help local communities and also how traditional knowledge helps indigenous people. I also do forest auditing.

How did you get involved with food and health care?

My father-in-law was diagnosed with prostate cancer and was given three years to live. He was active and involved in many social activities and my wife and I wondered how he could have cancer.

Looking back, we realised he had been enjoying "rich" foods (ie high in cholesterol and calories) since his 20s and it was killing him slowly. There is evidence that food consumption has very strong linkage with cancer, apart from smoking and alcohol. Despite being sad for my father-in-law, we did not give up; we sought ways to help him.

The doctor advised immediate surgery to remove the hard portion of the prostate but we had heard from cancer patients, how they suffered physically and mentally after the surgery and medical treatment. After the surgery, the tumour was removed but it did not mean he had fully recovered.

We spoke to friends about cancer treatments and a colleague showed me a booklet on cancer and its treatment (Cancer is not deadly: Public talk in Malaysia by Dr Lai Chui-Nan). The booklet did not talk about conventional treatment and surgery.

That caught my attention because we had not heard of cancer patients going through non-conventional treatment and surviving.

After reading the book, I began gathering more information on food and how it could cause diseases and I found that the accumulation of toxins in the body can cause diseases and the inability to detoxify may result in diseases.

Not all cancer specialists advise their patients to take the natural approach. They always encourage the conventional treatment.

We met a lot of cancer patients to understand the disease. When my father-in-law switched to a vegetarian diet, my mother-in-law, my wife and I decided to adopt the same diet to provide moral support for my father-in-law. It wasn’t easy but we managed it. Physical fitness is essential for cancer patients. Not many talk about it, so I thought the public should know and I wrote a book, Eating for Good Health, which has received good support and is in its second edition. My father-in-law surpassed the doctor’s projected three years and lived an extra 10 years before he passed away in January. Most cancer patients go through much pain in their final stages but he died peacefully without any pain.

Tell us more about this diet?

We read about the macrobiotic diet approach popularised by Michio Kushi (1993), which advocates the use of traditional food such as whole grains, beans, soyfoods and locally-grown vegetables as primary sources of food energy and nutrition. It also includes mineral-rich foods, sea salt and natural sweeteners like rice syrup and barley malt to replace refined salt and sugar and miso to replace monosodium glutamate (MSG).

The approach sounded interesting but we did not know much about the macrobiotic diet and our concern was to consume more vegetables and reduce meat. The diet we adopted was more vegetarian than macrobiotic.

I remember the first vegetarian lunch – three dishes of vegetables with brown rice – we had. It was tasteless, with no oil or salt. Being a meat lover, my father-in-law complained it was for cows and not humans. But we were firm in our decision to change and so was he. By early 1997, the vegetarian diet began to show encouraging results. After about 10 months of being diagnosed, my father-in-law went for his fourth blood test and his prostate-specific antigen (PSA) dropped to 3.3ug/l (microgram per litre) from 613.8ug/l when he was first diagnosed. It meant that his PSA had returned to normal and the cancer cells were under control. The doctor was surprised by the declining PSA and reversion of cancer cells to normal cells without medicine.

There is a saying "You are what you eat". How true is this?

It is relevant for all those who want to be healthy and it is very important for those who are fighting with sickness.

How do we stay healthy and still eat the food we love?

Change of mindset is vital. You can choose to enjoy life and be mentally prepared to accept whatever that comes your way like diabetes, high cholesterol, obesity, etc. Or you can learn about nutrition and change your diet but that doesn’t mean you cannot eat your favourite dishes. But ensure that your regular food intake is healthy.

Once you are above 40 or 50, you should consider giving up gradually "rich" food.

How can food help prevent diseases like cancer?

The word cancer is a term many do not want to hear. Simply, cancer patients normally do not live long and in some cases, patients die within months as cancer cells can spread to various parts of the body in a short time. Others survive for a few years. The question is whether one has to die earlier because of cancer. No. There is a Chinese saying "Sickness comes through the mouth". Food consumption has a strong linkage with cancer, apart from smoking and alcohol. Studies say we should only consume 20% acidic food and 80% alkaline food. I would propose that everyone follow this formula. You need to understand what they are. Reduce meat consumption because all meat is acidic and dairy products and eggs as well. Eat more vegetables, fruits and grains.

What is healthy living?

My family and I believe that an important path to good health is via healthy eating habits. We also believe consuming vegetarian or organic food and fasting are some ways for healthy living because we can see the difference in our lives. We are healthy and have not taken medicine since 2004. My eight-year-old son has to date only gone to a clinic once; when he was one-year-old.

A healthy body makes a healthy mind because it helps prevent physical and mental stress.

You have to respect life. If you are a cancer patient and you want to live longer, you have to respect life without your favourite foods. In fact, it is not for cancer alone but for all diseases.

People should remember that changes take place gradually and it is very important to start now. Don’t wait till it’s too late because change doesn’t take place overnight. Change your menu to suit your pace and food preference.

Research has shown that over 60% of those above 40 have at least one chronic medical problem that requires treatment and by 60, at least 60% are on regular medication. It is not about long life; it is about healthy life.

But organic food is not cheap. What do you reckon the government should do?

I think the government should help organic farmers through the organic farming scheme under the Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry. Then people will feel more encouraged to consume organic food. It will also encourage more organic farming. Mass production will bring prices down.

Does detoxification help?

Yes, it does. Toxic substances are everywhere – in the food, water and air. Our body and bacteria in the intestines also produce toxins. Alkaline food helps to detoxify the body. Fasting facilitates detoxification to achieve physical and mental health. Occasional fasting is effective in staying healthy and reducing weight.

In the late 1970s, I used to have anus itchiness and for over 20 years I took medicine for it. After I changed my diet, the itchiness disappeared within three months. It was amazing.

Is conventional medicine necessary if food can prevent diseases?

I am not saying it is unnecessary but you can avoid it whenever possible. Medical expenses are always a burden and the bills are escalating. Due to financial difficulties, some do not even go to the clinic for a check up. They instead rely on pain killers, self-medication or home remedies.

People hardly think about changing their diet to prevent sickness and stay fit. The government and many health-care organisations have been promoting healthy lifestyle but how many take heed. Investing in health food to prevent diseases or sickness is worthwhile. We should regard health as No.1 on the scale of importance. It is natural to think money is more important as it meets our material needs but with age, we gradually realise that money is not everything. While money can pay for medical treatment and services, it does not guarantee good health. In any case, we should give ourselves a chance to test the power of natural diet.

CoQ10

Many have heard about CoQ10. CoQ10 is an enzyme that occurs naturally in the mitochondria of every cell in your body. It plays a key part in metabolizing energy from food. In our country there are many brands in the market to choose from and they are very expensive.

Many physicians agree, if you had to pick one nutrient to take on a daily basis, one that our bodies need the most, Co enzyme Q10 or CoQ10 for short would have to be one of them! Scientific studies have already proven it to be extremely beneficial in promoting healthy cholesterol, strengthening your immune system, and also enhancing your memory, mood, and energy levels.

Of the many supplements that I have taken, i would rate CoQ10 as the most beneficial to my body. I would take one 50mg capsule before going to bed and will wake up fresh every morning. Check this web site for it's numerous benefits: http://www.garynull.com/documents/Continuum/Co-enzymeQ10SustainerLifeEnergy.htm

The brand that I am taking is Bio-Life 50mg CoQ10. I have tried many other brands but Bio-Life gave me the best effect. It is encapsulated in a vegetarian capsule so it is halal. If you do a search in the internet, there are thousands of cheap brands, so you you might try to order it online and save more. Give it a try and you will be hook.

Lee Kuan Yew on ageing

This is Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's advice on ageing the best way one can. Here is the transcript of his remarks.

Very interesting insight from the Old Man. If you have read it before, or don't have the time to read the whole story, just read the last few paragraphs. Good Advice!

'Stay interested in the world, take on a challenge':
Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew
This story was first published on Jan 12, 2008.

MY CONCERN today is, what is it I can tell you which can add to your knowledge about ageing and what ageing societies can do.

You know more about this subject than I do. A lot of it is out in the media, Internet and books. So I thought the best way would be to take a personal standpoint and tell you how I approach this question of ageing.

If I cast my mind back, I can see turning points in my physical and mental health. You know, when you're young, I didn't bother, I assumed good health was God-given and would always be there. When I was about - '57 that was - I was about 34, we were competing in elections, and I was really fond of drinking beer and smoking. And after the election campaign, in Victoria Memorial Hall - we had won the election, the City Council election - I couldn't thank the voters because I had lost my voice. I'd been smoking furiously.

I'd take a packet of 10 to deceive myself, but I'd run through the packet just sitting on the stage, watching the crowd, getting the feeling, the mood before I speak. In other words, there were three speeches a night. Three speeches a night, 30 cigarettes, a lot of beer after that, and the voice was gone.

I remember I had a case in Kuching, Sarawak . So I took the flight and I felt awful. I had to make up my mind whether I was going to be an effective campaigner and a lawyer, in which case I cannot destroy my voice, and I can't go on. So I stopped smoking.

It was a tremendous deprivation because I was addicted to it. And I used to wake up dreaming...the nightmare was I resumed smoking. But I made a choice and said, if I continue this, I will not be able to do my job. I didn't know anything about cancer of the throat or oesophagus or the lungs, etc. But it turned out it had many other deleterious effects.

Strangely enough after that, I became very allergic, hyper-allergic to smoking, so much so that I would plead with my Cabinet ministers not to smoke in the Cabinet room. You want to smoke, please go out, because I am allergic.

Then one day I was at the home of my colleague, Mr Rajaratnam, meeting foreign correspondents including some from the London Times and they took a picture of me and I had a big belly like that (puts his hands in front of his belly), a beer belly. I felt no, no, this will not do.

So I started playing more golf, hit hundreds of balls on the practice tee. But this didn't go down. There was only one way it could go down: consume less, burn up more.

Another turning point came when -this was 1976, after the general election - I was feeling tired. I was breathing deeply at the Istana, on the lawns. My daughter, who at that time just graduating as a doctor, said: 'What are you trying to do?' I said: 'I feel an effort to breathe in more oxygen.'
She said: 'Don't play golf. Run. Aerobics.'

So she gave me a book, quite a famous book and, then, very current in America on how you score aerobic points swimming, running, whatever it is, cycling. I looked at it sceptically.
I wasn't very keen on running. I was keen on golf. So I said, 'Let's try'.
So in-between golf shots while playing on my own, sometimes nine holes at the Istana, I would try and walk fast between shots. Then I began to run between shots. And I felt better. After a while, I said: 'Okay, after my golf, I run.' And after a few years, I said: 'Golf takes so long. The running takes 15 minutes. Let's cut out the golf and let's run.'

I think the most important thing in ageing is you got to understand yourself. And the knowledge now is all there. When I was growing up, the knowledge wasn't there. I had to get the knowledge from friends, from doctors.

But perhaps the most important bit of knowledge that the doctor gave me was one day, when I said: 'Look, I'm feeling slower and sluggish.' So he gave me a medical encyclopaedia and he turned the pages to ageing. I read it up and it was illuminating. A lot of it was difficult jargon but I just skimmed through to get the gist of it.
As you grow, you reach 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and then, thereafter, you are on a gradual slope down physically. Mentally, you carry on and on and on until I don't know what age, but mathematicians will tell you that they know their best output is when they're in their 20s and 30s when your mental energy is powerful and you haven't lost many neurons.

That's what they tell me. So, as you acquire more knowledge, you then craft a programme for yourself to maximise what you have. It's just common sense. I never planned to live till 85 or 84. I just didn't think about it. I said: 'Well, my mother died when she was 74, she had a stroke. My father died when he was 94.' But I saw him, and he lived a long life, well, maybe it was his DNA. But more than that, he swam every day and he kept himself busy. He was working for the Shell company. He was in charge, he was a superintendent of an oil depot. When he retired, he started becoming a salesman.. So people used to tell me: 'Your father is selling watches at BP de Silva.' My father was then living with me. But it kept him busy. He had that routine: He meets people, he sells watches, he buys and sells all kinds of semi-precious stones, he circulates coins. And he keeps going. But at 87, 88, he fell, going down the steps from his room to the dining room, broke his arm, three months incapacitated. Thereafter, he couldn't go back to swimming.

Then he became wheelchair-bound. Then it became a problem because my house was constructed that way. So my brother - who's a doctor and had a flat (one-level) house - took him in. And he lived on till 94. But towards the end, he had gradual loss of mental powers.

So my calculations, I'm somewhere between 74 and 94. And I've reached the halfway point now. But have I? Well, 1996 when I was 73, I was cycling and I felt tightening on the neck. Oh, I must retire today. So I stopped. Next day, I returned to the bicycle. After five minutes it became worse. So I said, no, no, this is something serious, it's got to do with the blood vessels. Rung up my doctor, who said, 'Come tomorrow'. Went tomorrow, he checked me, and said: 'Come back tomorrow for an angiogram.' I said: 'What's that?' He said: 'We'll pump something in and we'll see whether the coronary arteries are cleared or blocked.'

I was going to go home. But an MP who was a cardiologist happened to be around, so he came in and said: 'What are you doing here?' I said: 'I've got this.' He said: 'Don't go home. You stay here tonight. I've sent patients home and they never came back. Just stay here. They'll put you on the monitor. They'll watch your heart. And if anything, an emergency arises, they will take you straight to the theatre. You go home. You've got no such monitor. You may never come back.'

So I stayed there. Pumped in the dye, yes it was blocked, the left circumflex, not the critical, lead one. So that's lucky for me. Two weeks later, I was walking around, I felt it's coming back. Yes it has come back, it had occluded. So this time they said: 'We'll put in a stent.' I'm one of the first few in Singapore to have the stent, so it was a brand new operation. Fortunately, the man who invented the stent was out here selling his stent. He was from San Jose , La Jolla something or the other. So my doctor got hold of him and he supervised the operation. He said put the stent in. My doctor did the operation, he just watched it all and then that's that. That was before all this problem about lining the stent to make sure that it doesn't occlude and create a disturbance.

So at each stage, I learnt something more about myself and I stored that. I said: 'Oh, this is now a danger point.'

So all right, cut out fats, change diet, went to see a specialist in Boston , Massachusetts General Hospital . He said: 'Take statins.'
I said: 'What's that?'
He said: '(They) help to reduce your cholesterol.'
My doctors were concerned. They said: 'You don't need it.. Your cholesterol levels are okay.'
Two years later, more medical evidence came out. So the doctors said: 'Take statins.'
Had there been no angioplasty, had I not known that something was up and I cycled on, I might have gone at 74 like my mother. So I missed that deadline.

So next deadline: my father's fall at 87.

I'm very careful now because sometimes when I turn around too fast, I feel as if I'm going to get off balance. So my daughter, a neurologist, she took me to the NNI, there's this nerve conduction test, put electrodes here and there. The transmission of the messages between the feet and the brain has slowed down.

So all the exercise, everything, effort put in, I'm fit, I swim, I cycle. But I can't prevent this losing of conductivity of the nerves and this transmission.

So just go slow.

So when I climb up the steps, I have no problem. When I go down the steps, I need to be sure that I've got something I can hang on to, just in case. So it's a constant process of adjustment.

But I think the most important single lesson I learnt in life was that if you isolate yourself, you're done for. The human being is a social animal - he needs stimuli, he needs to meet people, to catch up with the world.

I don't much like travel but I travel very frequently despite the jet lag, because I get to meet people of great interest to me, who will help me in my work as chairman of our GIC. So I know, I'm on several boards of banks, international advisory boards of banks, of oil companies and so on. And I meet them and I get to understand what's happening in the world, what has changed since I was here one month ago, one year ago. I go to India , I go
to China .

And that stimuli brings me to the world of today. I'm not living in the world, when I was active, more active 20, 30 years ago. So I tell my wife. She woke up late today. I said: 'Never mind, you come along by 12 o'clock. I go first.'

If you sit back - because part of the ending part of the encyclopaedia which I read was very depressing - as you get old, you withdraw from everything and then all you will have is your bedroom and the photographs and the furniture that you know, and that's your world. So if you've got to go to hospital, the doctor advises you to bring some photographs so that you'll know you're not lost in a different world, that this is like your bedroom.

I'm determined that I will not, as long as I can, to be reduced, to have my horizons closed on me like that. It is the stimuli, it is the constant interaction with people across the world that keeps me aware and alive to what's going on and what we can do to adjust to this different world.

In other words, you must have an interest in life. If you believe that at 55, you're retiring, you're going to read books, play golf and drink wine, then I think you're done for. So statistically they will show you that all the people who retire and lead sedentary lives, the pensioners die off very quickly.

So we now have a social problem with medical sciences, new procedures, new drugs, many more people are going to live long lives. If the mindset is that when I reach retirement age 62, I'm old, I can't work anymore, I don't have to work, I just sit back, now is the time I'll enjoy life, I think you're making the biggest mistake of your life. After one month, or after two months, even if you go travelling with nothing to do, with no purpose in life, you will just degrade, you'll go to seed.

The human being needs a challenge, and my advice to every person in Singapore and elsewhere: Keep yourself interested, have a challenge. If you're not interested in the world and the world is not interested in you, the biggest punishment a man can receive is total isolation in a dungeon, black and complete withdrawal of all stimuli, that's real torture.

So when I read that people believe, Singaporeans say: 'Oh, 62 I'm retiring.' I say to them: 'You really want to die quickly?' If you want to see sunrise tomorrow or sunset, you must have a reason, you must have the stimuli to keep going.'

How to boost your metabolic rate and burn those fats

1. Build Muscle Mass. Strength training builds lean muscle tissue, which burns more calories at work or at rest, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The more lean muscle you have, the faster your metabolism will be. How do you start strength training? I'll explain in my next few articles on how to start a basic strength training.
   
2. Do Not Skip Meals or Drastically Reduce Your Caloric Intake. If your body senses that food is in short supply, it will slow your metabolism to conserve energy. Over time, the result is that when you do eat (even if you consume the same foods as always) your body will be slower to use the calories as fuel, thus creating a backlog of unwanted pounds. A good strategy is to cut your caloric intake by no more than 500 calories per day and never less than 1200 calories total each day. Once you determine your goal for calorie consumption, divide those calories into 6 different small meals/snacks through out the day.
   
3. Increase the Amount of Protein in your Diet. Most researchers agree that protein helps to stabilize the secretion of insulin into your blood stream, a process that can affect metabolism. The average person would benefit from protein intake at a minimum of 70 grams or higher each day.
   
4. Aerobic Workout 3 Days a Week. Even though exercise doesn't affect your Resting Metabolic Rate, the extra calories you burn could add up to an additional 1-2 pounds of weight loss per month.
   
5. Increase Movement in Daily Lifestyle. The more you move, the more you burn! You can actually make a significant addition to the number of calories you burn each day by relatively minor changes in lifestyle. This can be as simple as taking the stairs instead of the elevator; park a distance from the mall or office; window-shop with your best friend rather than sit over coffee; do a little gardening or clean house while you talk on the phone. Making these types of changes for just 20 minutes of your day will cause you to burn an additional 100 calories per day or an additional pound per month. Making more of these changes can help you burn as much as an additional 1,000 calories per day!
   
6. Go For an Evening Walk. Although exercising any time is good for you, evening activity may be particularly beneficial. Many people's metabolism slows down toward the end of the day. Thirty minutes of aerobic activity before dinner increases your metabolic rate and may keep it elevated for another two or three hours. What that means for you: those dinner calories have less of a chance to take up permanent residence on your hips!
   
7. Get Adequate Sleep. As funny as it sounds, sleep deprivation may make you fat and not just because you're susceptible to cases of the late-night munchies. According to researchers at the University of Chicago, women who got less than four hours of sleep per night had a slower metabolism than those who slept for a full eight hours.

Before and After - George Nolly

Pilot George Nolly’s life was on auto-pilot. He wasn’t taking a hands-on approach to his health, weight or diet. One day he looked at himself and realized how much his travel-packed schedule had taken a toll on his weight. He needed to gain control, but didn’t know how.
Fifty-nine-year-old Nolly vowed to take control of his spiraling weight gain. After 12 weeks, he had lost 24 pounds of fat and gained 15 pounds of lean muscle.

"My biggest achievement is regaining my passion," George says. "I have exponentially improved the way I look and feel."

Four years later, George is in excellent shape and is helping others by producing videos and writing magazine articles that offer tips on living a healthy lifestyle while traveling.

Before and After - Mariah Yu

Mariah was preparing for her upcoming wedding and just felt down about her overall physical condition, so Mariah and her fiancé accepted the Challenge. "Once I saw that the program was really working it pushed me to work hard each week," Mariah says. "I lost 21 pounds and three dress sizes, and I’m in the best shape that I have ever been in, and I’m more positive about my future than I could ever imagine. I have truly been transformed both inside and out, and I feel like my positive energy now shows in everything I do."

Not only has Mariah continued to keep the weight off for two years but she continues to improve daily. Mariah plans on reaching all of her life and fitnes goals in the years to come.

Before and After - Dr. Jeffry Life

Dr. Jeffry Life makes his living diagnosing patients. But when he diagnosed himself, he didn’t like what he saw.

He was overweight, had aching muscles and had become a borderline diabetic. His diet was a mess, eating only one or two big meals per day and consuming many calories after 9 p.m.

Dr. Life felt his life was out of control and knew he was a poor role model to his family and patients. It was time for a change. He took a chance with and vowed to make good nutrition and regular exercise a part of his life. And he saw results. Dr. Life dropped his body fat from 28 percent to 10 percent. He also developed a lifelong commitment to fitness, keeping his same weight and shape for the next six years and counting.

"Not only have I been able to maintain my level of fitness with the program, but the changes have given me the motivation to refocus my life and career," Dr. Life says. "I have gone from fat, aging, tired and poorly motivated to lean, strong, energized and highly motivated with an incredible zest for life and love. If I can do this in my 60s, I truly believe anybody can do it."

Before and After - Porter Freeman

Before his transformation, Porter Freeman’s health was on a downward slide. He managed a night club and his diet consisted of beer and pizza.

"The Challenge changed my life and maybe saved it too," said Freeman. "I was headed downhill in a big way. I managed night clubs and was drinking beer and eating junk food night after night. I was an unhealthy 240-pound, out-of-shape old guy."

Freeman decided to trade in the junk food and beer for a weight lifting belt and better nutrition. His hard work paid off. He shed 50 pounds of fat. Seven years later, Porter is in the best shape of his life and is releasing a book on his experience.

"Now when I look in the mirror I can’t believe it," said Freeman. "I feel like standing on top of Mount Everest and screaming `Look at what I was, and look at me now! You can do it too!’."

Grandma and Grandpa Bodybuilders

Brenda Kelly at 50
Diet strategy: I eat a clean diet about 85% of the time. I try not to have more than two cheat meals in a row. I eat a lot of protein and complex carbs.




Lynn Renauld at 51


Grandpa's age between 53 to 58

Robby Robinson 62 years young

Anti-aging strategy: Four herbs, saw palmetto, milk thistle, dandelion and hawthorn powder.

Lipo 6 first day report

I have taken 2 vege cap of lipo 6, 30 minutes before breakfast as instructed on the label today. I felt the heart beating a bit racy one hour after taking it but don't feel much energy difference as reported by many reviews. I have taken ephedrine before, so I am used to some jittery feelings.

I also felt many times the unplanned 'rising to the occasion' !!, like most men do after waking up from bed. This is probably due to the effect of yohimbe inside the capsule.

I don't feel hungry as usual during lunch time as Lipo 6 also act as an appetite suppressant. Let's see whether my weight goes down in a month's time.

Progress today 9 March 2009

I managed to deep squat 3x5x65 kilos and deadlift 1x5x80 kilos today. It is a new frontier for me but my overhead press and bench press are lagging behind. Need to work harder on those two exercises as the progress are hitting the brickwall.

Lipo 6 Fat Burner by Nutrex

There are many rave reviews on the fat burner Lipo 6 by Nutrex. So today i bought 2 bottles, i.e 120 caps for Rm 150 and 240 caps for Rm 260. You can read some of the reviews at:

here

here

I'll give my feedbacks after using it later on. I ordered the Hydroxycut Hardcore but when i checked the labels, it contains alcohol among other things so i had to replace it with another Lipo 6. Lipo 6 uses vege cap and are suitable for vegetarians.

Valentina Chepiga 46 years young

Some Asians might feel female bodybuilders as obnoxious, distasteful, ghastly and repulsive
but in western countries they are as popular as the male bodybuilders. Still, you have to admire their years of hard work and perseverance in the gym to become a muscular Amazonian. Females muscles are hard to come by as their testosterone levels are very low compared to males, so they need to work longer in the gym.

Valentina Chepiga is 46 years young and a IFBB professional female bodybuilder.

Progress picture 2 (taken 6.3.09)

Two months after the stronglift program.
Deep Squat 3x5x62.5 Kilo
Overhead press 5x5x40 Kilo
Deadlift 3x5x75 Kilo
Bench Press 5x5x60 Kilo
Push-ups until failure

5x5x60 Kilo denotes 5 sets of 5 repetitions of 60 Kilos weight. Warm up sets are not included.

Motivation

I have posted photos of Clarence Bass, Frank Zane, Jack Lalanne, Larry Scott, etc etc to show that you can still have a nice body and healthy even in your ripe old age. Those guys are 60, 70 and even 90 years old, but they are still fighting fit. Of course it does not come easy, as they have been training and eating right for the the last 50 years.

You don't have to be haggard, unhealthy and frail when you are over 50. God may have pre-determined when we will kick the bucket, but until the time comes, we will go on ,with the dreaded diabetes, stroke, heart attack, etc etc off our back.

Even 90 year olds improved muscle strength by 174% after 8 weeks of weight training according to researchers at Tufts University.

When you are over 50, age itself is motivational. You can't just rest , let nature takes it's course, and be frail. If you do that, you'll go downhill pretty fast. If you stay even, everybody else is going downhill so fast, you will look and feel better! Ha Ha.

The pictures are a motivation of some sort. If they can do it, why can't we? I'll post more motivational pictures soon. So keep pumping, no matter what your age.

Banishing those ugly spare tires!!! - part 3

In part 2, i explained that you need to cut down 500 calories a day. If your weight have stagnated over the years, that means calories in is equal to calories out. By reducing 500 calories from your normal diet a day, in seven days you would have reduced 3,500 calories less. 3,500 calories is equivalent to one pound (about half a kilo) of fat loss. Reducing a pound a week is the healthy way to diet and in one month you would have lost 4 pounds of fat. In theory the calculations are nice and perfect but in real life, the reductions are much less. Still, do not lose hope as a small reduction every month is better than nothing and eventually you will feel the difference. Your trousers will feel loose, your belt will come down a notch and your friends will comment on your new trim look.

But what if you want the weight to go down faster? Some tried the Atkins diet, zero carbohydrate and taking foods containing protein and fats only. No rice, fruits or vegetable, only meat, chicken and certain fish. The weight will come down fast but most are water loss. This diet is not natural, as you will always crave for the carbohydrate that you are used to, and you will feel miserable all the time. Ultimately I am sure they will forsake the diet soon enough.

Recent findings show that all these diets Atkins, South beach, cabbage soup, Anabolic and other 1001 names, will give the dieters the same result. It is all based on calories in and calories out.

Some friends complained that their weight doesn't go down even though they exercise every day. I would suggest they watch their diet after their daily exercise as one tend to eat much more after a session of profuse sweating. Normally an hour of moderate exercise will only burn 200 t0 300 calories but intake of food after exercise is usually more than that. In theory you would gain weight!

Table below shows the calories burn during different activities
Calories Expended During Certain Activities:

ACTIVITY*	Calories expended in 30 minutes Male (175 lbs)	Calories expended in 30 minutes Female (135 lbs)
Biking 12-13.9 mph (moderate effort)	334	258
Circuit Training	334	258
Stretching, hatha yoga	167	129
Dancing - general	188	145
Dancing - ballet, modern	251	193
House Cleaning - vigorous (mop, wash car)	188	145
House Cleaning - light (dusting, vacuuming)	104	81
Playing w/ kids moderate - walk/run	167	129
Gardening	209	161
Mowing lawn - Hand mower	251	193
Running - 6 mph	418	322
Jogging	292	225
Basketball - Game	334	258
Children's Games	209	161
Football	334	258
Frisbee	125	97
Horseback Riding	167	129
Skating	292	225
Soccer	292	225
Softball/Baseball	209	161
Tennis	292	225
Hiking	251	193
Walking - 4 mph, level surface	167	129
Walking - leisure	146	113
Canoeing/Rowing - moderate	292	225
Kayaking	209	161
Swimming laps freestyle - moderate	334

So if you consume a bar of chocolate and a glass of teh tarik, (total about 500 calories), you need to swim moderately for one hour or walk two hours nonstop to even out the calories!

To fast track your weight loss, you have to make your body more efficient in burning fat. As explained earlier, the metabolic rate goes down as you get older. So how do you primed your metabolic rate to run using turbo mode? I'll explain in part 4. Stay tune.