Yes, I know the title of today's post is ironic. On one hand, I'm asking you to eat more...on the other hand, I'm asking you to eat less.

Don't get me wrong...Haha...

Eating a small meal every three hours and not missing your breakfast is the key to fat loss. Doing so keeps your metabolism humming along as your body performs the calorie-burning functions of digestion after each meal. Research shows that regular breakfast-eaters do a better job of maintaining a healthy weight than breakfast skippers. 

If you wait too long between meals, you cause your metabolism to slow down in order to compensate for the perceived state of starvation. Bingeing with a large meal thereafter to make up for the lack of breakfast tells your body to hold on to every calorie – making it hard for you to lose weight.

By feeding your body with smaller meals throughout the day, you deliver sustained energy so you don’t overeat, which is also important for fueling your workouts so you can work harder and possibly longer to burn more calories.

Snacking may sound counterintuitive when you want to lose weight, but it will stabilize blood sugar levels to help curb carvings, leaving you feeling full, never deprived. A good snack is one that provides vitamins, minerals and enough calories to fuel up and curb hunger so that you don’t binge later. But of course, it again boils down to what types of snacks you choose. I'm not advocating potato chips or muffins or doughnuts. I'm suggesting snacks in the form of fruits or unsalted nuts.

Remember this principle: eat more (meals) but eat less (portions) and you'll be on your way to your best body ever! 

It seems that one of the most important things to people aiming to improve their health and physique is to receive constant motivation. And for this very important reason, every little progress that my clients have made is magnified so that they know I appreciate their continuous effort to improve. Without this regular impetus, good intentions can revert to old habits and a backward slide may be observed. After all, it does take a good few weeks to instill a good habit. 

If you currently feel a need for motivation, please understand that we all go through this problem. Temptation to give the gym a miss or to give in to that tasty treat is with us all. Embarking on something new is always challenging. I wouldn't say it is difficult or impossible as many others before you have succeeded. 

Should you fall afoul of a couple of drinks, pizza or a sugar-loaded chocolate bar, simply “do the deed” and immediately get back on track. 

Above all, don’t let one slip cause you to throw in the towel and repeat the lapse, thus taking you back very quickly to square one.

Drum up your motivational drive by telling yourself that if you don’t choose to exercise and eat clean, then not only will you revert to your former poor condition, but things will assuredly get worse as the weeks and months go by. Our body is a holy temple but it can withstand this amount of abuse from us. Continue to abuse it day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year...and finally one day it will tell you it has had enough.

Keep up the battle and you will go from strength to strength. I know you can do it: and yes, I mean YOU! Talk to me if you need help.

Kicking our own butts is one thing, but making ourselves accountable for our behaviour outside exercise time is the key difference between getting there and never attaining success. I hate to sound cruel but I have to. 

Many of us fall into this trap thinking we should reward ourselves just because we worked out in the gym. Drink some booze? That’s alright as I did my run just now. Munch on some popcorn while enjoying a movie? Sounds fine as well as I crunched my abs till they ached like no tomorrow a while ago.

In life, it’s all about accountability. You have to be accountable and truthful to yourself. I can remind you time and time again to eat clean, exercise well and sleep sound but ultimately, you will need to be responsible for your actions. I cannot be eating clean for you. Neither can I be exercising well nor sleeping sound for you.

Remember - you hold the power in your hands. You have the choice to choose which route you want to take. 

Some of us struggle with eating disorders. Others try to find the “perfect body”. Whatever category you fall into, beware.
 

Starving yourself is not going to help make you drop a pant or dress size immediately. Instead, it’s going to wreck havoc on your physical health in the long term. Think gastric juices churning and having a wild fun ride not unlike those Disneyland park rollercoaster rides. And it’s going to permanently hurt your passion for exercise.

Trying to find the “perfect body” is also not going to help matters at all because there is no such thing as the perfect body. Stretch out your fingers for a moment and see if all five fingers of yours are of the same length. They certainly are not. Seeking perfection is only for perfectionists and we all know that perfectionists are not happy people because they never get things done. They are always in the process of perfecting things. By doing so, they add undue stress upon themselves.

Instead, tap deep within your inner recesses and seek to rediscover the true essence of healthy living. Why are you doing this? Who are you doing this for? What are the benefits of you embarking on this wellness journey?

By finding the answers to these fundamental questions, you will find the strength and motivation to pick yourself up and get healthy. Only then will you truly be learning how to live and be happy. 

I know it’s easier said than done. But thousands of people have done it, so why not you?

If the going gets tough, the tough gets going. Rome wasn’t built in a day, so it’s alright to take things slow, one step at a time. What’s encouraging is that you are moving forward slowly but steadily.

I’m with you on your way to healthy living :)

I used to work in the corporate world before for some years and I’m rather familiar with the signs and symptoms an office worker faces. The two biggest problems we always face are pain in the back and stiffness in the shoulder blades. Well, what can you expect when you are cooped up in a small cubicle typing furiously away on your computer or laptop busy replying to deadlines and emails?

For guys, having strong developed back muscles are your key to acing your Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT). My own research, supported by the testimonies of the crop of teenage male clients I’m training currently point to the fact that the chin-up station in the IPPT is the killer station that makes or breaks the entire test. Many have difficulty doing their pull-ups and because they fail to meet the minimum standard in this station, it pulls down their overall IPPT grade regardless how well they perform in the other four stations. 

One of my clients just returned from a two-week vacation after holidaying in London. As though he knew what I was going to ask him, he proudly proclaimed that he actually found time to exercise during his holiday!

I was impressed, really. After hearing of how he allocated time each morning to run in the hotel gym and his daily achievements of running 5km in 25 minutes, totalling 25km in 5 days, I gave him a pat on the back.

He has completely dispelled the misconception that one cannot exercise while holidaying. This is utter rubbish. If exercise has become part of your lifestyle, then you will find time and energy to exercise. Everything else that you come up with is an excuse created by your creative mind. Instead of finding excuse to explain for your inaction, might as well channel the same energy into some form of exercise and reap the benefits of it!

Kudos! Well done dude!

I decided to do something different today. Besides the normal sharing of health and fitness tips, I planned to demonstrate and hopefully get the audience to participate in doing some simple bodyweight exercises. This would be most useful to them as they could take these exercises home with them and use them the very next day!

Gamely joining in after I have demonstrated both lunges and chair dips, I was naturally happy.

As most were first-timers doing lunges, I decided to be extra nice and got each of them a chair support. This would boost their confidence and get them doing it the right way.

No time to exercise? Worry not...just do some bodyweight exercises in the comfort of your own room!

Lunges are chair dips are two of my favourite bodyweight exericses as they can be done anytime, anywhere. Lunges train your quads and hamstrings while chair dips tone your triceps.



Just like a magician, I have come to learn that regardless of age or gender, my audience responds best when I utilise a mixture of different teaching methodologies. After all, there are times when they listen, there are other times for them to do some internal soul searching and partner sharing. By varying my teaching methods, I strive to make my workshops and talks interesting. I bet the last thing a member of the audience wants to do is to listen to the speaker talk non-stop.



Compared to the group yesterday, this group was considerably more vocal as they stopped to ask questions along the way. When answering a question on meals from a lady, I advised her to seriously consider adopting a 'eat more eat less' principle. Simply put, this was to eat six small meals regularly at almost 3 hour intervals. This definitely beats having a huge dinner after 8pm. I sure hope she takes my advice. 

The problem with most of us is that we reverse the order of eating. Instead of eating like a king/queen at breakfast; prince/princess at lunch; and like a pauper at dinner, Singaporeans always end up skipping their breakfasts (because they are rushing to work), have a late lunch and an awfully huge portion yet again at dinner. If you wonder why your tummy never seems to subside, this is the reason.

 

Don't be surprised when you learn that the first of the two-parter series of my health talks will actually be held at the prime shopping belt of Singapore - Orchard Road!

Yes, that's right. I'm at Orchard Central today from 3 - 4pm. As part of the mall's April 2010 Fashion Delights promotion titled 'Couples in Spring Fashion Workshops', all shoppers who spend a minimum of $30 in a single receipt are entitled to a free 1hr health talk conducted by myself at Basement 2.

Orchard Central's Basement 2, for those who have yet to visit, is the newly opened addition to the mall. It will house Singapore's first dedicated Mediterranean retail and lifestyle destination in the near future. With these grand plans in mind, it is little wonder that one immediately experiences the strong European mood and decor. I absolutely love it.

I decided to speak on weight loss today. Weight loss, as we all know, is a very sensitive topic in our lives. Because of our sedentary lifestyle and poor eating habits, it is almost a given that we will put on weight through the years. Plus the fact that our metabolism slows as we age.

If you were here today, you would have learnt that losing weight is not difficult nor impossible. All one needs is a correct exercise regime and meal plan, coupled with heaps of perseverance and determination. Forget about diets or quick-fix solutions promising rapid results as these do not last. 



I hate the word 'diet' as it smacks of deprivation. Living in a food paradise like Singapore, asking one not to eat is akin to committing the biggest sin. Why live a life of deprivation? Instead, practise moderation and you will find life much more bearable!

Sure, when you are on a diet, you lose weight so quickly that it cheers you up. But once you are off the diet (are you actually thinking you can be on a diet forever? Heaven forbid!), the weight miraculously piles itself back on you, sometimes recruiting more of its same kind and giving you extra kilos. Yo-yo weight loss is not something you should aim for. Instead, go for a gradual, but sustainable weight loss programme. We must be realistic. How long can you be drinking some weight loss juice? If you are that motivated to continue drinking juice, will you do it your entire life? Or better still, bring your own juicer to the meeting room and start juicing your own drinks in front of your colleagues? I seriously doubt so.



As I've mentioned before, a safe measure of weight loss should be around the region of 1 - 2 kg per week. Anything above this range is excessive and life threatening. Read this article which I posted and you will understand why.

From exercises to meals, I touched on the importance of each complementing each other. On the topics of meals, I went through the different food classes and was in for a delight!

There were two young girls (both were definitely below 8 years old). When asked whether they loved vegetables (as vegetables give us fibre), they replied affirmative. One girl loved spinach while the other loved cabbage. I remember I hated my vegetables when I was young and if possible, avoided eating them. But now, I can't live a meal without vegetables.

I'm happy that there were 3 families who actually spent the afternoon with me. The family that eats and exercises together stays healthy together!