health and fitness – Page 3 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

I Need A Pedal Exerciser To Help Me Burn Some Extra Calories

It’s really frustrating for me as I weigh myself on the bathroom scale each morning. Despite me exercising everyday, the red needle just ain’t moving to the left. I am really tempted to buy a pedal exerciser so that I can exercise even when I am seated in front of my computer. The rotor Magneciser pedal exerciser is the perfect alternative to traditional stationary bikes. Whilst it helps burn off calories, it also helps to improve circulation, muscle strength, joint range-of-motion and coordination for the entire body. It is small, portable and lightweight and can even be placed under my computer table! I can move my legs even as I work on my computer.

No. of times viewed = 188

A Health Freak Nursing Mom’s Breakfast

Now that I am breastfeeding Baby C exclusively, I have to ensure that I eat wholesome food. No more eating packed roadside ‘economy fried noodles’ or cee cheong fun with loads of sweet sauce for breakfast, though I still eat them once in a blue moon.

Instead, my breakfast consists of :

7:30am – 1 glass of plain water and 1 glass of milk with my multivitamins and Probiotics

8:30am – fruits — red dragon fruits, oranges, kiwi fruits, papaya, grapes, cherries, etc

9am – half an hour of exercise

Second session breakfast consists of :

10am – Sugar-free low fat yoghurt with pumpkin seeds, walnuts, almonds, pecan nuts, chick peas and roasted soya beans.

A kampung chicken egg (free-range chicken) everyday.

A packet of Iko multi-grain biscuits or

Peanut butter / black sesame paste / cheese with wholemeal bread and.

A glass of sugar-free soya bean milk.

Sugar-free low fat yoghurt with seeds and nuts.

No. of times viewed = 654

Foldable Trampoline

I have a huge trampoline at home and I wonder where I am going to place it when we move in to our new condo later this year. There will definitely be no space for the huge trampoline in the space-limited condo. I will surely feel heavy hearted to part with it as the trampoline has been my fitness companion for the last 3 years, keeping me slim and fit. I will most probably donate it to the gymnasium at our condo and get myself a smaller foldable trampoline. I have not seen a foldable trampoline for sale here but I have seen one selling at only $60 at allegromedical.com, an online store that sells home medical supplies, life enhancing products and fitness equipment. If only Allegro Medical ships their products internationally, I will surely purchase this foldable trampoline.

No. of times viewed = 266

Wellsphere – A Website For Fitness Freaks

Do you have unsightly flabby arms that you would love to tone up? I’m sure it is every woman’s desire to be able to wear their dream sexy halter-neck top, a tube top or a spaghetti strap top and flaunt their well-toned and slim arms. Well, if you are one of them, you can read all about tricep exercise at wellsphere.com, a website that fitness freaks will absolutely love. Here, you can read all about tricep exercises, strength training, weight loss and much more interesting articles on fitness. Quick sign up as a member of wellsphere.com for free. Members can get free advice and tips on questions related to fitness and exercise. There are even videos on tricep exercises at this awesome website.

No. of times viewed = 208

InTONE® Jogger With Handlebar

I am counting down to the days when I can resume my exercise regimen after the birth of my baby. With another c-section, I will need at least 2 months to rest my wound and womb before I can start exercising again. That means it will be another 3.5 months before I can start exercising again. For a start, I will need to do a low-impact aerobic workout before I can go full swing back to jogging and running. I have just found a wonderful fitness equipment that is compact and cheap at allegromedical.com, an online store that sells home medical equipment, home medical supplies and life enhancing products.

This fitness equipment is called InTone Jogger with Handlebar. It also comes with a workout DVD. This cool equipment only costs $69 and I am so very tempted to purchase it now. My hubby will surely comment that I am a fitness freak if I were to buy this equipment now. I wonder if I can get this equipment from the fitness equipment shops locally. Does anybody know?

No. of times viewed = 282

Free Workout Routines

If you are bent on losing some weight and gaining some muscles but cannot afford to hire a personal trainer, well, here’s some great news for you. You can now get free workout routines from MuscleAndStrength.com, a website dedicated to the health and fitness nut. You can search through their huge workout routine database for free for all types of workouts ranging from weight training, bodybuilding, weight loss and muscle building. Each routine gives you a detailed daily workout schedule on what you should do. There is also free advice on how many calories you should be taking or losing each day and what diet plan you should be following. It’s really awesome. I am going to bookmark this website and start my workout routine to get back into shape after delivering my 3rd baby next year.

This post is brought to you by Muscle And Strength

No. of times viewed = 198

Lap Band Surgery To Combat Obesity

I have an aunt who loves to eat and leads a sedentary lifestyle. She has a job that’s desk-bound, she works late every night, has late dinners and never exercises. She’s overweight and her doctor has given her the red-flag on her weight and her health. She has to loose at least ¼ of her body weight, else she risks facing many health problems ranging from diabetes to heart attack and a stroke. Since she has an appetite that’s ravenous and insatiable, I think she really needs a houston lap band surgery to help her loose some weight. During the surgery, an inflatable adjustable gastric band through small laparoscopic incisions is positioned around the upper portion of the patient’s stomach. Lap band will allow a person to feel full and satisfied when the stomach pouch is reduced in size. I should advise my aunty to read up more about this procedure at JourneyLite.com.

No. of times viewed = 160

Fitball Wonders…. Part 2

After just 2 days of exercising my back on my fitball, the pain vanished today! I kid you not, the pain just vanished today. From a nagging jabbing pain on the right side of my back, there wasn’t any pain on my back today. Well, maybe I had slept well last night. Today I did not have enough time to exercise on the fitball as I had to prepare the gals for church in the morning. I’ll see if the backpain comes back or not tomorrow. I’m praying that it will not and will never come back again. I’d better exercise regularly on the fitball, it truly is amazing. If you too have backache, you really have to try arching your back on the fitball. All you need is just 2-3 minutes each day on the fitball. For tips on how to exercise on the fitball, click here. There are demo pix of me exercising on the fitball.

No. of times viewed = 198

Fitball Wonders

I’ve just had 2-3 minutes of back arching exercise on my fitball and let me tell you, the effect is really good. The nagging jabbing pain on my back has subsided. Of course I don’t expect the pain to vanish instantaneously but the pain sure has gone down quite a bit. I shall continue with the fitball exercise…. can’t be lazy anymore!

No. of times viewed = 224

Bad Backache

I woke up this morning with a bad backache. For some reasons, I’ve not been exercising my back on the fitball for a while already and damn it, my backache has re-surfaced. That’s the thing with this fitball. If you work-out on it diligently, your backache will surely be kept at bay but once you’ve stopped working on it, the backache will surely come back to haunt you. I better start exercising on my fitball again coz the pain is really unbearable and causing me disrupted sleep.

No. of times viewed = 204

Working Out On My Trampoline

My knees have been hurting me lately as I’ve been jogging uphill a lot these days. Jogging uphill is a strenuous exercise and it burns up more calories. I feel more worked out and sweat more when I jog uphill. Sometimes when I don’t get enough sleep, it makes me breathless too. I decided today that I should give my knees a rest, so I worked out by jumping and dancing on my trampoline instead as trampoline takes your body pressure off your leg. If you want to find a good way of working out and not hurt your legs too much, get a trampoline. It’s inexpensive, fun and you get to stay in shape. Oh, I also like to jump on the trampoline with my gals, they love it.

No. of times viewed = 320

Exercising Is My Life-Saver

I admit I am not only a health freak but also a fitness freak. I love exercising. Those who love exercising will totally agree with me that words cannot describe how beneficial exercise is to your body, mind and soul. You have to try it to experience the benefits yourself.

Lately, I’ve been writing quite a handful of paid posts. Writing these reviews ain’t easy. Sometimes I’ll have to really crack my rusty brains on what to write. However, when I go for my daily 40 mins of morning jog each day, the ideas just keep pouring out from my head. It must be the work of the feel good hormones released during exercise. When I return from my jogging session, I feel really refreshed, happy and full of ideas with what to write.

Not only does exercising help with the overall well-being of my body, mind and soul, it keeps my weight in check. I can still eat almost everything that I fancy. Yesterday, I had gorged on 1.5 Beard Papa’s cream puff, 1/2 slice of cheese cake from Bread Talk, a big plate of home-cooked fried noodles, some pumpkin seeds candies, a handful of Twisties (haha, my weakness for this junkfood) and of course don’t know how many seeds of durian. This morning, I weighed myself on the scale and thankfully, it’s still at 43kg!

Ok, I better get down from the soapbox. To everyone out there who has not started on a exercise regime yet, I hope you get motivated and inspired by what I’ve written.

No. of times viewed = 192

What Keeps Me Going?

Many of my friends have been asking me what motivates me to rise so early every morning to work-out. For those who have missed reading my previous posts, I wake up at 6:45am every morning to work-out. When I was still working, I used to rise at 5:45am to jog. Well, here are my top 10 reasons :

1) So that I can remain a size 0 and get to wear nice, appealing clothes instead of dressing up frumpily like an ah soh or see lai (albeit I am already in the see lai category in the sense that I am a mother, an aun-tee and a SAHM). Sorry, no offense to larger size women, don’t mean to imply you in any way 🙂

2) So that I can still wear my pre-pregnancy clothes. My clothes are all expensive, so instead of giving them away, I’d rather stay slim so that I can recycle my old clothes.

3) So that I still look young, vibrant, healthy & fit and energetic. Often times, I get compliments from strangers saying that I don’t look at all like a mother of 2. They’d thought I was still a student! Oh puh leeze… but that did make me walk on airs for a moment.

4) So that my complexion is porcelain smooth and blemish-free coz exercising eliminates toxins from the body through sweat.

5) So that I can still indulge in my favourite sinful desserts everyday like Papa Beard’s cream puffs, cakes, Paramount chicken pie, cakes, Haegan Dazz ice-cream, the list goes on.

6) So that my backache is kept at bay. Exercising on my fitball every morning has helped tremendously in keeping my backache from coming back.

7) I love to smell the crisp, fresh and cool morning air every morning as I jog and listen to birds chirping happily away as if to greet me good morning.

8) I love the absolute peace and tranquility in the house every morning, without 2 brats driving me up the wall and I don’t have to holler like a deranged woman at 2 lil’ brats who seem deaf at times.

9) So that I can buy the newspapers and read first hand news while there is still peace and quiet time.

10) So that I can buy some groceries without having to worry about my 2 lil’ brats running about in the mini market, touching breakable items and squashing up vegetables or eggs.

I believe anyone can also do it if they have the absolute will-power and discipline for it.

No. of times viewed = 255

A Good Work-out Session

It’s not easy to remain a size 0 and maintain a weight of 43kg after having 2 kids. Each morning, whether rain or shine, I’ll diligently rise at 6:45am to work-out, first on my fitball and then for a 30-40 minute jog round my neighbourhood.

Sherilyn my lil’ brat seems to have an uncanny sense each time I leave my room in the morning. She will toss about in her bed, whimpering a tad bit with her eyes closed as if she can sense mummy is going to leave her behind and at times, she will wake up just before I open my room door, crying out and begging pathetically for me to bring her along. So what do I do if she wakes up before I leave? I will strap her in the stroller and tag her along. This morning, we did just that. Let me tell you, it ain’t easy to jog and push a 13kg weight in a 7kg+ stroller (that makes 20kg!) uphill and downhill, up and down slopes and humps. It zaps off all the energy in you instantly. Only a pro jogger would understand what I am describing here. But it is a blessing in disguise as I managed to sweat profusely and burn up the extra calories I gained from the smorgasbord that I gorged on at the high-tea at PJ Hilton yesterday.

Sherilyn happily waiting to be pushed around in her stroller.

A very sweaty me… phoof….feels so energized.

No. of times viewed = 310

Dragon Fruits

Alycia’s breakfast.

Yellow-skin and white flesh pitaya.

One of my favourite fruits is the red dragon fruit or Pitaya. My gals love them too. We love them so much that we eat them almost every other day. Whenever my gals and I have constipation, dragon fruit always comes to my mind in relieving constipation. So far, I know that there are 2 varieties of dragon fruit, i.e. the red-skin & white-flesh ones and the red-skin and red-flesh ones. Recently, I stumbled from the net a picture of a yellow-skined & white-flesh pitaya. Wow, how unique. I don’t know if this yellow-skined ones are already available in Malaysia. So far, I’ve not seen them in the markets or major supermarkets / hypermarkets.

Here are some of the nutritional claims of dragon fruit :

The red flesh variety is believed to be rich in antioxidants.
The pitaya fruit is rich in vitamins.
The pitaya fruit helps the digestive process.
The pitaya fruit helps prevent colon cancer and diabetes.
The pitaya fruit helps to neutralize toxic substances such as heavy metal, reduce cholesterol levels and high blood pressure.
Consumed regularly the pitaya fruit can help against asthma and cough.

No. of times viewed = 273

Trampoline

I love sweating it out by jogging, exercising on my fitball and jumping on my trampoline. I used to follow DH to the gym years ago, but now where got time leh? I read from an article that jumping for 15 mins is equivalent to a half hour jog. Eversince I started my fitness regimen 6 years ago, I hardly ever experienced insomnia anymore. Exercising definitely knocks me off to slumber easily everynite. My craze for this kind of sports has definitely rubbed off onto my gals and they also love to jump like jumping beans on the trampoline.

Children who regularly use a trampoline are shown to have less problems with obesity and related health problems. The following are benefits of trampoline-jumping:

Lower risk of illness
Reduced chance of obesity
Increased coordination
Better balance
Faster reaction times
Increased agility
Greater flexibility

With the recent rainy season, this is a great indoor sports. So go get a trampoline, a large large one so that mommy and kids can all jump together and have lotsa fun.

No. of times viewed = 386