Health and Fitness - The greatest fear

I have been very busy running around this week, which is good especially now that I'm unemployed, the least I can do is to keep my days busy and productive.

Confession: After about 2 years of training, the greatest fear of stagnation finally occurred to me, which is very very bad. I cleaned out my diet so much, worked out as hard or even harder now, but there's still something wrong somewhere that caused me to retain that amount of fats. SO, I'm going to be a real testimony of IF (Intermittent Fasting or you can also call it Intermittent Feeding), together with Edric and Jen (@thefitbean), I'm going to track my progress for 10 weeks, however I'll be doing IF for the rest of my life after the 10 weeks, still keeping my feeding during the 8 hours as clean-paleolithic as possible. I hope to achieve this before the baby comes into the picture (Hurhur, I know Jason is waiting for that to happen soooon). I will try to take photos of what I eat during the feeding hours and what kind of liquid diet I take during the fasting hours and I hope to be able to see improvement!

I get a lot of emails (Thank you for the emails, keep them coming!) asking questions regarding the type of diet and workout since I started writing and I must emphasise that whatever I suggest may not be the best way to attain your fitness goals. You need to read up and play around with what you think may work for you. It takes years of experience, sometimes, to even try to find out what body type you are, genuinely understanding your body and how it reacts to different diet and workout. The bottomline is, don't give up! If you fail (which I do and my gym buddies too), pick yourself up, learnt what works for you and what doesn't, and start all over again. If you feel the need to correct your form and need to start with light weights, accept it and start over again because you know that you will definitely be stronger and wiser than the first round. One diet may work for me but may not work for you, and you need to recognise what your body needs as a basic, and then work your diet into your lifestyle around the basics that your body needs. Your body is unique, as your character and personality are.

I hope everyone gets what I'm trying to say :/ I'm still learning too so please don't quote me. I'm still exploring what works best for me and it's going to be a lifelong journey! Buck up and don't give up!

I'd love to share this video that Jason got me watching, about Steve Cook explaining how to plan and grocery-shop and what he does when he's preparing to get lean for a show. Enjoy and learn as much as you can! Simply click on the title if you need to enlarge.

Backtrack to what happened last Sunday afternoon, we attended Houston's 1st Birthday party and here are some of the photos I got. He's such a love!!

Have a good rest everyone and I'll be back soon to cover more on the IF I'll be going through. All the best to me! It's FRIDAY tomorrow!

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Life & Love - My birthday week

Birthday celebrations kickstarted on tuesday with Jason. We had our workout in the morning before we head to Ikoi for lunch. Having heard so much raves about the buffet, we finally decided to give it a shot. The place looked like a flashback from the 90s and besides the staff, who were conversing in Mandarin and minimal English, everything else looks retro and Japanese (seen in jap dramas though I've not been to Japan. hurhur).

Started with the sashimi and we ordered almost 10 servings of salmon.

We started ordering cooked food after we were finished with the raw ones and found out that they were not worth the sinning at all! We could not bring ourselves to finish the cooked ones and left feeling only satisfied with all the sashimi we had. The soups were very good though! 

Went for an interview on Wednesday morning, followed by gym, before going back to freshen up to meet the RB girls! Been so long since we last caught up with each other. We had a great gossiping session (signs of aging)!

Yes, I had salmon sashimi again the following day. HUR

Almond ebi temppura which tasted soooo good!

Geri left for her flight after dinner so we adjourned to tcc for cakes, coffee and more gossipping!

Thursday was spent with dear Jessline @jesslinet, whom was my gym buddy and shopping companion for the day. Thanks for taking time off just for me and thanks so much for the pretty gift babe! <3

Had our post-workout meal at CBTL and had salmon again! You guys should try this if you haven't, Coffee Bean now serves all-day breakfast and this is my favourite, salmon scramble! It costs us $9.10 with a mug of tea. 

Thursday night, Jason and his gang of brothers picked me up at 10pm after finishing off work the entire day. We started our adventure to the end of Singapore, tip of Johor Bahru for our long-awaited ktv session. Had a quick meal after the long drive in and off we go to ktv! The night ended early in the morning and it's been such a long time since we stayed up late. Thanks once again guys for being so sweet!

We slept in on the actual day and went straight to the gym after lunch with my in-laws. Finished our session, had dinner, headed home to rest while Jason watches NDP and at almost 7pm, we went to the fitness corner for my birthday wod just because I wasn't satisfied with the first session I had in the gym. SOOO MUCH LOVE from the guys!

JJ doing a perfect toe-to-bar

I ended my week with a short workout yesterday with Jason in the gym. It was supposed to be a rest-day but we were determined to do something light and quick to burn off the lunch we had a Houston's 1st Birthday party so we rowed on the rowing machine for 30 mins and did 30 cleans and 30 thrusters with some abs exercises.

To sum up my birthday week, I managed to do everything I wanted to, still working out and keeping working out as my priority before I start enjoying my birthday. YOU are the only one who can make the difference in your own life because you decide how you want to prioritise your life. I am also proud to have a mother who does yoga and pilates at least 5-6 times a week, and a grandmother who never fails to do her workout early in the mornings so there is no reason for me to slacken. It's never too late to start and it'll never be too late to put health and fitness as one of your priority in your lifestyle habits so start now if you haven't! The beginning of change is challenging but once you get into it, your life will change for the better!

Have a great week ahead everyone! :)

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Three Year Cancerversary!

This month is my 3 year anniversary of being diagnosed with carcinoid cancer.  Since then, my tumors have not progressed at all.  I am still asymptomatic.  I believe my case is somewhat unusual because my primary tumor has not been found and I have one very large tumor that is hanging from my liver and in front of my right kidney.  This tumor measures 8x10x12 cm and is pressing on my small intestine, causing an indentation that can be clearly seen on a CT scan.  It is this tumor that could cause a bowel obstruction. I also have other tumors scattered around my abdomen and pelvis.

This large tumor gets the biggest reaction from doctors.  It is quite mobile and sometimes doctors can feel it and other times they can’t.  That’s kind of weird!  The general reaction is that they have not seen such a large tumor in that location before.  These tumors have been with me quite a while and I have no idea when they started or continued to grow.  I’m just happy that there has been no progression since my diagnosis. 

I re-read my post from last August writing about my second anniversary. I am amazed at how far I’ve come in the past year in terms of improving upon my medical care and getting clear and articulate answers to questions concerning my treatment.

Last August I was questioning everything about my treatment including why I was taking Sandostatin and the justification for a large surgery when I had no symptoms.  Now I have a whole new team working with me and it has been much better in terms of information flow.  I feel a lot less stressed about my care, even though I’m about to have a big surgery.

This week has been a busy one in my cancer life.  On Friday I had a CT scan, an appointment with Dr. Chan, a meeting with a nutritionist and then my Sandostatin shot.  Dr. Chan said my CT looks stable with no changes. 

I also met another carcinoid patient from the Carcinoid Café on Facebook.  We had been messaging each other for the past two weeks. She had an emergency appointment Friday at Dana Farber so we met in the radiology waiting area.  It was nice to meet in person.  Both her CT and mine came back stable with no growth in tumors.  Good for us!  On to year 4 for me.

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Health & Nutrition - Intermittent Fasting

I'm very excited to be able to share something really good with all my readers because I have real-life testimony of Edric who has gone through 5 weeks of intermittent fasting, which I will be covering in details. First and foremost, let me introduce who Edric is. He is Jason's younger brother (who is taller than Jason, standing at 1.88m). His body is a combination of Mesomorph and Endomorph (aka meso-endo or endo-meso) and it was more difficult for him to lean down as compared to his elder brother. So seeing him lean down so much now with so much discipline in dieting and working out, makes me feel very proud of his current progress (do note the lighting may be different with photos taken at different places.

Week 0 - no abs

Week 1 - definition is showing but very flat

Week 2 - definition is out clearer  but still very flat
with bulge on lower abs

Week 3 - abs starting to thicken

Week 4 - abs have thicken, lower abs a lot flatter

Week 4 - A LOT thicker abs

Week 5 - proof that everybody's abs are different

Week 5 - proof that everybody's abs are different

Edric is undergoing a 12-weeks cycle of intermittent fasting and he has intentions to instill into his lifestyle because he feels this form of dieting suits his body type and compliments very well with his workout routine. I have to stress the point that not every diet suits everyone. It comes with experience and knowledge to know what diet suits you and not. Very often, with little or no experience and knowledge in dieting and working out, diets that are good turn into bad fad diets, thus implicating largely on your workout; strength and endurance, as well as your overall confidence. Edric did not chance upon this diet, he did his research, lots of reading up and after trying other ways and means to attempt to lean down, he finally found the right one.

Wanna be updated of Edric's progress? Follow him on Instagram @edrictimothy for more real-time updates! I'll be recording the remaining of his progress when he finishes the 12 weeks. 

SOOOOO, what is intermittent fasting (IF) then?

As the term intermittent fasting says, you basically take intermittent fasting (with no solid food at all) and try to fit it into your lifestyle, simple as that. You can do a long IF or a short IF. Long IF is fasting for 24 hours for 1-2 times a week and short IF works daily. Depending on what your body needs and working around it correctly, generally you start feeding your body the moment you are awake for 6-8 hours. After the 6-8 hours window, you stop having solid food or no food at all. Like I have not stressed enough, I do not want anyone to try this on their own and end up in starvation mode (especially if you are an ecto-combination body type), because your body will start using up your muscles for energy and sustenance, then you lose muscles, store fats (the vicious cycle). So please learn to know your body well and alter the diet according to what your body needs. For Edric's case, he stops eating 8 hours after he wakes up everyday (yes EVERY SINGLE DAY). This, I warn, requires awesome discipline and I salute him for this. It has changed him so much as a person too. He will still drink and sometimes have a small serving of salad during social gatherings (which he cuts out so much too) but during the 8 hours, he feeds himself quality food, very clean and healthy. He prepares his own meals and smoothies, still works out 1-2 times a day with a 5-day workout routine, he keeps his protein intake high and he eats a lot of fruits and veg.

How else besides aesthetical benefits will IF get you?

In the long run, instilling this diet into your lifestyle will help in reducing blood glucose and insulin levels, thus improving the state of the overall glucose metabolism. IF will also assist in increasing fatty acid oxidation with increased FFAs (through increasing lipolysis hormones GH, glucagon and adrenaline). Lastly, if done correctly and effectively, IF will increase various health factors (lower inflammation, lower blood pressure, reduced oxidative stress, increased protection against neuro-degenerative diseases, etc). 

I hope to let my readers bring back a very important point after this post, about dieting. Dieting will NOT work if done short-term. Instead, work it into your lifestyle so you will enjoy eating healthy and not binge-eat when you feel deprived during a dieting phase. Healthy eating is a form of enjoyment, not the other way round. So, remember not to overeat especially for my muslim friends during this festive season and enjoy cheating meals but train hard too! 

Selamat Hari Raya and Happy National Day! 

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Paying Until it Hurts and Medical Fantasies

The cost of medical care in the US is repeat theme in this blog, primarily because I find it outrageous.  I keep bringing it up because the New York Times is running a series on the cost of common procedures in the US. The most recent article is in the paper today and it caught my attention yet again.

The first article was on colonoscopies, the second on childbirth and today's on hip replacements.  The links to the articles are below:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/health/colonoscopies-explain-why-us-leads-the-world-in-health-expenditures.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/01/health/american-way-of-birth-costliest-in-the-world.html?pagewanted=all

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/04/health/for-medical-tourists-simple-math.html?pagewanted=all

The headline from today’s article concerns a Michael Shopenn who was turned down by his insurance company for a hip replacement due to a pre-existing condition. Mr. Shopenn started looking outside the United States for treatment. He found a hospital outside Brussels that charged only $13,660.  The cost in Belgium was about 6x less than in the US, where the typical charge is $78,000.

 

This got me thinking - this is purely my imagination running wild about how I might structure my cancer care if I had the ability and the means to do it.  My medical costs, outrage, business background and love of travel is fueling this fantasy.

My insurance covers between $2,500 and $8,500 for my monthly Sandostatin shots.  Let’s just say for example, that I could get a Sandostatin shot anywhere outside of the US for between $417 and $1,417 (the insurance coverage prices above divided by 6).    If I could get my insurance to pay half of what they are paying for the drug in the US ($1,250 - $4,250), I could find places to do my shots and  then pay for my airfare and hotel with the leftover funds.  I could also include my spouse in the cost but to be fair, we would pay for his travel expenses out of our own pockets. 

We could have great travels with trips all over the world while handling my cancer care.  Since I know that my shots are going to be every 28 days, I could book these trips well in advance to take advantage of early booking discounts.  It would be a win-win for both me and my company’s cost of insurance.  I probably don’t have enough vacation to do this for all 12 months but even if I did it for 6 months, the cost savings to my company would be substantial. 

Some places where I could surely get cheaper Sandostatin shots would be Switzerland, UK, France, Thailand, Belgium, Canada, India, Argentina and Australia, among others. I’m sure I could find some great things to see and do before or after my doctor appointments.

I’m guessing that most doctors in the US would not approve of a patient getting only half or none of the shots at their location.  They would not want to be responsible for anything that could happen when I got the shot elsewhere.  My company and their insurance carrier would never agree to this either.  Oh well, it was fun to think about.  Back to reality!

 

 

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