Thursday, January 26, 2012

Fitness Myth

I recently read an interesting article from Forbes magazine about some common fitness myths. 

To cut the article short, here is the summary:

Thinking that an hour workout can make up for the day long unhealthy eating is too presumptuous.  A strict healthy diet speaks more in reducing weight. 


It may sound reasonable that we could burn more fat with empty stomach in the morning jogging; but this not only causes us sub-optimal performance but also burns our muscle instead of fat. 


Shake might be thought to be healthy and ideal for a diet plan. But its side effect is we will never get full and satisfied, subsequently crave for more food intake. Whole food intake on the other hand can increase our metabolism rate while make us feel satisfied. 


Egg is thought to be a banned item from a diet plan. But a recent study says egg yolk is efficient in reducing our bad cholesterol, LDL. 


Stretching before intensive training is an conventional wisdom to reduce injury. But in fact, it not only weaken our muscle but also increases the risk of injury. 



Thinking that we need to hit certain heart beat to reduce fat is a common misguidance from the cardio equipment. The way our body burn fat is simply too complicated for an equipment to comprehend. 


Wednesday, January 25, 2012

My Fitness Corner

I am delighted that almost everyone who sees me says I am thinner.

This motivates me a lot on my coming workouts!

So I will keep a diary of the future sweatout workout in My Fitness Corner.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Autumn in My Heart



Not sure how many of you still remember this lame touching Korean drama! For the first time, it aroused many teenagers' thinking of whether they were accidentally changed in the baby ward. *smile*

I still remember my dad watching this whole drama with us, and in one episode, he was touched until tears welled in his eyes! 

I couldn't remember every single detail of the drama, but I can always remember how we one whole family cried on the saddening fate of the main character in the drama. And how we discussed the drama, how we vowed to love each other even more...

It has been so many years since this Korean drama was aired. Nothing is more important than the sweet memories etched in my heart, forever and ever.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

2012 Resolutions

Well, I have no much luxury to squeeze more effort and time to achieve some luxurious resolutions but these are some I wish to do:

1. Read more books. Let's target 10. Without specifying a quantity, I afraid I might slack off.

2. Pass the two exams remaining. Given the heavy workload currently, I might attempt only one this year.

3. Reduce weight to 52kg.

4. Grow more in career. I am not sure what are the other ways of having salary increment besides passing exam for an actuarial associate, but I will explore along the way. Perhaps recognition of hard work is not a bad idea too, except always talking about money.

5. To save an amount of money (God knows it) to renovate the house bought in my hometown. I have the amount quantified, but not going to reveal it here, for God's sake. *grin*

6. To go traveling. I have bought tickets to Phuket and Kota Kinabalu. But I wish to bring my parents to somewhere this year. Let's see where they wish to go.

7. Conquer Mount Kinabalu!

8. Make Online Books Recap earning USD2 per day. I am not greedy and ambitious I know!

2011 Resolutions Verdict

1. Read more books (I only read two books in 2010 but so many in 2009). Currently on shelf: Maximize Your Memory, The Power of Body Language, 80/20, Eat Pray Love. 
Verdict: Failed terribly. Listed here are three books, oh well, I managed to read three books but of course it is not my initial intention of reading MORE books.

2. Finish all the remaining 6 FAP modules by March.
Verdict: Failed to finish them by March due to my laziness. Managed to finish and pass everything on January 9, 2012. *wry smile*

3. Pass Advanced Finance and Enterprise Risk Management (my final paper if I pass Financial Economics Theory and Engineering in January) in April.Update: I didn't pass FETE. So AFE will be my second last paper now and hopefully FETE will be my last paper in November!
Verdict: FAILED AFE twice. *very sad* no chance attempting FETE, and I still need to retake them this year.

4. Get associate credential by April and fellow credential end of the year (providing I pass FETE first).Update: I can only get my fellow credential early next year (Spring). :(
Verdict: I managed to get associate credential only by now, of course it was not May, but January 2012.

5. Grow more in career.
Verdict: Passed! Surprisingly, I am able to hop to the largest insurer in Singapore and the learning curve is steep!

6. Go traveling with family somewhere in the year.
Verdict: They came to visit me in Singapore instead.

7. Purchase a house end of the year for investment purpose.


Verdict: Nearly shared a property investment with my friend, but I eventually opted out to buy a house for my parents. I look forward to staying in this bigger and better house. The picture above is the show house unit for the house I bought.

8. Lose weight! I want 50 - 52kg!
Verdict: Passed! I managed to reduce 4kg but yet to reach 52kg on scale.

Though I failed 4 out of 8 resolutions, I still will plan some this year, 2012.
 
2011 was a year I had some breakthrough in my life, though it was still quite far from the milestone I wished to reach. But I am still grateful of what I was able to archive. :)

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Boooks Read in 2011

Argh it was one of my resolutions to read more books in 2011, but as always, we don't do what we set out. I think that we I always set the resolutions I wish to to archive, which is more like a fairytale most of the time. So at the end, most of the time, I do not manage to archive it.

All the books read are exclusive of the textbook I read for exam. 

Let's see, in year 2009, I read 18 books! 

In year 2010, I only read The 8th Habit: from Effectiveness to Greatness as well as Think and Grow Rich.  The review was not written by me though. 

In 2011, I swore was determined to read more books. But at the end, I only read The Purpose Driven Life, Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith We Defend, and reread Who Moved My Cheese. The first two books are given by saints, if not I would only manage to read one pathetic book! All the books I target to read were left more than half. I am currently reading Eat Pray Love, hopefully I can finish it by the end of this year month.

Arghh... I don't wish to set much to read this year, but with the website set up, I think I would be motivated to read. :)

Any books recommended for me?

Online Books Recap

Okay, this post is about an introduction of a website constructed and maintained by my friends and me. Online Books Recap is a site of reviews on the books we read, consisting of a few genre. Currently, there are science, religion, self-development, entrepreneurship and risk management

How can you support us as a friend?! *grin* That is by browsing and bookmarking our website. The traffic driven will bring us money through the advertisements we put in our website.

Christmas and its truth

According to wikipedia, Christmas is an annual commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ, celebrated generally on December 25 as a religious and cultural holiday by billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it closes the Advent season and initiates the twelve days of Christmastide. Christmas is a civil holiday in many of the world's nations, is celebrated by an increasing number of non-Christians, and is an integral part of the Christmas and holiday season.

But the truth is the Bible never intends to command us to remember the birth of Jesus Christ but His death and long for His second coming. A few doubts on whether Jesus was born in winter. 

1.  Weather condition at the time of Jesus' birth indicates that it could not have taken place in December. Luke 2:8 tells us that when Jesus was born, the shepherds were watching over the sheep at night. The cold weather in the evening during midwinter is very piercing; it is the custom of shepherds in Judea to bring home their flocks before the start of November, prior to the onset of the cold winter months. Hence, the birth of Christ could not have been in December.

2. In 4 B.C. the Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar issued a decree for a census to be taken in order to know just how many subjects he had and how much taxes he could collect. Quirinius, who was then governor of Syria (where Judea was then part of the great Roman-controlled province), implemented the decree to take the first enrollment for census of Judea that same year. There were no historical records to indicate that the inconvenient harsh months of winter was the time the authorities scheduled for the tax enrollment, which necessitated the population's traveling from all parts of the land to their natal districts to register in the electoral roll, for storms and rain make journeys both unsafe and unpleasant in winter. It was in compliance to this decree for registration that Joseph went up with Mary from the city of Nazareth in southern Galilee to his hometown Bethlehem in southern Judea (Luke 2:1-5). It is also unlikely that Mary, who was pregnant, would travel 190 kilometers from Nazareth to Bethlehem because it was considered not fit for a pregnant woman to travel during winter (Matt. 24:20; Mark 12:18).

You may ask, "so? Even though Jesus was not born in winter, but since everyone is celebrating, why can't I do so too?" 

A friend of mine gave me this explanation - we, christian should not be thought by others that Christmas is what a christian about, it is the matter of testimony. 

In his message REMEMBERING CHRISTMAS, Brother Watchman Nee said, 'According to the opinions of many believers, it is a good thing to have a day each year to remember the Savior's birth....Apart from one's opinion, God's Word, the Bible, is still the only standard and the highest standard. Our concern lies not on what man speaks, but on what God has spoken....Does the Bible have a command to remember the birth of Christ?...Only one who believes in the Bible will know that the things God did not command and the things God did command have the same significance ....Many say that God never put a stop to the celebration of Christmas....It is sad when Christians search the Scriptures to give a basis for their sin and an occasion to the flesh....May God give us more strength to enable us to say, 'How do we dare do what God has not commanded?''

Monday, January 2, 2012

Illuminati 2012 End of the World Conspiracy Predictions

Many Christians are longing for the Lord's second coming. I am very reluctant to accept this fact thinking thousands, millions of people will die in sorrow during His return. 

It is really a hard-feeling when I watched this video especially when the fact and our current happenings, all are reflective of what is in the bible. I was thinking what can I do besides being forlorn for this coming "doomsday". But after a while, if we were to be rational, we will clearly know that what we need to do is to repent and turn to the Lord. Argh, but soul and spirit like to contradict each other every time. Exercising our spirit and repenting seem to be easier said than done. 

How to reject our self, and follow the Lord? Can I do it? 

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Fresh Steamed Escargot

I never ate fresh steamed escargot before but only cheese baked one and I thought it would be yuck to be freshly steamed. It amazed me.. It is really fresh and you can thoroughly enjoy the seafood/sea water freshness!

Cheese may cover the escargot if it is not fresh, but fresh steamed one is entirely naked for you to savor...