Lesson Learnt?

At the recent NTUC Run350, together with tons of runners caught in the rain, we were stuck in the medical tent. While there, I had the chance to observe the set up and I think the organiser have learnt well the lesson from the 2XU incident.

I counted at least 8 ambulances and at least 4 mobile medic on bicycles and 2 on motorcycles. I asked one of the mobile medic and he confirmed that he has a AED with him. I must said that the organiser seems to be very well prepared for all sort of emergency. And all these for a race of 21km and 10 km with a combine running strength of only 16,000.

One of the mobile medics on bike

Good that race organiser are now not taking chance with the safety of the runners. Let hope the other organiser, especially those for the longer distance, will follow suit.

Medical Aids at Races

At the recently concluded 2XU Marathon, a runner collapsed during the race and despite efforts by fellow runners and subsequently medical personnel, he passed away at the hospital. After this, there was a lot of kpkb over the lack of medical aids from the event proper. According to press reports and postings  in social media, the runner collapse somewhere around the 11km distance along the Geylang Bahru PCN. Fellow runners were not able to locate the event medical personnel and there was no emergency contact number of the race organiser to call. In the end, other runners provided cpr and called the SCDF. Unfortunately, they were not able to provide the exact location and consequently the SCDF ambulance took longer than expected to reach. Meanwhile, the race director was none the wiser about the event. Runners told umbrage at the lack of medical personnel, the inability to contact the race organiser/director and the simply inertia of the race organiser.

But to be fair to the race organiser, I think they have done what is expected of them. Looking at the race map, there are medical points spread out all over the race course. However, most of the medical points were along the second half of the route as to be expected of a full marathon where most of the injuries and problems are likely to occur later rather than so early as in this case. And there is no precedent for an emergency contact number of the event organiser in most race although I noted that this is now printed on the City Race race bib. Lesson learnt! And it is not realistic to expect medical personnel to be stationed at every 1 km. As I understand, most big races will have at least 3 civil ambulances during a race stationed along the race course and first aiders (usually from the Red Cross or St John) stationed along the routes. What happened is really unexpected and beyond the control of the race organiser and they have done what is required of them. But that is of course not to say that these cannot be improved on.

For a start, we could all learn from the Tokyo Marathon. I noticed that apart from the usual medics stationed at various points throughout the race course, in addition, there were medics on bicycle. Not only that, there were doctors who were running with the runners.

Members of the Medical Response team at the Tokyo Marathon

Photo from http://www.newshome.us/news-6341487-Tokyo-Marathon-medical-rescue-drill-to-improve-anti-terrorism-Level.html

Medical personnel with AED along the race route at the Tokyo Marathon

Photo from Tokyo Marathon website

These doctors wear distinctive red vest with the words "Medical" and they ran together with the runners

Photo from https://www.flickr.com/groups/627262@N25/

Perhaps doctors who are runners can volunteer their services and run together with participants in races. Race director should also make available mobile medics with AED and other relevant medical aids.

However, all these measures will not prevent somebody from dying if that is his fate but hopefully it will be sufficient to reduce or prevent more cases

Waking Up Early is Making Us Fat

Waking Up Early Is Making Us Fat! This startling headline in the papers screamed out at me and caught my attention immediately.

Those who follow this blog will know that I obsess over my weight a lot. Not that I am really fat but I am very mindful of the bulging waistline and fighting what seems most time to be a losing battle of the bulges.

So the article was a real eye opener.. Just look at what the researchers have to say:

- “…….metabolic chaos: glucose spiked to levels that could, over time, trigger diabetes, while energy expenditure slumped to the point where subjects would have gained up to 13 pounds in a year.”

- “Sleep loss, says Buxton, triggers a feedback loop that “makes people prefer processed and sugary foods over fruit and vegetables, while leaving them with less energy to exercise.”
Reading it, I now have the answers to why I am losing the battle

1. I am waking up too early especially on weekends when I set my alarm to go off at ungodly hours just to go for the long runs.

2. No wonder my body has been resisting the idea of waking up early. Our God created body is not just a piece of miracle, it is also the best physician and it knows that waking up early is bad for the body. So now I know why I loves to sleep so much ~ cause its good for my body

I going to sleep now. And don’t wake me up please. Thank you arigato.

Dog Attack!

Nope I haven't been attack by a dog yet but I had a close shave not too long ago. I was lucky compared to this lady and this lady but I am sure they will admit they are lucky too if they compare themselves to this gentleman.

Anyway, while it is generally pretty safe to run in Singapore, and there are not that many dogs or even other animals like monkey attack, still I was curious enough to find out how to defend myself in case it happened. So I turned to Mr Dog Whisperer himself, Cesar Milan and this is what he advises: 

" I get very calm. Believe it or not, what will be instrumental in blocking the animal from attacking you is for you to be calm and unafraid. ........Once I have asserted myself, I claim my own space. Often, I use a walking stick, an umbrella, or anything I happen to be carrying and place it out in front of me, so I make myself appear bigger and feel more in command of my space. What I am saying with my body language is, I don’t want the dog’s space; I don’t want that tree over there, I just want this space that I am standing in. n Again, I am maintaining a very calm and assertive state. That energy creates a barrier that automatically demands his respect. I’m letting him know that I’m not afraid of him."

Huh? That sounds very cheem. And me think 99.999% of runners here don't carry any stick, umbrella  except maybe a water bottle when they run  so the advice might present some difficulty to carry out.

But I have this theory. Animal only attack when other animals including human intrude into its territory or threaten its young. So the right thing to do is to avoid going near to them. but if there is no choice, do not run away from them. I learnt this from my previous encounter. When I saw the 3 dogs, I stopped running and just walked across. They stood there and barked but made no other move. But when I thought I had passed them sufficiently and resumed running, they chased after me. To the dogs, it could be a game or it could be big fish eat small fish and if I run, means I scare of them so they attacked. I don't know but reading other advices from other websites, the consensus is don't run, don't do anything that will cause the dog to interpret as hostile. Wait until the dog lose interest and walk slowly away.

Will it work? Try it out the next time and let me know!

Running in the Rain will cause One to fall Sick?

Last Saturday I woke up to the sound of rain. Awww, we were all ready to go for the weekly weekend run. But since we had to drop off the kid at his camp, we decided to go ahead with a hope that the rain will stop by the time we reach East Coast Park. But the rain didn't stop and got a little bit heavier but it was still a drizzle. Now, I can't remember when was the last time I ran in the rain but I do remember it was lovely and so I was raring to go ahead with the run.

But of course I didn't get to go East Coast Park.  The sidekick didn't want to run in the rain. Like a lot of people, she believe that one will fall sick if one runs in the rain. The belief is that when one runs, the pores on the skin opens up to allow the sweat to come out. So if one runs in the rain, the rain water will get into the body through the open pores and the water will accumulate in the lungs and cause the person to fall sick, catch a cold which will develop into pneumonia! Fact or myth?

So does one really fall sick from running or going out in the rain? Anecdotally many people does. Like in the movies, they get caught in the rain and bingo, next day they develop a cold/fever.

But according to Dr Tan Swee Kheng; writing in the inaugural issue Run Singapore; a cold is caused by a virus and not rain. So unless the virus resides in the rain drop, it is not possible for someone to catch a cold or the flu from the rain. Ditto pneumonia. A quick search on the web also yield more or less the same conclusion. So running in the rain does not cause one to fall sick. Sure but I dare say not a lot of people is going to be convinced by this.

However, whilst running in the rain does not cause one to fall sick, running in the rain can still be bad for the health like
- slipping on the wet ground and getting injured. Running shoes are notoriously bad on smooth tiled pavement like what our gahmen loves to have on our walkway
- being pocked in the eye/head by an auntie carrying an umbrella
- or worse, kena hit by lightning. After all, Singapore has one of the highest rate of lightning activities s in the world

For the record, I did get my run in the rain after all although we started real late at 9am. But by golly, it sure was fun! And no, I didn't fall sick.

Project Tummy Resurrected

I gave up on Project Tummy after 3 months. So what if I didn't reduce my weight to 75kg? The daily weight in isn't going to help. But surprise surprise, weighed myself recently and by golly, the weight has dropped to 74kg. The weight now fluctuates between 73.5 to 75.5Kg. Why such a big range? Don't ask me. Ask the weighing machine:)

But anyway I figured what happened was this.

In the first month or phrase 1, I was concentrating on losing weight via the classic burn more calories method. However, the way I went about doing it was not to exercise more but to exercise or to be more precise, run less. Instead of doing LSD, I switched to a combination of the now in fashion HIIT or High Intensity Interval Training. As a result, the monthly mileage averaged around 120km.  Food intake was  as per normal. 6 - 7 meals a day. Ultimately I guess not enough calories were burnt.

In the 2nd phrase, I decided to watch my food intake using a app on the mobile phone. And true enough, for the period that I was monitoring, there were more "gain" days than "loss" days. No wonder cannot lose the weight. But calorie counting is too troublesome and I soon gave up and just forget the whole thing.

But I did do something else. I skipped 2 meals out of the 6 - 7 I take a day. The 9am office breakfast and the night snack were dropped. So sad no more late night chocolate. I also reduced my intake of the already less sugar soya drink to twice a week. Exercise routine continues as per normal.

And I guess this is what works. Finally, I was burning more than I was gaining. The trouser is a little bit loose now but I not measuring it yet. The tummy is still flabby but it's okay. No longer young so can't really be bother. So at the end of the day, weight loss is still a simple matter of burn more calories than take in calorie .

Count Your Calories

After a rather unsuccessful attempt to lose weight, 3.5kg over the 3 months although the target was 5kg, decided this week to do a little experiment and to count the calories. 

I downloaded this little app from the Health Promotion Board and used it to track the calories consumed and burnt for the day. This app, the Interactive Diet and Activity Tracker (IDAT) allows one to input activities or upload direct using the built in Endomondo software and to keep track of the food consume using the food calculator. Generally, the app is quite useful although it would have been if the food choices were more comprehensive and localised. It does not have many common food combination and instead one has to key in separately eg for peanut butter sandwich, one has to keep in bread as a separate entry from peanut butter. Also, there are limited choices for chicken, egg (couldn't find fried egg (or sunny side up egg) etc.

After keeping track for 1 week, I had an overall loss of 499 calories which means I had made no progress at all!

This little experiment will ends today as I find it tedious to keep searching for the food items after every meal and going through all the options. But for those people who are disciplined enough, this can be a useful app for keeping track of the calories. The app comes in both IOS and Android platform and can be download here.

Project Tummy 3rd Month

Time is almost up with 1 more week to go before I conclude my Project Tummy and so far all the signs are pointing to a new fat failure!

The weight has been fluctuating between 76 - 77 kg. It did went down to 75.5kg a few times but 2 weeks of slacking and not following the routine plus some nice food means it crept back up to 76kg this week. The waistline? I don't even want to measure it. 

Any with an upcoming trip to Bali this week, I think it is a foregone conclusion that 75kg is not achievable. At least not within the target 3 months.

I also went to do a health check. Cholesterol level is good. Can continue to eat my pig trotters. Glucose level is a little bit over the threshold. Need to cut back on desserts. Does chocolate affect glucose level? The   thyroid function test indicate sign of hypothyroidism. Need a further test to confirm this. But more worrying, the ECG test indicates some abnormality. For someone who runs, this is bad. Have fixed up an appointment with a cardiologist to do another test. Hopefully, it is nothing.

Project Tummy Month 1

Finally 1 month has  passed since I embarked on Project Tummy.

Unfortunately, despite all the hard work, not much has changed. Sure, the weight has dropped a tad from 80kg when I first start to 77.5. It did dipped to 76.5 once but had generally hovered between 77 - 78. But it's okay there is still about slightly under 2 months to go to lose the balance 2.5kg. Shouldn't be too difficult as long as I remember to cut the calories. General consensus is I need to have a calorie loss of 500 per day to achieve the desired weight loss so it as simple as cutting out the chocolates and dessert. But first of course have to empty the fridge of all the chocolates from Christmas which means it kinda difficult to achieve.

But that is the easy part. The jingly tummy is still jingling away. Absolutely no change at all.

Crunches ain't going to help so the next so some drastic actions might be called for..........like liposuction????
Haha I don't have that type of money to burn so its back to the grinder:( Anybody got any suggestions to burn 2 inches off the waist?

Project Tummy Week 1

Times flies and 1 week is over since I start on Project Tummy.

Here's a recap of the week:

Wednesday 25/1/2012:  Went to the gym. Did 25 mins on the elliptical trainer and another 45 mins playing around with the weights machine.

Thursday 26/1/2012:  Running Day. Foot felt weird so decided to slack rest. Went through the motion of doing weights. Does that count as exercise?

Friday 27/1/2012:  Off day from work. Managed to get up early and went for a swim. 20 laps in 1 hour:(. Then had a rich expensive lunch. So much for all the calories that was burnt during the swim.

Saturday 28/1/2012:  Finally a real run. 11km slow and easy run. Followed by a buffet dinner in the night. Calories gained?

Sunday 29/1/2012: Supposed to join IMD and friends for another run. But the body is not agreeable to waking up early 3 days in a row. That plus the late night on Saturday. Made up for the missing run by doing a 25 minutes run in the early evening before going for another fat inducing dinner.

Monday 30/1/2012: Rest day but played around with the weights again.

Tuesday 31/1/2012: Another 25 mins run. The runs seem to be getting shorter and shorter.

Wednesday 1/2/2012: Another weigh in. Last week inaugural weigh in was 80/35 ie weight 80 waistline 35. 

Today weigh in: Surprise surprise 78.5/35! How about that? I had expected a gain or at best, same weight but a loss of 1.5? The weekly weight in is currently done first thing in the morning on Wednesday.To double check, weighed myself at the gym tonight and back home again. 78.3kg! Hmm I must be doing something right.This call for a celebration.Think I shall have my box of chocolate.

My jingly Tummy

I knew I was going to pay for it with all that reduced running. Some more with the tons of makan over the course of the past few months. So there I was at the mall trying out a trouser and I realised to my horror that I can only fit into a 1 size larger pants. Okay maybe it was the cutting but true be told, the signs were all there.

The trousers were getting tighter. The Princess keeps saying that my stomach jingles and I can see a protruding tummy from my running tees. And is that a moob I see?

So I need to do something. So now barely 1 month into the new year, I have a new resolution - to lose 2 inches off the waist line and 5 kg off the body. And to do it within 3 months!

Possible? Watch this space!

Running is Good for You?

Singapore's No 1 runner, Mr Mox Ying Ren wrote this article for the Straits Times some time ago. For a clearer version of the article, read in in his blog here.

To summarise, running can be done anytime, anywhere, is cheap, can be done alone and is directly related to the effort you put in without needing to rely on somebody else, and has health benefits. These are all rather common sense isn't it?

But surprisingly, a few days later, somebody wrote to the ST Premium to rebut that. And surprisingly, it came from a doctor who should have know better!

So are they talking about the same thing? And who is talking crap? The doctor wannabe or the qualified doctor? The pro runner or the social runner? And who is right or wrong?

How to Lose Weight the Cheapo Way - Part 1

Actually I wrote about this before. But from time to time I hear friends. mainly the ladies, talking about losing weight, which left me baffled since most of them are not obese or even mildly fat!

Anyway, I thought it will be idea to rehash some cheapo i.e. low cost ways to lose weight and most important of all, for those who do not exercise - without any need to do any real exercise, although frankly some exercises will help tremendously. By the way, I am neither a dietitian or nutritionist. I am also not a medical doctor not even of the quack variant. So what makes me think I am qualify to dish this? As most old fogeys will said "I eat salt more than you eat rice" so that should ably qualify me. So here goes:

1. Those fancy diet plans dreamed up by the angmohs do not work. Not in the long run anyway. Forget about such diets as Atkin, Zone, South Bridge and what's not. Nothing works. And you won't get to enjoy life if you stick to these extreme plans. What do you live life for? To eat, drink and be merry. And if you can't do the former, what is the point of living?

2. Those expensive diet or food supplement do not work. Things like the Xando, TrimUp  or even those weight loss tea, coffee, diuretic pills only help you to lose water, maybe some oil or is a meal replacement at most. Why eat such tasteless stuff when you can eat real food? And have a lot of change left over!

3. Don't go for those slimming programs by those so called beauty parlours or clinic. The most they do is help you lose some water which you will gain back at the next meal. I am constantly amazed at the people who put in money to be wrapped up like a mummy, soaked in a tub like a rubber duckie or lighted up with fire on their stomach hoping for a miracle. Fat chance! They could just as easily do it at home without fattening the wallets of these contrepreneur.

So forget all these. Better to save the money and give half of it to me errr go for a holiday and have a nice meal.

Continue here..

Healthy Food

Was going through my desk and came across this chart which kinda try to relates certain type of food to certain illness. The chart is very ambitiously entitled 'Never Sick Again' but I seriously doubt that.

Then there is this website that list all the food that is beneficial for each different parts of the body. Seems sound and all the food listed are healthy wholesome food.

Give it a try. Nothing to lose.

Exercise

For the past few years, I have more or less faithfully adhered to a exercise routine:

Monday: Gym - cycle and weights (actually not body building but more strength training)
Tuesday: Run + weights
Wednesday: Swim + weights
Thursday: Run
Friday: Weights
Saturday: Long Run
Sunday: Run

So all this mucking around should cause me to loose a lot of weight right? But ever since I lost 12kg after the initial years, the weight had stayed put at 74kg before I decided to up it to a more respectable 80kg (which I am still trying to achieve).

So is it because somehow I have hit on the magic formula and achieve a equilibrium whereby the calorie intake is equal to calorie lost? Cont'd here.

Tai Chi anyone?

Researcher from Tufts University of Medicine have discovered that people who practice Tai Chi regularly experience less pain in the knee. Read more here

Hurray, good news for runners. Now can practice Chi running, learn a martial art, run faster and experience less pain.

What are you waiting for? Go to your nearest Community Club now to sign up.

But oh wait a minute... before you do that, read this and this.

Sigh... back to square one.

Balance and the Physio

Read an article in the Saturday's ST about balance. No - not work life balance or family life balance whatever but physical balance as in standing/walking/cycling and not falling. I have always been bad in balancing. When I was doing my NS, I remember a lot of time I cannot clear the swing bridge(?) because the darned thing keep moving when you try to run across it.

Anyway, the writer of the article was emphasizing the importance of balance in our physical life citing example of how proper balancing can help mobility especially when we grow older.

Reading this article set me thinking about some comments some friends made some time ago about the quality of the physio in CGH. Most of the comments were that the physio in CGH were not good, not up to standard and it will be better for me to go to a private physio. Now this argument is not new and it is something that I hear very often about government hospitals in general. Not just about physio, but doctors and even nurses. And I do believe there is some basis for this. Most time, the government hospital are training grounds for medical staff. There they learn and pick up their skills and once they are 'experienced' enough, they leave for private practice. So in that sense, it is not wrong to say that the physio are not very 'good' as they lack experience.

So what has this got to do with balance? The first time I learnt or heard about balancing was you guess it - at CGH. A few years ago, when I first went for the physio session, the first thing the physio did was to check my balance. He made me stand on one leg, do squats and determine that I wasn't very good in my balancing and subsequently put me through a lot of balancing exercises on the bosu ball. In fact, the physio finally discharged me only when I could prove that my balancing had improved and I could stand on one leg without quivering for 1 minutes.

Guess what I am trying to say is - the guys at CGH SMC are not that bad. Maybe they are not too good in explaining the why but certainly in term of knowledge, I think they are right on par with the best there is but maybe lack experience?

So friends, give them a chance. I did and I believe I have benefited from the sessions there. To this day, I still do some 1 leg balancing on the Flabelos because its importance has been drummed into me by the physio and as the article pointed out - it is crucial to have good balance whether it is for the purpose of doing sports or just moving around.

PS: Unfortunately I can't reproduce the ST's article here since SPH is very ngoew about copyrights issue blah blah blah

Who Said These?

Guess who made all the below wonderful logical statements:

.....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.

....'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.'

- But I think the most important single lesson I learn 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.

- 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.

- The human being needs a challenge, and my advice to every person in Singapore and elsewhere: Keep yourself interested, have a challenge.

A very well said/written reminder on living by one of the world greatest statesman, our very own MM Lee. Read the full passage here

Hope for Runners

What is the most common bane of all runners? Knee pain or what is commonly known as Runner's Knee.

Previously, in the bad old days, this means a total knee replacement for the serious case an thereafter kiss running goodbye. Nowadays, can just do knee arthroscopy so running can still continue albeit after a short recovery break but now there is hope!

Parkway Health Group is partnering an Australian biotechnology company to test a new stem cell therapy which promises 1 injection to cure knee problems.

According to the report, "Dr Lim Cheok Peng, managing director, group president and chief executive of Parkway Holdings Limited, said the trial is “new medical paradigm” aimed at “regenerating and rebuilding damaged tissues to address the underlying problem".

A ParkwayHealth spokesman said there have been no reported side effects from the stem cell injection “to the best of our knowledge today, and from the extensive studies conducted by Mesoblast”.

So how about that. A runner's dream come true?

Read the article here.

Weight Loss

People complained it is so easy to gain weight and so difficult to lose weight.

I have the reverse problem. 

Have been trying to gain 4 kg since a year ago and till now the most I managed was 2kg. 

Having said that, for those who are desperately trying to lose weight, I have the best method.

Forget about all those stylo-milo diet plan 'conned' up by the angmoh. Those doesn't work. Even if it does, I am sure no know want to go through the rest of our life religiiously watching what we can and cannot eat and counting calories every time we want to eat something.

Talking about calories - everybody said to lose weight, calorie intake should be less than calorie output and vice versa. That is easier said than done. e.g. How much calorie is a plate of char kway teow? What is the difference if you order a $2, $3 or share a plate? So confusing right? How much calories do we burn if said we run for say 30 mins, 1 hours or cycle 2 hours? How to remember things like that?

So forget all this mumbo jumbo. This here is the secret to weight loss for all those who can't be bothered to count calories or exercise:

Fall Sick! Yes, remember everytime you visit somebody in hospital or somebody who is sick, the very first thing you will notice is how much weight the person has lost? Yes falling sick is the lazy man answer to weight loss. I remember many years ago when I was hit with thyroid, I lost so much weight within 2 months that I can easily put 2 chickens into my pants:) So those who want to lose weight - go get a bout of sickness. Guarantee to work... or if it doesn't work and death occurs, than all the more reasons no need to worry about being fat right?