Swordie Bloggie

Valentine’s day is just a few days away… celebrated not only by new couples but by married couples too… and lots of chocolates and flowers… and romantic dinner…

February always the month of love… so there going to be weddings everywhere… and having babies… so family planning will also play a big role for those who are getting married… and prenatal vitamins are very important to those who decided to have babies… 😛 It sound like a jokes… but yes, you do need to know about those vitamins…  its absorbability, quality, and key ingredients. OK, those who need to know more about it, just Google it…

After attending gym for almost four months… at last I will be taking my four free instructor lead training next week… unless I don’t want too or postpone it…

When I join the gym, I was helped by friends on how to use the gym equipments… and I basically know how to use them already… but probably not in proper order… I just use any of the station as I like… well concentrating on my chest… 😀

And I have not check my weight ever since I started… but I think my weight has increased… not going less… coz I gain more muscles mass… and did maintain some of the fats… 😆 so weight loss products is not necessary for me… coz when you are building muscles, it is not necessary that you will lose weight… you might gain more weight instead because of the muscle you are building… I think that is what happening… will check my weight next week… probably it ‘s gonna be 100 kg 😛

At last, I pulled my bad tooth on Wednesday at one of the dentists at Kampung Air, Kota Kinabalu. The day before, Tuesday, I had it x-rayed at one of the dental clinic at Damai, Luyang and bought some pain killer… all for RM70.

It was not a straight forward tooth removal… my bad tooth shattered while the dentist tried to pull it out… the dentist has to do some surgery to pull the three roots buried deep into my strong gum 😛 The tooth foundation was still very firm… only the top part is bad.

Because of that, I have to spend RM500 instead of RM150 for just pulling one tooth!!! The tooth was quite bad… the filling on it which was done about 20 years ago was occupying almost the whole surface of my tooth. I should have fixed it long time ago or get myself a Blue Cross Blue Shield NC health plan… but I really don’t like visiting dentist…

Lesson learned… if you hate visiting the dentist… you must take a good care of your teeth’s health… coz bad teeth will make you suffer… but healthy teeth will save your money!!!

Usually every year, the national budget will touch on cigarette tax. But this year, it seems like none… I’m not sure… probably there was but it was made to look not so important this time.

For health reason, the government usually increases the tax on tobacco products especially cigarette every year to deter existing and new to be smokers from spending their money to buy cigarette…. which is good… I really hate second hand smoke!!! If the tax on cigarette keep on increasing, one day the price of cigarette will overtake the price of the cigars online which is openly sold… :p

26 November 2009 Thanksgiving day… 27 November 2009 Black Friday… both are over… but the only thing which is not over yet is the food overload…

So much cheap stuffs and so much food… kilos of turkey and litters of drinks… but as usual, there is always consequences that come from overindulging drinks and food… some will start complaining they are getting fat… So what are you going to do?…

Well, its time to detoxify yourself… don’t think about weight loss pills yet… better cleanse your body from all those bad food first…  How?… Sweat out yourself lah… 😛

Go jogging… go sauna… go swimming… do anything to sweat out… 😀

About 4 weeks ago, I followed a friend to a gym. I have not entered any gym for the past 15 years… I think… 😛

I wanted to beef-up my muscle a bit… and build my stamina… coz next year if everything go smooth, we have a big plan to climb Mount Kinabalu… 😛

I’m not planning to get slim or get skinny… and I don’t want to get six packs or massive muscles… I just want to get healthy and fit to do our expedition… 😛 Each of us probably need to carry 20kg or more of gears to climb Mount Kinabalu which stand at 4,095 meters high.

Then two weeks ago, I signed-up with the gym for 1 year membership… the gym is not Solo Slim Gym… but Core Fitness… yes it is without the gym at its name… yea, it sound weird without the gym at the back… probably the word gym is no longer suitable today… by just using the word fitness is good enough I guess… more grand probably… 😛

Anyway, Core Fitness is located at City Mall along the Lintas Road. Their equipments are great… the main reason I join them. An tonight, I brought two friends to the fitness center and each of them signed-up for 3 months membership… 😀

If they sign-up for 1 year membership… as a referrer I will be given extra two months free membership… but unfortunately they did not take the 1 year membership. And for my 1 year membership that I signed-up for, I was given a free water bottle… 😀

The sky is not cloudy, but full of haze!!!

The haze are horrible… the haze was here for more than a week already.

During they day, the temperature is too hot to do activities outside… the visibility is too short… like only less than 20km away. It is not only hot during the day but it also making the eyes very painful. The haze makes my eyes teary… and without shades while driving, the glare is just too much to bear, even while walking outside.

During the night, sleeping is not very comfortable without air-conditioner. And without realizing it, the haze or smoke entered the house and makes breathing very difficult. Now, my chest… lung… is making small whizzing sound when breathing… it sound like asthma… but I don’t have asthma… so it must be the effect of the haze or smoke.

The haze is not only bad to the lung but also bad for the skin… I feel the skin gets older faster… wrinkles are visible not only on the hand but around the eyes… maybe it’s time to get the best eye cream to make sure the wrinkles don’t grows bigger but goes away instead.

Let’s hope the haze goes away as fast as possible… and it’s time not to blame our neighboring country alone because our neighboring state is also the culprit. They are burning the juggle they cleared for plating palm oil… 😛 🙁

OK, economic is not good at the moment but that doesn’t mean you can’t maintain a good health. Sure some will start reducing food intake… good that they will become slimmer, just hope they don’t go to the level of starving themselves and left with skin and bones only.

Talking about reducing weight, there is one type of fatty acid supplement called Tonalin CLA. CLA stand for Conjugated Linoleic Acid. CLA can be found in beef or diary products and composed of 13 different isomers of linoleic acid. It can be found as health supplement for reducing weight. What so special about CLA? Well, CLA helps balance between body fat and lean muscle. Meaning if you diet by supplementing yourself with Tonalin CLA, your body will have less fat but with enough lean muscle. When you are slim, you are slim in good condition… still with enough lean muscle to be healthy and not skinny with bones only 😀 Lately, I always feel hungry… it must be the weather… no space for dieting then…

OK, this news is good for obese people… only if you think you are obese… not fat OK… coz fat is not obese… lol

Recently Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) made a discovery that herbal extracts from pipersarmentosum or better known as ‘pokok kaduk’ can help tackle obesity.

This ‘pokok kaduk’ can be easily found in the wild locally… probably even at the back of your house growing happily. USM began researching the plant since 2005 to formulate an anti-obesity product. The extracts they discovered is a non-toxic extract which had passed all toxicity tests.

They said their formulated herbal extracts helps slow down the growth rate of blood vessels, which in turn causes less fat to build up in the body.

I’m sure you have heard many types of weight loss products in the market. For instant you can buy Phentermine which help to suppress appetite if you can’t stop eating… but with the economic slowdown tsunami today, I don’t know if I can eat more with the price escalating daily.

Recently I received an email about barcode. You know the vertical black and white stripe on most of the packaging nowadays.

The email is about the contamination of melamine in goods especially foods from China. It tells you how to compare goods produced by China and Taiwan by looking at the barcode numbers. It says that the first 3 numbers of the barcode represents the country of origin.

I did not believe it straight away… so I did some search about international barcode standard. Surprise… surprise… it is true after all. But my search also found that it is true that the first 3 numbers represents which country the barcode REGISTRED but it doesn’t mean the goods are produced or manufactured in that country. The owner of the barcode is the country as stated in the first 3 numbers of the barcode, but the goods can be manufactured in other places or countries.

So, goods’ barcode with first 3 numbers of 471, which represent Taiwan might not be necessary manufactured in Taiwan… but it could be manufactured in Malaysia (955), Indonesia (899) or worse China (690 – 695) itself.

My point is, don’t just look at the barcode to compare the origin of the goods… you must also look at the label ‘Made In …’

Like when you travel abroad, for instant to USA, when you enter shops hoping to get ‘Made In USA’ goods… forget it, big chance you will find goods as ‘Made In Malaysia’ 😀

So while abroad, if you plan to use barcode as your reference alone, don’t… and as for safety while abroad… get a travel medical insurance, who knows you accidentally consumed melamine in big amount while you are abroad traveling.

Some notable barcodes…
Singapore – 888
Mongolia – 865

And here are the rest of the barcodes which represent the country of origin… . . . Continue Reading »