Category: Healthier Lifestyle

I just took the running workshop at The 3 Club today and I thought it was very informative. The workshop was three hours long and combined theory and physical activity. If you’re a runner or interested in running then this is a workshop I highly recommend taking. There is only one more session left which is for this Friday so if you want to sign up visit this [Link]

Below is the workshop agenda to give you an idea of what it involves.

According to Eat Like Mira it’s actually not bad at all. It’s baked not fried and the whole bag is just 100 calories. [Link]

If you’re at the Avenues pass by the Kuwait Heart Foundation area setup since along with the Faculty of Medcine Students they’re attempting a Guinness World Record today and need your help. Invite your friends and family along as well since they’re trying to break the record for the highest number of BMI testings in 8 hours.

They’re starting from 12pm and ending at 8pm so pass by when you can.

Thanks BuYousef

Update: Just heard the record was broken.

Update2: Not only was the record broken but it was shattered with 9,023 measurements which is more than double the previous record. I’m curious to know if they’re going to end up sharing the total average BMI. My guess it’s going to be pretty high based on the fact we’re one of the fattest nations in the world.

Picture by The Avenues

Last month I posted about the Flying Start Triathlon that is going to take place this coming October here in Kuwait and it got me thinking if it would be possible for me to compete. I think I’m in great shape since I’ve been working my ass off at Core Fitness for the past two years and I’ve been eating really healthy so I think I’m ready.

There are two distances in the Flying Start Triathlon and I’m hoping to complete The Sprint which is the shorter of the two. The running and biking seem very doable it’s the swimming I’m more concerned about. Currently I can swim across an Olympic sized pool horizontally once before collapsing in exhaustion and that’s only like 25 meters or something which is not even close to the 750m distance required in the race. That’s why I passed by The 3 Club who are the organizers of the event and asked them if they did any training. Turns out they did and starting next week I’ll be training with them twice a day every day.

There will be two sessions daily which rotate between biking, running and swimming exercises. I’m pretty nervous about this since I have no idea how I’m going to perform. Once I actually start the classes I’ll post my impressions here. So far my schedule for Ramadan looks like this:

5PM – Training with The 3 Club
7PM – Training at Core Fitness
10PM – Training with The 3 Club

Best part about this though is I’ll be eating WHATEVER I want since I’ll be burning so much calories. Fat Mark is going to make a comeback.. at least in a mental state.

I spent nearly two months on a really strict diet and working out at Core Fitness 5 times a week trying to bring down my body fat percentage to 12% before I traveled to Lebanon and hit the beach. That didn’t happen (I blame Geneva) and I ended up at 13.6% which is still pretty cool just not what I wanted. I’ve now been in Lebanon for 5 days, I still haven’t gone to the beach and I also haven’t been able to hold my diet.

Whenever I travel I find it impossible to stick to my diet. The only way I actually stick to my diet in Kuwait is with routine, I know I am going to have eggs with turkey for breakfast, grilled chicken cutlets with grilled zucchini for lunch and turkey again for dinner. I don’t mind having the same thing every day but once I’m out of Kuwait I just can’t stick to that very simple plan. It’s been 5 days since I’ve been here and I think I’ve probably put on weight. Sucks.

BTW if you’re curious/nosy, I was 84.7KG when I first joined Core 2 years ago and I had a body fat percentage of 20%. My weight back in 2005 was 90.6KG.

One of my favorite workout supplements at the moment is Jack3d. It was recommended by Fahad since after a 10 hour work day I usually arrive at the gym drowsy and tired. Jack3d is a pre-workout supplement which you’re supposed to take 20-30 minutes before you hit the gym. It’s incredible, usually with most supplements you don’t feel any results until you look at the long term picture but with Jack3d you feel the difference from the first session.

Basically what Jack3d does is give you a lot of energy and one that lasts the full workout. I usually take two scoops but today I decided to take three since I had around only 5 hours of sleep and a really exhausting long flight and needed whatever energy I could get. The result? I kicked ass at the gym today, I lifted all my weights, didn’t feel sleepy or tired and also was barely resting between sets. I was giving it 110% for the full hour which is incredible considering how exhausted I was all day and I had even forgotten to take my asthma medication.

If you’re looking for a pre-workout boost I highly recommend Jack3d. I got mine from Results in Souk Sharq for KD22. You can read more about Jack3d [Here]

Looks fun. Too bad their timings conflict with my Core Fitness schedule. [YouTube]

Randy Nelson and his team at Ohio State University in Columbus found that mice exposed to light at night weighed 10 per cent more at the end of the eight-week study than mice that had experienced a standard light/dark cycle, even though they ate the same total number of calories and did the same amount of exercise

Basically sit in the dark at night and you’ll lose weight. Here are 7 other tips [Link]

The first book I bought and read on my Kindle was Wheat Belly. It’s a book that talks about wheat, how it’s evolved and changed through time and how it’s really not good for you. The author at one point compares it to heroin and as a huge fan of bread myself I can completely understand why. I don’t know how accurate all the information in the book is but it was enough to convince me to try and stay away from wheat… at least for a short period of time to test it out.

According to the book wheat has a lot of negative effects on the human body and once you’re off it you should see positive results. Some of the advantages I’m looking forward to is the ability to focus better, less drowsiness and decreasing whatever fat I have left around my belly. So far I’ve been off wheat for just 48 hours and it hasn’t been that hard. My only concern actually is with my cheat days. Every Friday I usually stop eating healthy and go on a binge filling my stomach with burgers, pizza’s, pastas and lots of dessert. But now I have to stop all of that. No more Vertigo burgers, no more pizza’s and no more Dally’s Chocolate Pudding. I actually don’t know what dessert I can have now since all the desserts I love contain wheat!

Still, I’m curious to try this, not sure how obvious the results will be or if there will be any results but I’m going to try and last as long as possible without wheat and then post any findings here (if any).

I spotted the flyer above at the gym. If anyone is interested you can call them up on 22520407. If you don’t know what Core Fitness is click [Here]

Fahad just posted pictures of Core Fitness on his blog. If you’ve ever been curious to get an inside peek you can check out the pictures [Here]

Note: The picture above is of my kick ass personal trainer Dusty

I haven’t tried the Sidekick Academy fitness classes but I’ve got friends who did and they told me it’s pretty tough. These classes are for men and women who are interested in losing weight and getting in shape. The timings are:

Men’s Sidekick Academy Fitness (SAF) class
Every Saturday/Monday/Wednesday at 4:00
Daily from 18:30 to 19:15

Women’s Sidekick Academy Fitness (SAF) class
Every Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday at 4:00

For more information you can call them up on 99975562

Note: Updated men’s timing

Leila is my favorite Lebanese restaurant in Kuwait and I’m there usually on a daily basis for lunch since one of their locations is right next to my office. Last week they added a new “light” menu which includes some popular Lebanese dishes that are cooked in a healthier way for example their light taouk dish now uses a mustard based marination resulting in a final dish that contains only 430 calories. Yeah they actually have the calories listed next to the dishes, something I hadn’t seen at a Lebanese restaurant before.

They only have a few items on the light menu right now but they will be adding some more over time. The location I visit the most is the one next to Johnny Rockets outside Salhiya Complex but they have another one at The Avenues near the cinema as well.

As I’ve posted before I am now riding to and from my gym on my bicycle. The combined distance is around 16.5KM, it takes around 30 minutes each way and I end up burning around 600-700 calories in the process. Since I go to Core three times a week that means I’m basically burning around 2000 calories a week just by riding my bike to the gym.

The way I look at it is every time I ride to the gym that’s an extra 700 calories I’m burning which means I can have a burger that’s also around 700 calories and I would even out.

What this means is I now ride to eat. If anyone is looking for a way to burn calories I highly recommend riding. Even with this hot weather it’s not bad at all, it’s actually not that hot at night. Just park your car near Corniche Club on the Gulf Road and then ride to the Kuwait Towers and back. Easy as that.

I was having lunch at Leila when I noticed they had two new drinks on the menu and one of them was Diet Jellab. I love Jellab but haven’t been able to have it for ages since it was one of the things Fahad took off my diet along with my 5 spoons of sugar chai haleeb. But since this one is just 52 calories I’ll probably be sneaking a cup every now and then since it also tastes exactly the same as regular Jellab. Now someone needs to invent a diet quarter pounder with cheese.