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Posted by Fahad AlYehya | Core Fitness – Kuwait

Did anyone ever notice how almost every aerobic/kick-boxing/gay dancing class has an instructor that’s out of shape and 20 other people that are also of round variety? I mean, how do you expect to get in shape if the instructor looks like he’s/she’s been eating sambosa for the past 20 years? To add insult to injury, the obese members are forced to perform high kicks. It’s like show girls, but with a lot less turn-on and a lot more LOL.

And what about those self-proclaimed gurus roaming around the gyms of Kuwait? I’ve researched on a couple of famous gurus to see what they were up to. One of them refuses to work with drug-free athletes; he won’t even turn to look at you if you approach him with the “I’d like to do this naturally” speech. The last guy that did ended up in the hospital urinating blood; due to 5 anabolic and androgenic compounds that he were recommended to take (this was partly the client’s fault since he didn’t know bodybuilding involves a nutritional plan and intense training). Another guy trains both naturals and chemically enhanced athletes, but fails to inform young amateurs of the consequences associated with early AAS drug use, which they subsequently fall victims too.

Awesome Super Friends
I’m here to discuss health and fitness professionals and practitioners in Kuwait who talk it and walk it. In the pursuit of spreading the influence of a healthier lifestyle, I’ll be providing information about competitors who I am more than glad to lose my business to. They all have the passion, the drive, the experience and the ability to motivate others in attaining a healthier lifestyle.

Consequently, I’m planning on crushing each and every one of them so by the time you read this, they might be dead. They also might end up in my belly. My 7% body fat belly.

As a gym owner, I constantly get asked by many people about what the right exercises are, what the right diet is and about how many freaking Pinkberry yogurts are acceptable. (Depends on what you’re trying to do; again, depends on what you want to do). Sometimes, I find I don’t have the time to answer questions in detail, and that makes me feel, as the self proclaimed Master of the Fitness Universe, like I have failed you. And I do not like to fail.

Here’s a list of people (in no particular order) you can consult about health and fitness in Kuwait, or as I like to call them, my awesome super-friends, who I don’t necessarily know personally. (You can call them people who are not quite as awesome as I am.)

As most of you might have noticed, while in New York I ate a lot of burgers. Many people thought I was actually posting too many food posts but they would have been a lot more if I posted about all the burger places I went to. Before going to New York I had a list of around 60 burger places I wanted to try out which I got from the blog A Hamburger Today and even though I didn’t even get close to trying out 60 burger places I did have on average two burgers a day while in New York. And guess what? I lost weight!

Before I went on vacation I spoke to Fahad and I told him that there was no way I could eat healthy on my trip. It was New York and I wasn’t going to spend my time looking for something healthy to eat. He told me as long as I was going to do a lot of walking than I could eat whatever I wanted as long as the proportions weren’t too big. He told me I also had to have a meal every 3 hours. I could also have dessert if I wanted but it couldn’t be part of my main meal, it would have to be counted as a meal on its own. So if I had a burger at 12PM I could have an ice cream at 3PM. I thought that was fair and took his advice.

My morning started off either with a big breakfast from a cozy diner near my hotel or a McGriddle from McDonalds. I stuck to places near my hotel since I needed to have breakfast an hour after waking up. That would happen around 9 or 10am. Then, 3 hours later I would have a burger, 3 hours after that dessert (usually a chocolate cone from Pinkberry or a cookie from a bakery), 3 hours after that another burger and finally my last meal at night would be dinner at one of the trendy restaurants near my hotel.

I rarely had fries with my burger, I think I only had fries 3 times on my trip. I would also always order only 1 burger but sometimes it would be a double patty. One great thing (or it could be a bad thing) about New York is the fact I think by law they need to display the calorie count of everything on the menu. So one time I was at Wendy’s for example and I felt like a double bacon and cheese but then noticed the calorie count and decided to go with a regular double cheese burger instead. I think the calorie count helped me save a ton of calories. It was also one major reason I didn’t have french fries with my burgers since if I did the calorie count of my meal would double. I also went with Coke Zero over regular Coke since that was another easy 200-300 calorie saving.

I walked a lot, around 12 hours and the only time I took a cab was to and from the airport. I was using the subway mostly and it was mostly from Brooklyn where I was staying to Manhattan which is where everything was located. While there I walked everywhere and only took the subway if I was in a rush like to catch a store before they closed. One night I walked back to my hotel even which was around a 8-9KM walk according to Google Maps.

The result? I left Kuwait weighing 77KG and I came back weighing 76KG. I thought I had lost more weight but I am not disappointed losing only a KG with the food I was eating. Now that the vacation is over and I’ve returned to Kuwait I’m eating healthy again and today was my first time back at the gym since I left. Until my next burger rampage…

I spotted another street fair today in New York and this time I told myself if I found fried Oreo cookies I would try it. After a bit of a walk I found a kiosk that was making them, 1$ per cookie. I decided to order two.

The things I do for this blog. The fried Oreo cookies looked gross and very greasy. I told Nat these will probably be the most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten. Guess what? They weren’t. In fact, they were really good and I actually ate both cookies. They tasted like the Lebanese awamat (fried doughnut balls) except with Oreo as their filling.

I leave New York tomorrow and get back to Kuwait so everything should go back to normal then. Basically a lot less food posts.

OK be prepared for the best post yet on this blog…

I was talking to a friend of mine about Salmiya in the 80s and one thing led to another and I was telling him how strong a brand Tikka was back then. I was telling him about the “I like it spicy” guy (pictured above) and the Tikka commercials and how if you asked anyone who grew up in Kuwait back in the 80s they would remember the commercial and even sing you the jingle. It became a classic like the Pizza Italia and Hungry Bunny commercials.

Anyway I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be cool to find out who the “I like it spicy” guy was, what happened to him and how he looked like today? Well guess what… After a bit of research and digging around I found out who he was.

The actor who played the “I like it spicy” character was Galal Zaki. He wasn’t an actor, he worked in the ad agency that came up with the idea. Like Alfred Hitchcock, Galal liked to star in his own work and that’s how he ended up becoming the Tikka guy. the picture below is of Galal Zaki which I found on Google and is dated 2007. Although a lot older now you can still see some resemblance.

Today Galal Zaki is the CEO of Perception Communication in Egypt. He was also recently awarded the Rameh IAA Lifetime Achievement Award.

Update: Here is an old Tikka commercial. It’s not the famous one but its better than nothing…

[YouTube]

Update2: And here is the more popular one…

[YouTube]

Blogger Mathai was at the Red Bull car park drift and took some cool pictures. You can check them out [Here]

This is gross. 5 tons of deep fried falafel… [Link]

via blogbaladi

[YouTube]

I just found out about EoS. Seems like they’re a cool local group that bring in international DJ’s to Kuwait and set up parties. They’re pretty organized with a website that contains information, pictures and even a blog. The video above is of one of their latest parties but check out their website for more details.

I guess this could be counted as an activity if you can get an invite? [Link]

Update: Wow, according to their DJ list they’ve even brought EL DJETTE to Kuwait!

I decided am going to create a new category on the blog called “Activities” or “Things to do”. I was discussing with Nat the other day about the activities available in Kuwait and we were going through the comments left on the blog and she brought up the point that there are more male activities than female activities and that most of the cool activities are outdoor and so pretty useless during the hot summer days. I don’t think that’s true and this is why I want to start gathering activities and start posting them on the blog. I already have a lot of activities in mind but please if you know of an activity that you think I might not be aware of please leave a comment below or [Email Me]

Graham who? Thats what I was thinking a few minutes ago when someone mentioned he was in Kuwait. After a quick google it turns out Graham is trying to visit every country in the world in one epic journey, without flying or driving. So far he’s already broken the Guinness World Record by visiting 133 countries within one year. According to his twitter feed and blog, Graham is now in Kuwait and he might be here for awhile because he’s kinda stuck.

Before he got here he figured he would be able to take a ferry to Bahrain the same way he was able to take a ferry from Iran to Kuwait (I didn’t think that was possible). Once he arrived to Kuwait he realized there weren’t any ferries to Bahrain so he applied for a transit visa to Saudi and he got rejected. He then tried applying for a Iranian transit visa but they also rejected him so now he’s trying to get a full proper visa to Saudi Arabia. I’m not sure if he has a plan D.

Check out his website [Here]
Check out his travel time line with updates [Here]
Here is a link to his twitter feed [Link]

Thanks Amber

Just saw these pictures taken in Saudi Arabia. Looks like they had some serious flooding because of the rain. [Link]

Update: The pictures above are from yesterday. You can see more pictures, videos and even read up on it via a Saudi blog dedicated to the torrential rains [Here]

The video below on the other hand is from last year and it shows a dramatic rescue of a woman from a car that was just about to get swept away by a flood. [YouTube]

High Street Q8 is an interesting local fashion blog I found out about recently. It’s basically meant to be a kind of show and tell website were if you like what you’re wearing or maybe want feedback on what you’ve got on at the moment you just snap a quick picture and email it to [email protected] with some details on the items you have on and people will leave a comment. Check it out [Here]

You’ve probably already read about the new KFC sandwich that got launched in the States called the Double Down in which they replaced the buns with fried chicken. Well someone was able to improve on the KFC recipe by bringing back the bun to the sandwich in the form of a Krispy Kreme donut and created the Luther Double Down. Don’t forget to add the extra sauce… [Link]

Due to many travelers being stuck all over the world due to the ash clouds from the recent volcano eruption, Lonely Planet is offering their iPhone apps for free. Their regular prices are usually $9.99 to $15.99 for each country app but from now till Thursday the European ones are going to be free. I just got a ton of countries as you can see above. [Link]

Yesterday the Things by November store at Tilal Complex caught fire due to an electrical fault. The owners had this message they wanted me to pass on:

Hello everyone 🙂
Things by November in Tilal will be closed for one month due to a fire.. But kitchen is running perfectly as it is in another location, so flowers and bakery will be by order only. Sorry for the inconvenience, but all things happen for a reason and we will be back better than ever soon 🙂

Please call 97313310 or [email protected] for delivery.

How do electrical fires start and how can I make sure I don’t get an electrical fire at home?

Every morning I pass by McDonalds for breakfast and every morning I see some of the weirdest things. You would think most of the strange things happen late at night but with my experience there is as much of it going on very early in the morning, at least at the Gulf Road branch.

One strange character I see very often is monkey guy. He’s a guy who visits the McDonalds Gulf Road branch early mornings with his pet monkey. He just hangs out outside with his monkey dressed up I’m assuming to try and chat up the girls.

Too much makeup girl: “awww look how cute…”
Monkey Guy: Jackpot!

Now recently I’ve noticed snake guy. Yeah you guessed it, a guy who comes in every morning with a snake around his neck. With monkey guy I can understand his plan but snake guy just confuses me. Unless..

Too much muscles guy: “awww look how cute…”
Snake Guy: Jackpot!

Seriously though one of the McDonalds employees there should set up a blog of some sort posting about all these strange characters. I’d buy the book even!