The barefoot craze. Vibram Five Fingers VS Actos Skin Shoes

Dec 01, 13 The barefoot craze. Vibram Five Fingers VS Actos Skin Shoes

Posted by in Reviews

I have always liked simple designs. Back from the old Nike Prestos (Late 1990s, early 200s), to the more recent Reebok zignano and Nike Free, simple, lightweight shoes seem to always capture my attention. Now, there’s this new age trend of barefoot running or minimalist shoes. Literally overnight, there’s an explosion of shoes being made with lesser materials, yet costing a good 2 to 3 times that of a normal sports shoe. It’s almost like selling bikinis or lingerie. The lesser the material, the more expensive it is. One of the main reasons for barefoot running or minimalist shoes is that when you wear a  heavily cushioned shoe, the small muscles in the legs loses it’s strength. On top of that, a thick shoe encourages heel strike. Barefoot running or minimalist shoes are suppose to help maintain a more natural gait. After all, the ancient people didn’t really wear shoes right? I jumped onto the bandwagon and got myself a Vibram Fivefingers classic then. However, my second toe is longer than my big toe, or scientifically speaking, it’s called Morton’s toe. Thus, I wasn’t really able to wear it longer than 3 hours. I did manage to clock 5km runs in it though, and my calves were screaming bloody murder for quite a while. While I wanted to use it for vacations because of it’s size and easy packing, I never really got round to it. Not being able to wear it longer than 3 hours was definitely a major deal breaker. I kept my eye out for something similar in the market, but I just couldn’t put my money down for a minimalist shoe that costs so much. Then I discovered Actos shoes! Essentially they are like aqua shoes, in that they have a slim outsole, and the top of the shoe is a lycra like material. The best thing however, was that it costs S$30! While they say it is made in Korea, who knows where they came from. Trying the shoes, it...

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A pleasant surprise from iHerb and all other positive experiences

Jun 23, 11 A pleasant surprise from iHerb and all other positive experiences

Posted by in General

I had a shock this morning while checking my emails when I saw an order delivery email from iHerb since I didn’t order anything from them recently. However, after reading through the rest of the emails, I realized that there is a social media department in iHerb and they saw my blog entry on iHerb where I talked about where you can get supplements cheap and fast. One of my most commonly ordered product is the Omega 3 fishoils which I think everybody should be taking and iHerb actually sent me a bottle for free! So a big shout out to Abby and the rest of you guys at iHerb for the pleasant surprise! Till date, I have did numerous orders with iHerb and all the experiences have been pleasant. Hassle free ordering process, cheap shipping starting from US$4 to Singapore, and relatively quick delivery times. Using express delivery which costs more but would make sense for big orders takes only 3-5 working days, and international airmail takes slightly less than 2 weeks. Most of the time, the supplements available are at least 20-50% cheaper than retail shops in Singapore, and thats including shipping to your doorstep! Even some of the weird supplements like those used in the Tim Ferriss Slow Carb Diet (The 4 Horsemen of Fat Loss) can be found there cheaply! Besides those points mentioned above, go check out the 10 reasons to make iHerb your number 1...

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The Shortcut to the Shortcut: The 4 Key Principles of The 4-Hour Body

Jun 02, 11 The Shortcut to the Shortcut: The 4 Key Principles of The 4-Hour Body

Posted by in General

I was just starting the 4-Hour Body, Slow Carb Diet just on Monday this week which I mentioned here and here, and what a pleasant surprise! Tim Ferriss came out with a video of the speech he did recently about the book. It’s actually quite a messy video, because of all the content he tries to put in. But again, I would suggest people who are interested to buy the book!...

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Tim Ferriss’ 4-Hour Body Diet: The Slow Carb Diet

May 25, 11 Tim Ferriss’ 4-Hour Body Diet: The Slow Carb Diet

Posted by in General

I just managed to get hold of Tim Ferriss‘ latest book, The 4-Hour Body, from a friend. I have read his first book, The Four Hour Work Week, before and I thought it was quite an unconventional way to look at things. And thus, I was pretty excited to take a look at what he has to say about the human body. Basically, it was about reaching the peak performance of the human body, and he segregates it into Fat loss, Building muscle, Improving sex (definitely a core indicator 😛 ), Perfecting sleep, and many other topics. Just 5 years ago, I was 68kg. At the peak of my physical health due to my physical activities, busyness of schedule, and basically just the lifestyle I had. Unfortunately, I am currently 80kg and lifestyle has definitely changed to one of a typical white collar worker. So when he mentioned the concept of Slow Carb diet, it made some sense, since it was not new information to me. Things about taking low glycemic index foods so that your body stores less fat due to insulin reaction are already concepts I knew. The biggest difference I got was that he managed to get his father to lose from 245lbs (111kg) to 203lbs (92kg) in 3 months with no additional change in physical activity. Just because of a switch of eating habits from typical diets to a slow carb diet. Now that got me thinking. How much of my excess fats can be trimmed using just a clean up of diet? Of course, physical activity does make a difference. Eventually his father reached 186lbs (84kg) after 6 months on the program. One of the biggest problems with diets is the sticking factor. The ability to make permanent lifestyle change to a person. Else, the weight will eventually come back on again. The slow carb diet does seem like a diet that makes it easy to stick to. Basically he has 5 main rules. 1) Avoid “White” Carbohydrates 2) Eat the...

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iHerb is the place to get your supplements cheap and fast!

May 18, 11 iHerb is the place to get your supplements cheap and fast!

Posted by in Reviews

The internet has changed many things in our lives. One of the biggest change in the last 2-3 years is online shopping! In the past, people would go to shops to buy CDs, bags, shoes, clothes etc.. But now, CD shops have all but closed in Singapore, since everybody either use online streaming or amazon.com anyway. The blogshop phenomenon has pretty much taken the world by storm, seeing how blogshops are popping up like wild mushrooms! Essentially, anything that does not require you to physically touch can be sold online! The biggest consequence of this is that retail malls become boring. There is  less  diversity in shop types and almost every shopping mall would only contain clothing outlets or food outlets. Not only that, but the same clothing outlets would be repeated in almost every mall! One of the things I have been buying online for quite a while is nutritional supplements. Things like multi-vitamins, fish oils, probiotics and your standard vitamin Cs are my regular purchases. Places like GNC, Guardian, Watsons are seriously overpriced in terms of these supplements, especially since it is generic and so widely available. I used to get my stuff from other places, but more recently (okay the last 1-2 years), I have been getting from iHerb. One of the reasons initally is that they carry the highest rated Multi-vit, Source Naturals Life Force Multiple, which is still the same one I am taking now. Of course, after trying them out for sometime, I basically shifted all my supplement purchase to iHerb. For now, I regularly buy Omega 3 fishoils, Probiotics (since our diets consists of a lot of processed food nowadays), and vitamin C once in a while. The other good news is that shipping to Singapore can be as low as US$4 for orders below US$80. Pretty decent in my opinion. For those with bigger orders, they use the usual international shippers and the goods can reach as fast as 3-4 working days. One of the main reasons...

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