Once again I will share with you about something I feel close to my heart - weight loss. I have been trying to lose weight for sometimes already. At 5 foot height, my weight right now is over the borderline of ideal weight. And I am not happy. However, I am entirely to blame because, for almost a year, I have neglected the gymnasium exercises. And my aerobic sessions are no longer like I used to do. I pledge busy almost every other day to go for my exercise. And so, it should not surprise myself that my weight is now....slightly higher that ideal.
I have been poring myself to many exercise tips from books, friends, internet. They all look good and reasonable and logical. However, some may not be as good as they sound or as effective. Through some more readings, here are what i found about some exercise myths:
1. The believe that exercise alone will help reduce the kilos.
- this is what i believe about three years ago when i first started exercising. Then after more than a year of exercising, I found that my weight only went down 3 kilos. A very disappointing number considering I was exercising almost daily for at least an hour. Then, i decided to reduce my carbohydrate intake. I get just about 2 kilos more reduction. Still some more steps to getting the desired weight. Then, I stopped my regular exercise due to being busy. And only rely on diet. It did not work.
Experts say, that we have to combine exercise and right diet plan. Exercise alone, only leads to about 3% weight reduction. So my theory is correct. So, I really have to start seriously do the more effective weight loss program on my own, regular exercise and control my appetite!
2. The believe that cardio exercise burns more fat.
- this is what i did wrong with my exercise routines. I was concentrating more on cardio exercise. Especially at the gymnasium. And then the aerobic exercise.
Expert says, we have to alternate exercise regime, cardio and strength exercises. This will help increased metabolism and number of calories during sleep. Okay, this sounds very logic. Am seriously going to do it now although i do not really feel comfortable doing strength training.
3. The believe that a simple walk is still a exercise
- hmmmm....i walk fast most of the time. I consider my fast pace walking is fat burning in some way. So, lets see what expert says about this.
The perception that we are working harder than we really are may cause us to regain weight. So if we want to know if we really are working hard, is when it is difficult to do normal conversation during the exercise routine. I must remember this when doing the treadmill exercise....if i can still have conversation while walking the treadmill, then that is not going to lose my kilos.
Monday, 12 November 2012
Saturday, 10 November 2012
The apple tree and a boy
I received this from a friend who shared through the internet. I found this story touching my heart and thus want to share with you. I hope it gives the same profound feelings to you as it does to me.
'A long time ago, there was a huge apple tree. A little boy loved to come and play around it everyday. He climbed to the treetop, ate the apples, and took a nap under the shadow.
He loved the tree and the tree loved to play with him. Time went by, the little boy had grown up and he no longer played around the tree every day.
One day, the boy came back to the tree and he looked sad.
“Come and play with me”, the tree asked the boy.
“I am no longer a kid, I do not play around trees any more” the boy replied.
“I want toys. I need money to buy them.”
“Sorry, but I do not have money, but you can pick all my apples and sell them. So, you will have money.”
The boy was so excited. He grabbed all the apples on the tree and left happily. The boy never came back after he picked the apples. The tree was sad.
One day, the boy who now turned into a man returned and the tree was excited.
“Come and play with me” the tree said.
“I do not have time to play. I have to work for my family. We need a house for shelter. Can you help me?”
“Sorry, but I do not have any house. But you can chop off my branches to build your house.” So the man cut all the branches of the tree and left happily. The tree was glad to see him happy but the man never came back since then. The tree was again lonely and sad.
One hot summer day, the man returned and the tree was delighted.
“Come and play with me!” the tree said.
“I am getting old. I want to go sailing to relax myself. Can you give me a boat?” said the man.
“Use my trunk to build your boat. You can sail far away and be happy.”
So the man cut the tree trunk to make a boat. He went sailing and never showed up for a long time.
Finally, the man returned after many years. “Sorry, my boy. But I do not have anything for you anymore. No more apples for you”, the tree said. “No problem, I do not have any teeth to bite” the
man replied.
“No more trunk for you to climb on.” “I am too old for that now” the man said. “I really cannot give you anything, the only thing left is my dying roots,” the tree said with tears.
“I do not need much now, just a place to rest. I am tired after all these years,” the man replied.
“Good! Old tree roots are the best place to lean on and rest, come sit down with me and rest.” The man sat down and the tree was glad and smiled with tears.
This is a story of everyone. The tree is like our parents. When we were young, we loved to play with our Mum and Dad. When we grow up, we leave them; only come to them when we need something or when we are in trouble. No matter what, parents will always be there and give everything they could just to make you happy.
You may think the boy is cruel to the tree, but that is how all of us treat our parents. We take them for granted; we don’t appreciate all they do for us, until it’s too late.
~ Moral ~ Treat your parents with loving care…. For you will know their value, when you see their empty chair…We never know the love of our parents for us; till we have become parent''.
Thank you for reading!
'A long time ago, there was a huge apple tree. A little boy loved to come and play around it everyday. He climbed to the treetop, ate the apples, and took a nap under the shadow.
He loved the tree and the tree loved to play with him. Time went by, the little boy had grown up and he no longer played around the tree every day.
One day, the boy came back to the tree and he looked sad.
“Come and play with me”, the tree asked the boy.
“I am no longer a kid, I do not play around trees any more” the boy replied.
“I want toys. I need money to buy them.”
“Sorry, but I do not have money, but you can pick all my apples and sell them. So, you will have money.”
The boy was so excited. He grabbed all the apples on the tree and left happily. The boy never came back after he picked the apples. The tree was sad.
One day, the boy who now turned into a man returned and the tree was excited.
“Come and play with me” the tree said.
“I do not have time to play. I have to work for my family. We need a house for shelter. Can you help me?”
“Sorry, but I do not have any house. But you can chop off my branches to build your house.” So the man cut all the branches of the tree and left happily. The tree was glad to see him happy but the man never came back since then. The tree was again lonely and sad.
One hot summer day, the man returned and the tree was delighted.
“Come and play with me!” the tree said.
“I am getting old. I want to go sailing to relax myself. Can you give me a boat?” said the man.
“Use my trunk to build your boat. You can sail far away and be happy.”
So the man cut the tree trunk to make a boat. He went sailing and never showed up for a long time.
Finally, the man returned after many years. “Sorry, my boy. But I do not have anything for you anymore. No more apples for you”, the tree said. “No problem, I do not have any teeth to bite” the
man replied.
“No more trunk for you to climb on.” “I am too old for that now” the man said. “I really cannot give you anything, the only thing left is my dying roots,” the tree said with tears.
“I do not need much now, just a place to rest. I am tired after all these years,” the man replied.
“Good! Old tree roots are the best place to lean on and rest, come sit down with me and rest.” The man sat down and the tree was glad and smiled with tears.
This is a story of everyone. The tree is like our parents. When we were young, we loved to play with our Mum and Dad. When we grow up, we leave them; only come to them when we need something or when we are in trouble. No matter what, parents will always be there and give everything they could just to make you happy.
You may think the boy is cruel to the tree, but that is how all of us treat our parents. We take them for granted; we don’t appreciate all they do for us, until it’s too late.
~ Moral ~ Treat your parents with loving care…. For you will know their value, when you see their empty chair…We never know the love of our parents for us; till we have become parent''.
Thank you for reading!
Sunday, 4 November 2012
Habits that hinder thinking
I want to share parts of a reading material ,'The Art of Thinking' written by Vincent Tran Ruggiero, published by Pearson, 2010.
According to Ruggiero, there are 6 ways that deters forward and critical thinking:
mine-is-better habit, face saving, resistance to change, conformity, stereotyping and self-deception.
The mine-is-better habit
A habit of claiming what's ours always better than others. We are used to the ideas of those which are foreign cannot be better than what we are. We tend to see value things at the pretext, and object to some changes without giving much thought. The mine-is-better habit deters objective thinking and makes us prefer self-flattering errors to unpleasant realities. We are thus advised, to help us thinking better, we should keep our ego from interfering us with the search for truth.
Face saving
It is a natural tendency that arises from our ego. It is not a presumption made earlier but happen after we have uttered or done something and then only realize that what we just did may cause damage to our self-image or image others have of us. It is a kind of defense mechanism. We usually blame someone else for things gone wrong when we are involved with an unwanted situation. We do not want to own up to possible mistake we do. We put blames on others. Sometimes we rationalize the mistake we do - a dishonest substitute to reasoning. The difference between rationalizing and reasoning is, we rationalize when we make the evidence follow our belief and we reason when we make the belief follow the evidence.
Ruggiero advised, to control our face-saving tendency, we must always be alert for occasion when our ego is threatened. A person who makes a mistake and refuses to admit it is thereby compounding the mistake.
Resistance to change
It is a tendency to reject new ideas and new ways of seeing or doing without examining them fairly. One reason for this is plain laziness. Since we are so used to doing something and i seems to be working well, we resist suggestion to do it other way as it may cause us to break our comfortable routine. And also it may suggests us to go against tradition. So we resent the new idea for worry of affronting our family members or society.
Another reason to resist change is fear of change. When we are suggested change, we worry about what may happen as we do not know about our future. But resistance to change will cause us to not finding new discovery, invention, creativity, progress and we remain the same. And to resist change si to set our minds against our own best and most worthwhile ideas.
Conformity
Some are sensible like for example, saying hello when answering a call instead of good bye or does not go beyond the speed limit of the road. being nonconform in such situation may at times cause damage, waste of time or annoy others.
Harmful conformity is according to Ruggiero, what we do instead of thinking in order to belong to a group or avoid the risk of being different. Once we begin to conform, we will do or act similar with others but it may not be the best act for us, we do because it is expected by others. This can affect our creative and critical thinking.
Stereotyping
It is an extreme form of generalizing. Some generalizations can go beyond the boundaries of reasonableness thus overgeneralization. Stereotyping can be even more damaging than overgeneralization. A stereotype is a fixed, unbending generalization, irrationality maintained. Most common are racial, religious and ethnic. things are presorted, predetermined and prejudged. Thus it impedes mind's dynamic activity and forcing everything is to be in certain order and classes and thus impossible to change.
Self deception
Sometimes we are afraid of something, of knowing that we start to deceive ourselves against our own believe. An example is we know about some signs and symptoms that may indicate some diseases but we refuse to belief and we refuse to see the doctor or treatment. Ruggiero suggests that to be a good thinker, we must be able to decide honestly what information we need to solve a problem and acquire that information to help fair evaluation. All we need to do is just be honest to ourselves.
All these six hindrances can be overcome with desire and effort. Ruggiero did suggest how to overcome them...read more from his book.
Happy reading!
According to Ruggiero, there are 6 ways that deters forward and critical thinking:
mine-is-better habit, face saving, resistance to change, conformity, stereotyping and self-deception.
The mine-is-better habit
A habit of claiming what's ours always better than others. We are used to the ideas of those which are foreign cannot be better than what we are. We tend to see value things at the pretext, and object to some changes without giving much thought. The mine-is-better habit deters objective thinking and makes us prefer self-flattering errors to unpleasant realities. We are thus advised, to help us thinking better, we should keep our ego from interfering us with the search for truth.
Face saving
It is a natural tendency that arises from our ego. It is not a presumption made earlier but happen after we have uttered or done something and then only realize that what we just did may cause damage to our self-image or image others have of us. It is a kind of defense mechanism. We usually blame someone else for things gone wrong when we are involved with an unwanted situation. We do not want to own up to possible mistake we do. We put blames on others. Sometimes we rationalize the mistake we do - a dishonest substitute to reasoning. The difference between rationalizing and reasoning is, we rationalize when we make the evidence follow our belief and we reason when we make the belief follow the evidence.
Ruggiero advised, to control our face-saving tendency, we must always be alert for occasion when our ego is threatened. A person who makes a mistake and refuses to admit it is thereby compounding the mistake.
Resistance to change
It is a tendency to reject new ideas and new ways of seeing or doing without examining them fairly. One reason for this is plain laziness. Since we are so used to doing something and i seems to be working well, we resist suggestion to do it other way as it may cause us to break our comfortable routine. And also it may suggests us to go against tradition. So we resent the new idea for worry of affronting our family members or society.
Another reason to resist change is fear of change. When we are suggested change, we worry about what may happen as we do not know about our future. But resistance to change will cause us to not finding new discovery, invention, creativity, progress and we remain the same. And to resist change si to set our minds against our own best and most worthwhile ideas.
Conformity
Some are sensible like for example, saying hello when answering a call instead of good bye or does not go beyond the speed limit of the road. being nonconform in such situation may at times cause damage, waste of time or annoy others.
Harmful conformity is according to Ruggiero, what we do instead of thinking in order to belong to a group or avoid the risk of being different. Once we begin to conform, we will do or act similar with others but it may not be the best act for us, we do because it is expected by others. This can affect our creative and critical thinking.
Stereotyping
It is an extreme form of generalizing. Some generalizations can go beyond the boundaries of reasonableness thus overgeneralization. Stereotyping can be even more damaging than overgeneralization. A stereotype is a fixed, unbending generalization, irrationality maintained. Most common are racial, religious and ethnic. things are presorted, predetermined and prejudged. Thus it impedes mind's dynamic activity and forcing everything is to be in certain order and classes and thus impossible to change.
Self deception
Sometimes we are afraid of something, of knowing that we start to deceive ourselves against our own believe. An example is we know about some signs and symptoms that may indicate some diseases but we refuse to belief and we refuse to see the doctor or treatment. Ruggiero suggests that to be a good thinker, we must be able to decide honestly what information we need to solve a problem and acquire that information to help fair evaluation. All we need to do is just be honest to ourselves.
All these six hindrances can be overcome with desire and effort. Ruggiero did suggest how to overcome them...read more from his book.
Happy reading!
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