Recce for Orang Asli Trail Run 2012

Fantastic outing with the volunteers to mark the second part of the trail for the upcoming trail run in the Orang Asli village.
Here are some photos for sharing.

The morning bunch

This is how they live. Basic, but adequate.

Government did try doing something for them. this one is for piped water. But sadly, only signage remain. They harvest rain water for usage.

Parents were hesitant. Until the kids got inside, i think they also try very hard not to jump in. River super cold. NICE!

About 1.5km in. You will meet with a 90degrees climb. Don't worry, it is only 4 person high. :D

The jungle is dense and as natural as it can be. Love this place.

The event is not a race, it is an awareness for the Orang Asli. Stop to enjoy and look around. This is a vine, climbing a tree. Not many born past the 80's has seen them if they never venture out of the comfort of their home.

Or a large rain forest tree. This one is about 3 feet in diameter with huge roots.

Who won't be impressed, when this tree sticks out and up towards the sky

Our guide showed us how to obtain filtered water from bamboo. Dzul tried it.

I did not manage to try it, as i was too caught up taking photo

I always have things for Bamboos...

...And leeches. :)...

...that never gives up...

...i even have a family of 5...

...so i went barefoot running...

However, i do have a write up on how to remove them. Here is how : 

HOW TO REMOVE LEECH LIKE A MAN

Running barefoot was liberating. Felt so...free.

Back to base camp. Children enjoying themselves immensely in the river. It was clear, clean and super cold.

Don't forget your date with Nature come April 28, 2012. For more information, visit my page here:

Orang Asli Trail Run 2012

Registration has been closed (maximum 150people due to space and to provide crowd control), wait up for the update on the race, and possibility of opening up more slots nearer to the race day!

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Visual Bodyfat Percentile Estimation

After reading my BMR and food portion entry, i hope most of you are eating and having a healthier way of life. It is often not hard to lose weight. The real challenge is to keep the weight off and that requires a whole different level of discipline and lifestyle change. I have written about body fat level and how diet and exercise plays a pivotal role - not the amount of sit-up one does. Doing sit-up does not give you a flat tummy. That is a big myth.
My only regret while writing this is that i did not document my journey from being a bigger 85kg person to the current 67kg person. I did not plan for this weight loss, let alone the transformation that happened.
There are a few ways known to measure body fat practically. Two methods that i have used extensively was the Pinch test (skin fold measurement using a caliper) and using a scale that convert bioelectrical impedence resistance to fat. Both are easily available and the accuracy of both method doesn't differ much if done correctly. However, as the pinch test is often subjective to the accuracy of the location of measurement, they often gives varying results even on the same person.
Here are a few places where you can take skin-fold measurements (and with varying results, depending on your knowledge of human anatomy) such as triceps, biceps, calves, waist, shoulder blade and thigh. You can read more about them here. Warning though, you might get more confused than you wanted to and still not get an approximate result on your body fat.

From this site HERE

The other method involves getting yourself into a medical facility to do an immersion test aka hydrostatic test where your weight on land and in water are calculated out (as fats are less dense compared to muscle), or if like the author Leigh says, to do a DXA (or Dual-energy Xray Absortiometry).

Real DEXA Scan from another blogger monitoring her fat loss progress. Her adventure can be read here

DXA or DEXA Scan is considered the GOLD Standard in fat measurement. There are a few facilities (private) that does this for about RM200 (source from Groupon) to a few thousand Ringgit (as part of a more through body medical examination, available from Health Scan Malaysia) but only at the Hip area (or whatever area in the package). DXA scan are used mostly for measurement of bone density for osteoporosis patients.
What is left that is easily attainable is usage of a weighing machine that will read body fat. A body fat analyser uses the bio-electrical impedance to convert into quantitative comparable numbers. Bear in mind that the reading changes if you wet your feet. Electric signal always takes the path of least resistance. So, harmless electrical current (usually powered by a few batteries) runs through your body. The resistance recorded will then be compared (by the machine) relating it to your body density. With muscle being denser and higher resistance and fats otherwise, a reading could be estimated and be used as a guidance. So, if you wet your feet before stepping on the scale, your body fat level will drop significantly, and you will register lower than usual body fat reading. A tip to be using any mechanical or digital scale, always measure at about the same time and same place (i.e. do not move the scale around). You can get a variation of up to 3kg if you reset (i.e. switched on) the electronic scale off the ground, or place the mechanical scale on carpeted/non-carpeted surface.
Having compared the few methods above, it is certain that body fat measurements will not be accurate unless you have access (or money) to proceed with the DXA scan. Hence, the motivation for a photographic comparison. While out looking for some photographic comparison on visually indication of body fat level and how someone will look like with X% of body fat, i chance upon this website by Leigh Peele, which has a lot of information on fat loss and doing it with good results.


Male

Photo from Leigh Peele website above. Male Bodybuilder is about 3-4% body fat.

With permission, i am re-using some of the images as a reference point in this post.
From the diagram above, a male bodybuilder is being compared to what a medically orientated chart shows of muscled skeleton looked like minus the fat. Bodybuilder (in competition) has super low fat level and often it goes down to a scary (claimed) 3%. Rich Gaspari is a fine example.

photo from here

At 3% body fat, a medical student don't need to dissect you to know which muscle is which. He/she can clearly see the vascularity and stratification of the veins and muscle. Believe me when i say i did dream of this when i was bodybuilding.
Not all of us are bodybuilders, so here are photographic reference of how body fat effects your physical appearances.

images from Leigh Peele

Many men are in denial about themselves and they are actually carrying between 20% and 30% body fat, still wearing their size 34 inches pants (way below the tummy) and enjoying their food as if they just performed a laborious work (running 1km doesn't count, so does sitting down ogling at girls). I agree with Leigh that anything more than 30% body fat is not worth imagining anymore.
Female
Female generally has higher body fat and it is understandable as that is how they are created. Women will not bulk up like men when they carry weight or become a bodybuilder unless they administer steroids or testosterone into their system. The hormonal balance in a woman will not allow them to bulk up (muscle mass) like men does.

A female bodybuilder typical range of 7% to 9% of body fat even at competition. Any lower they will start having their hormonal balance challenged and starting to miss their period. The American College of Sports Medicine studies recommend that a woman maintain between 8% and 12%. However, if you are a woman and bodybuilding and bulking is your main priority, what is missing your period? Point to note is that most women bodybuilder will not have their breast (which is essentially, fat) and likely to have implants for that aesthetically womanly look. Not.

Photo from here. Credit to the photographer

I would had thought it is just a bad case of men cross-dressing as a woman bodybuilder.
Back to the discussion, here are the (more) visually pleasing real women.

Image from Leigh Peele

While anything less than 15% could already be misconstrued as being anorexic, having a realistic 20% to 25% of body fat will almost ensure you have your curves and flaunt them. Most women that leads a sedentary lifestyle but eat as they please would be in denial about their own body/physical appearance. Some like their women big and some like them stick thin. Tread with caution when a woman ask you if they look fat. You been warned.
So, why all the visual comparison?
Admit it, we all want to look good. However, having a low body fat count is not the absolute benchmark if other things are not in balance. For example, two man can have 10% body fat but still looked physically different as if one is on steroid and the other is starving himself. This is applicable to women too. An active person that does sports and practice healthy living will definitely looked better when compared to another person that do not does the same. 

So, which one you want to be?

Body fat measurements will vary depending on what (method be it caliper, bi-electrical, DXA)) and how (whether the measurements are taken correctly) you do it. It is most important that you use one method consistently, so that any changes in measurement and reading will make more sense. When it all fail, clothing, particularly the older one that can't fit you at this point of time, works well. Photographs of yourself in the past and now do not lie, use it to your advantage. Information are there on the Internet and blogs like mine and Leigh aplenty to be used as reference and also for educational purposes.
So, now, What is your body fat percentile, visually? And what you want to achieve?

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Going The Smoothie Way

In the quest to allow for more variation into the daily clean eating regime, i am trying to see how feasible and sustainable (as in effort) to actually make a smoothie a day to be drink for breakfast or as one of the meal replacement. While fruit juice is simply superb, we sometimes wish for more bulk to the "food" we drink or liquid food we eat. I believe by having liquid food, we will allow the stomach to "rest" and not work too hard to digest those more solid food such as meat protein and oily items. Human tummy has evolved in such way that more people are sensitive eater and the digestive system has since been "customised" to digest more aggressively with the processed food we eat and in the process, causes damages we can't see. Of course this is just my own opinion and i based it on the logic that the sensitive stomach lining does have their limitation. More so with increased stomach ulcer occurrences and also cancer that involves the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.
Having a fruit juice or smoothie (they are both inherently different, read on) should not be used to replace all three meals of the day. Liquid diet is a fast way to lose weight, but you will gain back as much, or more as your metabolism will slow down. Key here is to ensure what you eat (or in this case, drink), will continue to stoke your metabolism. You should always start with your grocery shopping. Study has shown that people buy more processed food than real whole food. You have to be conscious when you walk down the (grocery) aisle.

Enough to feed 4pax, 3 meals, 2 days.

You will need a blender. I supposed every household would have one blender.
Next, you need to know what you can juice and what you can make smoothie. Rule of thumbs, anything high in cellulose will not be suitable to be made into smoothie. This include the usual carrot, apple and celery. You can still use them for smoothie provided you juice them first. But that would be double work. So stick to items that has little or no cellulose such as tomato, banana, orange, watermelon- basically items that holds a lot of water per weight.
As i was experimenting, i decided to just stick to banana (i got the Dole banana) and tomato (rich in anti-cancer properties). You can make beetroot smoothies too. That would be a power pack anti-cancer drink. Most commercial smoothies outside will use milk (or milk derivatives such as milk powder, yogurt, ice cream...) and little fruits. What you want here is really something really basic and that meant if anything were to be added, it will be water, or ice at most. Reason for this will be for calorific control and to ensure what you are drinking will have the required glycemic index (i.e. burn slower - stoke metabolism longer - get hungry later) for slower burning and highler/longer energy. Something with simple processed cane sugar will gives you the sugar high and subsequent loss of energy once the body burn them off.
My basic concoction calls for 2 medium sized tomato and 2 average sized Dole banana. You can use Pisang Emas, but they will oxidises faster, rendering the drink dark within minutes. The advantage of banana requires no explanation. Rich in Manganese, Potassium, fiber (soluble), Vitamin B6 and Vitamin C, it is the best "multivitamin and mineral" supplement you can get at RM4/kg (of about 5 banana of 6 inches long)
Tomato needs no further introduction too, as they are covered in my article here.

I added in about 100ml of plain water for fear the blending will make them into paste. Switched on and with a few nudge using the blender's stirrer, the concoction became smoothie.

Yellow+Red = Orange. :D

I then added in some ice cube and "pulse" blend it. With a non-specific ice blender, you will destroy the blade if you switch on the blender and run it in one long motion. "Pulsing" or switching on and off, will allow the higher torque (instead of constant speed) to break the ice easier. I took this opportunity to add in two teaspoon of Chia Seed.
I let it blend for another minute as i want my smoothie super smooth and the mixture, with the 100ml water and handful of ice, together with the bananas and tomatoes, produces almost 1 liter of smoothie or two servings.

Thick, Smooth, Banana smelling

As estimated, the total calories was about 300kcal - and that is with the Chia seeds added in. If just the bananas and tomatoes, it works out to be just 222kcal! With the Chia Seed, it went to 282kcal.

If you intend to add milk, a cup (250ml) of full cream milk will set you back another 140kcal, which will bump up the total to 420kcal (with Chia seed) - perfect replenishment or a 5km run (estimated 400kcal burned at medium intensity or 7:00 pace or 9km/h pace).

The smoothie was fantastic (obviously biased opinion) and went down pretty well. The tomato taste was subtle as the banana was stronger with the olfactory characteristic. The total cost for this smoothie is about RM2.00 (Banana - 7 for RM5.20 and tomato - 6 for RM1.33, balance for water and electricity ;-)). Anyone would had paid up to RM8 at any restaurant outside which most likely serves you a smoothie with more ice, more sugar and less fruits. It is true, once you tasted how "pure" some of these are when you make them yourself (like fruit juice, bread and burger patties) you wouldn't believe in paying premium pricing outside and are more driven to make them at home - using ingredient you can control.

Burp....

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Simple Milk Bread With Mollasses and Chia Seed

Must be one of those rare moment where the bread i make became so fluffy, soft and not made fun by my mum for being a brick (like my rye bread).
Here is the recipe in the most simplest form. I use a measuring cup (1 cup=250ml) as basis of measurement

1 cup full cream milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon blackstrap Molasses or sugar (or replace with honey)
1/3 cup butter or about 3/4 inch thick or approximately 50grams (1/5 a bar of butter)
1 tbsp of salt (i use sea salt)
Optional (as i got some leftover) - Blueberry paste/jam (from making muffins) which explained why the milk turned pinkish and has some lumps on the bottom of the pic. Add in the ingredient above according to the order i wrote it.
I make my bread using a bread maker and the results is predictable if you get the recipe right. I have went from following the recipe squarely to learning what each ingredient will do to the bread. Somehow, i managed a perfect one today and i am so sharing this.

Then you put in:
3 3/4 cup of  flour or about 400grams (i use Country Farm 100% organic all purpose flour)
1 pack of instant yeast (11grams)
1 tablespoon of Chia seed.
That's it.
I set the machine to the heaviest (1kg), lightest crumbs and to Wholewheat bread recipe. Estimated to produce a bread within 3hours 38minutes.
Let the machine run and 9minutes to completion, i was surprised how good it looked!

Closed the lid and allowed it to fully complete the cycle and let it rest for about 30minutes to cool down. Removed the bread from the machine and Oh my, she was a beauty!

I removed it from the pan and decided to weight it so i know roughly how heavy the bread will be according to the recipe. It hit home at 825grams. That meant this loaf of bread is double the weight of a normal loaf of commercially available bread. In other words, this is double the recipe. How is this useful?

With this info, i now know if i want a 400gram loaf, all i need is to half the recipe and still get the same results, with only a smaller loaf.

The color of the loaf is dark brown due to the presence of blackstrap molasses. Decision to use this instead of sugar is obvious with the molasses possessing more nutritional value instead of empty calories presence in sugar. Should you use honey, i would suggest you get the purest of honey i,e, not processed honey that has cane sugar in them. It is prevalent in most honey available commercially. If you want another alternative, go for palm sugar or known as gula Melaka.
Experience tells me that this bread will be soft inside. Unlike rye flour that absorb water/liquid and resulting in a hard bread, all purpose flour (essentially wheat flour) that is organic and unbleached gives a certain level of comfort when you are looking to eating better and whole food.

I wasn't disappointed

The bread was cut/divided into 10 slices of bread with each slice about 1 inch thick. I could not cut them thinner as i do not have specialised bread cutter unlike a proper bakery that would give consistent cutting thickness. The calculated caloric and nutritional amount to be close to 200kcal per slice. The bread was almost 6 inches by 5 inches in size, which brings it close to 40% larger than an average slice of commercially available bread.

Not convinced it is that big?? Before i show photographic evidence, a serving(2 slices, 55grams) of Gardenia White Bread locks in 141kcal. It measured 4 inches by 4 inches and is soft even past it's expiry date, as long as it is not exposed to air. Homemade bread are devoid of any preservatives and become stale in 2 days, unless kept in the freezer (and thus, needed to be re-heated or toasted). This is how Gardenia stack up to this homemade bread, for size comparison.

Mass vs Home production

Thick bread! 1 inch vs 2/5 inch!

At double the serving size in volume (6x5x1=30inch cube vs 4x4x0.4x2=16inch cube), one would expect the caloric value to be double. Be surprised.

A serving of the Milk Bread gives a maximum of 250kcal (i forgot to include the molasses into the recipe for calculation and hence over estimate it to be additional 40kcal), which is 30kcal less than two serving, or 4 slices of Gardenia. Weight wise, it will be 110grams (4 slices Gardenia) vs. 82.5gram (1 slice milk bread).
The biggest bonus comes from knowing you are eating something that is much healthier without any unknown fats that the body will not process readily (when compared to pure butter). Technically speaking, this one loaf of bread will provide enough energy for an average person that his/her job requires him/her to be standing/moving from time to time.

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Teachers Asked To Reveal Political Affliation

I am sure some of you had read about how some headmaster or more senior school staffs are asked to secretly categorise the teachers under him/her with a "black, grey or white" list. When this happened in mid-March, where it was reported in the newspaper.

From here. But check the consistency by the Minister later in the post.

What prompted me to post this up was because i saw a posting in MalaysiaKini about how "survey" are used to check on teacher's voting status.

I posted something similar and most brushed off the notion that the letter was actually photoshopped. The report is still in Internet cache. I found it here again.

And you know what is the beauty of Internet? You see, it rarely forget, and when some minister that denied it in a press conference suddenly confirm what he denied is true, you know you either have to vote that minister out, or change the government. Enough of hoodwinking by these "elitist" group.

Compare this to the MSM posting above. Never trust a crybaby.

Fast forward two weeks later, i received an email from a friend, whom the sister and her husband are teachers. Here is the link from the email to the directive to the teacher handling data, to fill up the forms.

Unless you are a teacher given that link specifically, you won't be able to find the link.

Here is the link for verification. and what with the 2Malaysia's logo? Is this what our teachers are trained for now?

This is how they are tracking down the teachers - by asking a specific teacher (Guru Data) to fill up the excel form below, and then using all the info obtained, to run the check on SPR.gov.my to check their voting area and constituency. 

And this is the instruction specific for the Guru Data to obtain all the information needed above.

The above two form can be obtained from the website i stated above. I suggest that you be my witness and go download them to verify that the above ain't made up just to spike the parties involved. There were other instructions too, and that involve the Guru Data to collect the teacher's siblings and verify their voting status the same way. Unfortunately, that portion of email to me was in gibberish due to my friend's inability to move the data to my email.

I have voted three times since turning legal voting age. I recalled that each time i was at the centre, when i present my IC, i have my name crossed out on the master list in pen and a pencil is used to write some numbers on the electoral roll. It did not occur to me until later than the numbers could be used to track or mark you as a voter. So with an eraser come GE13!
Now that you are aware of this like i am, be informed and don't get hoodwinked.

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Changing Of Voting Address Part 4

I received good news from SPR on March 29, 2012 and i am now officially managed to change my voting address to my desired area.  Took almost 8 months but if this is what is due to you and for you, i say fight for it. It might be ONE vote, you never know that ONE vote will change how things will happen. As Malaysian, we all should take charge and remind those voted who the boss are.

I was communicating with one of the SPR officer that directly emailed me. Provided my Borang A per requested and after two more times of "harassing", she finally realised that i meant business and got my address change done.

I can understand my case might not be the only one. But with that many civil servants in the country, i was expecting faster turnaround time on response. In comparison, an online shop i frequent has about 4 staffs responding to complains and they never fail to respond to me within 48hours - as stated in their KPI. Mind you, this online shop caters to shoppers around the world. How is that for comparison especially when services and money are exchanged in good faith?
Anyway, on email, i am officially a voter in Damansara Utama area. Which is what i wanted for the past year.

So, i was told that the details will be included in the first quarter voter electoral roll. Which is fantastic. As with everything government, always give them up to 5 working days to verify anything. And i did exactly that. So, i went to SPR.gov.my to check on my status yesterday (April 4, 2012), and guess what?

Yeap, at least now i am a "Verified Voter". I will ensure that the email i received will be printed out should the General Election happens within this year or before the changes to the electoral roll per SPR website is completed. For me, the email is good enough evidence and i shall hold them accountable for that.
Previous posting on this issue can be found HERE

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Royal Military College Malaysia

My beloved Alma Mater. There is only one Royal Military College in Malaysia and it is the one i attended for two years. Seeing this video brought back many memories. What more most of the graphic shown were used from the year 1993 when i was there in Form 5. Enjoy.

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The Perils Of Budget Airline Again

I seldom check in luggage unless i travel more than 3 nights. Usually, a hand luggage would work just fine with the required basic comfort kit when away from home. Somehow, i hate waiting for the luggage, or hauling them from one end (car) to the other end (check in). More so, with budget airline, the check in counter and baggage check in is two separate exercise, which essentially meant you will need to get to the airport earlier or risk missing the window (and possibly buying a new ticket). While many has benefited from budget airlines bridging the world closer, lets not forget the problem it brings too. Rude passengers, moody airport staffs, strict check-in, extra charges, hidden charges, separated seating despite checking in together with family.
These alone are hindrance enough NOT to add more stress by checking in the luggage. But when we have to bring more to accommodate the time away from home, we are left with little choices. And with that little choices (and we paid by the kilogram) to check in the luggage, we can only hope that it won't get misplaced, or get treated like the video below.

Seriously, label that the bags are "fragile" has very little impact for these workers. While i understand the stress to load and unload fast (as the above airline has a 30-minutes-turnaround-policy), it would make more sense to use a conveyor system than to risk damage or worse, injury to the workers loading and unloading. Often, i have seen how they manage even more fragile goods such as sporting equipments like bicycles (as i travel for races) and while we take extra care even fitting in our boxed bikes into our car, these worker will just pile them up like scrap metals and drop them like they don't care.Can be an expensive lesson resulting in a Did Not Start (DNS). So, next time you check in your luggage, keep your finger crossed that your items, especially the toiletries, will not get broken and wet all the contents inside. When in doubt, always double bag your items - or live to regret it. Now Everyone Needs To Double Bag.

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The Kalimantan Adventure Part 3

After looking at Part 1 and Part 2, i hope some of you have a good or better perspective about what will be in store for you should you decide to venture to that part of the world. These blog entry are mostly to educate. When i was doing research for the trip, i could not find anything relevant or close to representation of what to expect. The "The Kalimantan Adventure" serves as a written travelogue or reference, hopefully for anyone searching for information relevant. Enjoy the 4minutes video of a portion of the ride below. If you have queasy tummy, i suggest you load up on motion sickness pills and take a few during the journey. You will need it.

The trip there has been an eye opener in many ways. For example, not many would had seen a real life tug boat such as the one below, up close.

Marine Creature

The tugboat above were barged at a large river in South Kalimantan and was used to pull and move a huge barge. It was by far the largest barge i have seen within arm's length. So, i was a bit awed there. The barge seen was a BV class and measures at an impressive 300 feet (length) by 80 feet (width) by 18 feet (draft). It is capable of loading up to 7500 tonnes. How huge is the barge? Below is the photo from the front, with a 400series excavator sitting right at the top of the barge, moving stones and gravels onto 5 tonne and 7 tonne trucks.

300x80x18 BV Class Barge. HUGE.

Without the excavator at the top, there is no comparison in sizes and the barge will not look as it should. Below is another comparison to 5 tonne trucks going up the ramp.

Like Lego Set.

With a wide angled fisheye (8mm Samyang) lense, here is how the barge looked like from one corner.

Driving those 5 tonnes or 7 tonne trucks up and down the barge requires skills. One can't just drive up slowly. It has to be driven fast and without hesitation. If you miss the ramp, you might end up in the river. With a draft of 18feet, the river is potentially up to 20 feet or more deep.

Here is a video of how hesitation almost cost the driver some truck-pride.

Kalimantan Selatan surely is land of unknown adventure. There is an average of one accident per day i was there, thankfully, non-fatal. They are more of an annoyance where roads are blocked off (like in Part 1) and there is no difference on Day 3 we were there where two trucks blocked off the main road in the estate.

Thankfully, our Supir knows the inside and outside of the estate and with a bit of detour through very tight village road, we managed to find another exit, detouring by almost 5km (or an hour). Sounds like a better deal compared to being stuck for hours.

that waterbody, it is actually a small stream...with bridge under water.

It is quite natural that many of us were not looking forward to the journey back to Balikpapan the next day. It will take another 12hours - if there is no major blockage to the main KalTim-KalSel link and if everything went smoothly. But it has been raining every evening without fail and the road back will only get worse.
Wait up for Part 4 to find out the next adventure.

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