Health & Fitness - The Operation Thigh Gap

I have been requested to write about this new trend among female teenagers worldwide, and this is something that bothers me much. As I was googling to find out more, I discovered that there is even a pinterest topic called 'Operation Thigh Gap'! I briefly browsed through the photos and realised there are like-minded people like me who commented to say that this obsession is not healthy. Well, so what is this obsession over thigh gaps about?

Firstly, girls out there, please do not obsess over not being able to achieve a thigh gap, in other words, this should NOT be in your list of fitness goals. Why so?
1. Everybody's legs are shaped differently.

A. Straight - You are lucky to get this leg shape, straight and non-bandy.

B. O-shaped curvature - This is a congenital bone deformation where only your ankles touch in standing position, making your legs form a letter O.

C. X-shaped curvature - Another congenital bone deformation where your knees touch in standing position, making your legs form a letter X.

Looking at this, I'm sure you can identify what kind of leg shape you have. Very often when your legs are slightly O-shaped, your thigh gaps are larger. Vice versa for A. Straight and C. X-shaped. I'm no osteologist so I'm nobody to judge on the different types of leg shapes but I do have a slight X-shaped curvature (a little bothered!).

2. Whether you have thigh gaps or not will also be dependable on the size of your hips (of course and the leg shapes will then come into picture). You will only be able to reduce the fats around your hips, but unfortunately, unless you can cut the hip bones at the sides (sounds really silly), your hip size is rather fixed genetically.

Conclusion, do not think that just by losing weight (healthily or not), you will be able to achieve this because we are made differently! Instead, try focusing on your fitness goals to live healthily, exercising/working out regularly, eat well, having ample rest; having a healthy lifestyle will lead to longevity, which is much more worth it than obsessing over getting thigh gaps. 

If you have been following me on FB and Instagram, I think you might have already heard of Brandnewstart SG. Do check it out if you are looking for a personal trainer to kickstart a fitness regime, OR, if you know of somebody who needs such help! Our team of trainers are ever-ready to help! 

These are the 4 main programmes that Brandnewstart offers:

For ladies who are looking to burn fats and tone up!

For men out there who are looking to shed some flabs and that beer belly!

For men and women who are looking to gain some quality muscles!

Lastly, for men and women who are athletes or are looking to train up to be one!

Take your pick and simply email enquiry@brandnewstart.sg if you are already sure of what programme you are interested to sign up for, otherwise, feel free to look up www.brandnewstart.sg for more information!

I know I promised HEALTH TIPS! Coming up next! Have a great weekend ahead! 

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Hapa Fitness & Us

I'm sure some of you will have seen what Hapa Fitness (as mentioned in my previous post too) is all about on our instagram feeds. We are official now and very excited to reveal what we have to offer for all of you out there! We will be sharing about health tips, workout tips and tutorials, fashion receipes, beauty (girls will still be girls righttt?), yummy healthy food, and events in time to come! Stay tuned and follow us @hapa_fitness if you haven't done so! <3

This is our very first diet challenge for all of you! For everyone who is as excited as us that Christmas is coming and all the feasting and log cakes will be part of the holiday season, try this diet on your own and give it 30 days to let your body feel the change and transform!

It may seem difficult for some of you so we are going to share some of what we eat. Today, till now, this is how my meals look like.

Breakfast:

1/2 avocado (Fats)

1 tablespoon of Golden flaxseed meal (Fats)

150 ml of milk (Protein)

1 scoop of vanilla whey protein (Protein)

Everyday smoothie!

I headed to the gym to hit my shoulders and back after my smoothie, had 1 1/2 scoop of whey protein post workout and headed back for lunch.

Lunch:

Approx. 1/2 serving of pasta (Carbs)

Approx. 1/4 of red and yellow peppers each (Veggie, Carbs)

Approx. 100g of chicken breast (Protein)

Pinch of Olive oil (Fats)

Snacks:

1 cup coffee, unsweetened (Fats, Protein, Carbs - coffee addict, here I confess and am guilty)

Handful of nuts (Fats)

Feel free to post your meals on Instagram if you have and #hapa_fitness and #santarinadiet so we can learn and from one another! My meal plan may not be the best so do let us know if you have a more effective and efficient way of preparing your meals and creative way to spread your meals out during the Santarina Diet challenge! Good luck!

Last week had been an eventful week and here is a summary of last week in photos!

Tuesday: Trained with Jasmine at GYMM BOXX (XS) at Punggol CC and met the courtesy lion!

Wednesday: Those who know me well enough, THIS is one of my weaknesses. I just had to have this since it was one week off any diet! Teehee. I always order without butter though. 

Friday: Went for my haircut with @johnthamyuehan at Salon Vim, looking like sadako because it was a day after Halloweeen. HURHUR

Outfit of my haircut day, dress from Allyfashion and clutch from Epicurations.

It was Nic's actual birthday so we had dinner before adjourning for Nic's place, followed by Karaoke (phew that was a super long day!)

Say 'Hi' to Dazzle! Such a beauty!

Smiley Dazzle

Me looking tired, with super hyper Dazzle!

Saturday: Met Jasmine before our training to get some work done 

Super yummy bread HOMEMADE by Jasmine! So loved!

Ended our workout with a good stretch

Our FITFAM!

Sunday: outfit to church

Accessories from Tod's, BCBGMAXAZRIA, Forever21

I will be writing about some health tips next so stay tuned and have a great week ahead everyone! Be safe wherever you are! <3<3<3

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Inspiration & Motivation: Something GREAT is brewing..

Very recently, I met up with Jasmine (@jasminedanker if you are not following her on IG yet), it came across to me like a calling when I had to download kik messenger just for her to retrieve my contact details. In the very same week (last week), I met her for the first time. She shared her dreams and passion with me, she told me what she had been wanting to do and could not find the right person to do with, so she decided to contact me.

We met up as soon as we could last week and had a great workout together (though she's much stronger and fitter than I am), we share a lot of similarities. We have the exact same weight, height, BFP, played netball when we were younger, both Roman Catholics, both mixed blood. Well, the major difference is that she studied sports science and had been in the fitness industry for 5 years, coaching, studying and training (and besides the fact that I'm married she's not yet). We clicked right away and started planning our execution plan.

We have great plans and I believe God brought us together for a reason; a mission to help people who needs help, who needs an extra motivation to stay healthy and fit. Our ideas are all over the place now but we will be revealing very soon, once we get everything organized and ready to go public!

Here are some sneaks! Our logo: Why Hapa fitness (@Hapa_fitness)? Stay tuned! :)

Some of the happenings over last week, celebrated Nic's birthday in advance last Friday too! Great Karaoke with the gang, they sing so well! Been awhile since we had such epic sessions, oh yes and that cake at 11.30pm ZOMG.

Happy Birthday Nic!

Some of my meals.

Met Jasmine to gym on Saturday at Gymm Boxx, really helps when there is somebody to spot, correct my form and constantly goes "RELAX YOUR NECK LIMARAN!" (LOL, reason why I have stiff neck ALL the time). We wore pink to train that day, so we remembered to take photos and hashtag #operationpink to do our part for Singapore Breast Cancer Foundation!

Jasmine paid a boy for this photo HAHA

Cooked when we got home and spent a quiet Saturday with baby. Here's our very own chili beef with tortilla chips! YUMMMMSS!

I will be eating all I want (okay not exactly ALL I WANT BUT..) for 4 days (since yesterday) and starting a new diet (which I'll be sharing soon) on November 1st, together with Jasmine. BECAUSE I have completed 10 weeks (11 to be exact, not counting week 0) of Intermittent fasting! Halfway through the diet I thought this didn't suit me, but I wanted to hang in there and complete the 10 weeks so here is the final look (LOL pls don't judge me!).

I started with this OKAY?! HAHA.

Have a great week ahead everyone! Remember to catch us (Jasmine and I) live with regular updates on our IG (@limaranagustina and @jasminedanker) and our new IG account for Hapa Fitness @hapa_fitness! Till the next!

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Health & Fitness - Arms Training

I usually do not train my arms on its own, I couple my arms training with deadlifts and sometimes I skip doing arms and ended up doing abs, or I'd go very easy on the arms training. Truth is, you are actually working on your arms during other body part trainings, particularly your biceps as they are needed in most workouts. Having said that, I know many ladies out there are very concerned about getting rid of their "bye-bye" arms and had requests to advise on the arms training that we do so here goes, some of the arms workouts that we do.

We need to work on both biceps and triceps so there will be no imbalance of strength on either muscle group. It doesn't really matter which you start with, as long you try your best to cover both muscles during your arms training, it should suffice.

I will usually start with triceps as my triceps are weaker. What Jason is doing in the video: Triceps rope pushdown.

Dumbbell overhead Triceps extensions (P.S: Apologies, I do not have a video or photo of us doing the other triceps workouts).

You can also try dips as well as bench dips.

Dips

Bench dips

Next to biceps, bicep curls and hammer curls, that simple!

Dumbbell bicep curls

Dumbbell Hammer curls

Hammer curls using Tricep bar/Hammer curl bar

Take your pick, and enjoy the videos! So sorry but I could not upsize the videos. We had the honour to attend Julien Fournie for Love, Bonito show last Saturday at FIDE Fashion Week. Thank you so much Love, Bonito for the invitation! It was such an amazing experience as we had never attended any fashion event, let alone fashion show. The Julien Fournie for Love, Bonito show marks the end of FIDE Fashion Week and was a perfect finale!

My outfit for the night

Have a great week ahead everyone!!

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Health & Fitness - My progress so far

It's been a long journey from week 0 since I started IF (Intermittent Fasting). Here's a quick recap, basically IF (also commonly known as Intermittent feeding) is a pattern of eating that alternates fasting and non-fasting. So basically, you eat for 6-8 hours (8-9 hours in my case), and then you fast for the remaining 15-16 hours, which includes sleeping time. Some of the IF practitioners will do a complete fasting, drinking just water; some just water, black coffee and black tea. As for me, I take in anything liquid; in other words, I fast from solid foods during my fasting hours, simply because I want to avoid putting my body into catabolic state (muscle breakdown state) and I HATE the feeling of starvation. I will tremble and feel faint when starvation kicks in, which is so frustrating and unhealthy.

During the first few weeks, I made my body go through stricter fasting. By the 8th hour sharply, I stopped all solid food. I only drink juices and water, avoided coffee and tea. Honestly, by about 9pm every night I would start to tremble and feel faint. I endured for about 5-6 weeks, I worked out harder, increased my training frequency and rested very little as I was training 7 days a week, some days twice a day. I was literally pushing my body to its limits. VERY BAD!

On week 6, I finally took a day off from training and on one particular day, I took an 11 hours sleep which made me feel so good after. I see gains in my trainings during that week and I never felt so refreshed since I started IF. Unfortunately, ever sine week 6, because I was more lenient with myself, I went a little overboard and let myself have more than what I should.

Enough talking (writing), I'll let the photos prove whether I made any progress.

Week 0

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5 

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Unfortunately, I did not see much progress (LOL)! But you cannot just judge from my abs right? Generally I feel younger (my ability to resist and handle stress improves), I snack less and I feel stronger during training (managed a few new PRs during this 9 weeks). I have evidence to show that I not only feel younger but am really younger now (my body age I meant), and I've gotten people who meet me for the first time saying I look like a 21-22 years old (HURHUR). The most exaggerated comment was from this lady in SK gym, who asked if I'm a JC kid (Jason said it should feel more like an insult. HAHA). I took my body analysis from a scale that Nic bought and my body age is actually 20! WOOOOTS I get to celebrate SWEET 21 again next year!!

Okay, so I have 1.5 weeks more to go on IF and then I'll be practicing IF on alternate days and maybe try some other forms of diet (fret not, I'll definitely share!)

Here's what I've been up to:

We have been gym-hopping the past few weeks! 

Gymm Boxx XL with the Js

Edric is back! Stronger than ever!

Us at The Gym Nation!

OOTD with love bonito's Atherley top and a casual maxi skirt from allyfashion, with my long-forgotten toms!

Another old top from love bonito, really love the back!

I have been preparing for something exciting this weekend so stay tuned and follow me on Instagram, @limaranagustina if you haven't, because I will be updating real-time! Thank you for the support everybody and have a great Thursday ahead! :)

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