Relationship between exercise and sleep

This year, I've taken up kickboxing as a form of exercise. I try to attend about 2-3 sessions per week. The class is pretty intense and most people there are EXTREMELY fit. I'm talking about guys & girls with black belts in karate. They train pretty much everyday. After a kickboxing session, they would run back to the changing room, change into their karate outfits and then join the karate class. On the other hand, I'll be so buggered that all I'll be thinking about is food and water.

Yesterday I had a pretty intense session as I had a 45 minute personal training session which was immediately followed by the usual 1.5 hour class. At the end of it, my hands were trembling so much, I had difficulty typing smses (My hands are still trembling today. I tried to paint earlier but failed pathetically).

That being said, last night, I had the best sleep ever. I immediately fell into dreamland the moment my head touched the pillow. Today is one of those rare days that I woke up feeling extremely fresh despite sleeping for only 6 hours. Good sleep is a rare treat for me as I usually wake up feeling like death has hit me despite sleeping a good 8 hours. I attribute this treat to my intense workout yesterday. Bring it on!

Salt attack

Dad has been cooking lots. As much as I appreciate the gesture, I always shudder at the amount of salt he uses in the food. We always tease him by asking him whether he is enjoy his dish of salt or soy sauce and whether that piece of chicken/pork/beef is a good condiment for his dish.

Eat less sodium kids! Excessive salt is bad for you.

From BBC News

Why is too much salt bad?

In adults, when levels of sodium are too high, the body retains too much water and the volume of bodily fluids increases.

Many scientists, although not all, believe this process is linked to high blood pressure, or hypertension, which in turn is linked to a greater risk of coronary heart disease and stroke.

With high levels of fluid circulating through the brain there is a greater chance that weaknesses in the brain's blood vessels are exposed, and that they may burst, causing a stroke.

Similarly, a greater volume of fluid passing through the heart can place additional strain on the organ, increasing the possibility of coronary disease.

However, there are many potential causes of hypertension and coronary heart disease, and some scientists deny that salt plays any significant role at all.

An adult will be able to remove salt from the body through the kidneys into the urine.

However, very young babies do not have the capacity to process large quantities of salt as the kidneys are not yet developed.

If they are given adult food with a higher salt content before they are at least four months old, excess sodium can accumulate in the body, causing kidney, liver and brain damage, and in very occasional cases, death.

It is recommended that babies are given only milk, whether breast or formula, for the first four months of life.

Baby foods are supposed to contain lower levels of salt, and it is recommended that if adult foods are to be given, unprocessed foods should be used, and no salt added.

How much salt should we eat?

The government recommends that adults should eat 6g of salt a day. However, the average intake of salt is between 9g and 10g a day.

Experts estimate that if average consumption was cut to 6g a day it would prevent 70,000 heart attacks and strokes a year.

The main sources of salt in the diet are processed foods and salt added during cooking or at the table. Meat and meat products, and bread can also be high in salt.

Processed foods are thought to account for around 75% of the average person's salt intake.

However, research published in The Lancet medical journal suggested that most people could not tell the difference between loaves with markedly different salt content.

Salt is added to processed foods to aid preservation and to improve taste. Sodium is present in additives such as monosodium glutamate and sodium bicarbonate.

Small amounts of sodium can be found naturally in some foods such as eggs and fish.

The salt we sprinkle on our food from cellar accounts for only 10%-15% of our intake.

Weekend rambles

1. Sometimes I feel frustrated/sad whenever I see blog posts on Forever 21, Victoria Secret or anything U.S. related! Because everything there is so darn cheap compared to Australia. For example, a decent looking dress from Forever 21 is about 20 dollars. Australia's equivalent to U.S. Forever 21 is probably Supre. I walked into Supre the other day and a pair of shorts is $40!!! Woe is me. I've hardly bought anything from Australia the past few years because I can't bring myself to buy such expensive stuff when I know I can get it cheaper elsewhere.

2. Leon: the professional! I'm more in love with Natalie Portman than ever before. I've recently watched her first debut film and fell in love with little 11 year old Portman. I don't think she was meant to be the main character of the film but she definitely stole the show. Her character was extremely complex as her 11-year old character had a fatherly-romantic relationship with a man in his mid-40s. I know it sounds really wrong yet it came out so innocently beautiful. There was nothing lustful in the film but rather two lonely and lost characters finding each other and in that, found a new meaning and hope to life.

3. Make up! Wei Chee described me as a late bloomer because I've only recently been fascinated with make up! I bought 2 sets of 88 make up palette over the internet ($20 each!) and have been experimenting with the colours. I'm so happy. I feel like my face is a piece of canvas and I'm creating art.

4. Speaking of painting, I've been spending so much of my spare time painting! After this painting episode is over, I won't be touching my paint brushes for the next....few months! I'll post up pictures when I'm done!

5. Run for the kids. I recently joined a 14.6km charity run. Note to self: never ever gulp down protein shake + yoghurt 30 minutes before your run! Let's just say I had stitches even before the ran began. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed the run. I love massive events - the fact that everyone is united for a single cause is so beautiful!

6. Garden report - Sigh, one of plants have been attacked by fungus and its slowly dying on me!!! The rest of the plants are thriving. I've been having meals out on my balcony, basking in the summer/autumn heat. I love checking on my plants progress and watching new leaves sprount and new flowers blossom. It's like watching a miracle performed before your eyes.

The Hurt Locker - Best Picture Oscar win

The Hurt Locker, which churned out only $20 million in worldwide box office snagged the Best Picture Oscar award at the 82nd Academy Awards, along with 5 other awards. The win came as a surprise to me and to many others as Avatar was favoured to win. It was the lowest-grossing best picture winner of all time. Hurt Locker cost a mere $11 million to make compared with the more than $230 million cost of Avatar.

How did this low budget and low revenue movie (which was going to bypass the Australia cinemas and straight into the dvd stores) win so many awards?

This film centres on a three-man U.S. Army bomb squad stationed in Baghdad. The team leader, William James goes around Baghdad city examining and defusing IEDs (homemade bombs). The two other men provide rifle cover while he does his job.

This Iraq war film is very much unlike most Iraq war films I've seen. Although it's not a typical Hollywood combat film, the focus is very much on the emotional and psychological side of the war. That being said, this film is still very much suitable for men to watch. The movie left me hanging off the edge of my seat throughout the entire duration. Unlike a typical movie where there's a built up of the storyline, climax and then conclusion, this show seems to be at a climax throughout the entire duration. Sometimes the stretching of anxiety makes it unbearably painful to watch. It makes me want to scream, "where's the downtime/comic relief where the men go back to their bunks, play cards, talk about women and ogle at their pictures like in all typical Hollywood war films?"

The thrill and beauty of this film lies in the stripped-down simplicity of the movie. All you feel is the rustling wind. All you hear is the occasional buzzing of the flies swarming in the sweltering dessert heat. All you see is the enemy. All the enemy sees is you. All that lies between you and the eye of the enemy are your guns. And the only thing that determines life or death is the trigger. You wonder whether you are going to die the next minute. And then you wait…for the right time. Because precision and timing determine everything. Wrong move, you die. Right move, he dies.

And while James does his job defusing IEDs, locals stand on their balconies, peep out windows and stare at them. You wonder who are the mere civilians and who are your enemies? How do you tell? The team’s lives are possibly in danger yet they wouldn’t want to go on a shooting rampage, taking away innocent lives. Can you imagine being in that scenario for an entire year of your life? Unsure whether you are allowing your enemy to take away your life simply because you mistook him/her for an innocent bystander. The tension! I guess it came to the point where they countdown and look forward to the end of each day not because tomorrow is going to be different but because they were one day closer to leaving Iraq.

Also, this film sinks in a slight feeling of futility. In some ways, it seems like the war is pointless. You detonate a bomb, another one is planted tomorrow. You kill an enemy, a replacement comes in tomorrow. What is the point of war then? The war seemed to screw some people up – like James who is a very brave soldier and is darn good at his job. But he didn’t seem to care whether he lived or die. Denoting bombs to him seem more like a challenging piece of art rather than a mission done for a greater cause. He was in Iraq to escape the confines of the usual domestic life – like the message shown at the start of the movie stating, 'the rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug.”

To conclude, this movie is really good but I’m not sure whether it’s deserving of its Best Picture award. Maybe because I’m bias. I love Avatar. It’s the only movie I voluntarily watch in the cinema twice (oops, I lied. I watched Slumdog twice as well).

I have many other things to say about this movie, like my slight discontentment with certain parts of the movie. For example, the ending left me wondering whether the film was pro-war or against the war? There was no real stand, which made the movie slightly unfocused. For me, being able to nail themes of a movie is very important. But in this case, I found the movie slightly unfocused…a little to much of it was left to the interpretation of the audience. But then again, it classified itself as an arthouse film.

Other points:
The film set was also in Jordan, some parts of it lies only a few miles away from the border of Iraq, increasing the authenticity of the film.

In addition, the movie was mostly filmed from a hand-held camera giving it the feeling that you are THERE, standing a few meters away.

Of food poisoning and golf balls

This weekend, I've been down with a bout of food poisoning. Not cool at all. The suspect? A tiny piece of raw king fish I had for lunch yesterday at a little Japanese Cafe in Chinatown. How does one tiny piece of fish cause me so much pain and grieve?

Backtracking little...I've been taught that life is about causes and effects. So, I was going to meet H in the city for lunch. But the yam char place we intended to patronized was closed. We stood there for about a mere minute at the entrance of the restaurant when objects that looked like...golf balls started falling from the sky! Not kidding. It was freaky (like the 'cloudy with a chance of meatballs' movie) Everyone started running for shelter. Upon closer inspection, the golf balls were actually abnormally huge pieces of ice. It was hailing. Then without any warning, the sky got really angry. I haven't seen Melbourne hit by rain so hard before.

We waited under the shelter for about 30 minutes till the rain subsided a little and then we quickly ran to the nearest eatery which was that dodgy Jap cafe. So really, the real culprit was the golf balls falling from the sky. Had it not hailed, I wouldn't have risked my tummy in that questionable cafe.

And just before, I cooked myself a nice piece of Wagyu steak. It was the most delicious thing I've cooked in a while. The meat was lined with fat that melts in your mouth. So good! I was in euphoria....for about 5 minutes till I instinctively ran to the bin. I could feel my stomach churning.

"Don't puke. Its a good piece of EXPENSIVE steak! Don't puke. Don't puke! You'll need to cook lunch again!" I kept telling myself over and over again.

Let's just say my meditation did not work. I'll keep the gross details to myself.




At Flinders Street Station


Fancy a swim?

Source of pics