Full Body Exercise - Squat Press-Up

photo by http://fitvillains.tumblr.com/post/26163723465/take-it-to-the-gym-squat-with-shoulder-press

One of my favourite full-body exercise is the Squat Press-Up. This is a great exercise that can be done at home with only needing a pair of dumbbells.

How do you do this exercise:

• You start-off by grabbing a set of dumbbells starting with a comfortable weight with your feet shoulder width apart.
• Bring the weights onto your shoulders as you squat down.
• As you rise up, push up the dumbbells above you.
• Repeat the motion by bringing the dumbbells back to your shoulders as you squat.

For starters, start off with a comfortable weight and slowly increase as you build more body strength. I recommend that even for women to use heavy weights for this exercise. Don't worry about building muscles because women doesn't. Unless you inject yourself with lots of testosterone (hormone that builds muscle) or you workout with heavy weights few hours a day.

This exercise involves your large lower body muscles groups (quads, hamstrings and glutes) and also you upper muscle groups (shoulders, arms, chest and upper back). Not forgetting our core muscle, abs, that keeps us stabilize.

As you can see with such a simple full body exercise, you are able to work your whole body and pushing your muscles to the limit at the same time. This will cause your body to burn more fats and build more lean muscles. Full body exercise also boost your metabolism which is also your fat burning tool in your body.

Isolated exercises will never give you this results since one muscle group is being worked at a given time. So try this Squat Press-up exercise and notice the difference.

Food: Hui Lau Shan Dessert Outlet - Cheras Leisure Mall

After my fiery meal at Shi Fu Wan Tan, we headed back to Cheras Leisure Mall for some leisure shopping. Not that they have much to shop around over there.

We visited the popular book store and spent some time in there looking for revision books for the boys. Our boy Maximus wanted to get a new practice writing book because the one he had was hand-me-down from Sebastian and he deemed it as dirty book. Well, to encourage him to learn, we got to get him a new clean book and he was proud with it.

Subsequently, we headed to the pet store which is a must stop for the boys. They will rush in to look at the exotic animals such as snakes, scorpions, funny looking toads, tarantula and etc. I shopped around for dog shampoo for our dog, Jar Jar and bought her a bag of doggie treats. I think as usual we spent a good 20 minutes or more in that pet store.

After all the window shopping, we decided to sit down for something refreshing and decided upon Hui Lau Shan. Hui Lau Shan is a chain dessert shop that first opened in Hong Kong as a herbal shop selling herbal teas and "turtle jelly". It has since expanded and introduced more healthy desserts into their menu. Hui Lau Shan is also famous for its prominent use of mango in its desserts.

The chain outlet is located at the newly renovated wing of Leisure Mall where most of the food outlets are housed. Not a very big outlet with around 10 tables.

The interior of the outlet is very bright and refreshing. The decoration of the outlet is very neat and tidy, a good place to have a rest after walking around for some time.

Have a look at their menu. They have a wide variety of selection of mango desserts, snack, tong shuis, drinks and herbal desserts. All the items looks yummy and refreshing to me since mango is my favourite fruit.

We decided to order the Mango Romance which consist of 3 types of mango desserts. A good starter for those who has not tried their desserts before. Can't resist the temptation, I ordered the Fresh Mango Mochi as well and my wife ordered the Mango Pudding + Zimi Aloe Vera.

While waiting for the desserts to arrive, the boys entertained themselves with none other than iPad. Well, at least they are seated and we have some peaceful time for a moment.

The Mango Romance (RM12.90) is served. The mangoes served in the dessert are very fresh and my boys can't wait to have a go at it. This dessert was mostly finished by Sebastian since he enjoys fruits more than Maximus.

The Fresh Mango Mochi (RM4.90) arrived. The mochi looks so nice and it's of a decent size. The mochi is very soft and tang. The mango filling is fulfilling but not very sweet. I would prefer it to be sweeter since I'm having dessert. Maybe it's because they emphasise on healthy desserts and no additional sweeteners are added.

Lastly, the Mango Pudding + Zimi Aloe Vera (RM4.90) is served. The mango pudding is not great. I think I have had much better but it's not the worse.

I will return again to this outlet to try out the rest of their desserts since mango is my favourite and I think it's a healthier choice for tea time.



Location of Hui Lau Shan (Cheras Leisure Mall outlet)

Address: Lot No. L1-48-2, Cheras Leisure Mall, Jalan Manis 6, Taman Segar, 56100 KL
Website: http://www.hkls.com 

Food: Shi Fu Wan Tan Restaurant - Taman Segar, Cheras

If you happen to be at Cheras Leisure Mall, I strongly recommend you to walk out from the comfort of the air conditioned mall and patronise the Shi Fu Wan Tan restaurant. It's along Jalan Manis 4 and you won't miss the restaurant. The restaurant will capture your attention with its ancient Chinese themed and nicely decorated with red lanterns.

Just like any Chinese themed restaurant, the exterior and interior of the restaurant is nicely decorated with wooden walls, wooden tables and chairs, bamboo blinds to shed the sunlight, wooden Chinese signboards and bird cages hanging on the ceiling. The setup is perfect for a rustic old Chinese movie scene... LOL.

I have patronised this restaurant few times and I truly enjoy the food and the comfortable atmosphere of the restaurant. Let's have a look at their menu.

They carry a wide variety of dry and soup Wantan noodles - fresh prawns, char siew and dumplings. You can also order some side dishes to accompany your noodles. Pardon the blurry images I'm being bugged by my hungry son to place order fast.

At the back of their menu is their selection of desserts and beverages. Tempted with their cold icee desserts but have to refrain since I'm controlling my boys from having cold stuff. So I have to settle for their soya cincau.

Surprisingly, not all of their dishes are in the menu. The rest are printed on their order slip. I ordered the char siew wantan dry noodles for my boys to share. For me the dry Pan Mee and my wife, The World's No1 Spiciest Pan Mee. Yes, you heard me right. The World's No1 Spiciest. My wife loves spicy food and having tasted our fair share of spicy pan mee, we were wondering how spicy could this be. Even the waiter reconfirmed with us on our order of the Spiciest Pan Mee.

The char siew wantan mee is served with a bowl of wantan in soup (RM7.50-large). Their wantan noodles are very different from normal. It's very thin and springy and my boys love it. Their char siew are also nicely cooked and juicy.

The bowl of wantan in soup that came with the noodles are not bad. Each wantan is of decent size and wrapped with pork filling.

The dry Pan Mee (RM6.00) is served. The pan mee is garnished with lots of fried anchovies, minced pork, fried shallots and a poached egg. Yummy, it looks absolutely appetizing and I couldn't wait to mix all the ingredients and have a bit of the noodle.

Drums rolling and trumpet blaring. Here comes the World's No1 Spiciest Pan Mee (RM9.50). Initial look, it looks the same as my normal pan mee. It's garnished with lots of fried anchovies, minced pork, fried shallots, a poached egg and lots of chilli. My wife took a few bite and told me that it is indeed very spicy and I could only comment, "if you say it's spicy it must be very spicy then". I tried a mouthful of the noodles and initially it was OK. Then the explosion started as I can feel the heat building up from my stomach and my tongue started to go numb from the chilli. I can feel that my face turned red hot, eyes water and I started to sweat profusely. Phew, definitely not for the faint hearted. For those chilli addicts, I strongly that you take the challenge and try out this World No1 Spiciest Pan Mee.

A chat with the owner and he mentioned that the ingredients consist of the spiciest chilli from around the world and he himself could not even stomach it. He recommend us to try out the World's No2 Spiciest Pan Mee the next time... LOL. I think I'll just stick to the normal pan mee since I want to enjoy my food. The owner even joked that his bowl of spicy noodle is better than any facial since it improves blood circulation and gives your face a healthy rosy glow.

All the spiciness is drowned by the refreshing soya cincau (RM3.50). The total bill comes to RM26.50 and there's no Government and Service Tax.

In conclusion, I will return to Shi Fu Wan Tan restaurant when I'm at Cheras Leisure Mall. My wife wants to take the challenge again.

P.S. I forget to mention that I have stomach discomfort after having the spiciest pan mee. Guess my tummy just can't take it... hahaha.

Location of Shi Fu WanTan Mee Restaurant

Address: No18, Jalan Manis 4, Taman Segar, Cheras 56100, KL
Contact: 03-9131 4362
Operation Hours: 9am to 2pm and 5pm to 10pm
Facebook: www.facebook.com/shifuwantanmee

Review of IKEA Milk Frother

Any coffee lover should have a milk frother stashed somewhere in their kitchen. Its a must have to froth hot milk to pour into your cup of espresso and voila, your own cappuccino or latte.

I bought this inexpensive milk frother from IKEA Malaysia for only RM9.90 and happily using it everyday.

The IKEA milk frother uses 2 AA size batteries and with a flip of the switch, this thing came to live. I tested it out on a cup of warm milk and froth it for 20-30 seconds. I am impress with its speed and it nicely froth the warm milk with a nice foam on top.

The milk frother build is of durable plastic. It has a good feel when I hold it up to froth the milk. The wand (I'm not sure what you call it), is made of stainless steel which you have to be careful not to bend it. Separating the wand and the body is a silicon seal which I guess is to prevent liquid from entering and to hold the wand in place.

Apart from frothing warm milk for my coffee, parents can use it to prepare your child's milk. I will use the frother to blend my child's formula milk to ensure that it's well dissolve. I find that by using the frother, their formula milk looks better and creamier. Maybe it's my imagination but that's what I observed.

In conclusion, this is a good inexpensive utensil to have at home.

This is purely my own observation and I do not receive any profit from this review.

Review of Portable FM Modulator Transmitter

Imagine what a dull life it will be without music. Music lovers will love to listen to the beats and rhythm of their favourite music anywhere they are. At this digital age, with the abundance of smart-phones and portable music players at our disposals, it is more convenient for us to carry along with us thousands of songs that can last you for non-stop music for months.

But what do you do when you get caught up in situation where you can put on your earphone and the speaker on your smartphone is just not loud enough. The most common situation will be in car while you are driving. For those who don't own cars with additional audio jacks will find it impossible to continue their music enjoyment.

Fret not. Check out this FM Transmitter modulator. My colleague ordered it online and I decided to review this gadget.

Photo from Product Page

When my colleague passed it to me, my first impression is it's a nice looking and simple gadget. Small enough to carry around without adding much bulk in your pocket.

The "ON/OFF" lever switch is on the top of the unit. At the front, there's a display to show the selected radio channel frequency. At both side of the display are the buttons to scroll up and down to select the channel frequency. At the bottom is the plug-in jack.

Here's how I setup at my office workplace. Yes, I'm a HTC fanboy. I plugged in the transmitter into my HTC ONE X and set it to 100.0 frequency. With my HTC Wildfire connected to my portable Edifier speaker, I tune into the corresponding channel frequency.

You can see the setup of both phones side by side from the top-view.

Here's a back view of the transmitter plugged into my HTC ONE X which is protected by skins from Hydraskins.

I start playing some music from soft to heavy bass to test the sound quality. The sound quality is not too bad. The bass is prominent unlike a FM transmitter that I tried before that produces bass-less music, close to squeaky music to my ear.

I'm impress with this little gadget. It comes with a USB charging cable and an 3.5mm cable extender. I can't comment about the charging time and how long a single charge last since it does not belong to me unless my colleague is willing to loan it to me for few days... LOL

The one thing I like is that it does not come with preset channel frequencies which some other FM modulators does. So you have the freedom to choose a channel that has less disturbance.

In conclusion, this is a great FM modulator transmitter and it is compatible to all smart-phones, tablets or music players. You can get the FM Transmitter from here.

The above review is solely my own observation and opinion. I'm not given any monetary compensation nor test product for this review.

Food: Review of Delicious Cafe - MidValley Megamall, KL

 

Was at Mid-valley Megamall with my wife one fine day for a leisure stroll doing some light shopping. As time pass and nearing afternoon, I as usual will be the first to cry out hungry. I really wonder where women find the energy and strength to shop all-day... LOL.

The big question on where to eat came up and I decided to have our lunch at Delicious Cafe. You can choose to dine indoor or outdoors. But due to the hot weather, we decided to dine indoors in the luxury of their cosy air condition cafe. Their interior is nicely done and furnished.

Here is Delicious bar and cake counter.

The beautiful interior of Delicious Cafe, Midvalley.

During lunch, the place is quite busy brimming with customers enjoying the food and comfortable ambience.

 

 

Let's have a look at their menu. We decided to go for their deli CRAZY deals. They have quite a vast variety of food selection covering soup, salad, pasta, local delights, western, desserts and beverages. I was tied between both choices of the "Nasi Kerabu with Ayam Percik" and "Terriyaki Chicken Burger".

I finally decided to go with the Nasi Kerabu and English Breakfast Tea and my wife ordered the "Duck Confit Spaghettini" and "Frosty Lychee & Lime".

Duck Confit Spaghettini

The "Duck Confit Spaghettini" is delicious and the duck is tasty. This pasta dish is great and I would recommend this to everyone.

Nasi Kerabu with Ayam Percik

The Nasi Kerabu arrived and the presentation of the dish is good. Let's see what they have on the dish; fish crackers, raw vegetables, half salted egg, belacan sauce, rice topped with meat floss and a whole ayam percik drumstick. Looks good eh. But I was not impressed with this dish as I find that the chicken was not well marinated and slightly tasteless.

The Frosty Lychee and Lime drink is refreshing. It's not too sweet and a bit bland for my taste.

The English Breakfast Tea has a very nice aroma but to me it's just average.

In conclusion, Delicious Cafe is a nice place with cosy and comfortable ambience to hangout if you don't mind the price. This is a perfect example of looks can deceive as their food presentation is very nice but some food are average.

Location:
Lot G(E)-011 & G-001, Ground Floor, Mid Valley City,
Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 Kuala Lumpur.

Contact:
T: 603 2287 5770  F: 603 2287 8670