Mountain Climbing at Daguldol
Me, my sister, and a couple of her friends joined the Timog Mountaineering group last weekend to climb Mount Daguldol. It is located in Laiya, Batangas. A drop off at the beach, with a couple of huge rocks to go through (rock climbing) and an hour of walk along the sea shore to reach the foot of the mountain. In short, it was a warm up before climbing. We climbed the mountain for 5 hours and some of us experienced muscle cramps. Some of us took the chance to take some pictures during the breaks. The view was awesome, trees everywhere even along the cliff side of the mountain. It was the first time I saw fire flies up in close. They’re like stars glowing in the dark. We reached the camp site at around 6:30PM. We went down the mountain at around 10 AM. We went to the beach as our side trip. It was one hell of an exercise and a great experience as well. We will repeat this kind of adventure soon.
Lakers win game 1 versus Spurs
What a game! The Lakers rallied from a 20 point deficit to clinch a win against the mighty spurs 89-85. Kobe was just awesome during the fourth quarter. It was another Jordanesque performance. Wait, let reiterate that. It was another Kobe performance. Kobe scored only 2 points in the first quarter and added 4 more at the ebd of the half. But he erupted in the 4th quarter to finish with 27 points, 6 rebounds, and 9 assists. It was enough to lift the Lakers against the spurs. Of course, he got a lot of help from his teammates. Pau Gasol had 19 points and seven rebounds, Sasha Vujacic and Vladimir Radmanovic had 10 points a piece. Tim Duncan had monster performance with a game high 30 points, 18 rebounds, and 4 blocked shots. Tony Parker had 18 points and 10 rebounds. Tim was just a monster in the middle, ripping Ronnie Turiaf and Pau Gasol’s defense apart for an easy bucket. Too bad they went cold in the fourth quarter. I’m sure this is a pain staking lose for the spurs which will seek vengeance against the Lakers in Friday night’s(Saturday For Philippine viewers) game 2 at staples center. Over all, it was a team effort by the Lakers to clinch the win. What a rally by the Lakers. What a game!
Source: http://sportsline.com/nba/gamecenter/recap/NBA_20080521_SA@LAL
Worst “Healthy” Beverages in America EXPOSED!!!
I knew soda was bad for your health, but this one really surprised me. This article that was shared to me by my friend is a bit shocking. I mean, how could some juice be bad for your health? The answer is the sugar and calories they take everyday. Thats just the gist of it. Read on and gain some info about what I’m saying.
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Americans have a drinking problem, and not the type you might think. After posting a blog a few weeks ago called “Belt-Busting Beverages,” we received hundreds of comments from the Yahoo community claiming they had no idea the stuff they drink could be so hazardous to their waistlines.
Here’s a typical refrain voiced by one disturbed drinker: “I know a lot of people that are battling with their weight, and they tell me all the time, ‘I don’t eat that much, and I still can’t lose weight.’ ”
Whether you are a desperate dieter or just someone looking to drop another few pounds in time for beach season, here’s a tough stat to swallow: According to the FDA, the average American takes in 82 grams of added sugars every day. That’s 20 teaspoons, which contribute an empty 317 calories to our already calorie-saturated diets.
Sure, some of that comes from soda, but even if you’ve traded regular Coke for diet, whole milk coffee drinks for low-fat lattes, and you barely touch the booze, you could still be taking in 20 percent or more of your calories from beverages. Add a few of those other indulgences in — or consume one of the liquid disasters listed here — and you can suddenly be sucking in a few days’ worth of calories through a straw!”
Here are some examples of those unhealthy beverages
- “Glaceau VitaminWater (any flavor; 20 oz bottle)
130 calories
33 grams sugarVitamins and water might sound like the ultimate nutritional tag team, but what the label doesn’t say is that a bottle of this stuff carries nearly as much sugar and calories as a can of Coke. Makes sense, though, since this so-called functional beverage is produced by our often-sugar-crazy friends at The Coca-Cola Company.
- Jamba Juice Peanut Butter Moo’d Power Smoothie (30 oz)
1,170 calories
169 g sugars
30 g fatJamba Juice calls it a smoothie; we call it a milkshake, with more sugar than an entire bag of chocolate chips. (Note: We’re pretty sure this is the drink Hollywood actors rely on when looking to put on 20 pounds for the role as a heavy!)
- Baskin Robbin’s Large Heath Bar Shake (32 oz) aka the Unhealthiest drink in America
2,310 calories
266 g sugar
108 g fat (64 g saturated)Let’s look at America’s Worst Drink in numbers:
73: The number of ingredients that go into this milkshake.
66: The number of teaspoons of sugar this drink contains.
11: The number of Heath Bars you would have to eat to equal the number of calories found in one Baskin Robbins Large Heath Bar Shake.
8-12: The average number of minutes it takes to consume this drink.
240: The number of minutes you’d need to spend on a treadmill burning it off, running at a moderate pace.”
Shocking isn’t it? I for one love drinking some of this beverages, especially the health bar shake. Well, now I know.
source: http://health.yahoo.com/experts/eatthis/5027/americas-unhealthiest-drinks-exposed/
Never Quit
Now this is something inspiring. My sister sent this through email, and encouraged me to face all challenges in life. I hope this one will inspire others as well. Enjoy!
One day I decided to quit…
I quit my job, my relationship, my spirituality. .. I wanted to quit my life.
I went to the woods to have one last talk with God.
His answer surprised me…
“Look around”, He said. “Do you see the fern and the bamboo?”
“When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them.
In the second year the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful.
And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo. He said.
“In year three there was still nothing from the bamboo seed.
In year four, again, there was nothing from the bamboo seed. I would
not quit.” He said.
“Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. Compared
to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant. ..But just 6
months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall.
It had spent the five years growing roots. Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive.
I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle.”
He asked me. “Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots”.
“Don’t compare yourself to others.”
“Your time will come”, God said to me.
“How high should I rise?”
“How high will the bamboo rise?” He asked in return.
“As high as it can?” I questioned.
“Yes.” He said, “Give me glory by rising as high as you can.”
I left the forest and brought back this story.
Never, Never, Never Give up.
For the Christian Prayer is not an option but an opportunity.
Don’t tell the Lord how big the problem is,
tell the problem how Great the Lord is!
Pollution Can KILL
I know pollution is bad for our health, but I didn’t know it was this bad. It says that Particulate matter (PM) harms our blood vessel functions which could lead to death. By the way, PM is the 13th leading cause of death worldwide. Just read the article below to learn more about it.
“Pollution Particles Impair Blood Vessel Function
Just a few hours of exposure to particulate matter air pollution can increase blood pressure and harm blood vessel function within 24 hours, a new study finds.
The findings may explain why air pollution can trigger a range of cardiovascular events such as heart attack, heart failure and stroke, the researchers said.
Particulate matter (PM) is a component of air pollution emitted from vehicles, power plants, and factories. It’s believe that PM is the 13th leading cause of death worldwide, but the link between PM and death hasn’t been well understood.
“Not everyone is equally at risk to the effects of poor air quality,” researcher Robert Brook, an assistant professor of medicine, division of cardiovascular medicine, University of Michigan, said in a prepared statement.
“Yet, as traffic worsens and millions of vulnerable people are exposed to PM, it is incumbent upon us to understand how and why people are affected so that we can take steps to limit our personal exposure — and consider making broader changes to the public agenda to control air pollution,” Brook said.
In the study, researchers looked at adults living in Toronto and Ann Arbor, Mich.
In Toronto, 30 adults, aged 18 to 50, were exposed for two hours to concentrated ambient PM (CAPS alone), CAPS and ozone, ozone alone, or filtered air. Exposure to air pollution that contains PM (CAP or CAP and ozone) resulted in an average diastolic blood pressure increase of 3.6 mm/Hg. Blood vessel function was impaired 24 hours after (but not immediately after) all exposures to all exposures containing PM, but not ozone alone.
In Ann Arbor, 50 adults were pre-treated with either the antioxidant vitamin C — which blocks the vasoconstrictor hormone endothelin (bosentan) — or placebo. Diastolic blood pressure increased between 2.5 and 4.0 mm/Hg during all exposures. However, blood pressure function was not impaired at any time after all exposures, and blood pressure returned to normal within 10 minutes after exposure.
The fact that vitamin C didn’t block the blood pressure response suggests that it’s likely caused by a sudden increase in sympathetic nervous system activity.
The findings confirm that PM, not ozone, is responsible for the rapid increase in diastolic blood pressure and that this occurs only during actual inhalation of PM. The research also confirms that PM impairs blood vessel function one day after exposure. However, this blood vessel function response occurred only in Toronto, which suggests that the composition of PM or its source may play a role in determining that kind of response, the researchers said.
The study was expected to be presented Wednesday at the American Society of Hypertension annual meeting, in New Orleans.
These findings are a springboard for further study that will specifically determine how the sympathetic nervous system responds and to what types of particles in air pollution,” Brook said. “But this glimpse helps us determine the triggers behind a range of CV events — some deadly. Learning how this dangerous cascade starts can help the medical and public health community make advances toward limiting their impact in the future.”
Source: http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=8326346&nav=menu183_5_14
Yeah, every person living in this world is vulnerable and we must take certain steps to lessen the pollution. Cars, cigarettes, industrial wastes, factories, power plants, etc. destroys every living creature in this planet including us. If our planet is destroyed, we’re toast! We gotta do something to lessen this pollution to save not just ourselves, but our planet as well.
Kobe Wins MVP
After 12 seasons, Kobe Bryant finally won an MVP award. How did he win it? Lets look at the stats. He averaged 28.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 5.4 assists during the regular season. His average this season is lower compared to the past two years where he compiled 30+ points per game. The last two seasons, with Kobe scoring sky high, the Lakers ended up being knocked out in the first round. Today, they ended up with what? They claimed the Number 1 spot in the tight Western Conference, swept the Nuggets in the first round, and are up by one to nothing against the Jazz. A complete turn around compared to the last two seasons. It shows that scoring 30+ points per game won’t win you any MVPs. To win it, a player will have to make his teammates better and become a contender. That is what Kobe has done. That is what made Kobe the MVP. My idol is todays MVP!
Source: Picture from LAtimes.com
Lakers-Jazz Match up
This sunday (Monday for Philippines), the Lakers will take Jazz head on to an expected long physical game. During the season itself, the Lakers have the winning advantage 4-1 against the Jazz. The Lakers hold the best record against the West with 57-25 taking the home court advantage of this upcoming series. By the way, Derek Fisher will take on his former team. He left the Jazz due to some medical reasons for his daughter. Currently, LA gave Fisher’s daughter the medical treatment there is. With that, Derek returned to the Lakers like a prodigal son. Expect some booing when he plays in Salt Lake City, only this time, against his former team. Derek Fisher was a former Laker too by the way. Let us see the Key match up between two coaches, namely Phil Jackson and Jerry Sloan:
-The two coaches have “a staggering 2,065 regular-season victories and 273 playoff wins”
-Both met at the finals twice with Phil Jackson winning the the two. (Bulls-Jazz) Bulls won the two championship games both in just six games.
LET THE GAMES BEGIN!
source: http://www.latimes.com/sports/basketball/nba/lakers/la-sp-firstlook3-2008may03,0,2343428.story
Masturbation prevents Prostate Cancer
This article made me laugh in a while, but what it says may be true. Some say that masturbation is a bad thing to do. But this article made me think that it is a good thing, well scientifically speaking. It is said that carcinogens builds up and causes cancer if a person does not ejaculate regularly. Well, just read this article to have a better view of what I am saying.
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Frequent masturbation may help men cut their risk of contracting prostate cancer, Australian researchers have found. It is believed that carcinogens may build up in the prostate if men do not ejaculate regularly, BBC News reported on Wednesday. The researchers surveyed more than 1,000 men who had developed prostate cancer, and 1,250 men who had not. They found that men who had ejaculated the most between the ages of 20 and 50 were the least likely to get cancer. Men who ejaculated more than five times each week were a third less likely to develop prostate cancer.
Sexual intercourse may not have the same effect because of the higher risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease, which could in turn raise the risk of cancer. “Had we been able to remove ejaculations associated with sexual intercourse, there should have been an even stronger protective effect of ejaculations,” Graham Giles of the Cancer Council Victoria, who led the researchers, said in the article.
The prostate produces a fluid that is incorporated into ejaculation, which activates sperm and prevents them from sticking together. Studies on animals have shown that carcinogens like 3-methylchloranthrene can be harbored in the prostate. Frequent ejaculation encourages the cancer-inducing fluids to “flush out.”
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/po/20080421/co_po/masturbationmaypreventprostatecancer
To Eat or Not to Eat
I got this from Yahoo, saying that some foods from a fast food chain would give you less calories compared to others. More of, its a matter of choosing the right food from the right fast food chain. To have a better view of what I’m saying, just read this article.
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Take, for example, America’s two most famous burgers: the Whopper with Cheese and the Big Mac. A fair fight, right? Well, if you go for the Arch alternative, you’ll save 220 calories over the BK Behemoth. (A Big Mac has 540 calories and 29 grams of fat, compared to the Whopper’s 760 calories and 47 grams of fat!)
Use that strategy for every burger you eat in 2008, and you’ll save 22,000 calories - the equivalent of almost six pounds of body fat. You don’t have to (nor should you) live on Big Macs; pick an even leaner burger and save even more.
See, the way you pick your favorite fixes - from burgers to banana splits - could help you make the transition from chubby to chiseled. In researching our new book Eat This, Not That!, we found that the most effective weight-loss strategy doesn’t require you to abandon the foods you love, but simply to make better choices when selecting them.
Supplement that approach with plenty of fresh produce and lean protein throughout the week, and you’ll trade failed diets and wild weight fluctuations for healthy eating patterns and a lean, new you. And once you learn how it’s done, you can stay that way forever. Who wouldn’t make that swap?”
For example:
“Beer
Drink This:
Guinness Draught
125 calories
10 g carbohydrates
Not That!
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
175 calories
15 g carbohydrates
Save 50 calories a beer!
Surprised? Most people think of Guinness as a beer milkshake: dark, thick, and rich enough to inspire guilt at first sip. But switch out a six-pack a week and you’ve just saved yourself more than four pounds this year. Extend those savings even further with Beck’s Premier Light: At 64 calories a bottle, it doesn’t get any lighter than this.
Doughnut
Eat This:
Dunkin’ Donuts Glazed Donut
230 calories
10 g fat
12 g sugars
Not That!
Dunkin’ Donuts Glazed Cake Donut
330 calories
18 g fat
18 g sugars
Save 100 calories and 8 grams of fat!
Both are cloaked in sugar, but their original doughnuts are light and airy because they’re made with yeast, and cake donuts are heavy and dense because they’re made with cake batter. Remember: Cake is not a breakfast food. ”
So it really is a matter of choice.
Source: http://health.yahoo.com/experts/eatthis/1488/6-fat-melting-food-swaps/
Under Construction
Finally, I got my own blog. But still, this website of mine is still undergoing some improvements for it to look better and be reader friendly. Soon, it will be done. Just a couple of tweaks here and there.
Drag Racer 3
