Dare to be Fit ‘n Right

Say “Fit ‘n Right” and immediately you picture the sweet Del Monte drink running down your throat, making you feel healthy.  Del Monte and SM Taste Asia presented a unique health/wellness/lifestyle blogging event called Dare to be Fit ‘n Right last Friday.

Fitness isn’t all about being thin enough to fit in a pair of x-sized jeans, nor is it about being buff, as master Coach Jim Saret relates — it’s about being healthy, losing x-number-of-pounds or developing biceps is just a bi-product.  It’s about being well-rounded.

He’s done talks for offices, corporations — trains atheletes/champions, even, but give him bloggers — the diverse diversity of mostly-on-their-chairs/in-front-of-computers/junkfood-munching/perpetually-caffeine-hooked (mostly)/probably-too-busy-with-other-things-to-workout types — well, he’s got just the thing for that.

The human body (and how it works) is a science, and he’s a sports scientist.

The group get a full-on scientific explanation (basically) on why we’re … unhealthy.  Sedentary lifestyles coupled with unhealthy nutrition equates to most of us.  The inactive body, may, on its own, burn off 1800 calories a day by being inactive, but couple that with that giant burger, soda and other various junk?  That equates to more calories than the inactive body can burn out in a day.

I’ll try and encapsulate the futile efforts for being unhealthy, based on Coach Jim Saret’s presentation:

If you’re not getting any results, then you must have a lot of reasons.

That’s why he developed the FIT method.

The FIT method is a workout strategy designed to burn off as much as 400 calories by doing just 2/4-minute exercises.  Which is perfect for people-on-the-go, really.  It takes advantage of his extensive knowledge of how the body works, the science and backed by the testing he’s done via-athlete/champion-training.  It’s worked for champions — why shouldn’t it work for you?

But that’s just part of the equation.  Health also means a balanced nutrition.

Del Monte’s Fit ‘n Right has L-Carnitine, a naturally-occuring substance in the human body that, on living cells, helps transport the fatty acids into the mitochondria during the breakdown of the fats and helps generate metabolic energy.  (Essentially, a way for weight loss is speeding up metabolism.)

It also contains B and C vitamins which do all sorts of great things like speed up metabolism, maintain healthy skin tone and promote cell growth and division.

It also really helps that Fit ‘n Right comes in delicious flavors — of which, apple and watermelon are my favorites.  They also announced (and my mum likes this bit) that Fit ‘n Right now comes in liter bottles!  (A cousin points out that this is being advertised, but I haven’t seen television in quite a while to verify.)

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Also, Del Monte, in partnership with SM has organized the Dare to be Fit ‘n Right Fun Run 2009 — a running event on November 22 at the SM Mall of Asia.  Runners may register and choose the race they want to participate in: 3K, 5K or 10K, and is open to both men and women.

It’s also worth noting that there will be big prizes and it is for the benefit of typhoon victims through SM Foundation. 

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It was a pretty fun and educational event.  A big plus was getting to see some of my blogger friends to try out the FIT method — active participation after the discussion!  Also, Coach mistook my flab for a 6-pack, so that’s something.  (I held my breath that time. )

A very big special THANKS to Del Monte Fit ‘n Right and SM Taste Asia for this great opportunity for a healthy change. 

Thanks to Azrael for the heads up and blogger friends for the awesome time. 

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Also, line for the night: “nasa labas, nagpapa-picture.”  Blast.  :p

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[Image above from Azrael's album. ]

3 Most Recent Spectacular Flash Mobs

Flash mobs – a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time, and then quickly disperse.

There have been several notable flash mobs in the past, but let’s look at some that have recently been in the news — ones that didn’t cause too much of a disruption in public, but was also used to commemorate something. It’s easy to dismiss flash mobs as something of a sort of advertising, but hey, if you’ve ever seen one unfold right.before.your.eyes, it’s definitely something.

(Sorted in the chronological order.)

Michael Jackson Dance Tribute – This has been a central theme in MJ videos of the past — a large congregation of people (dancers) suddenly bursting into the middle and then doing their thing. This particular flash mob was done to celebrate MJ’s contribution to the arts — and I know there are only too many MJ fans willing to lend a hand on this one. Just before the video ends, it also encourages other cities all around the world to do the same: beat it.

Jollibee Flash Mob in MOA – This one strikes closer to home, not only because this one happened in the Philippines, but I WAS THERE. If you’ve ever fancied living a Jollibee commercial, where everyone is happy, dancing and just overall celebrative of life — this is one to watch. Notice how, even in video form, you could just feel the energy of the crowd, both curious and entertained at the spectacle happening. Hey, if life was as sweet as the ‘Bee sees things, then maybe breaking out in song/dance spontaneously could become a national past time.

Oprah 24th Season Surprise – The Black Eyed Peas and the Oprah staff decided to surprise Oprah for the 24th Season kick-off for her show. Rigorous planning involving 20 professional dancers, 800 people + 20000 more Chicago citizens decided to start dancing in sync to the special “I Gotta Feeling” mix by the Black Eyed Peas. From the video, you could trace Oprah’s shock at the lukewarm reception of the crowd (at first) then the synchronized dancing.

Unless people start disrupting Ayala traffic one of these days, I’m gonna be on the watch out for the next big flash mob!

love in the time of coca-cola.

My name is Paolo, and I’m a Coke-aholic.

If you know me, then you probably know about my run-ins with Coke-ahol in the past.

Shaving off my hermit-beard (but still in bad need of a haircut), I left the batcave to attend the Buhay Coke ng Bloggers thing at MoA.

Fast-forward to around 7:30, went in with Drei and Ven, and among the dozens of new faces, I saw a good buddy of mine. (Okay, so it was the Coke.) Saw Gary and new-best friend Chai — Drei and Ven left for Get Smart — so we sat ourselves down.  BTW, I saw Arpee by the entrance, hehe.

I saved the seats and exploited the FREE Coke thing while Gary and Chai set out for the buffet. The usual buffet rule applies: the amount of time you spend not falling in line is inversely proportional to the variety of food you’ll get.

A thing I did notice though, is that there were a lot of new faces (and this isn’t just the hermit talking) during this event. (And yes, I say that and it sounds like I know everyone’s face, but really, it’s pretty cool to know that each and every one of these new faces is entering the blog scene.)

Fortunately, Chai got sum squids — hence the new-best friend thing.

A couple of pounds later, I spotted Jori and he joined up in our table. He pointed towards Tarugoman — and while we were saying our hellos to people inside, we witnessed some banana-dancing bloggers. (LOL)

We moved outside and we drank. And smoked. And talked with Jayvee about Age of Conan and that Warhammer MMO.

Cathie arrives, while we continued to drink. And smoke. Missing out on the costume contest thing — olats.

Jori, Iggy, Mike (tama ba?) from TFPH set out to watch Wanted. Azrael arrived just a couple of minutes after the Wanted group left, and a little while later, Gary and Chai left too — leaving me with Cathie and her sister, Tin, along with John. (Around this time the venue was slowly turning into a disco, of sorts, lol.) Cathie told me that they were about to leave, and since I was going to have to wait ’til Get Smart was finished; I started chatting up fellow bloggers beside me. (Arvin and Red) How sad would it be to be hanging out with a case of Coke? (I asked for a couple more cans of Coke.)

Introduced Whored myself out to Coy and Kring, both of whom introduced me to a couple of their blogger friends. (This was cool, since I was looking for some allies to kill time with.)

Met Joe, Poyt, Eric, Marcelle and Juned. And also, instead of hogging all the new blogger friends, I introduced them to the other bloggers I met earlier. (Connector? LOL — it was nice meeting you guys!)

While this was all happening, Get Smart ended a bit early, so essentially, I was getting picked up from daycare. It was time to go back to the cave.

All in all, (lahat sa lahat, yeh) I had a blast! Thanks to Coke and SM Hypermarket for making this happen. And thanks to Aileen’s ever-active Plurking for the live updates of this event.

Photos here. (Feel free to grab ‘em)

LINK LOVE:

Arpee Gary Chai Jori Jayvee Iggy Aileen Cathie Tin Azrael Red Arvin Coy Kring Joe Poyt Eric Marcelle Juned

that taste of asia thing.

(photo from CliqueBooth.com)
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Went to the Taste of Asia blogger’s dinner at MoA the other night with my officemates and we all had a blast!

Upon entering the venue, what immediately struck me was how it seemed like everyone knew everyone else. (Save for our group, well, except for Jonas.) And so I stuck with the familiar friends who were there — Coke and chocolate.

Paul, a periodic winner (yes, winner) from the site was there. We all knew him of course, since he just claimed his PSP prize a week prior.

And then we got down to business: the food! The usual buffet rule applies: the amount of time you spend not falling in line is inversely proportional to the variety of food you’ll get. We were in the so-so region of that rule, so while several dishes that were hits was disappearing, we still got enough of the good stuff. (Loved the fish fillet! — Pero they did refill on those other dishes, … Calamares!)

Twenty-or-so pounds later, (haha) I went back inside to make a few new allies. First, I pulled Paul into joining my little scheme of getting to know people. Next step was to actually start getting to know people. There was this girl (Cathie!) who was trying to squeeze through our direction, so we blocked her and introduced ourselves, and asked if she knew anyone, you know, to get introduced to. We were then introduced to people from mabutingbalita.net and some of her other friends. (Gary! Happy! Kirby! Jun! Jomar!)

I saw Jori talking to someone he thought he knew, (who turned out to be someone he really knew,) so I introduced myself … only to get (pleasantly) interrupted by my name repeatedly being called out on stage — I won a goodie bag! And so did Cheekie and Ann, who got called after me, so I’ll never doubt Paul’s probability-altering powers.

The goodie bag contained: a pink umbrella-ella-ella-eh-eh-eh, a shirt, two pairs of lady socks (one I traded with Cathie, while the remaining one became known as “The Gift of Sock” for Happy … apir!) a ton of Bidwise gem cards and a notebook, that, upon closer inspection at home later, was filled from page-to-page with boys in briefs.

We then started orbiting the Cliquebooth … booth, and had our pictures taken, to make the moment last longer. We all exchanged blog URLs and decided to call it a day. You guys rock!

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As most of you guys know, I’m a Damien Rice fan. — Has anyone else seen the video for “9 crimes”? A singing decapitated female head-balloon rates about a 9 on my odd-o-meter.

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Hitman! Movie!