Saturday, May 1, 2010
Picking The Right Milk For You
Just now I went to Egonutrition's store at Lot 10, just to survey the prices of few protein-supplements-prior-to-sleep (less active protein, like soy protein and casein protein) and guess what, they are relatively expensive! But that dude in that store just shared with me his experience (He's a bodybuilding athlete and got sponsored about RM3k per month to enter the bodybuilding tournament, and that money is just for the supplements!). He said, "If you need to gain weight and looking for a low-active protein to be consumed prior to sleep, but you are on tight budget, just go with a glass of milk, a low-fat milk. Milk contains cansein but yeah, it's not concentrated like those supplements."
You are right dude. In fact milk contains both casein and whey protein. But what are they? what so special about those two? I'll tell you that later in other different entry, but as for now, I just want to share few tips of how to pick the right milk for your diet, since they are plenty type of them available out there, but not many of us concern about it. This entry is actually a respond of my previous entry entitled "10 Tips of how to gain weight for dummies" (Some of you asked me about this before, so here you go...).
Full-cream milk is simply a whole milk that has had its cream blended in and homogenized. It has about 3.5% of fat.
My personal comment: This is a milk that recommended by a doctor and nutritionist to be given to a baby until they become a toddler. But most product specifically for babies have been fortified with stuffs that helps human growth along with antibiotics (like imunofortis in Dumex). This is totally consumable to all people, from younger people to elder.
Skim milk is a milk product with an extremely low fat percentage, less than 0.5% of fat. Some countries regard skim milk as "nonfat milk".
My personal comment: This is a milk that bodybuilders consume once after their workout along with whey protein. This is because fat will slow down the absorption of protein into the blood-stream; something that they need to avoid (because the muscle break-down need to be repaired quickly). This milk is also good for people who need to cut down their calorie intake in order to lose weight, though the taste is almost plain like a water.
Fresh milk is a milk that comes straight from the cow, goat, buffalo or Yak, it's unpasteurized, non homogenized, unadulterated milk. Nothing added or taken out.
My personal comment: For those who wants to gain weight, seriously look for this kind of milk, but I bet some of you won't like the strong smell. Notice that fresh milk also contains higher amount of cholestrol compared to other processed milks, so watch out.
1% milk is a reduced-fat milk that has about 1% of fat.
2% milk is a reduced-fat milk that has about 2% of fat.
My personal comment: These 2 are just at the middle, between 'skim milk' and 'whole/fresh milk'. You don't like the smell of fresh milk? You think full-cream milk has way too much fat, but you need to gain weight? Skim milk just taste suck like drinking a mineral water? Then these two work fine for you.
Other alternative other than described above?
Soy Milk
My personal comment: There is no such like nonfat soy milk available in the outlet, and most soy milk brands are loaded with too much sugar. But it is a good milk source for a vegetarian, and also for those who are allergic to cow's milk.
Nut Milk (groundnut, almond)
My personal comment: May not work for those who have allergy on nuts product, in fact it is quite expensive. Other comments are just like soy milk.
Anything to share, comments?
Thursday, April 29, 2010
A.P.I dan Pelita
Selamat sejahtera,
Rasanya dah lama aku tak review tentang album, artis mahupun lagu. Asyik-asyik cerita pasal diet, kesihatan, catatan sendiri, dan projek band (peribadi). Jadi kali ini aku rasa nak review satu lagu yang aku baru saja dengar masa balik kerja tadi, cuba teka lagu apa? Mestilah lagu yang tengah-tengah nak naik sekarang ni kan? Ok, jawapannya...
Siapa A.P.I? Itu shortform untuk 'Angkatan Pemuda Indie'. Mereka ni terdiri daripada Noh Hujan (vocal), Lan Typewritter (vocal/guitar), Din Homatov Estranged (guitar), Imran OBS (drum), AJ Pop Shuvit (bass) dan loQue MonoloQue/Butterfingers (piano). Dan lagu Pelita tu pula adalah lagu tema untuk filem 'Hooperz' yang sedang ditayangkan di pawagam-pawagam tanah air sejak 22 April yang lalu. Tapi aku bukan nak bercerita sangat pun pasal filem ni mahupun nak cerita sedikit sinopsis dia, aku cuma nak huraikan sedikit pendapat aku berkenaan lagu Pelita ni. Ye la, nama blog pun EsTOM, mestilah nak kena cerita yang berkaitan muzik..
Pada pendapat aku, lagu ni unik sebab dia gabungkan beberapa elemen utama yang ada dalam band Hujan, Butterfingers, dan Lan and The Typewriter sendiri. Itu yang paling ketara aku perasan sebab yang lain-lain tu aku tak berapa layan sangat lagu-lagu band mereka.
Kalau kita tengok lenggok dan susunan melodi untuk verse dan pre-chorus tu terang-terangan adalah milik Noh, sebagai contoh "apa yang telah daku temui, selama ini.." (Verse 1). Kalau diteliti, kita akan perasan yang Lan cuba untuk merendahkan range vokal dia untuk bahagian verse ni sebab dia nak sesuaikan vokal dia dengan range vokal Noh yang sedikit rendah.
"selagi hayat di kandung badan" untuk bahagian pre-chorus ni aku perasan seperti datang dari pengaruh 'Loque', berdasarkan penelitian dari pemilihan perkataan yang digunakan untuk lagu-lagu dalam album 'Kembali' (Butterfingers). Ini termasuk juga satu bahagian interlude yang berbunyi
Selagi tubuhku, belum ditimpa uzur!
pantang datuk nenek moyangku,
Berundur!
Secara keseluruhan, aku nampak susunan (arrangement) untuk lagu ni seperti datang dari pengaruh Lan and The Typewriter, kecuali kurangnya iringan gitar 'slide' campur 'clean chorus' seperti dalam lagu-lagu beliau, tetapi itu telah diganti dengan iringan piano yang dimainkan oleh brother Loque.
Itu saja pendapat spontan dan ringkas aku berkenaan lagu ni. Secara tersirat, aku rasa ni merupakan satu perkembangan yang sihat untuk industri muzik sebab secara tidak langsung kita dapat lihat bagaimana bunyi sebuah lagu apabila kita menggabungkan Hujan, Butterfingers, Lan, dan Pop Shuvit. Sebarang teguran terhadap entri ini amatlah dialu-alukan; seperti yang aku cakap dahulu, ilmu muzik aku ni tak seberapa.
P/S: Klik sini untuk menonton/mendengar "Pelita" oleh A.P.I.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Kitaran Internet OCD
Dengan nakalnya Najmi Aliff a.k.a Masamaun Chicken telah men-tag aku pada blognya berkenaan Internet OCD Cycle (rujuk post beliau di sini). Memang benar kata-kata beliau, kewujudan berbagai-bagai jenis website kat laman sesawang ni sungguh mengasyikkan hingga kita kadang-kadang lalat lalai dan lupa, terutamnya laman web sosial seperti Facebook. Nak dipendekkan cerita, berikut adalah kitaran OCD aku sendiri yang aku buat tak sampai 15 minit guna paint (cin cai cai).