The 10-km challenge

No pain, no gain..

Studies show that the recommended time for weight-loss exercise is half and hour of brisk walking.
If you do this every day, you will shed off some fat from your waist.
On the average, 30-minutes of walking is roughly about 2.7km.
With this, you burn about 382 calories. In one hour, that's about 5.10km and two hours of exercise yields about 10km.
Walking is a low-impact form of exercise and if you decide to change your lifestyle, you can schedule it into your daily life.
I started by walking 5km a day which is split into two sessions: morning and late at night.
Why? Mornings around my neighbourhood can be quiet and since I live in a gated and guarded community, safety is never an issue.
A loop around the neighbourhood is roughly around 1.7km. This is sustainable on a long-term basis.
I begin my walk at 7.30am and to complete 5km, it takes around one hour.

Endomondo is a free-app for fitness

Details of the workout

Google Fit utilizes the smartphone's G-sensors for step-count

My average steps

Total distance clocked

Technology helps..

To keep track of progress, I use Endomondo fitness tracker. This is complement with my Mi Fit app and Mi Band (which has been bricked).
The Endomondo app has a voice-enabled notification. Once you have activated the app, the first thing it does, is to acquire satellites for a fix on your position.
When you hit the "start" button, the apps begins to record progress. At the end of 1km, it gives your pace and distance.
My average pace per 1 km is between 10 - 12 minutes.
In addition to Endomondo, I had Google Fit installed on my Xiaomi Redmi 2 smartphone. This becomes a back-up solution for the Mi Band and records steps and calories.

Sir Naughty, my 10-year-old Siberian Husky is part of my exercise routine

The face of contentment after a good workout

Atomic Huskies

My highly-energetic pooch provides company during my routine 10km/day walk. I decided to bring them along as they are very active dogs. They need the exercise to expand their energy and walking them in two sessions to clock-in 10km in a day helps.
But, before I took them for the long walk, I got them conditioned for a 2.7km walk and increased the distance to 5.11km and eventually, 10km.
They are comfortable with the distance and also kept me company during the workout.

Pan-fried chicken breast with tomatoes and onions

Eating well

Managing weight-loss is a routine that comes in pairs.
First, you will have to eat right.
Since July 16, I have been going easy on my carbohydrates.
I began by reducing my rice intake.
For breakfast, it's a wholemeal sandwich followed by rice for lunch.
I've began to wean off rice by eating only meat and vegetables for dinner.
It took some getting used to, but I am slowly conditioning my body to accept this.

So far, so good

I weighed-in at 101.0kg in mid-June. I have been walking for a month and clocked-in more than 280km in total distance. My present weight is 92.7km with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 28.6 (anything above 28 is considered as "obese"). My target weight loss is at 85kgs and I will begin weight training to firm up my body.
So, is 10km difficult? Not so if you love to walk and split your workout into two sessions in a day. 
Commitment is very important in this case and there's really no excuse to be lazy.

Return of the Curve..

After a long absence..

There aren't many good-quality 16" folding bikes out there.
Those that are worthy of a mention includes the Dahon Curve D3, XL and SL. 
While the XL and SL has long been discontinued, Dahon maintained the lower-end Curve as one of their main stable bikes in the 16" category.

Dahon improved the 2015 Curve i3 with a Shimano Nexus-3 drivetrain

Be prepared to pay..

Typically, a Dahon Curve D3 back in the early days (introduced in 2008) would cost around RM1,600.

The new Curve i3, now, with Shimano Nexus3 gearing, is priced at RM2,089 (inclusive of GST).

You are paying for a China-frame with basic components. And by today's standards, it's way overpriced compared to the readily available options from other China manufacturers.

The Curve i3, folded

How it handles? 

 

It's a basic bike with a 3-speed hub gear, weighing around 11kgs. It folds neatly into a compact package so that you can bag it during your commute into the city centre in a bus or on the train.

By saying "basic", you don't get all the luxury of high-end components. 

But, that said, the Curve is pretty hardy. 

The earlier models were bundled with a pair of Schwalbe 16x20 Big Apple tires. This gave it a really comfy ride.

Handling-wise, you might the small bike a bit "twitchy", so, for riders with no experience, it's would not ride as well as a large bike. But if you train yourself to ride it, you will overcome all the "shortcomings", well, literally..

Where to buy? 

Johnny Ng from My Bicycle Shop has a few in stock. Quantities are limited because the Malaysian distributor is not really interested to sell this bike. To get a closer look (sorry, no test-rides), give Johnny a call at: 016-632 2599.

First-impressions: Xiaomi Redmi 2

The "China-syndrome"

There's a saying that goes: "Cheap thing no good, good thing no cheap.."
And in moments of desperation, one would seek solace in China-made budget product that won't hurt the wallet.
My HTC One M8 took a head dive onto the pavement and cracked it's glass screen. The damage was serious enough to warrant a trip to the HTC-appointed service centre in Low Yat Plaza and I made it back just hours before some hooligans thrashed the place.
Jokes aside, with the high-end smartphone benched, I had nothing but an older HTC One X+.
This phone, though only more than three years old, is now a heap of junk. It tends to hang with multiple apps running the background.
It's Android KitKat OS can't be upgraded. Old is old and having seen the rapid pace of development in smartphone technology, the best thing to do for the old phone, is to put a broadhead through it's screen.
So, there I was, in search of a stop-gap measure before the HTC is ready for collection. The worse part was the turnaround time: 1 - 4 weeks.
With that in mind, my choice back-up phone is the Xiaomi Mi4i. But the cost was out of my present budget.
That said, the next best thing was the Xiaomi Redmi 2.
This one's a 64-bit quad-core 1.2GHz machine that has the speed to rival the older HTC One X+.
But, it has a really small RAM at 1GB and an internal flash memory of 8GB.

The Redmi 2

Quality and finish

Out of the box, the Xiaomi Redmi 2 is nothing but solid.
I don't see any flaws at all on this budget phone.
Specs-wise, it fulfills my needs for a 4G-LTE phone that the HTC One X+ does not have.
The casing is made of plastic and it doesn't really look and feel like some cheap at all.

Performance

The 64-bit Snapdragon 410 processor is pretty impressive for a basic phone like the Redmi 2 if you don't run a lot of apps.
Way I see it, the only drawback with this basic phone, is the speed tends to lag when you run memory-eating apps simultaneously.
I found this when I activated the Endomondo fitness tracker with GPS and at the same time, try to take a snapshot with the phone's camera.
As far as the user-interface is concerned, Xiaomi's MiUi 6 OS is smooth operating and simple.
It's responsive and not cluttered.
The only thing I need to get used to: is the home and back buttons because it's different from how HTC lays out their smartphones.
As for the camera, well, I'd say I've seen better ones like the Motorola Moto-G.
The HTC One M8 takes the cake in terms of producing high-quality images and videos. But for a phone under RM400 (RM399 for the Redmi 2 8GB version through Xiaomi's official website), you can't complain.
This phone costs even more at the retail stores, the lowest you can get is round RM450 without GST.
While the camera is only so-so, what I found impressive on this phone - is the music player. You can set the sound equalizer and there are preset features optimized to complement Xiaomi's range of in-ear headphones. 
In short, the sound produced by the music player on this little phone is good.
As far as call-quality is concerned, the Redmi 2 delivers. The speakers are crisp and clear.
The only thing that I can't get used to, is the small keyboard. My fingers tend to slide over to the wrong key when typing. So, if you have large hands, that's bad news.
Other than a few shortcomings. there's hardly any fault you can find on this awesome budget phone.
On a daily-basis, I use the Redmi for my Mi Band fitness tracker and the Mi Fit apps to track my daily activities.

And updated version

Xiaomi is now offering and enhanced version of the Redmi 2 with a 2GB RAM and 16GB Flash memory and is being sold directly from Xiaomi at RM459 a piece. Best of all, you can get aftermarket soft cases for the phone at only RM10. For more information, you can head to Xiaomi Malaysia's official website