• Eat breakfast! This is the most important meal of the day, so it should not be skipped.


• Reduce the amount of coffee, tea and cola that you drink, and replace them with water, fruit juice or other healthy drinks.


• Eat healthier snacks. Eat carrots, dry breakfast cereal, nuts (yuck), rice cakes, rye, crisp breads, bagels or toast (ooh, yum!) rather than chips, chocolate bars and sweets (aww...)


• Reduce sugary foods, for example by eliminating sugar from tea, coffee and breakfast cereal.


• Reduce your intake of fatty foods. For example, reduce the amount of butter, margarine, fatty meat, beef burgers and chips that you eat.


• Drink plenty of fluids before a match, at half-time and after the mach, particularly in hot, humid weather. (This also helps prevent cramps during a game!)


• Avoid sugary snacks immediately before the start of a match. Fruit, such as bananas, or other carbohydrate-rick snacks are better. Avoid over-eating before a match. (Anyone bringing bananas to Friday's match? Welfare rep's not here...)


• Replace fluids, salts and carbohydrates that you have used during the match.

Diet and Recovery After A Match

Here are 4 tips to help you recover from a hard match or training session.

• Rest! And make sure you have enough sleep.


• Replace your body salts by eating. Most foods naturally contain salts, but fruit juices are particularly good choices, and these will also replace fluids.


• Replace your body carbohydrates by carbohydrate-rich foods within two hours after a match or training session.


• Drink plenty of fluids to replace those lost through sweat.

What Alcohol Does To You

When consumed in large amounts over time, alcohol can harm virtually every organ in your body; many of these effects are reversible with abstinence, others are not.

Esophagus: Alcohol is associated with nearly half of the cancers of the esophagus, mouth, and larynx. People who vomit too intensely after getting drunk can cause tears in their esophagus.

Brain: Alcohol depresses the central nervous system and contracts brain tissue (OMG, SALA, ARE YOU A SECRET ALCOHOLIC?!). And yes, it destroys brain cells (confirmed.) - which unlike many other types of cells in the body, do not regenerate. Taken in large amounts over a long period of time, alcohol can cause serious problems with cognition and memory.

Heart: Heavy drinking can cause heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and heart failure. Even social drinkers who binge on special occasions can sometimes get bouts of irregular heartbeats, a condition known as 'holiday heart'.

Lungs: Heavy drinkers have more pulmonary infections and can be more susceptible to pneumonia and lung collapse. An intoxicated person loses his reflexes and can't clear his airway when he vomits. Stomach contents may get sucked into the lungs, which can lead to choking or pneumonia.

Liver: Liver damage often begins with a fatty liver, and may progress to alcoholic hepatitis. That may be followed by the buildup of scar tissue known as cirrhosis. Cirrhosis can change the structre of the liver and choke off blood flow. This can cause varicose veins, which can rupture, triggering catastrophic bleeding.

Stomach: Alcohol irritates the stomach, and can cause gastritis, ulcers and acid refluc. Gastritis is an inflammation of the mucous membrane that lines the stomach. Erosion in that lining can cause constant oozing of blood into the stomach or, if a vessel ruptures, major bleeding.

Kidneys: Alcohol is a diuretic that increases urine output. Prolonged heavy drinking can cause kidney failure.

Small intestines and pancreas: Alcohol blocks the absorption and breakfown of nutrients by damaging the cells lining the stomach and intestines, and by decreasing the amount of digestive enzymes secreted by the pancreas. The pancreas can become inflamed and leak digestive enzymes, which then attack the pancreas itself.

Reproductive System: In men, it impairs the production of sperm and testosterone, and can lead to infertility and impotence. In women, the effect can be decreased estrogen metabolism in the liver which increases the amount of estrogen circulating in the body, which can contribute to menstrual irregularities and even infertility.

Blood: Prolonged alcohol abuse can cause anemias and abnormal blood clotting, which results in excessive bleeding and easy bruising. It also impairs the function of white blood cells, increasing susceptibility to infection.

Joints and muscles: Alcohol dependence can cause osteoporosis and arthritis, and deform the joints. It can atrophy muscles and cause acute muscles pain and weakness.

What Smoking Does To You

There's hardly a part of the human body that's not affected by the chemicals in the cigarettes you smoke.

Starting at the top: As a smoker, you're at risk for cancer of the mouth. Tobacco smoke can also cause gum disease, tooth decay and bad breath. The teeth become unsightly and yellow. Smokers may experience frequent headaches. Lack of oxygen and narrowed blood vessels to the brain can lead to strokes.

Lungs and bronchi: Smoke passes through the bronchi. Hydrogen cyanide and other chemicals in the smoke attack the lining of the bronchi, inflaming them and causing that chronic smoker's cough. Because the bronchi are weakened, you're more likely to get bronchial infections. Mucus secretion in your lungs is impaired, also leading to chronic coughing. Smokers are 10 times as likely to get lung cancer and emphysema as non-smokers.

Smoking and the Heart: Nicotine raises blood pressure and makes the blood clot more easily. Carbon monoxide robs the blood of oxygen and leads to the development of cholesterol deposits on the artery walls. All of these effects add up to an increased risk of heart attack. In addition, the poor circulation resulting from cholesterol deposits can cause strokes, loss of circulation in fingers and toes and impotence.

Smoking and the Body's Organs: The digestive system is also affected. The tars in smoke can trigger cancer of the esophagus and throat. Smoking causes increased stomach acid secretion, leading to heartburn and ulcers. Smokers have higher rates of deadly pancreatic cancer. Many of the carcinogens from cigarettes are excreted in the urine where their presence can cause bladder cancer, which is often fatal. High blood pressure from smoking can damage the kidneys.

The Results: The health effects of smoking have results we can measure. Forty percent of men who are heavy smokers will die before they reach retirement age, as compared to only 18 percent of non-smokers. Women who smoke face an increased risk of cervical cancer, and pregnant women who smoke take a chance with the health of their unborn babies.

Good News

But the good news is that when you quit smoking your body begins to repair itself. Ten years after you quit, your body has repaired most of the damage smoking caused. Those who wait until cancer or emphysema have set in aren't so lucky - these conditions are usually fatal.

____________________________________________________________________

Sorry, this is what happens when I clear up my room and find stuff. Shrug. There's plenty more where that came from. BEWARE.

11 November, 2008

Yokozo! Here's a VERY rare post from your not-noisy-enough [as quote SOMEONE] part-time team photographer.:) Whee.
Oh, just so you guys know, this is how obstructive [and somewhat intimidating] we are when we eat at coro.:D Now those of you present at lunch today can understand why that father and son combo turn-tailed when they saw us. Laughs.

Anyway this is the main point.. The team photos. Exco people! ...

... And everyone else! Haa..
As can be seen from these two photos, dear vice-captain sala values her personal space.:) Haha.

Oh, and, according to Weining [who gets acknowledgements for taking these photos], people who smile too much are likely to be terrorists.:) Henceforth, our team is chock full of potential terrorists! [Ain't that fun?:D] Except me. Hm. I know. Absolutely shocking... ... Ah well.

7:15 PM

09 November, 2008

pssst... the intrepid reporter is back after a long hiatus to report on some disturbing news...
on the 4th of Nov, a group if girls from the HC girls soccer team made a startling and disturbing discovery...
this discovery is nothing short of shocking, horrifying and whatever words with similar meanings you can think of...imagine their horror when they heard it...yes, IT! the heart-trembling, tremors-inducing, breathe-taking (erm, not in a good way, if u get wadimean...)...SOUND! yes THE sound...lemme start from the beginning...
it was a hot day, 10.30 am to be precise...(actually it's a rough estimation due to the lack of a watch by this intrepid reporter...) 5 girls were playing a match, a 3 v 3 match with THE MAN himself...yes, the all powerful COACH. this was due to the sudden dizziness by the 6th member who was there, leaving a gaping hole in one of the teams' lineup... THE MAN himself stepped in to bring up the numbers... (HEY, dont fall asleep! the discovery is coming!)
the match was exciting, both sides fought for goals... trying to avoid doing the push-ups that were threatened by THE MAN... n it was then, the intrepid reporter attempted to pull one over THE MAN with her teammate, snatching the ball from him...when the gastric juice inducing sound came... THE SOUND!
it came like a tsunami, caused by an earthquake in the south china sea that measured 9.8 on the Richter scale (if it was 10, Singapore would have been no more...)...that was in turn caused by the plates shifting and rubbing against each other, causing huge built-up of pressure that is finally released when...okok u get what i mean...
back to the point at hand, THE SOUND came crashing down on us like some giant chunk of road from the Nicoll Highway collapse, causing us to shiver in our shoes...oh my, i had nightmares for several days after...
THE SOUND would have been perfect in the scariest of all horror movies...the mother of all horror movies...it was terrifying, goosebumps-inducing...(any substitution for inducing?)...seriously, if THE SOUND was marketed near Halloween period, top dollars would have been placed to bid for it, as a result of the price inelastic demand curve of the product, leading to a shortage (the reporter DID NOT do well for her econs promos...)...the maker of THE SOUND would have easily become a millionaire...no kidding, no exaggeration..

so what was THE SOUND, and who was the producer of it... i'll leave it till the next post... till then!



JUST KIDDING! ;D

The producer was...*drumrolls*... yes, THE MAN himself, COACH! and the sound... psst, come closer, was his...WICKED WITCH LAUGHTER!!! OMG, i cowered beneath my desk while typing this...

for this report, the intrepid reporter has to go into hiding for a week in a rural area of China... for more updates, check this blog regularly...

Signing off,
the self-sacrificing INTREPID REPORTER!

11:34 AM

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HISTORY
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
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July 2009
December 2009
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010
July 2010
August 2011