Although it was just one hour but the amount of sweat and energy used  was quite abit. It is really fun especially you like fast music and like to train up your body =)

Kickboxing is very interesting because it keeps your mind simulated and it makes you feel stronger than ever. This was a great class and i Highly recommended for people who like to lose weight in a fun and fast way!

Found a series of kickboxing video that teaches you step by step! Enjoy!

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Yesterday i just read on newspaper that there are about 100 thousands Singaporeans that are not yet covered under the basic Medi-Shield provided by the government. Out of these group of people, housewives made up the most due to the fact that they are not working and they don’t see the need or don’t have the ability to protect themselves.

Based on 2008 records, there are 85% of Singaporean covered under the basic Medi-save.  For people aged between 21-65 years old, there are 85%  of women that are covered and 91% of men have also opt in for the shield plan.

Such figures are very worrying because this shows how vulnerable are the housewives in Singapore. Basically the reason for them not getting any shield plans is because of the fact that they are not working and most of them think they should not spend such money using their CPF money. However such money is the last thing that they should be saving on. Moreover women live longer than men and face more years of being ill towards the end of their lives. On average, women live up to 82 years and suffer 11 years of disability. Men on average live up to 77 years and suffer eight years of disability.

Most women are not working because they have decided to stay at home to take care of the children and it is the act of mother love. Hence shouldn’t the husband ensure that their lovely wife has the basic hospitalisation protection? In case some of you don’t know that as a family, we can use our CPF to purchase a hospitalisaton plan for our loved ones especially those who are not working.  It can be either children buying for parents, husband buying for spouse or parents buying for kids.

It is time that husbands out there should start to shower more concern for their wives by getting a shield plan for her. For those children who have been working, you may also considered getting one for your parents because if they ever incurred huge amount of medical bills, ALL the burden will fall on you. So it’s either you pay abit now to solve future problem or you can wait and pay one lump sum the next time. It’s something for you to ponder.

There are so many things that we can save and in my opinion, insurance and hospitalisation plans are the last thing that peopel should save on. I mean can you imagine incurred huge amount of medical bills when you are not working and have no abiility to pay for it? Isn’t it worse than you paying abit of your money out of the monthly budget that you have for yourself? I know most people will not think it is necessary and have the mindset that such unlucky event will not happen to them. But they don’t know the fact that accident & hospitalisation can happen to anyone at anytime.

As a matter of fact, Medi-shield provides very basic coverage and it is never enough in today’s context because of the rising medical costs. It is designed to help with large hospitalisation bills for the treatment of serious illnesses or prolonged hospitalisation at Class B2/C wards in restructured hospitals.  Therefore I have always strongly encouraged my clients to upgrade their Medi-shield to a private insurance company to enjoy the ‘As-charged’ basis coverage. For people who like to know more about it, feel free to drop me an email or give me a call  @ 96157116 for a FREE consultation =)

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Let me just go through the basic facts on Medishield:

1) MediShield is an individual catastrophic medical insurance designed to help Singaporeans pay part of  the large hospitalisation bills (80% only) for treatment of serious illnesses or prolonged hospitalisations at Class B2/C wards in restructured hospitals.

2) MediShield covers hospitalisation expenses and certain approved outpatient treatments, such as kidney dialysis, chemotherapy and radiotherapy for cancer treatment.

3) For Singaporeans who plan to use Class B1 or higher ward classes, you may wish to consider purchasing Medisave-approved private Integrated Shield Plans 

4) Expenses for treatments sought overseas cannot be claimed from MediShield but you can do so for private Intergrated Shield Plans.

5) MediShield claim for hospital stays in higher class wards or private hospital will be calculated based on a percentage(35%) of your hospital bill. Similarly, if you go for unsubsidised day surgery, your MediShield claim will be calculated based on a percentage(35%) of your bill

6) MediShield has Deductible and Co-insurance features which are payable with your Medisave or cash first, before the rest of the claim is payable from MediShield.

For all the above facts, the more you should privatise your basic shield plan because all private insurers provide ‘As-Charged’ basis for all the hospital bills. This will come out particularly very useful especially if you happen to be admitted for a long stay. The earlier you upgrade the plan, the less hassle you will face due to your health conditions. You do not want to face the situation whereby you will be subject to many exclusions.

If you have spare money, i will also advise you to go for the cash riders that can cover both the co-insurance and deductible expenses. So far, only NTUC and Aviva does not provides full coverage despite paying for the riders. The rest of the company (Pru, AIA & GE) does provide 100% coverage from the first dollar. I will STRONGLY encourage you to do so if you haven’t gotten one.

Faster inform your parents and act NOW! Don’t wait till things to happen and you regret!

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Recently there have been alot of bad news appearing on newspapers affecting the worldwide economy. In case you don’t read newspaper, the latest news that is going to affect the world is the SWINE FLU virus!

Basically what is swine flu?

• The swine flu virus causing concern (influenza type A, H1N1) appears to contain genetic material from human viruses, North American bird viruses and pig viruses. It may be completely new or it may have been around for a while having become only recently detectible due to new testing and surveillance procedures.

• As a number of cases have had no direct exposure to pigs, the concern with this virus is that it has the ability to transmit between humans. This is something that the H5N1 bird flu virus never really attained (Super Dangerous!).

• Young adults (20 to 35 year olds) are the hardest hit in Mexico.

• While it has apparently killed 150 or so people in Mexico, the death rate is unknown as thousands may
have been infected and simply recovered. So far there have been no reported deaths outside Mexico. For example, some New Zealand students who are thought likely to have contracted the swine flu after a trip to
Mexico don’t have severe symptoms and some reports indicate they appear to be recovering. As such the
deaths in Mexico may have something to do with its less able health care system. It is also worth noting that
hundreds of people die from flu every year anyway.

• More significantly, while there is no vaccine that protects against swine flu, two anti-viral drugs, Tamiflu
and Relenza, have been effective against the new strains according to the US Centers for Disease Control.

• Australia is well prepared with a stockpile of nearly 9 million doses of anti-viral drugs, including Relenza.
Australia also has a well developed plan to deal with a pandemic. Today many countries are also far better
prepared given all the concerns about bird flu over the last few years. Less developed countries are of course
more vulnerable

Singapore had experiened Sars (2003) & bird flu-H5N1 (05-06) and now we may be facing the new flu virus. I am very sure at this time, stock market must have catch a ‘flu’ also. News over the weekend about the deadly virus is shaking the whole financial market. So far, those british airline stocks were showing a fall of 10.60%, tokyo airlines and travel agency were also hit by the swine worries but only companies making drug treatments are earning.

From all the news all over the world, i guess we are really facing one of the worse hit recession and to people out there, please take care of yourself and make sure you don’t travel oversea at these period of time. Life is precious so treasure it! Hope you are also covered by private shield plan to ensure your hospital bills are taken care of!

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She seemed to have a successful life ahead of her when her life turned upside down.
On the 4th March 2009, she was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL).
She was shocked to hear the news, and said that she did not think it would really happen to her. However, she was faced with the reality that cancerous cells are spreading in her body.
ALL is a type of blood cancer, otherwise known as acute lymphoblastic leukemia or acute lymphoid leukemia. It is the most common type of leukemia in children under age 15. The risk of getting ALL increases in people ages 45 and older.

Her medical fees are a constant worry for her parents. She is currently undergoing treatment at the National University Hospital, and she will need a prolonged period of chemotherapy. Each treatment session costs about S$50,000. The medical bills is estimated to come to S$400,000. Zhang is also expected to undergo a bone marrow transplant soon.

Now, she and her family are faced with a medical bill of $400,000 while her insurance only covers for $30,000 and it is quite impossible for her parents to afford the remaining $370,000 bill. Her father, a Chinese government official, earns a monthly salary of approximately S$449. Her mother is unemployed.

This story spurs me to point out that health insurance is really a necessity for everybody, even for foreigner. It is the single most important insurance in one’s life. Everybody knows how expensive hospitalization and treatment cost are in Singapore or any other countries.

You should not let hospital bills to sap all your hard earned money. Let insurance takes care of it. Thus, please equip yourself with a hospitalization plan now before you regret it as a tragedy or illness can strike anyone, anytime and anywhere. 

In the mean time, Zhang’s friends in NUS have already started a donation drive to help her raise the money for treatment. NUSSU President Kuan Yee Han revealed that as of date, S$125,000 has been raised. If you want to make a donation, please visit the students’ Facebook group: Save her life, Save her dream. You can also, visit the blog: Bless Xiao’ ou.

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If you want to live a long and healthy life but are a smoker, you should seriously consider quitting. Not easy to quit, you say? True, but if you follow these tips faithfully, you should be able to stop smoking for good fairly quickly.

The mind has two parts: the conscious and subconscious. You might want to stop smoking because it is bad for your health (conscious reason), but you still want to smoke because smoking makes you feel good about yourself (subconscious reason).

However, if you have decided to quit for the sake of your family, friends and loved ones, there is a proper way to do so.

1. First sit down and write down why you want to quit (the benefits of quitting):
Live longer, feel healthy, for your family’s sake, save money, smell better, whiter teeth, find a mate more easily, etc.
You know the damages that smoking can bring and you know what you will get by quitting. Put it on paper and read it daily to remind yourself to quit.

2. Ask your family and friends to support your decision to quit.
Most of your family members and friends will probably be very supportive of your decision. Ask them to be non-judgemental and prepare them to help you out with your withdrawal syndrome. You might get irritable and even irrational while you withdraw from your smoking habit.

3. Set a date. Decide in advance what day you will smoke your last cigarette and stick by it.

4. Talk to someone who had successfully quit smoking. Support and guidance from someone you can totally relate to is a proven way to better your chances to quit.

5. Begin an exercise program. Exercise relieves stress and helps your body recover from years of damage from cigarettes.

6. Do some deep breathing each day for 3 to 5 minutes. Breathe in through your nose very slowly, hold the breath for a few seconds, and exhale very slowly through your mouth.

7. Have your teeth cleaned and use mouthwash everyday. Enjoy the way your teeth look and feel and plan to keep them that way.

8. Drink lots of water. Water is good for you anyway, and most people don’t get enough. It will help flush the nicotine and other chemicals out of your body,

9. Eat pharmacy-approved gum or sugar free sweets. They can help reduce cravings by fulfilling the “oral desires” that you may have.

10. Learn what triggers your desire for a cigarette. Usually stress, the end of a meal, entering a bar, drink companions etc are the reasons why people smoke.
Avoid these triggers or if that’s impossible, plan alternative ways to deal with the triggers.

11. Find something to hold in your hand and mouth to replace cigarettes. Studies have shown that smokers cultivate the habit of smoking gestures and will feel uneasy when they stop doing it. Thus, you might try using artificial cigarette (made of sweets or chocolate), lollipop or ice cream.

12. Have strong determination and believe in yourself. Believe that you can quit. Think about some of the most difficult things you have done in your life and realize that you have what it takes to quit smoking.

13. Reward yourself once you had succeeded. Buy yourself a new handphone, shoes, bag, or treat yourself to a sumptuous meal. This will sweeten the deal and spur you to stay away from cigarettes for good.

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Stressed at work? You are not alone. After all, ‘Stress is nothing more than a socially acceptable form of mental illness’. ~Richard Carlson. As we are experiencing one of the worst recessions in years, everybody is trying to prove their worth so as not to get retrenched. It is a recession if someone you know gets retrenched but it is a depression if YOU are the one who get retrenched. Before you get depressed, here are 20 ways to lower your stress level so that you can work optimally.

1. Avoid tight fitting clothes. Tight fitting clothes prevent you from taking deep breaths and will make you feel uncomfortable.

2. Always prepare for the morning the night before. Be it presentation, assignment or a project. Make sure that everything is done before the deadline. Always have a plan B just in case.  

3. Mix with positive people. Let their optimism affect you so that you will look at things in a positive way too.

4. Break big and difficult tasks into bite-sized portions to make it easier for you. Take one step at a time and do not be stressed by the sheer size of your work. 

5. Organize your table. Cleaning and organizing things have a certain calming effect to some people, especially women. A neat table makes for a better working environment too.

6. Smile! Compliment someone. You will be surprised at how your day can be brighter just by receiving a smile back from a stranger.

7. Play with your kids or pets. It has been proven that playing with kids or pets help to reduce stress level. It is because kids and pets are like the free spirits that we can never become. Thus, interacting with them helps to lighten our moods substantially.

8. Walk in the rain. If you do not want to catch a cold or have people staring at you on the street, take a cold shower instead.

9. Believe in yourself. Stop saying negative things to yourself. Instead, visualize yourself winning and being successful.

10. Read a joke, or tell a joke. Get in touch with your humorous side. It will help to take your mind off work for a moment.

11. Find support from others. Meet up with your friends and share your problems at work. You can also request for someone to vent your anger or frustration at. Examples: partners, spouses, family members, etc.

12. Have some ‘me’ time. Go for a spa or read a light story book curled up in bed to refresh yourself. Remember this quote ‘The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it’.  ~Attributed to both Jim Goodwin and Sydney J. Harris

13. Try something new. Bungee jumping or rock climbing, anyone? By trying out something new, you are telling yourself that you can do it; work should not be a problem.

14. Make an effort to look good. Exercise and maintain your weight. If you look good, you will naturally feel good and confident. If you are confident, you can overcome any stress.

15. Strive for excellence, NOT perfection. Do not put too much stress on yourself. It is damaging to you your career and most importantly, to your mind.

16. Hum your favorite song or a catchy song. A song can change your mood. Upbeat songs will definitely lift your spirit.

17. Watch a comedy and laugh out loud during the show. You can even watch a funny video clip on Youtube. It is a cheap and simple way to relieve stress.

18. Scream (not at people, please). Enough said.

19. Keep a journal or something that you can vent your frustration at. A scribble on paper can relieve stress as much as talking to someone. A squeezable toy is also a good enough stress reliever.

20. Get enough sleep. You tend to be cranky when you do not get enough sleep. A good night’s sleep or forty winks can effectively rejuvenate at work. 

Hope this article can help you to start the week in a great mood!

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