[HEALTH] Be My Reason Shower Run // Breast Self Check Awareness

The Be My Reason Shower Run 2016 by Shokubutsu

With almost 1,500 participants gathered on a Sunday morning, it was actually really nice to see individuals waking up at 7am to be a part of the Be My Reason Shower Run to show their support for the breast self-check, in conjunction with breast cancer awareness month. I persoanlly have a family member who i call her a hero for surviving Breast Cancer. Both her breast were removed, but thankfully, with the amount of love and support received, i guess that made her strong enough to survive through the journey of having breast cancer. So i say why not support this meaninful campaign right?

The starting line filled with bubbles!

Mua being kepoh in public. haha

The Be My Reason Shower Run was organized by Shokubutsu, the leading shower foam brand in Malaysia, with the purpose to encourage women and men to raise awareness on the importance of early detection of breast cancer by doing regular breast self-checks during your shower. This also happens to be the second Pink Ribbon campaign by the brand that is an extension fo the road shows undertaken last year.

And let the fun run begin!

The shower at the finish line

I have to admit that the shower theme was the highlight of the event, and it was interesting to see some of the participants literally transforming into out of the shower outfits. Hehe. The run was foamed with shower bubbles and we ended the race by being showered with water, just to be in line with the breast self-check during shower awareness focus. It was definitely a fun way to enjoy sunday morning with your loved ones, while having a good reason to pledging to do breast self checks.

The finisher medal *pretty*

And we completed the race!

We had Jackie Low, Marketing Manager, Personal Care Products Department, Southern Lion Sdn Bhd who said that he believed that breast self-check is a very important habit to cultivate because early detection can save lives. And i have to say that i couldnt agree more! It only takes you less than a minute to give yourself (and your breast) some love and attention, especially when you shower at least once a day.

A zumba session after the run anyone?

The campaign is fully supported by the National Cancer Society Malaysia (NCSM) who is partnering with Shokubutsu for the scond time! Also presented at the event was renowned Malaysian actor, Beto Kusyairy who ran with his wife, Tisha Shahar as an act of support for the campaign. Tisha detected a small lump in her breast not too long ago while doing breast self-check and fortunately the lump turned out to be benign, thus Tisha encourages all women to turn breast self-check into a habit.

The cheque presented to NCSM

The event ended with a RM25,000 cheque presented to NCSM during the run to contribute towards the good works that NCSM is doing in raising awareness and educating on breast self-check. The money was raised from the RM10 fee of the Be My Reason Shower Run and RM0.10 from every unit of Shokubutsu liquid shower produts sold at participating stores. The Shokubutsu Pink Ribbon campaign runs from 1 October 2016- 30 October 2016.

Got my medal and my participant certificate!

And how can i miss out on the goodies i got? hehe

I have to highlight that they were generous with their goodie bags and im sure that i spotted a lot of happy participants carrying home a heavy bag of detergent and soaps. Hehe. Well, i know i was! A great way to start a Sunday Morning with a reward that would last you at least a month or two. Again, if youre reading this, dont forget to self-breast check yourself in the shower so that we can save more lifes in the world. For more information on Shokubutsu, kindly log on to https://wwwfacebook.com/ShokubutsuMalaysia.

Sara xx

[LIFESTYLE] Prevent Health Problems | Managing Cholesterol

Staying healthy plays a big role in my daily lifestyle, especially when I need to keep up with my busy schedule. I think you might have noticed that I've been posting about marathons lately, and as a matter of fact, I've already signed up for 4 marathons for the next 4 months. How crazy is that?! Haha. If you ever talk to my friends, they would tell you that I eat like a cow sometimes, because FOOD is like, hard to resist. But health wise, it's only because my metabolic rate is high, and I tend to eat more than I should since I've been into sports in high school.

You may wonder why and how on earth I keep myself healthy, well first it starts with how active you are with your lifestyle, and of course, making sure you're eating right. I personally don't believe it those eat less diets, it may work for some people, but it doesn't work for me. Living in Malaysia can be tough especially when its also known as food heaven to tourist from all around the world. So the struggle is real. But I choose to enjoy food and equivalently enjoy exercising.

Going a little personal, the reason why I'm practicing a healthy lifestyle is because I'm doing this for my mom. She had a heart attack when I was at the age of 13, where she stopped breathing for about 5 minutes and thankfully she was given a second chance in life. *THANK YOU GOD*. I think it helps when I eat healthily, the people who I stay with tends to practice eating healthy too. Not everyone understands how important it is to take care of your health until something drastic happens, so this is me giving you a heads up. I'm telling you, don't take your health for granted.

I was recently reading an article where the 2015 National Health and Morbidity Survey revealed that 47.7% of Malaysians above 18 years old suffer from high cholesterol levels. It's worst that 38.6% of these adults did not even know that their cholesterol levels were above acceptable levels. This proves that we pretty much take our health for granted, literally. One of the key factors to managing heart health is to understand what cholesterol is and how it works in the body. And this is why I'm emphasizing on ways to stay healthy and prevent risking your health by learning how to manage your cholesterol effectively.

"Cholesterol is a type of fat that cannot dissolve in our blood. It is transported through our bloodstream by carriers called lipoproteins (lipids and proteins). Cholesterol has many important functions in the body, including being part of the cell walls, producing bile acids and hormones and making vitamin D in your skin. Cholesterol can be found mostly in shellfish, prawns, red meat and egg yolk." 

-Char Siew Wei, Corporate Wellness Manager, Nestlé Malaysia.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, well let me break it down to you. There are basically two types of lipoproteins, one is low-density lipoprotein (which is bad cholesterol) and high-density lipoprotein (which is good cholesterol). So having too much of bad cholesterol generally leads to blocked arteries and risk of heart disease while the good cholesterol protects arteries from building up fatty deposits such as plaque, thus reducing the risk of a heart disease. As simple as it is, it's really important that we are aware of the cholesterol that we are consuming.

What happens when your high cholesterol are not managed? 

Well, this might result in the build-up of cholesterol plaques that can basically harden the walls of arteries and block blood flow, which causes heart attacks usually. *yikes* I would say that if you're above the age of 20 years old, you should have your cholesterol levels checked at least once every 5 years.

How to prevent health problems?

Other than practicing a healthy balanced diet and exercising, below would be some points to prevent yourself from getting health problems:

1 | Consider being physically active to help lower cholesterol levels or simpler terms, making time to exercise in a week.
2 | Quit bad smoking habits to improve your HDL cholesterol levels and decrease your blood pressure.
3 | Maintain a healthy body weight according to the ideal BMI.
4 | Include plant sterols in your daily diet : 1.2g of plant sterols daily can be easily consumed from 2 servings of Nestlé Omega Plus milk to manage cholesterol levels.

I have to say that its great that I discovered about Nestlé Omega Plus taking an action to spread the awareness on managing your cholesterol effectively. So I'm proud to say that I'll be joining them next month on the 3rd of September at Lake Gardens (Perdana Botanical Gardens) to support the Walk-A-Mile campaign. This happens to be Malaysia's longest running walk for hearth health advocacy, organized by Nestleeé Omega Plus and Yayasan Jantung Malaysia (YJM). I'm happy to see big brands like Nestlé Omega Plus for stepping up their game in spreading the awareness for Malaysians to start thinking about their health before its too late. Its never too late to start, so if you're interested, you can register yourself at mro.myraceonline.com/wohd16/registrations to join the Walk-A-Mile 2016. Hoping to see you guys there!

Sara xx

Kordel's Charity Fun Walk 2016

Participants all ready for their walk.

The 8th Kordel's Charity Fun Walk builds momentum as impending national public health burden looms with those who are above 65 years old, according to the World Organisation with an increased percentage of 16% worldwide by 2050 from 524 million in 2010. In conjunction to that, Kordel has organized a Charity Fun Walk to promote physical activity to raise the awareness on osteoarthritis and to support needy patients with the Arthritis Foundation Malaysia.

Kordel's as the organizer

Participants present at 6am on a sunday morning.

Targeted to the public, the event began at 6am at Padang Merbok, Kuala Lumpur. It was really nice to see families and the elderly's up and ready for a morning walk on a Sunday morning. There were tons of activities set to entertain runners, and some of the featured the food trucks, free testers and drink, a photobooth and more!

Warm up session to prevent injuries

About 20 minutes before the race, we had the emcee calling everyone in for a warm up session before the run. By moving and stretching our bodies, this really helps to prepare the body for a long 7km breeze walk. After about 15 minutes of warm up, participants were then told to head on over to the starting point and the walk began at 7.15am.

And the walk began!

Walk for charity

The route was rather interesting if you ask me. It was about a 5km stretch of uphill routes and the other 2km was a smooth slope back to the finish line. With tree's and pleasant scenery's to enjoy, i have to say that the run wasnt a drag at all. And since it was my sisters first time running a 7km distance with me, i'd say that we did pretty good.

The Kordel's Charity Fun Walk medal

Managed to play with their photobooth too!

Food trucks for those who are hungry

Upon reaching the finish line, runners were rewarded with a bottle of water and their medals. I think most of the participants completed the race at about the same time, and everyone started gathering at the stage area for some fun games and lucky draw activities. There were food trucks present to prepare healthy breakfast for the participants.

RM42,500.00 donated to Arthritis Foundation Malaysia

The charity walk managed to made a sufficient amount (confirmed to be a bigger amount that last year) to be donated to the Arthritis Foundation Malaysia. It was definitely a memorable day to give and help those who are in need, while encouraging donaters to also do something for themselves too by exercising. We also had Ho Swee Lin, General Manager of Cambert (M) who shared a thing or two about Osteoarthritis and emphasized that its important for everyone to be physically active to reduce the risk of this disease. It was definitely a lovely event for families to be a part of such a meaningful campaign.

 Sara xx

Electric Run Malaysia 2015 Presented by Shell FuelSave

Spotted blogger Elana Khong while i was there. hehe

If you missed out on the recent Electric Run which happened last weekend, well, better keep your heads up for the next one. This by far has been one of the most exciting marathons that i've been too, making 5km a breeze to finish. The Electric Run was held at the Selangor Turf Club with thumping music, colourful neon and bright lights everywhere! The run organized by the Livescape group is presented by leading fuel retailers, Shell Malaysia under the Shell Fuel Save brand.

Race Entrance.

Just look at the crowd, imagine 11,000 participants in 1 location.

Packed with first timers and casual runners, the run has over 11,000 participants who were strolling, running, walking, dancing across the electrifying 5km course. Since i was there early, i managed to see the colourful participants getting ready for the run to remember. With everyone looking forward for the stunning colourful lights dominated the electric wonderland, its no wonder that this event has been such a success.

Official Merchandise

And for those who came unprepared, they even had a concert store for them to purchase official merchandises to make the night an even more colourful night! I got myself a wristband, and a UV pen to brighten up the night ;)

Groups of people getting neon paint on.

All i had was a UV marker, works the same.

Thanks to my lovely assistant for getting some UV marks onto me, but i think my sweat wiped everything off during the run. So head up, be sure to get yourself some neon paint for the night if you want the colours to stay all over you throughout the run.

Did you know that the Electric Run Malaysia 2015 presented by Shell FuelSave also entered The Malaysia Book of Records for the title of 'Largest Participation in a Neon Run'? Iqbal Ameer, Group CEO of The Livescape Group and Tuan Haji Azman Ismail, Managing Director of Shell Malaysia Trading Snd Bhd and Shell Timur Snd Bhd accepted the certificate fo this record title from Tan Sri Datuk Danny Ooi, Founder and Managing Director  of The Malaysia Book of Records, before the run started. WOOHOO! Way to go to making an impact Livescape Group!

Gates were opened.

Welcome to our world!

When the sun sets, the party begins!

As the sun set that evening, the crowd was already building up. We had DJ's from Red Fm to entertain us while waiting for the 1st flag off of the night. As the night comes, the lights were turned on which painted a really pretty colourful picture to excite the participants of the day. We also had local DJ, Shaheed Naz of Dangerdisko entertaining us to keep our heart beats up just before the run. And the race started the minute a canonball of fireworks were exploding in the sky, which officially means that the run has started to complete the illuminating journey.

Light man to keep the pace of the runners up.

Electro Rainforest.

As the race started, upon reaching the 1st KM of the night, we passed by the electro rainforest where the tunes were really based on the rainy storm theme. From colourful lanterns hung up on the tree's, wee had glowing umbrella's hanging along the way, with DJ mixxed tunes from under Rihanna's umbrella.  AND i must say that the best was sick (in a good way) haha. This really kept the energy rising as most of us were already looking forward to our next checkpoint.

Rainbow road + Pillar party

Under The Sea

As we reached the 3KM, we were greeted by rainbow road with colourful glowing pillars which has really nice music to enjoy. I wasnt a fan of this checkpoint because the road was rather small, thus resulting everyone to walk because the road was a little on the tight side. But i managed to squeeze my way through to reach the next check point. Can you guess whats the next theme for the night? Yep, its the Under the Sea theme, where we could see UV Grafitti which were colouful even in the dark. We even had bubbles around the area to make it seem more marine-like. HEHE. Most prolly one of my favourite stops!

Drinking station - petrol station look-alike.

Participants getting insane ideas at the photobooth area.

And if you think the race is all about running, it isnt! With the run presented by Shell Fuel Save, every car needs to pump their petrol after a certain distance right? Just like your body. Hehe. i found it really cute that they had the shell station drinking station as we were finishing the race.

Candy Lane

The Power House

As we reached the last few stops, we had to pass through the candy lane just before reaching the power house which marks the end of the race. And if you think thats the end of the race, well think again! Thank god that it was just a 5km distance, because youre gonna need the rest of your energy to party the night.

The spectacular fireworks to end the night (Photo credits to Elana Khong)

So yes, the night ended with a party which includes some of the biggest names in Malaysian music, like Enterprise, Paperplane Pursuit, Kyoto Protocol, Jin Hackman and Dae Kim, and Nesh And TRuF! The Electric Run really knows how to plan a party, especially to end the night with fireworks. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Shell Malaysia for having me at the run :)

To learn more about driving efficiently with Shell FuelSave, do visit www.shell.com.my or if youre more interested on the Electric Run, do head on over to www.facebook.com/electricrunmalaysia for more information.