Tag Archives: Kung Fu

Personal

2 Months, 10 Kg

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For the last two months, I’ve been on a diet consisting mainly of Nutrilett and Naturdiet based shakes and Varma Koppen soups. It is a type of diet called VLCD, or Very Low Calery Diet. The fundamental idea is to eat less calories than your body consumes (like most diets).  You are supposed to drink about six shakes a day (a powder that you mix with water yourself), but I have not been a rigid follower of the rules. About half of the time I have been eating some solid food after work, mainly drinking the shakes and soups up until 5PM.

Results are in: Minus 10 kilos in weight and minus 5 cm around the waist.

The longer I have been on the diet, the slower the weight loss. On the other hand, I have probably been eating (and drinking) a bit more in the last month as well.

I am dead tired of the shakes, so I will now have a week eating only solid food before continuing substituting some of my meals with shakes again. I still have a bit more to go.

Also, next year I will get back to training Kung Fu, and swim a bit more.

Beach 2009, here I come. 😉

Movies

Movie mini review: Kung Fu Panda

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Kung Fu Panda is an animated movie from Dreamworks, starring major voice actors as Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan and Lucy Liu.

The main story revolves around Po, a clumsy panda who dreams of being a kung fu master while having to work in his fathers noodle shop. After some curious circumstances, he is given the opportunity to learn kung fu by a grumpy kung fu master. Without spoiling to much of the story, a big threat is later revealed and unexpected things happen.

I didn’t have the highest expectations, and was maily expecting a slapstick parade. I was pleasantly surprise how good the movie was. Granted, there was a fair deal of slapstick in the movie, but (almost) never too much. There was also a more serious side about not fitting in, not wanting to be yourself.

As a fan of eastern cinema, I have watched a fair deal of kung fu movies (as well as practiced kung fu myself). It was a delight to see so many clichés and homages as they could fit into the movie, most executed with a twist. The voice acting is most of the time very good (though I didn’t think Angelina Jolie really fit the role as Tigress).

On a whole, Kung Fu Panda is a warm, engaging and very enjoyable movie. Recommended.

Trailer: Kung Fu Panda

p.s. Martial art turtles rock. d.s.