Let’s Begin Again in the UK

Alright, you all won.

You wanted me to start writing again so here I am staring at my computer screen chunking on letters on the keyboard.

Besides the pretty cheesy title, begin is actually quite a good movie and I think you all should check it out.

Ok enough,  let’s get to the point.

After an extremely long break from writing, mostly due to the fact that I’ve grown a little too lazy for my own good, I’m back!

Hopefully much better than before as well.

Like how I hope the star wars franchise, which took a long break after Star Wars III would be amazing, I have that same hope for my writing.

Now that the force has awaken, let’s hope that the new hope doesn’t disappoint(pun definitely intended).

I figured that my first post should give a little update into my life and my whereabouts.

Right now I’m in the UK, and I’ll be here for a minimum of a year to rock out my MSc in Sports and Exercise Nutrition.

For those of you that remember me writing about dropping out from college two years ago, perhaps you might be a little surprised that I’m actually doing my Master’s Degree.

Truth be told, I’m surprised myself as well.

At that point of time, I might have sent out a message that I’m against any form of formal education. However, I’ve come to realize that there isn’t a need for me to either be for or against it.

I’ve realize that formal education is tool that could bring you to your end goals, which also depends highly what your end goals are.

To some it can be a useful tool, while to some it isn’t as valuable as most people might think. The value of your education is what you make out of it, but I digress.

I’m doing my MSc in Middlesex University in London. I’m basically learning how to use nutrition to help enhance performance of both athletes and the general population.

It’s actually a top up from the ISSN Diploma which is a great course and I highly recommend everyone to check out!

I’m also enrolled in two exercise physiology modules which will allow me to also learn the nitty gritty of how our cells response to exercise and nutrition.

Because of that, I’ve spent most of my weekends so far helping out in a PhD research on recovery for marathon athletes.

We use either cherry juice (a highly potent anti-oxidant), cold water immersion or a Cryochamber and then proceed to measure markers of inflammation.

I’m in at 9am on Saturdays and sometimes wouldn’t be able to leave till 6pm. It’s a pretty sticky situation since my main role is to process sputum and prepare it for analysis.

Nonetheless, I must say that there have been interesting data in this study and I’ll update all of you once the data has been collected.

I’ve actually came to London last year for a holiday and done most of the things a regular tourist would do, so as of late, I’ve not done much traveling.

I have however spent a few nights in Nottingham.

Why Nottingham?

Because being a huge Batman geek, I had to satisfy my geeky desire by visiting Wayne’s Manor (which is located in Wollaton Park) while wearing a Batman t- shirt and belt!

Okay, that’s not exactly why I was there, but I must say it’s something you should do while you are there.
I went down for the Nottingham Malaysian Games which was quite a let-down because it rained and the main event, Ultimate Frisbee was cancelled.

I’ve also visited a professor in Nottingham Trent University and attended his class before engaging in a 2 hour conversation of nerdy science talk.

Besides the science we spoke about, I think the nugget of wisdom Dr Craig Sale left with me is the importance of looking things from another angle and perspective and not just believing everything we read.

New research and knowledge is created simply because there are people who see things from another angle than what is usually taking place.

If we were to only keep our thinking limited to what we already know, we aren’t contributing much to the world in terms of innovation and knowledge creation.

Keep thinking out of the box, because things are always brighter on the outside than the inside.

Keep thinking out of the box, because things are always brighter on the outside than the inside. <—— Click to Tweet!! 

Also, PhD greatness and baldness is significantly correlated. Thank you Dr Craig Sale for your time.

What’s next you may ask?

One thing for sure is I would be doing my best to consistently put out good content here on my site. With a few request, I think my next blog post would actually be about nutrition.
It’s only appropriate since I’m a performance nutritionist!

Do share this post to celebrate my return to the world of the internet and if there is any topics you would like me to cover, just drop them in the comment section below!
P/S: As I write this, I’m actually no longer in London and I’m doing my placement with a pretty well known football club, anyone want to take a guess? I’ll reveal more in the next post, till then stay tuned!

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