Skin Deep Readers' Event at Torq Spinning Studio, Flexpress Central Opens and The Worst Thing You Can Eat

Readers’ Event!

Remember a few weeks ago when I said that I was going to try out my first spin class and write about it? Turns out, HK’s fabulously sadistic marketing department had an even better trick up their sleeves. That’s right—another Skin Deep readers’ event! This time, 14 lucky readers can bring a friend with them to the newly opened Torq spinning studio to try out a free class, with me. So whether you’re a spinning fanatic who wants to check out Torq’s state-of-the-art facilities, or you simply want to watch me embarrass myself as I flail around on a stationary bike, sign up now. The event will be held on February 5 from 6:30pm, and there’ll be coconut water and goody bags given out after the 50-minute session. Plus, if you sign on for a package at Torq on the night, you’ll get a 10 percent discount and a token for an extra free ride in your goody bag.
Sign up at www.hk-magazine.com/torq; an email confirmation will be sent after you register.

Flex in Central

High-end Southside fitness studio Flex has answered calls for a presence in town by using Twinkle Dance Studio on Queen’s Road as a venue for its subsidiary brand: Flexpress Central. It offers yoga, Pilates, Zumba and Xtend Barre classes, all at convenient times (pre-work, lunch hour and evening) to cater to the work crowd. Group classes start at $150 each, with private sessions starting at $880. Xtend Barre, if you haven’t heard of it before, is a fitness trend that combines the principles of ballet and Pilates to combine body awareness, posture and stabilization with muscle strengthening, coordination and cardio—the instructors make it look light and easy, but trust me, you’ll be sweating after a few minutes. If you did ballet as a kid, you’ll love it, although you might find your muscles protesting the next day.
Flexpress Central is at Twinkle Dance Studio, 8/F Lansing House, 41-47 Queen’s Rd. Central (entrance down side-street), 2813-2212, www.flexhk.com.

Food for Thought

I met a dietitian named Miles at a pub opening the other evening, and—as I had a captive subject—decided to do a little research. A few glasses of wine in, my sharp investigative brain wasn’t exactly in fine form, and so for lack of anything better to ask, I queried: “What’s like, the worst thing you can eat?” Donuts,” he said. After digesting that for a moment, I asked him to let me in on the best food, too. It’s liver, apparently. Funny—I assumed that it would be quinoa or wheatgrass or spirulina or something. I asked Miles for a little more detail, and he gave me this: “Liver—a food that many people turn their nose up at—is actually the most nutrient-dense food on the planet. It is nature’s best source of iron, copper, Vitamins A and B12, and folate. It’s the only part of the animal that contains Vitamin C, and in fact gram for gram, has as much as an orange.”

“If we look at the ingredients of flour, sugar, baking powder, milk, egg, and cooking oil, we see a combination of rancid, toxic, nutrient-depletive ingredients. The cooking oil typically used is a polyunsaturated oil, which becomes rancid and oxidized at high temperatures. This in turn does damage to cellular structures. White flour contains gluten, which is one of the hardest proteins to digest. Sugar is an anti-nutrient. This means it depletes the body of key nutrients such as zinc and B-complex vitamins.”
If you want to quiz Miles further, you can find him at Life Clinic, where he carries out nutritional consultations and can tailor your diet to address specific health complaints.

Email me at [email protected], or follow me on Twitter: @sarahefung.