Florence Aftermath

For 36 hours on Monday and Tuesday, we were drenched by the remnants of hurricane Florence. Intermittently, walls of water fell from the sky. I was awakened at 2 AM on Tuesday morning by a flood alert in my area. Suddenly and ahead of the schedule, on Tuesday afternoon, the storm blew over, the sun peeked at us, and the humidity began subsiding. I had to go outside. Though I had worked out in the morning, and was somewhat exhausted, I had no power to resist the inviting sunshine after days of gloom. I headed over to the nearest lake to watch the floodwaters rush the dam.

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Layer Cake

My mother's recipe, and a favorite of my daughter. Needs no baking. The idea is to arrange layers of tea biscuits (known as petit beurre , which can be found in Middle Eastern grocery stores, among others), with alternate layers of custard and chocolate pudding in between. Instead of custard, which is hard to find nowadays, I substitute any kind of pudding I like. Layer cake with chocolate, tapioca, and custard. Shown below is my latest with layers of Kozy Shack chocolate and tapioca puddings, and a powder pudding mix that I combine with milk over heat, like custard. I skipped the eggs on the last one, to give it more of a custard consistency that hardens when cooled. Depending on the shape of your baking tray, you may need to cut out parts of some of the biscuits. I used a 9"x9" tray. I also recommend putting the chocolate pudding at the bottom since it's thicker and will hold the consistency better. Once the layers are arranged, cover the tray with foi...

Staying the Path

Sooner or later, every exercise plan stumbles upon obstacles, such as work demands, travel, weather, or injury. Following are the ones I encountered over the past five years. I will address each in turn in later posts, along with my response to each challenge. Finding the time to exercise. Schedule disruptions such as illness, travel or extended work commitments. Monotony: Boredom from doing the same routines and running over the same trails. Being a single-parent: I have shared custody of my daughter, which imposes the added challenge of integrating my exercise with my parenting. Weather: a significant factor for exercising outdoors. Trail conditions: ice, rain, mud, potholes, construction closures, etc., can interfere with our planned activities. Injuries. Specific adaptations because of lifestyle. For example, I live in a townhouse, so end up doing stairs twice as often as usual, while my work involves sitting in front of the computer for long hours. These ha...

First Run in Weeks

The humidity over the last few weeks kept me mostly indoors. I walked here and there, but I couldn't even contemplate running in 90% relative humidity, even with cooler temperatures in the 70s. Yesterday, the clouds finally cleared up and a partly sunny sky invited me to go outdoors. First I thought about a long walk, but when I saw the humidity was down to 70%, I couldn't resist putting on my running shoes and heading out. Turtles basking in the late summer sun after days of cloudy weather. It was a good run, though more on the humid side, and a sweat bath when the wind is to my back. I ended up running 2.4 miles around the lake. The construction is almost completed on the opposite side of the trail, flattening out a severe 30-40 bank in the trail that was gradually steepened by erosion. The new flat trail is nice and so much easier on my ankles. Today, the main residual soreness is in my glutes. That's a good sign. It means the program I've been following to ...

My Health Journey

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