My Health Journey

I always liked feta cheese with slices of cucumber, so was surprised when a friend of mine served it with avocados instead. I loved it, and that flavor has since grown on me. Quick and easy breakfast meal. Feta cheese and avocado, with arugula and dried (Moroccan) black olives.

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

These pizzettas are easy and quick to prepare, and are a sure hit with my daughter. For a crust, you can use slices of any kind of bread you have.  For a cheese, hard cheeses that melt nicely are preferred, like Gruyere. I personally like yellow Balkan cheeses like Kashkeval (Bulgarian) and Kefalograveira (Greek), which you can obtain from Middle Eastern and Balkan grocery stores. For toppings, mushrooms, bell peppers, pitted and halved kalamata olives, and grape tomatoes go well. You can add coarsely chopped garlic if you wish. Bake at 400-425 F for about 10-12 min, until the cheese starts to brown. Top with baby arugula if you like. Pizzettas with Kashkeval cheese on whole wheat sourdough, topped with bell peppers, mushrooms, kalamata olives, garlic, and baby arugula. Hint: If using mushrooms, don't chop them too small and don't bake for too long, or their water will seep out and make the bread soggy.

Last weekend, in between a 5-mile run and a 5-mile hike on consecutive days, I needed a high-carb meal to keep me going. I didn't have much food at home and didn't want to shop on the weekend, so concocted this healthy outtake on Canadian food: my vegan poutine. Healthy Vegan Canadian Poutine I found some potatoes, onions, and carrots.  Instead of deep-frying anything, I opted to drizzle the ingredients with olive oil (after first rubbing the potato slices with salt, black pepper, and paprika), then bake-fry. Baked 25 min. at 425F, then arranged and topped with fresh baby arugula and baby spinach.

Feta cheese and (pita) bread, served alongside olives, pickles, and whatever raw veggies are available, makes a common breakfast in the Eastern Mediterranean. Rather than the traditional sandwich, or mezza (small dishes), this morning I combined my veggies (cucumber, tomatoes, avocado, and arugula) and chunks of feta into a salad, dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, served alongside a bit of bread and feta. This helps my wheat allergy by reducing the ratio of bread in my meal. Eastern Mediterranean Breakfast Salad

One of my inventions, fusing Middle Eastern flavors with an East Asian vegan staple. Simple to prepare, simple to clean up after, filling, and protein-packed. Tofu Kebab served with rice and avocado. I use the extra-firm tofu when I can.  Before I cube it, I squeeze it for a few minutes between two large plates, using a saucepan as a weight, then draining the water. This reduces the sogginess and helps it remain intact.  I use whatever non-root vegetables are available.  Bell peppers, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, and onions all go well. For a dressing, I can go Middle Eastern with olive oil and lemon juice (and salt and pepper), or East Asian with soy sauce and sesame oil. The skewers can be grilled like vegetables on an outdoor grill. If using the oven, I usually set it to bake at 425F for 10 min, while turning it often, to dry out the tofu even more. Then I set it to Broil at 535F for another 10 min, rotating frequently.  

As a vegetarian, I don't frequent Cuban restaurants much because of limited food choices. So I decided to make my own Vegan Cuban dish. Black beans and green lentils with brown rice and sauteed plantains. I stuck to simple ingredients. Lightly sauteed the plantains with nothing else added but olive oil. Make sure to let the plantains ripen long enough (until its skin yellowed and darkened) before using. I seasoned the black beans with cumin and Korean hot peppers and a squeeze of lime. The lentils and rice only had salt. Simple, but a delicious and protein-packed meal. Idea for leftovers: I stir-fried the beans with cumin and paprika, adding baby spinach for a minute, then topping with baby arugula to give it a fresh taste.

In the post "How I Lost 50 Pounds and Kept Them Off" , I discussed the changes I took over the course of the last few years to gradually lose the weight. The main idea is to lose weight gradually enough, while keeping the focus on building healthy eating and exercise habits, so that by the time you reach your desired weight, those habits are so ingrained that you would keep staying active and eating healthy.  In all those years, for instance, I counted calories for only 4 or 5 days. That's all I needed to get an idea of portion sizes and see how what I'm eating measures up against my caloric needs. Beyond that, counting calories felt like a waste of time. As I saw from my own results, it was unnecessary, as long as I eat nutritious whole foods and stop eating when I'm full. What I left out of that earlier post, is how I got myself to instill each of those habits in me. The book No Meat Athlete has excellent sections about habit-forming. For me it meant

I found that alternating between hard workouts and "negative exercise" reduces injuries and helps promote recovery. By "negative exercise", I mean yoga, stretching, foam rolling, massage, deep relaxation, or the like. Rather than having strength and muscle-building as the main focus, these negative workouts build flexibility and balance. Nowadays I do some form of physical activity daily.  I reserve hard workouts like runs longer than 2 miles and weight training to every other day.  I find that 10 min of basic yoga poses (neck and shoulder rolls, side bends, cat/cow, ...)  before  a weight training session helps reduce the soreness afterwards. A few hours after the hard workout, once I start feeling soreness, I follow up with a 20-min yoga session. The yoga poses help me survey my body, identify mis-alignments and soreness, and begin working sore spots for recovery. The next day, I follow up with a more comprehensive yoga and/or foam-rollin