The salad vegetables team

Hi,

To cut long story short, My diagnosis is that I am diabetic and for me it means I have to change my diet. I am preparing here for the nutritarial diet (to be explained later)... I am considering being a vegan and it requires lots of logistics. Anyway first step is to locate where the super foods are, which stores are selling them etc.

So without further ado please welcome the salad vegetable team candidates:

English Peas

אפונה

Onions

בצל

Scallions

בצלצלים

Sprouts

כרוב ניצנים

Broccoli

ברוקולי

carrots

גזרים

Baby Bok Choy

חסה סינית

Eggplants

חצילים

Cauliflower

כרובית

Hearts of Palms 

לבבות דקלים

cucumbers

מלפפונים

Celery

סלרי

Tomatoes

עגבניות

endive

עולש

Water ChestNuts

ערמוני מים

Mushrooms

פטריות

Peppers

פלפלים

radishes

צנוניות

Zucchini

קישואי זוקיני

Fennel

שומר

String Beans

שעועית ירוקה

This is the THE team - I am relying on this team to reverse my diabetic and to provide my body optinal nutrition and health,

Aviel.

One month transformation - from extremely fat to very fat....

First pic was taken on 3/7/2013 -                     139.6 Kg

Second pic was taken today 2/8/2013 -            128.1 Kg
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Lost                                                                     11.5 Kg  (in 4 weeks).

As you can see "...it's a loooong way to go a hard row to hoe..."
But if you look closely then you can definitely see my six pack!

One Month Ago (3/Jul/2013)

Today (3/Aug/2013)

One Month Ago (3/Jul/2013)

Today (3/Aug/2013)

beans and sweet potatoes rolled in a Tortilla

Hi,

Beans are a very good deal for whoever wants to pursue a healthy life style. One cup of cooked beans provides 12 grams of fiber - which is half of your daily intake. Beans are low in sugar, their glycemic value is low so you don't get insolin spikes that make you hungry. You eat it and the fibers make sure you won't digest it so fast - it shall feed your blood for hours and you won't feel hungry.

Now regarding the sweet potatoes. Do you know that they are a better food source than the 'normal' potatoes? Their glycemic value is lower and they are paradise food for those that suffer from diabetes. They are a good source for potassium and potassium deficiency leads to muscles cramp, weakenss and fatique.

OK enough with lecturing - let's get to work

I prepared this sathurday a delicious and and a healthy dish containing both beans and sweet potatoes wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla - what can I say? yum, yum, delllicious.

There are two stages here:

1. Preparing the beans mash.
2. Adding the sweet potatoe and other goodies into a tortilla.

Stage 1 - 

We take 3 cups of beans and rinse, fill with water, bring to a boil and the simmer for 2 hours.

After two hours they should look like this

We then add 3 tsp salt + 2 tsp chopped garlic. We then consider whether to add a 4'th tsp of salt based on the taste.

Then we add 1/4 cup of oil and we continue simmering (don't forget to add boiled water when needed)

After 1-1.5 hours we stop when the beans start to stick together, and we make a mesh by pressing them down.

stage 2 - 

This stage is a twisted version of a recipe of Chef Nelly (the Cheff of GuteFood restaurant that I described here).

We take 3 sweet potatoes and cook them in the microwave for 10 minutes

We then mash them using a fork

And we add 

• 1 tsp coriander seeds.
• 1 tsp oregano.
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper.
• 1 chopped garlic clove.

In addition we roast one pepper  (make sure to clean the blacks... afterward!)

now all of this together with the beans should be split among 4 tortillas. Of course I bought whole wheat tortillas 

We warm each tortilla on a pan for 2 minutes and then we pour the ingredients inside. Don't forget to add some leaves. We call it here "baby leaves". 

And then roast the tortillas for 2-3 minutes - careful it could burn.

And there you go - the tortillas are ready - Bon Appetit.

This is a very yummy stuff however we need to now to sit down and calculate how much it costs... 

For the beans mash: 40 Points Plus

• 3 cups of dry beans: 24 Points Plus
• 1/4 cup of oil: 16 Points Plus

For the tortilla: 13 Points Plus

• 1/6 of the above (~1-2 full tbsp beans mash): 7 Points Plus
• 1 Tortilla: 3 Points Plus
• 3/4 sweet potato: 3 Points Plus

Now 13 Points Plus is more or less what I eat for lunch so eating one such tortilla is instead of lunch. Half of that I eat for dinner.

Mistakes:

• Beans are wonderful but when you cook anything for so long it produces something called AGE (Advanced Glycation Endproducts) and this stuff accumulates in your body and disturbs its functioning. I shall write about it in detail in future blogs.
• Adding the oil in the middle and then continuing cooking - is a wrong thing to do.
• Using a microwave to expedite (like in the case of the sweet potatoe) is a wrong thing to do from the same reason above.
• It was too salty.

Conclusions

• I don't like the fact that I had to use so much oil. It costs me 7 Points Plus per tortilla and it doesn't give me anything in return. I do need fats but I want great fats and not canola or corn oil. I prefer to get my fats from nuts, tachini, olive oil, etc.
• So next time I am going to halve the amount of oil.
• I am not going to cook the stuff for so long - instead I am going to put in water for 24-48 hours before such that I won't need that much cooking.
• And I shall add one more roasted pepper - cause 
• And I shall use less salt.

That's it for now.

Aviel.

Preacher Curl

The following exercise works on your biceps. It's a great isolation exercise because your biceps are doing the work and it's hard to cheat and help using the back or the shoulders.

You should adjust the height of the preacher board such that you can put your armpits at the edge of the boards when comfortly seated.

Then you lift the barbel such that your arms are perpendicular to the ground. That's your starting point.

Then you lower the weight down *IN A CONTROLLED MANNER* until your arms are *almost* fully streched. You should not straighten your arms completely cause it's extremely hard to lift it from there. Also you don't let the weight throw your arms unless you want to rip the biceps tendon from where it inserts on the forearm bone which shall require a surgery and months of inactivity.

As a general rule - don't throw the weights, don't shake your body, don't overload and don't try to impress no one - cause no body cares. Size doesn't matter here. The trick is to work with less weight but in a perfect form.

Aviel.

Gute Food

Thursday I had lunch with ex colleagues,

I was pleasantly surprised to find out this lovely Gute Good restaurant in the middle of Herzliya's high tech zone. This restaurant combines fast & healthy, and perhaps I should add - delicious.

It's easy to spot the place. If you arrive at ~13:00 you will see people standing in a long line starting outside of the store. But you are not going to wait in line more than 7 minutes - they are FAST.

And at the front of the restaurant there's a sticker saying it's vegan-friendly.co.il!! Yay. I felt right at home.

There are several meals to choose from, here's their menu:

1. Beef meat balls (low fat) in tomato sauce + organic red rice + green salad in oranges syrup + walnuts. "very nutricious, full of protein, iron and fibers that will show the cholesterol the way out" 
2. Organic lentils balls with full tachini + full kuskus + tanzia made of organic fruits + organic quinoa salad. "balanced, full of fibers that will only do good to the stomach"
3. 1/4 of a chicken + cooked organic humus and pearl barley + three vegetables. "loaded with vitamin B, calming and good for your brain".
4. Green salad & quinoa: 1/2 organic eggs, fool, walnuts, black lentils, tuna, mix of seeds, smoked salmon filet, chicken breast. In addition organic bread and seasoning of your choice (tachini, hot, seasoning herbs, 
5. Sinaya (meat pie with tahini) with azuki and organic burgol, chopped Israeli salad. "lots of protein and iron, vitamin B and fibers.
6. Chicken breast with olive oil and lemon, mashed potatoe and sweet cabbage. "low colesterol, high in lycopen - that keeps you young"
7. Organic tofu cooked in the oven with ginger and soy + organic red rice and soup of the day. "low fat, nutricious, full of minerals that are good for your bones.

I choose this one here - 

Organic lentils balls with full tachini + full kuskus + tanzia made of organic fruits + organic quinoa salad. "balanced, full of fibers that will only do good to the stomach"

After 3 minutes we got our plates and since the restaurant was full - we sat outside.

Here's my plate: the main plate with the kuskus with the potatoes, the carrot and the humus, in addition there were two lentil pies, at the left plate the quinoa salad and on the right oil and tachini.

What can I say - it was A B S O L U T E LY   D E L I C I O U S !!!

But I am on a diet so I couldn't finish the whole plate right?

so I left the oil cause their food has enough oil already, I did use half of the tachini though cause it's super healthy, I didn't touch the carrots cause of the high glycemic values, of course I didn't drink the water cause it gets in the way of digestion.

But I did enjoy the two lentil balls, some of the kuskus, the humus and the quinoa salad. It was fantastic. It was quite fat and it was sweet maybe because of the fruits and the sweet potatoe.

Now under the plate you can find some more details on these guys:

so from here we can learn a few things:

• Their chef is Nelly and she has her own web site  nelly-kitchen.co.il where she gives some free recepies - wow looks delicious.
• They don't have a microwave
• Their dishes are divided as follows: 50% veggies, 1/6 protein, 1/3 carbs.
• No Monosodium Glutamate and other patents of the food industry.
• No milk products.
• They don't sell coke.

You get the point,

My understanding is that yes this *is* healthy food but it's not low in calories because they do use oil - this is how they make the stuff so yummy. I am not sure if calorie restriction advocate will be able to enjoy this place.

Overall though, this restaurant is most recommended, it proves that if you made delicious food that is both healthy and yummy and if your restaurant looks young and inviting then you are gonna have tons of high tech nerds filling your restaurant, standing in line, etc.

Aviel.

Suffering

No pain, no gain.

Yes, if you are into a fitness regime then you look good, you feel great but there's of course a price to pay....

I am dedicating this video to this one special lady who gets her kick out of seeing me panting, miserable, frustrated and suffering.

Every day between 6:00 a.m. and 7 a.m. I do one hour on the treadmill. 40 minutes are at a moderate heart rate (65%, 135 bpm) and 20 minutes are at an intense heart rate (75%, 145 bpm). you can consult my other blog entry right here for calculating your desired heart rate.

The thing is - I think that it's too intense, when you are in this position your brain is constantly transmitting you messages about quitting, letting go, maybe just this time, etc... and frankly I don't think such intensity is sustainable. I have to tone down in order to be able to continue getting out of bed and hitting that treadmill.

Aviel.

Why do you need to care about Vitamin D?

What is Vitamin D, what is it good for and how can you make sure you have enough?

In one sentence

It's that vitamin that keeps your bones healthy and you can get it from the sun.

What's so good about vitamin D?

There's one consensus - it promotes the absorption of calcium which help you grow your bones. If you don't have it then you have soft bones (kids) 

or osteoporosis  (when you are old).

There are studies that link vitamin D deficiency to hypertension, diabetes and obesity - it is yet to be proven though, but meanwhile we can enjoy a picture of... me.

other studies are connecting vitamin D deficiency to chronic fatigue and muscles aches 

Others are linking it to depression - 

But again the IOM are saying that nothing is proven except for calcium/bones problem.

Do we get enough vitamin D?

Perhaps not. This research for example shows that In the sunny Israel 1/3 of the people are suffering from vitamin D deficiency.

Testing for vitamin D

We are talking here about a blood test called 25-OHD.  Below 15 ng/mL is very low, below 30 ng/mL is 'at risk of deficiency'. 

The Vitamin D council considers the ideal 25-OHD to be between 40 to 70 ng/mL.

The Institute of medicine (IOM) recommends 25-OHD 20 ng/mL saying that going beyond 50 ng/mL could have potential adverse effect.

How much vitamin D should we get per day?

The IOM updated the recommended daily allowance (RDA) as follows:

• Age 1-70: 600 IU daily.
• Age 71 and beyond: 800 IU daily (cause absorption is low)

The upper limit is around 10,000 IU - too much vitamin D causes to much calcium in the blood which lead to constipation, stones in the kidneys and such. 

how much can we get from the sun?

Vitamin D is meant to be absorbed by being exposed to the sun and this is my preferred way of absorbing it. I mean - I can really feel it in my bones, I am sitting in this cool air conditioned and dark room for at least 10 hours a day. I arrive early morning and leave in the afternoon/evening. I don't get sun exposure. And I am ROTTING!! So I decided to spend 10-15 minutes daily in the sun. Yes, I leave the office at 10:00 a.m. no matter what and just spend some time outside with my sleeves folded. I enjoy it so much, it's a REAL NEEEEED.

Now if you live in a northern country then you can't get that exposure and if you live in Africa you do get more than enough however since you are probably black then your skin is 'immuned' to sun radiation and so your vitamin D absorption is lousy too.

So I happen to enjoy both worlds cause I am a coacian and I live in Israel which has plenty of sunny days.

But for those of you who live in the north or south or are black or old - here's a nice calculator that you can use in order to know how many minutes you should spend outside when your face and arms are exposed in order to get 1000 IU (25 mcg) of vitamin D.

You will be asked to provide your latitude and longitude. So just google it. For example in my case I googled "what is the latitude in Tel-Aviv".

If you live in the southern side of the world then your latitude is negative.

Here's what I got:

Recommended UV exposure of face, hands and arms at least every other day to obtain sufficient vitamin D, equivalent of 25 micrograms vitamin D, if no dietary vitamin D is available:
Processing ... (this may take a minute)Done
Output:
minimum recommended exposure time (hours:minutes)
0: 6

It means I should stay outside 6 minutes a day. I stay a bit more - cause I have this feeling that I am deficient. I shall update this blog entry once I test for vitamin D.

Can I get it also from food?

You can but I think God didn't mean that this is how you shall get it. There are so few foods that can add to your vitamin D and since I am vegetarian - I don't touch most of them.

Here's the table

So without doubt 1 table spoon of cod liver oil gets you your daily intake. In order to get such magic oil you have to go north to the scandinavian sea and murder a cod.

Or you can pay someone to murder the fish for you - like the mutta faka in this picture right here - 

or you can just buy it from those that buy it from that guy in a form of pills. This way you don't have to deal with the smell.

You can eat 300 grams of Salmon - very healthy but I can't eat this stuff cause I keep thinking about that poor Salmon.

you can also also drink 2.5 Kg or orange juice daily.... and best of all you can eat 50 eggs daily.

Are there good supplements for this?

Yes. For example this one - each drop contains 200 IU.

In summary

So I think you get my point - go out to the sun and enjoy it, it's warm, it caressing you, it's good for you :)

Aviel.