Nutrition Guidelines

I subscribe to eating well as a key to a healthy lifestyle. Since graduate school, I learned to make quick and easy meals. This habit developed and has continued into my adult and professional lives. I may have a busy workday but somehow, I find myself going to the kitchen and whipping up a meal. I enjoy food and meals that I know where they were sourced and made.

Over the past few years, a significant number of close relatives and friends have passed away from illnesses and diseases- cancer was the common cause. In the wake of these events, I decided to take charge of my diet and have subscribed mainly to Dr. Fuhrman's nutrition program.

His program advocates enriching our daily food consumption with raw leafy greens, beans, onions, mushrooms, and berries (think acronym G-BOMBs). These foods promote health and anti-cancer, therefore, should make up a large significant portion of our diets. More details can be found in this link.

Nevertheless, I do miss my occasional milky tea and coffee and proteins. I control them by making the effort to purchase and cook the dishes. I rarely eat out and avoid white bread, processed snacks, and sugary foods and beverages.

Here's the list of foods I typically make during the week:

- fruit smoothie consisting of fresh bananas, fresh citrus juice (orange or lemon), a cup of frozen mixed organic berries, and frozen mango. I avoid adding yogurt or milk in the smoothie because the bananas help achieved the desired consistency

- a cup of brown and Jasmine rice mixture or gluten-free organic mill and brown rice ramen noodles

- soup made with homemade stock and tons of veggies

- stir-fried greens or cabbage such as brussels sprouts, Napa, bok choy, and spinach with garlic

- masala chai

- curries (sometimes I pair it with store-bought pratas)

Here's a list of foods I make in batches and freeze to be used during the week:

- homemade stock made from boiling pork, chicken and/or beef bones with loads of garlic, onion, and toasted spices such as cinnamon sticks, peppercorns, star anise, and cloves

- sambal

Now, I just motivate myself to pray, meditate and exercise everyday.

Update on April 20, 2020

I have been and still am in Shelter-In-Place for more than a month. It is an interesting, surreal and unprecedented time in the 21st century of human history. Who knew that we would live in a time like this- a threat by a novel corona virus. Some people treat it like it is nothing, some people treat it like a biological warfare, akin to WWIII. I'm taking all precautions since before the SiP realized. I have pre-existing health conditions and this is not the time to get sick when the hospitals and health care system are already under stress. During this time, I got much accomplished- reorganized my room, setup my temporary home office, caught up with literature for work, cleaned, cooked alot, reconnected with family and friends with online tools (amazing!), used online delivery services frequently, and enjoyed Mother Nature as she reclaims what has been taken away by humans.

During this time, families drew closer and I've seen increased numbers of food postings by family and friends. My sister shared a graphic on nutritional value of major food sources. I've decided to take a step further and tabulated the ratios : calories to fat, calories to protein and protein to fat. The absolute numbers were taken from the original post- they are really estimates. Enjoy!