Do you have a sense of urgency

Have you read Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn? It is one of my favorite books.

I will not narrate the book, because I would mangle it. It would be equivalent to trying to explain all human emotions and their nuances. When I open this book, I do not read the words, I feel them.

I would like to describe only one character in this story of cancer and humanity.

One of the cancer patients in the ward is Vadim, and his story is included in the chapter Approaching the Speed of Light. Vadim was a young, 27-year old geologist diagnosed with melanoma. He was well aware of his fate: back then, everyone with melanoma died. It was rare for melanoma patients to survive a year.

After finding out his own fate with certainty, the guy developed an acute sense of urgency that propelled him into action before it was too late. Here is how Solzhenitsyn describes Vadim:

He became like a moving body approaching the speed of light. His “time” and his “mass” were becoming different from these of other people. His time was increasing in capacity, his mass in penetration. His years were being compressed into weeks, his days into minutes. All his life he’d been in a hurry, but now he was really starting to run. Any fool can become a doctor of science if he lives sixty years in peace and quiet. But what can one do in twenty-seven?

Twenty-seven had been Lermontov’s age. Lermontov hadn’t wanted to die either. … Still, Lermontov had carved himself a niche in our memory not just for a hundred years, but forever.

… Vadim had discovered an important and at first glance paradoxical point: a man of talent can understand and accept death more easily than a man with none – yet the former has more to lose. A man of no talent craves long life, yet Epicurus had once observed that a fool, if offered eternity, would not know what to do with it.

…Throughout his twenty-six years he had found no greater fulfillment, no more satisfying and harmonious feeling than the consciousness of time usefully spent. This, he thought, would be the most sensible way to spend his last months.

Do we have Vadim's sense of urgency? 

Or do we develop this sense only when it is too late? 

Remember that TODAY happens only once.

As the clock marks a new year, I wish you to develop a sense of urgency and purpose.  I wish you the consciousness of time usefully spent. 

Know where you are going.

I wish the same to myself.

Our Golfer's and Tennis Elbow Rehabilitation Exercise Video

There have been requests for a YouTube video on some of the elbow rehabilitation exercises that we blogged about previously, and we have found the time to put something together.  

Here is the link to the video.

Please note the disclaimer:
You perform these exercises at your own risk; we are not physicians and not physical therapists.  You must get the approval of a physician or physical therapist before starting this, or any other, exercise program.  So please keep that in mind, and see a doctor or physical therapist and discuss these exercises, BEFORE attempting anything described here.

 

Below is the image link to the hand bands used in my exercises. The Flextend Orthotic Glove (also used by me) is out of stock/not sold on Amazon at this time.

Weekend cooking: Eggplant-pepper dish

Kitchen experiments around the Holidays

I always look for cheap, healthy and palatable meals to prepare. 

When I cook, I experiment with healthy swaps for recipe ingredients, and constantly add or subtract products and spices. My kitchen is my laboratory. What is there to risk?  
  
During the winter, the weekends are open to cooking, since the garden is off limits and I am not a fan of the cold, harsh weather.

Recently I experimented with a vegetarian dish prepared with grilled eggplants and baked peppers. I usually prepare huge batches of meals on weekends, and freeze portions for the workweek dinners.  

Try this light dish along with the more festive and filling meals this Holiday season.



Eggplant-pepper dish

You need:
One large eggplant, 1 jar of roasted and peeled peppers (I used 33.5 oz jar, but one can increase the amount of eggplant and reduce the peppers, or use eggplant only), 6 or more garlic cloves, peeled and chopped, 1 can tomato sauce (I used Hunt’s with garlic and onion powder in it, 29 oz, but any type would do), 1-2 Tbsp of olive oil, salt, black pepper and parsley (optional).

Instructions: 

How to drain the excess eggplant liquid

Peel and cut the eggplant into 1/3 inch slices, rub with salt and let the slices drain for up to an hour. To removed the excess eggplant liquid, I arrange the salted slices in a pan, and lean the pan on one side to drain the liquid away from the eggplant (see the picture on the side). Before grilling, squeeze out as much liquid as possible from the eggplant. I use a double-sided grill, and five minutes of grilling per batch of eggplant is sufficient.  If you do not have a grill, fry the eggplant before adding it to the rest of the ingredients.

My old double-sided inside grill. Below is the image link 
to a newer version of the grill on Amazon.com.

In a pot on the stove top, combine the tomato sauce, 16 oz of water, garlic, peppers, salt, black pepper, and grilled eggplant. Bring to boil and reduce heat to simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add some chopped parsley (optional) and turn the heat off. I serve the dish with toasted bread and feta cheese.


The new "lean mean fat grilling machine":

Cooking healthy: from impossible to possible

If you find yourself cooking these Holiday days, try the cooking ingredient swaps from LiveStrong.

With these tips you could re-invent any recipe into a healthy recipe. I have been applying the swaps (one example is here: pumpkin bread), and will continue having fun dusting off old sugar/calorie-loaded recipes into healthy treats.

When I evaluate new recipes, first I scan the ingredients. I evaluate whether these are unhealthy, and whether I could make healthy substitutions in order to incorporate the meals into our family diet.

The most surprising revelation is that most of the so-called “healthy” recipes still do not make it to my kitchen (even with the likely healthy swaps). These are the recipes that call for expensive and/or exotic ingredients that I would not consider buying.

I have a high respect for the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR), and I have previously praised the organization.  AICR focuses on cancer prevention through diet and physical activity. 

However, the AICR attitude to healthy cooking is too elitist. Just look at the healthy recipes they promote. The link is for a veggie ball recipe with 17 ingredients, among which are: Medjool dates, sun-dried tomatoes, flax seeds, tahini, nut meal…  Prep and cook time is 1.5 hours. Really? Dear AICR, do you have to make healthy food and its prep so difficult, expensive and outrageously out-of-reach for the majority of the U.S. population?

Instead, compile a cookbook of 10 basic healthy recipes and start a campaign for schools to implement real cooking lessons. This might be the only way our children will evade the obesity sentence and escape the deadly clutches of our junk food industry.