A retirement activity: My daily regimen of Diet and Exercise

I am the cook in the house these days. I really dislike cooking, and I minimize my time doing it. But eating healthily is vital and you do want reasonably tasty food!! 

Almost all my cooking is instant pot cooking. It is easy, convenient, fast, but still nutritious and tasty. I have lots of instant pot recipe books. I draw from that and adapt to make the preparation to be even more nutritious and tasty. Adaptations include adding lots of veggies or making it tastier by selecting the spices to use. For taste, I rely a lot on eastern spices. The key to releasing its flavors is blooming them. Not too concerned about the texture of the food or its looks, or striving for a lot of variety. I don't cook every day. We just decided we will keep cooked food in the fridge for a maximum of 4 days. I frequent Whole Foods, Down to Earth, Costco, Foodland, and less frequently, Safeway and Target for food shopping. I am shifting over to buying organic wherever possible and eliminating ultra-processed foods wherever possible (center sections of supermarket are mostly processed or ultra processed foods, while the edges is less processed foods). When possible, try to shop in a farmers’ market. I am checking food expiry dates before use. I periodically toss expired foods in the pantry and freezer. Some basic hygiene principles must be used when handling food preparation. Wash hands before handling food. Wash all vegetables before cutting. Wash all fruits before eating. Wash everything involved like cutting board and knife after cutting meat. 

Breakfast includes two boiled egg and steel-cut oats. When eating at home, I largely follow veggies rich diet. I mostly limit meats, when used, to chicken and turkey. Occasionally I use 50% lean ground beef and 50% ground turkey to prepare chili. We use extra virgin olive oil as our cooking oil. I use soybean products like Tofu and edamame and legumes like pigeon peas, chickpeas, lentils, black gram, green gram, pinto, black and kidney beans for plant-based proteins (and also fiber). I use veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, spinach and Brussel sprouts for fiber. Also, my wife favors Kale and asparagus, while I favor daikon and other radishes, string beans, carrots, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, eggplant, okra and bell peppers. We favor steamed veggies over boiled veggies when possible. We avoid fried foods. I avoid rice, pasta, corn or noodles in my diet (except sometimes food from restaurants). I cut down on white or red potato intake, but I am trying Okinawan purple sweet potatoes grown locally as a substitute.  I eat two slices of nonwhite bread (Dave’s 21 whole grain bread) in a sandwich for lunch with a slice of cheddar cheese.  I on occasion use freshly sliced turkey for the sandwich instead of preprocessed mass consumer sliced turkey. My wife often likes to drink protein shakes or eat quinoa or green salad. She also periodically likes Mahi or Salmon Fillet from a restaurant for lunch (I don’t cook seafood).  I avoid desserts except, on occasion, ice cream. Much more rarely splurge on a slice of pecan pie or cheesecake. I snack on peanuts. My wife snacks on walnuts, pistachios (occasionally) and almonds. Our preferred fruits are berries, cherries, plums, peaches, nectarines, papayas, cantaloupe, bananas, pears, cuties, mandarin oranges, sumo oranges, watermelons, kiwis and apples. More infrequently, I eat pineapple. For dairy, use 100% grass fed organic whole milk, and greek yogurt with maximum 6g of fat. In terms of eating, I try to consume proteins before or with carbs. However, to stay healthy, I must keep battling the daemons of temptation!!

I try to eat healthily in restaurants too. These days I am trying to cut down on restaurant food. However, I do succumb very occasionally to a prime rib or steak at an upscale fine dining sit down restaurant. Other key restaurants we periodically use for take-out are Paniolo's, Paia Fish Market, Maui Mike's fire roasted chicken, Aloha Salad, a Thai restaurant, an Asian Fusion restaurant, prepared food at whole foods or down to earth, and Saigon Vietnamese noodle house - all in Windward Oahu. Also sometimes grab a premade rotisserie chicken at Costco or get takeout from a Kailua or Honolulu Indian restaurant. On vacations, restaurants are the only choice. 

This essay has the key food groups and the produce and meats rich in the various food groups. https://jaykasi.blogspot.com/2023/11/some-key-medical-questions-that-are.html

Bad diet practices still at play: soda, nicotine gum (almost 10 years and going!!), and coffee. Caffeinated Coffee now only in the morning and max 2 cups. Substantially cut soda intake now.  Eliminating Nicotine will take longer and require more will power but I am working on it. 

I am not good historically with regular exercise. However, I have been incorporating a brisk 30-minute walk (roughly 2.5 km) into my daily routine. I have been going on this walk at 5:30AM or 6AM for a few months. A reward system is built in - stop on the way at Starbucks for coffee or at McDonalds for coffee and if really hungry, plain scrambled eggs or oatmeal. More recently both me and my wife go together to the nearby beach park for the walk. 

My wife has been watching Dr William Lee’s diet and health podcasts on YouTube and reading his last book. A lot of focus on gut health. I have seen bits and pieces, but generally I much prefer getting nutrition advice from my doctor or nutritionist instead of a podcast.

Update April 2025 end: I have lost 15 pounds. My A1C is finally close to the desired target treatment point. My LDL is a bit elevated but my statin dose was just increased. I feel GREAT!!

Update June 2025: A1C is better than the desired target treatment point. LDL/Lipid test next year. 

Update Nov 2025: Lately I try to avoid using canned beans, but start from dry beans and soak overnight. Also don't use instant pot for many dishes anymore but use stovetop for better looking and tasting food. A1C well under control. Lost 20 pounds. Getting more interested in good cooking!!