For the next eight nights, I’ll be celebrating the Jewish festival of Passover, which celebrates the Jewish people’s freedom from slavery in Egypt, and God giving us the Ten Commandments. To celebrate it, Jews give up all leavened products, as well as a few other things according to personal traditions. This means that for the next week, I will be giving up pasta, bread, corn and most corn products, rice, bagels, hummus, shellfish, and grain alcohol (which, I recently learned, includes pretty much all alcohol) for eight nights.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve viewed Passover as a saboteur of healthy eating, and if I’m following some sort of diet when the holiday rolls around, I usually give it up for the week for purposes of maintaining my sanity. While Passover is so restrictive that it could be mistaken for a really intense diet, it’s actually a lot harder than it sounds because most of the substitutes for things like bread, pasta, and cereal include excessive amounts of eggs, potato starch, and oil in the ingredients. It’s one of the few times that I eat pancakes for breakfast on a fairly regular basis, or bread that’s more than 40 calories a slice. Further, the first two nights of Passover are Seders, which are festive meals that involve eating a ridiculous amount of food spread out over several hours, and drinking four glasses of wine (I swear). So every year, I’ve been able to reason with myself that if almost everything I’m putting in my body is oily and not that good for me, it would be extremely difficult — bordering on downright depressing — to monitor that or put it in a food diary.
I was really bad about keeping Passover the last two years because I lived on campus and had a meal plan, but since I have a kitchen this year I’m planning to keep it as best I can. I even solicited recipes from my mom and my aunt so that I could come up with different things to eat over the next week. But I’m not planning on letting Passover sabotage my healthy(ish) lifestyle this year. Here are some of the things I’m going to make sure to do this week so that I don’t go overboard or fall off the healthy living wagon this week:
- Everything in Moderation: Portion control is going to be the most important thing this week, because a lot of the things I’ll be eating (my mom’s Passover rolls, Passover pancakes and chocolate chip cookies) will be higher in calories than what I usually eat (bread that’s 40 calories a slice, and no cookies or pancakes). I’ll make sure to enjoy everything (as much as you can enjoy bread that resembles cardboard), but I might just enjoy one chocolate chip cookie instead of two or three.
- Exercise: Again, because most of the foods I’ll be eating are going to be higher in calories than what I regularly eat, it’ll be more important than ever that I get in regular workouts this week to balance everything I’ll be eating. And thankfully, even though it’s the last week of classes, I don’t have that much work this week, so I should be able to fit in some quality workouts. Plus, I’m running the Crescent City Classic on Saturday (!!!!!) so I need to be ready.
- Focus on What I Can Eat: Instead of focusing on how much I miss bread, spaghetti, and beer, I’m going to focus on enjoying all the stuff that is kosher for Passover. This includes every single kind of vegetable and fruit, meat, and dairy product under the sun (there are probably a few exceptions, but in the interest of not confusing everyone I’m going to keep it general here). So while I’ll miss bread for the next week (by Thursday I’d probably do just about anything for a sandwich), I can still eat huge, delicious salads, a cheeseburger sans bun (which saves a couple hundred calories right there), and a lot of other stuff, too. Including a few of the Passover chocolate chip cookies (but not too many!)
I might not be counting the seconds until Passover begins, but I’m confident that next week isn’t going to be that bad. It’ll be challenging, but since when have I said no to a challenge? Check back next week to see how I did!