No I haven’t lost it, there is a point that goes with the cheesy pun. This is the blessed month of Ramadan. The devil is locked away, Muslims are generally feeling good about life, time is spent reflecting, praying and giving thanks. It’s a month for Muslims to go above and beyond, whether it’s being extra nice to your neighbors, volunteering at a homeless shelter, or giving more to charity. You try to get away from your luxuries and attempt to comprehend how people less fortunate than you might be feeling. You push your self to be humble. It’s a month where you Raise the Stake. As we watch the Olympics this week you see these athletes who have trained for years for those 2 minutes or less on that stage. The stakes for them are at the highest they will probably ever be. Let’s think of this month as the Olympics of Islam. This is our 2 minutes on stage. Are we doing everything we can to get the Gold? This month the podium is almost handed to us. Let’s Raise the Stakes and work for the gold in all aspects that we can.
For me, I’m taking that challenge on by maintaining my religious obligations but also trying to spread knowledge about healthy living. Every day around Iftar I’m seeing people post pictures on Facebook or making comments about all of the carb loaded sugar meals they plan on over stuffing themselves with. I understand that we abstain from eating and drinking all day but the point isn’t to stuff our faces the second we can! When did humbleness turn into gluttony? Most health issues these days stems from a bad diet and lack of exercise. God gave us our healthy bodies and the least we can do is take care of it. Let’s raise the stake and work on living healthier. This Ramadan, take a pledge to eat healthier, do a few push ups, work towards making yourself better in all aspects of life.
Well with real-talk out of the way, let’s talk about food. I still had some left over pasta from the other day so I decided to have that for Sahoor. Note to self, that stuff does not taste too good 2 days later. Anyhow, I also had 2 scrambled eggs with 3 egg whites. I added some sea salt and sriracha sauce to it. I still have a few paleo muffins left over so I ate one of those as well. I washed it down with a little over a liter of water.
For dinner, as promised, I made a beef dish! Paleo Pepper Steak Bites (Raise the…Steak..). Enough of that, here is what went into it:
- 1/2 lb of beef diced up
- 1 Tbs of coconut oil
- 1/2 yellow onion, sliced
- 1 green pepper, diced
- 2-3 plum tomatoes
- 1/4 cup of water
- 1/4 tsp of sea salt
- 2 large carrots
Add the oil to a hot skillet over medium heat and add in the beef and onion. Stir it around until the beef is brown and the color of the onion changes. Stir in the water, pepper, tomatoes and salt. Cook for another few minutes while stirring constantly. Shred the carrots onto a plate and serve the beef on top of it:
The onions and pepper gave the beef a great taste and the carrots gave it the perfect crunch. If you want it to be a little more spicy, add in some sriracha right before you take the beef off of the skillet. I decided to lay off of the spices for the day because I have been having wayyyy too much recently. This is a very easy dish to try out but just make sure you leave some time for the beef to cook.
That’s all I have for today. Give what I said a thought. We are almost half way done with Ramadan and there is still time to make some good goals. Let’s purify our spirit and make the body it lives in a bit healthier too!
One Fit Ramadan 