The Spikey Ramadan Diet ~ part 2

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Saturday 28 June, 2014 by Uncle Spike

Uncle Spike’s own Ramadan diet is different, but it works 🙂

As mentioned in the previous post, fasting means to go without nourishment from dawn (around 3:50am) till dusk (around 8:40pm) for 30 days. That means nothing to eat or drink at all during these times, no smoking, no gum, and as Sheldon would say, no coitus either 🙂

My special dietary regime has managed to rid me of the usual nightmare long headaches associated with fasting. So, after reading about my preparations, this is what I actually eat…

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This a photo of my actual SUHOOR meal at 3am this morning (see below)

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SUHOOR (brekky)

1. No big fuss, after 2-3 hours sleep, max, I get up alone 45 mins before first light (e.g. 03:00am).

2. I stick to simple foods, nothing processed as they are full of high salt/sugar content, which play havoc with your system once it realises it has to operate in fasting mode. Plus, when more than a bit sleepy, the last sight you’d want to see would be a plate of fried eggs!

3. I drink half a litre (1 US pint) of water immediately.

4. As I mentioned in my previous post, no tea or coffee for 40 days, so I stopped 10 days ago – voluntary, but makes a heck of a difference to the headaches I and most others get for the first few days.

5. No bread, it bloats you and then you cannot intake what you need. You might feel full, but it will only last 3-4 hours. Your body has 16+ hours to contend with.

6. Eat complex carbs, that is the key, such as lentils; they last you ages, really. I normally eat 2 of what you might call large mildly spicy green lentil sausage rolls (of course, without the sausage). The wrap is made locally, just a simple flat very thin natural wheat filo pastry. I make loads of these weeks before and freeze them down, then just chuck a couple in the flat hotplate toaster for 6 minutes from frozen.

7. I then drink another 0.5 litre (1 US pint) of water.

8. Add in a tomato and a cucumber, or some other fresh raw veg from the garden. Or maybe even a couple of baby new potatoes dug up the day before.

9. Then I take on my natural sugars for the day, just 4-5 fresh Iranian dates and then from our garden, 1-2 fresh green figs or some other basic natural sugar fruit like Apricot or Plums (2 large or 5 small) and a very small glass of fresh summer orange juice.

10. I then drink a final 0.5 litre (1 US pint) of water.

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DAYTIME

1. Easy. no food or drink may pass your lips. That includes no chewing gum, no smoking and for us, lol, no daytime ‘nocturnal’ activities, if you get my drift.

2. I work outside, gently (watering etc, non-strenuous), until the sun blasts over the mountain at 0730, then I stay indoors as much as poss as it’s 32 by 0700, and reaches 40-45 from 1100-1600. Apart from Friday prayers, when the 1km walk each way is quite a task (sometimes I wimp out and drive).

3. Indoor house chores on/off all day, entertaining and feeding Cousin Spike Jnr, who is on his 3 month summer school break, plus preparing the evening Iftar meal.

4. Back outside around 2-3 hours before sunset to do farm chores, such as light digging, watering, picking/tending to veg, spraying trees, feeding chooks etc. Then I go to town on the motorbike to get fresh pide (flat bread thingy we scoff during Ramadan here).

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IFTAR (din dins)

1. Again, no big fuss. I don’t get on well with the ‘big feast’ idea, and personally, I think it’s more appropriate to keep it all simple and low-key throughout all of Ramadan.

2. Stick to simple foods again, nothing processed as full of high salt/sugar content. Remember, I am also thinking of preparing myself for the next day, and the next…

3. I drink 0.5 litre (1 US pint) of water immediately the big gun blasts (from the military station in town a few km away, that’s the key for the Imam’s to do their bit. The normal call to prayer can be heard from all the mosques, but most do it in under 12 seconds because they are hungry too; and if you’ve ever seen the average Turkish village Imam, they like their grub, lol?).

4. I eat 5-6 Iranian fresh dates to get my system cranked back up again (a soft launch, so to speak, not diving headfirst into a table loaded with goodies). I tried that and it shattered me; too much shock to the system after 16 hours on partial shutdown.

5. I mainly eat one simple, low spice, low salt homemade vegetarian dish, based on whatever is growing in the garden, often containing some more complex carbs, such as lentils.

6. Plus a decent home-grown salad with our own natural olive oil and our own pomegranate molasses syrup etc. And maybe some cheese or an egg (coz the chooks don’t stop laying during Ramadan… they don’t ‘observe’).

7. I don’t eat normal white Turkish bread, it’s far too yummy and moreish, so prefer the pide I mentioned earlier, but no more than a chunk the size of my palm, or I’ll feel bloated later.

8. I drink another 0.5 litre (1 US pint) of water.

9. No desserts or cakes, and as I said, no tea or coffee.

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EVENING (after din dins, before sleepies)

1. At this time of year, generally those last few hours of the day spent sitting on our bean bag seat things on the top floor large open terrace under the stars, watching TV series on the laptop with my wife – or perhaps a spot of blogging 🙂

2. I take on more natural sugars with fresh fruit from the garden, such as strawberries, figs, apricot, or sweet summer oranges.

3. I drink one small bottle of plain soda water – my treat

4. I also drink probably another 1.0 litre (2 US pints) of water during the evening, and crash out around 0100 in the morning.

That’s how I survive fasting with only moderate discomfort 🙂

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