I have been trying to make some changes to my food habits lately for the sake of my health. My blood sugar has been steadily increasing for years, and I recently tested in the “pre-diabetes” range. I have also been steadily gaining weight over the last few years due to my chronic illness, which makes exercising difficult. I don’t typically care too much about my looks, but it’s been getting physically uncomfortable. I’m less flexible (not that I was ever very flexible), and my already bad knees are struggling more. My goal is mostly to consume less sugar, more fiber, and more protein.

I really want to get back to exercising, too. It has so many benefits beyond weight control. The most immediate changes I notice when I exercise regularly are lower blood pressure, better sleep, and more energy. Before chronic illness, I was exercising nearly every day. For my first year or two of being chronically ill, all I wanted was to be able to exercise again. I was so used to the boost from exercising, and not being able to exercise contributed greatly to my depression at the time.

I’ve mostly come to terms with it now. Unless there’s a new medication or something that I can actually afford, I’ll probably never get back to my morning 20-30 minute high-impact cardio workouts. Still, walking daily with my husband in the summer made a big difference. We had to stop when it started snowing, but I would love to find something I can still do confidently at home. I have some ideas, mostly modified versions of exercises I’ve enjoyed before, but I haven’t gotten up the courage to try them yet. So, for now, I’m focusing on diet changes.

I love Ozery’s Morning Rounds. I have been eating them almost every morning for years. I toast them and spread butter on them, and they’re warm, chewy, and perfect. They are relatively expensive (about $5 Canadian for 6, and I eat 2 in a sitting), so I have been wanting to find a homemade version for a while. I have tried a few recipes, but I found them all to be dry and missing the chewiness that I love.

While trying to eat healthier, I’ve tried to replace the morning rounds with all sorts of loaves, yogurt parfaits, oatmeal, and probably some other things I’m forgetting. Inevitably, after a week or two, I give in and buy the morning rounds again. This recipe was actually my newest attempt at replacing them with something else. I was not expecting it to be so similar to the actual morning rounds, and I was very excited when I discovered how similar they are.

The recipe I used can be found here: https://atreatlife.com/2020/09/15/easy-whole-wheat-mediterranean-flatbread/

I use plain Greek yogurt (2% fat) and add about 1 cup of dried cranberries and 3 tsp cinnamon. I divide the dough into 16 (the original recipe says 10), and leave them fairly thick when I roll them out, a little less than half an inch thick. I was able to cook them on the flat-top, which made the cooking stage much more manageable for me.

I found these to be more filling than the original morning rounds. They end up a little smaller, but actually weigh more. 2 of these flat breads feels like the same amount of food I normally have. They can also be frozen, so I can make multiple batches when I’m having a good day and freeze them for later.

That’s all for now. Let me know what you think if you try them!

Squeeze the day!
~Lauren