Emily Segal Fitness

Healthy Pancakes! Yes, there is such a thing, and they are delicious! I actually can not eat regular pancakes with maple syrup - they make me feel truly awful. Too much sweetness, too little fiber, too little protein. I just feel like I am going into a coma and not in a good way. 😉 MY pancakes have only healthy ingredients, no refined sugar, tons of fiber, and even a little protein and healthy fats. I make a batch of 10, eat 3, and put the remainder in the freezer for future breakfasts or even a snack. Recipe will be in the comments.

Although the weather is gorgeous in Israel, I know much of my US audience is snowed in today. So I give you one of my favorite simple, healthy soups made with ingredients you probably have right in the house. This Carrot-Tomato soup comes together in a flash and always gets rave reviews. Don't skip the lemon peel! It seems weird but it makes the soup. Just remember to remove it - and the bay leaf- before pureeing. Stay warm and safe! Recipe in the comments.

🍋🍋 I present Sweet and Sour Sticky Lemon Tofu. This is a baked version that still gives you crispy coated tofu without frying. 🙌 This is a very fast and easy recipe that gets a delicious, healthy dinner on the table quickly, even on a busy weeknight. Serve with rice and some extra veggies to round out the meal. I served atop red rice with a side of roasted carrots, cabbage, and onion, as those were literally the only veggies left in the fridge. This made 3 portions, and I saved 2 for subsequent meals. It reheated beautifully in the microwave. Recipe will be in the comments. 🍋🍋

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A word before we continue.

I thought I could come back here and avoid any mention of current events. But it feels too inauthentic, both for me, and for the followers who are going through the same events alongside me.

You are going to see me posting here with smiles, self-deprecating humor, and my best efforts at being positive and inspirational, because I am determined to build my business and help people live healthy lives, after a year and a half where my focus was 100% needed elsewhere.

But you need to know that with every word - no, it's more than that - Every breath, every thought, every movement, every hope, prayer and dream...my heart is with the hostages and their families, the victims and their families, and our soldiers and their families.

It feels completely impossible to show up and ignore The Elephant, who not only sits in the room, but rather, sits on our chests and deprives us of air. But we can do hard things. And that is the entire message of my business, isn't it? We can, and we MUST, do all the hard things. That's just life. That's where we are. We push forward and if we have to drag along this giant sack of pain and despair for awhile (forever?), we will do it as best we can.

And that is probably all I will say about that.

I am the granddaughter of Russian Jewish immigrants to America. Growing up, it seems there was always a glowing bright pink bottle of borscht in our refrigerator. My Mom made it for my Dad, who liked to drink it cold, with sour cream mixed in. I thought it was horrifying - some immigrant relic - and prayed my friends would never open the fridge and see it.

But here we are in 2024 and adult me also makes borscht for my family on the regular. Why we have to reject our parents, only to become them in the end, I do not know. 🤷‍♀️

I got this recipe from a Bukharan Jewish woman so the spice profile, redolent with cumin and coriander, is different than the traditional Ashkenazi version, but I think it's perfect. The original recipe has hot pepper and is spicy, but I prefer it without. Just know you can do that too. I serve it piping hot and sans sour cream. And of course, my version is vegan. ❤️

Beets are packed with nutrients, lower blood pressure (temporarily), and can literally enhance athletic performance! I admit that I do not like the taste of beets, but this soup does not taste "beety" at all. I truly love eating it, and I hope you will too.

Emily's Borscht
1 large onion, chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
Oil for frying
1 carrot, grated
1 tomato, finely chopped
1 Tbsp tomato paste
Salt and pepper to taste
¾ tsp cumin
¾ tsp coriander
1 large potato, peeled and diced into cubes
2 medium beets, peeled and grated
Water
3-4 tsp soup powder if you so desire
1 bay leaf
2 tsp dried dill
3 cups thinly sliced green cabbage
1 handful of chopped parsley

• Fry onion and garlic in oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• Add in carrot, tomato, tomato paste, cumin and coriander.
• Add in potatoes and beets.
• Cover with water and soup powder.
• Bring to a boil, add bay leaf and dill.
• Cover loosely and simmer for 30-40 minutes, until veggies are soft.
• Stir in cabbage and cook another 10 minutes, adding water as needed for soup consistency you want.
• Before serving, stir in parsley and adjust seasoning to taste.

Reclaiming Grapefruit: The first time I ate grapefruit I was 15 years old and embarking on my first diet. My mom was doing The Scarsdale Diet and I decided to join her. I was 5 foot 6 and weighed 145 lbs. Draw your own conclusions there, but looking back, I really had no reason to be dieting at that weight.

Breakfast on The Scarsdale Diet was 1/2 piece of dry toast and 1/2 grapefruit. There might have been some cottage cheese allowed, I don't remember. But I do remember that I was STARVING all day long.

I lost about 10 lbs on the diet and then the binging began and I regained that weight and 10 lbs more. This pattern repeated for the next nearly FORTY years: dieting, the elation of losing weight, followed by the utter despair of out of control binging, and regaining more weight. And as a matter of fact, 145 lbs was always my "goal weight".

At the end of 2020, I stopped dieting for the first time in almost 40 years. Shockingly, I stopped binging as soon as I quit restricting. I will be writing a lot more about this subject, but for today, I can happily say, that I eat grapefruit because I like it. And yes, because it is healthy and makes me feel great.

What I never managed to understand before, is that you can care about your health AND not intentionally try to make your body smaller. Diet Culture has predicated health on weight, but that, my friends, is a lot of BS. You can be skinny and unhealthy or fat and healthy, and any combination in between. And for many of us, intentionally trying to lose weight, CAUSES disordered eating behaviors.

January 1st, 2020. We had no idea what was coming. We had 365 days of blank canvas and new opportunities ahead of us. In our wildest dreams, we could not have predicted what would happen to our world.

Tonight begins Yom Kippur, a pause to reflect at the beginning of a new Jewish year. My greatest wish/prayer/hope for year 5781, is that we find a way to repair the painfully deep fissures that have erupted between each of us. I hope we cancel "cancel culture " and get back to loving our neighbors as ourselves: no matter who they are voting for; no matter their race or religion; no matter that their choices and behavior are different than our own. We are all human, imperfect, sometimes stupid, oftentimes lonely. The ONLY thing we have is one another. Enough with the divisions and the hatred. May we come together in peace and in strength, so that regardless of what gets thrown our way next (and you know there will be more crazy), we will handle it together. Gmar Hatima Tova. ❤