Tips for the Middle East

Can you cook? It's really easier to find fresh and much cheaper produce in warmer parts of the world and the weather is still nice, so you can go on walks, doesn't rain as much as Ireland. Don't settle for the pita and falafel, those get up to 500 kcals per serving!

LMAO! Really? Walks in the Middle East? That's just crazy. It's either too hot, too dusty, or too cold. I know that where I am, we only get MAYBE 3-4 weeks out of the whole year that are nice enough to do anything outside.

Living in the Middle East can be rough when trying to stay healthy. Food is ridiculously expensive, most ingredients cannot be found, and the fresh produce section at the grocery store is a tragedy. To cook healthier, I had to learn what to substitute for certain vegetables. For example, I cannot find zucchini to save my life. I have been here for over 4 years. I started using something called koosa instead. I still have no idea what it is, but it works! It takes time, practice, a lot of kitchen mishaps, and lots of patience!

As for exercise, well, that's tough. If you're a woman, going to a gym can be quite an uncomfortable experience, given the men's penchant for staring here. Special "woman only" gyms are SUPER expensive, so that kinda leaves you stuck. My suggestion would be to do home workout DVD's, or buy a Wii or an xbox with a Kinect. They have an awesome Zumba game for the Kinect! There should also be stores around where you can buy things such as resistance bands, hand weights, etc.

BTW - where in the Middle East are you?

I moved from Germany to Israel and since I live here I was able to lose about 10 kg!!! This is a perfect sign that it isn't hard at all to eat healthy and do sports in this part of the world. I completely agree with brevislux. Although gyms might really be quite expensive here it's much easier to just simply get out of the house and do some exercise because the weather is so much better.

For example I usually either walk to my workplace or back home (5 km). In the morning it's still relatively nice and fresh and even if it is a bit hot in the afternoon I just take a big bottle of water with me and it's absolutely fine. Maybe at the beginning I really had to force myself but now it's part of my daily routine. Moreover, you might have the possibility to go to some beach and do some swimming (depends of course on where you live exactly). The rest of the time I exercise at home with some workout videos that I found on youtube. This in an option for the really extremely hot summer days because you can also turn on the air condition.

I was really shocked when I saw how expensive are some food products here in Israel but those are usually the unhealthy things anyways like some stupid frozen meat things, cornflakes, chocolate, cheese. But when you go here to the market it's like a paradise!. The fruits and vegetables are so much better here than in Germany. Really fresh and surprisingly cheap. I usually always eat a huge meal with vegetables like for example broccoli, peas, corn kernels and red peppers mixed in the pan or an Israeli cucumber and tomato salad for dinner.

And things like hummus or falafel I almost never eat. Simply too many calories. Pita by the way is the biggest taboo!