Creator Villa

For more, see quotes.

Some people eat for pleasure. Some people eat for function. Given the typical trade-off involved, everyone has to decide which one they value more.

Stress-fasting is a lot more healthy than stress eating. Let the body work itself out.

Today I made the world a better place by working out and eating my greens.

I identify as a night owl. The evenings are when I tend to be most relaxed and productive. I enjoy talking to friends, surfing the web, reading, meditating, and watching live sports into the wee hours of the morning. My current circumstances enable this lifestyle. However, I’ve also come to realize that there are powerful psychological benefits to waking up early.

When we wake up at the last possible minute before some obligation, or after we’ve exhausted every minute of sleep, we become passive players in life. Our circumstances and obligations bully us into doing things we would rather not. Waking up earlier than necessary changes the narrative. It communicates an embrace of the challenges and opportunities of life and transforms us from passive to active participants. There is a reason why most successful, high-energy, go-getter personality types tend to wake up early. Human beings have also evolved to be highly competitive and conscious of others. When we are awake in the morning while others are asleep, we often feel at a social advantage, and vice-versa.

Recently, I re-discovered a powerful life hack that started working for me almost instantly: intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting can be a powerful tool for waking up earlier and with better energy. My routine right now consists of me not consuming any calories after 3 or 4 PM. This creates a powerful incentive for me to go to bed earlier and rise earlier to fullfull nature’s most primal instinct. And it tends to have an energetic carry-over effect the rest of the day.

This routine may be difficult to execute, even for people who have extensive experience with intermittent fasting. I, for one, intermittent fasted for more than a year, and my feeding window was always sometime in the afternoon and evening. When I recently stopped eating in the evenings, I realized just how much I enjoy doing it, when all the work for the day is complete and my mind is in entertainment mode. The evening is also when I hang out with friends and family and like to socialize over a meal.

Abstinence requires forethought and discipline, especially when I know I’m going to be around people or engaged in some athletic activity. It means I have to be disciplined to eat enough calories during my feeding window to sustain me for the rest of the day and not to cave to the temptation to eat for pleasure when time, company, and good food are abundant.

Some say the only thing that matters is what you eat, not when you eat it. My experience leads me to believe otherwise.

Note: Fasting is not for everyone and you should do your due diligence and consult your doctor before beginning any fasting regiment.

The pandemic has prompted a surge in cooking as people spend more time at home and are wary of going out. Some have taken up cooking as a hobby, while others have resorted to it as something even more vital. I myself have spent more time in the kitchen since the pandemic broke out, spatula and saltshaker in hand, than the rest of my life put together. I find cooking to be viscerally satisfying and an opportunity to create meaningful experiences with those around me. Growth in this area has beyond doubt been one of the pandemic’s biggest legacies in my life.

This backstory motivated me to reach out to my friend and travel companion, Frankie Isabelle. When he isn’t doing bicep curls or philosophizing about the state of world affairs, there is a good probability you can find Frankie in the kitchen cooking up some fire. Frankie has a reputation in our friend group as “the best cook of the bunch” and is known for making lavish preparations, complete with herbal tea, spice-induced aromatherapy, and ethnic cuisine. He contends that if cooking for you is all about the eating, then you may be missing the point. Frankie shares his experience, gleaned from his upbringing, travel, and observation, that could transform the way you view one of planet earth’s most ancient arts.

Tell the people a little bit about your background.

I’m the oldest of three brothers. I come from a Mediterranean background. My mother’s family is Lebanese. My father’s family is Italian and Irish. A friend of mine always jokes that the Irish are the only Mediterranean people north of France. I was born in strip-mall hell, Columbus, Ohio, which was really not such a bad place before all the yuppie gentrification projections turned the city into a giant shopping mall. These days they say that Columbus will be a Smart City. I guess that means it will have dumb residents.

In some Middle Eastern households, the kitchen is considered a feminine space. How does that stereotype square with your experience growing up in the US with an ethnically Lebanese mom?

I have never experienced the kitchen as a strictly feminine space. One thing I have noticed with the women in my family is that they do not like anyone near the kitchen when they are cooking. Asides from this, my mom was the breakfast specialist, and my father seemed to enjoy cooking, as well. In any case, he was always the grill master, and often cooked dinner. Growing up, both of my parents worked long hours, and I often had to fend for myself. Nevertheless, I do appreciate when people make me food, and I feel especially gratified when a woman makes me food.

When I was 17 years-old—and with the infinite wisdom of a 17 year-old—I decided to become a vegan. Nobody in my family was very interested in cooking vegan. Fortunately for me, Lebanese cuisine is easily adapted to a vegan diet, so I didn’t have a very difficult time at family meals. I’m talking about Loubieh bi Zeit (green beans in olive oil); Tabbouleh (vegetarian salad); Fattoush (bread-based salad); Bamieh (okra); and Warak Enab (stuffed grape leaves)—all mainstays of any Levantine kitchen. The problem was that this food was never enough to maintain my weight, and so I had to learn creative strategies for satisfying my body’s needs. This is where my interest in cooking really took off.

Most people assume that vegans are health-conscious people. All right–fair enough–but that doesn’t mean they want to eat limp kale for every meal. So, the question for me was really, how I do I create savory dishes that pack the same punch as animal based foods? Now that I’m no longer vegan, I still love to cook, but for a different reason: most of the Frankenfood for sale at restaurants and grocers has little nutritional value and is often toxic. Cooking our own food affords us greater control over the quality.

What makes a successful experience in the kitchen?

My best experiences in the kitchen are when I’m able to be creative with what’s at hand. And the only way for that to happen is to take risks, make mistakes, and improvise. With enough time you will be able to establish your preferred flavor profiles. My go-to consists of lemon, salt, pepper, onions, and garlic. As a cook, you will need to discover what combinations work best for you.

I do consult recipes because I am curious how certain things are made, but I am never constrained by them. A lot of people don’t cook because they lack the knowledge or are afraid to mess up, and there’s no excuse for either. If you feel uncomfortable, plan ahead so that you have what you need. Personally, I’ve never been a rule follower, and nobody in my family could ever give me any straightforward answers when I asked them how they made a particular dish. It was always, “I don’t know, I’ve made this my whole life,” or “a little bit of this and a pinch of that,” or “taste it as you go”.

For some people, cooking is transactional. They cook in order to eat. You, on the other hand, take a more holistic view. Can you speak to the psychological or social benefits of cooking?

When we develop the capacity to realize our desires in the world around us, we become more confident and aware of our own needs and interests. The same thing applies to cooking. Any time you eliminate the gap between production and consumption, you are moving in the direction of health.

The best part about cooking is the meal, and not just the eating. I use the word meal because it implies a social element. Sharing food is a way for us to reconnect with our communal nature and to make contact with other vital needs that are ignored or considered less than “essential” by the modern world. In my experience, the happiest cultures recognize the implicit connection between social harmony and shared meals. Take the Mediterranean world, for example. Hosts take the initiative, and guests are not allowed to self-serve. The goal is to establish a rapport and to break down the barriers that stand in the way of genuine connections. Would you like coffee or tea? How does the food taste? Is it salty enough? Sweet enough? Sour enough? In the context of a meal, valuable insight can be gained. Do they eat slow or fast? Do they put their elbows on the table? Are they particular or easygoing? And so, in these cultures, food and its prerequisites are a socially meaningful experience, and cooking can be a tool to create the connections that are so important to our well-being as a species.

You spent a part of this summer with the Amish. What did you take away from that experience?

I was struck first by the structured approach of the Amish. They pray before each meal starts and after each meal ends. They eat together, unlike most Americans. Compared to the Amish, my eating habits were a bit decadent, and I gained a reputation as something of a foodie. “You like to eat good, Frankie”, they always told me. I worked hard that summer, but I never took breaks shorter than an hour. Fortunately, the Amish like dessert, so they were also quite fond of afternoon naps.

To my mind, eating should be a pleasurable experience, not a mere transaction to gain the calories we need to survive. In the United States, there’s very little concept of quality. Everything is about quantity. We are always in a rush. And our relationship with food is mostly passive and consumptive. We have lost touch with what makes us feel good. And one of the things that makes us feel good is eating from our own labor and sharing the fruits of our effort with those around us. In the Arabic world, a greedy person is said to have a big stomach (baá¹­no kbir), while a virtuous person is said to “eat from his fatigue” (yakol min taÊ¿abo). This is something that is a lot easier to achieve on a farm, and it is one of the reason why I think the Amish are so content with their simple lifestyle.

What is your favorite dish to cook?

I don’t have a favorite dish, but my favorite utensil is bread. I love it, for example, when everyone eats from a common bowl or dish. Potlucks have a similar appeal. When we eat this way, we function in the context of other people and their needs, and this forces us to develop more self-awareness.

During the last year, a lot of people have taken up cooking as a hobby or cooked more due to the limitations of eating out. How has the pandemic affected your culinary habits? 

We saw the panic buying that took place. Every animal on the earth knows how to get food, except for people. When supply chains get disrupted, fear sets in. The Amish taught me a lot about hunting and agriculture. They know where food comes from because they live off of the land. Knowing how to produce your own food is not only empowering, it’s also vital to a well-lived life. There’s plenty of studies where lab animals demonstrate greater satisfaction upon acquiring their own food rather than having it delivered pre-packaged and pre-dosed. The less dependent I am on the marketplace, the more confident and healthy I feel.

What advice would you give people just learning how to cook or people with an interest in cooking but don’t know where to start?

Start with what you already know—everybody knows something—and cook only the meals that you like. If you cook something that you don’t like, either don’t cook it again or change how you prepare it. As you do this, your repertoire will expand. That’s it. If your really struggling, watch some videos online, and if you still can’t figure it out, you never will. Eat out or find a partner who likes to cook. You should also know every ingredient you put into your body. Stay away from processed foods.

The last thing I will say is if cooking feels like a chore, it’s probably because you are not working in harmony with your needs. You work mechanically and consume compulsively. This is a social problem that has no easy answers, and each person must find a solution suitable to their particular circumstances. Let food be your guide. If you have time to cook and share a meal, then you are moving in a direction of balance and stability. Lastly, don’t be so hard on yourself. Relax, and take your time.

There are two types of people in the world: those who relish spicy food and everybody else. Most people can only relate to one or the other type. If you like spicy food, then how can anyone enjoy plain white rice? And if you don’t like spicy food, then you can’t rationalize the appeal of self-inflicted pain. Isn’t food supposed to make you feel good? As it turns out, science has a lot to say about people who simply can’t get enough heat. If this describes you, one or a combination of the following headings may apply.

Spicy food and I have a close relationship—an obsessive one, in fact. If it’s spicy, I want it. I want to sweat and shake and go half blind from the searing pain . . . which, now that I put it that way, seems really suggestive. But spicy stuff is addictive. That’s a known fact of science.

Maureen Johnson, American Novelist

1. You Are a Thrill-Seeker

A Penn State University study discovered a relationship between thrill-seeking and preference for study foods:

Using Arnett’s Inventory of Sensation Seeking (AISS) test — one that determines one’s level of risk taking behavior — they surveyed the participants first on their preferences to thrill. The questions included things like listening to loud music, watching highly suspenseful movies, public speaking, gambling and standing on the edge of something high and looking down. Their results were compared to their preferences for spicy food. Unsurprisingly, those who scored higher on the AISS test had higher preferences for spicier foods.

Source: Elite Daily

There is something about the pain of spicy food, knowing that it’s not going to kill you, that makes people feel alive and satisfies their thirst for adventure.

2. You Have High Testosterone Levels

This 2015 study found a correlation between male salivary testosterone levels and preferences for spicy food. The latter was measured in terms of the quantity of hot sauce that participants voluntarily consumed with their food.

Participants included 114 males between the ages of 18 and 44 recruited from the community. They were asked to indicate their preferences regarding spicy food and were then asked to season a sample of mashed potatoes with pepper sauce and salt (control substance) prior to evaluating the spiciness of the meal. A positive correlation was observed between endogenous salivary testosterone and the quantity of hot sauce individuals voluntarily and spontaneously consumed with a meal served as part of a laboratory task. In contrast, significant correlations were not observed between testosterone and behavioral preference for salty foods. This study suggests that behavioral preference for spicy food among men is related to endogenous testosterone levels.

Whether or not spicy food increases testosterone levels or men with higher testosterone levels simply have a preference for it is unclear. What is clear is there is a strong association between the two.

3. You Are Highly Sensitive To Reward

According to the experts, sensitivity to reward “refers to the degree to which an individual’s behavior is motivated by reward-relevant stimuli and is believed to be regulated by the behavioral activation system. . .” (source). An example of a reward is the pleasure experienced by eating good food, working out, or the endorphins released after exposure to spicy food. People highly sensitive to reward live by the motto, “No pain, no gain” (e.g. David Goggins), while those less less sensitive to reward make do with neither.

In a 2013 study entitled “Food Quality and Preference,” researchers discovered a positive correlation between sensitivity to reward and spicy food preferences (source). For these individuals, spicy food is worth consuming because it triggers the release of happy hormones comparable to a runner’s high.

For all you spice aficionados reading this post, I’m curious what it is about the chili pepper that whets your appetite. Let me know what the research cited above got right, wrong or neglected to address.

Unbeknown to many people, there are a number of awesome calculators and references online that can helps us meet our health and fitness goals, whether that’s losing weight, gaining weight, or calculating repetition ranges with different exercises. Today I want to share a few of the most popular ones and the ones I have personally found most helpful. My goal for this post is to make you aware of some of the free resources out there and to serve as a reference. Let me know your personal favorites down below and I may update this post to include them.

Body Mass Index (BMI)

BMI is a calculation that many of you are familiar with. It is probably the main tool your doctor uses to assess the health of your weight. BMI is based on two inputs: height and weight. Readings of 18 and below is underweight. 19-24 is healthy. 25-29 is overweight. 30-39 is obese. And 40 and up is extremely obese. You can reference the chart below or plug your numbers into BMI Calculator USA, which will give you an exact reading. BMI has its shortcomings. For example, Michael Jordan in his prime had a BMI of 27-29, which would classify him as overweight, yet his weight size was ~30. That is because muscle is quite heavy (it weighs more than fat) and BMI doesn’t factor in training-induced increases in muscle mass. If you are an athlete with high muscle mass, then BMI is probably not the best measure for you. For most people, however, BMI is an effective tool to gauge the health of their weight.

Weight Loss & Weight Gain Calculators

Did you know that a pound is ~3,500 calories? That means if you want to gain/lose a pound a week you need to increase/decrease your calorie intake by 3,500/7 = 500 calories a day. For example, if you need 2,200 calories a day to maintain your current weight and want to drop a pound a week (holding physical activity levels the same), then you would need to eat 1,700 calories a day. There are calculators where you input height, weight, sex, age, and physical activity levels and they calculate exactly how many calories you need to eat to maintain your current weight or drop x amount of pounds per week.

Calculator.Net has a great simple tool for this purpose –> CNET Weight Loss/Weight Gain Calculator. Another great one is at Calculators.org –> CORG Weight Loss/Weight Gain Calculator. The CORG calculator has the added feature of allowing you to input how many pounds you want to lose/gain in x amount of time, and calculating exactly how many calories you need to eat a day to achieve it.

FYI, there was a 30-calorie difference in how much I should eat in a day to maintain my current weight between the two calculators above. That is because no two calculators use the exact same algorithm and there is some estimation involved. In general, these are very helpful tools based on math and science but don’t take every minute reading as the absolute truth.

Resistance Training Calculators (Bench, Squat, Deadlift, Etc.)

There are also calculators that estimate how many repetitions of an exercise you can do at unspecified weights based on how many repetitions you can do at a specified weight. Bodybuilding.com has one for any lift–> Bodybuilding One-Rep Max Calculator. Most people use tools like this calculate their one-rep max as a measure of overall strength, hence why Bodybuilding.com brands the calculator as a “one-rep max calculator.” However, you can also use it to calculate, your 3, 5, and 8-rep maxes. For example, if you input 200 pounds for 8 repetitions, the calculator will churn out 250 as a one-rep max. However, there is also a chart at the bottom that estimates how many reps you can do at other weight based on your one-rep max (e.g. you can do 95% of one-rep max for two reps; 90% of one-rep max for 4 reps; and and 80% of one-rep max for 8 reps.) So if my one rep max is 250, 80% of that is 200, which would mean I can do 200 lbs for an estimated 8 reps. The calculator above gives you all of these numbers.

Strength Level is another popular tool to calculate your strength relative to other bodybuilders in your sex/age group. –> Strength Level Calculator You input your personal data, the exercise in question (there are dozens), and the number of repetitions you can do at a given weight, and it will tell you where you stand relative to your peers. There are five divisions based on each individual exercise: beginner, novice, intermediate, advanced, and elite. For example, I may rank as advanced on the bench press and novice on the squat if my bench numbers are relatively high and my squat numbers are relatively low.

Note: Strength Level uses self-reported data from users (currently 150,000 submissions) to calculate averages. The website “filters” submissions from spam, but in my experience people still tend to inflate their lifts, so take it with a grain of salt. And, remember, at the end of you day you are your only competition.

Zinc is one of those minerals you’ve probably already heard your doctor talk about. Zinc is involved in manifold bodily processes ranging from cell division and cell growth to wound healing and the breakdown of carbohydrates. We naturally obtain Zinc from out diet, but many people do not get enough. According to Medical News Today, 1.1 billion people worldwide are deficient in the mineral (link). These people obviously stand the most to gain from supplementing Zinc, but the benefits of Zinc are for everyone.

1. Zinc Improves Sleep Quality

This study examined the effect of zinc supplementation on the sleep quality of nurses in an intensive care unit. Researchers found that the intervention group (those who supplemented Zinc) scored higher on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, which measures things like sleep duration, sleep efficiency, and sleep disturbances. The supplemented group also scored lower on sleep latency (the time it takes to fall asleep) and subjectively rated their sleep quality better than the control group.

Other recent studies have come to the same conclusion. A review of the literature observed, “Recent research has concluded that zinc serum concentration varies with the amount of sleep, while orally administered zinc increases the amount and the quality of sleep in mice and humans.”

2. Zinc Raises Testosterone Levels

This study put sedentary men through a 4-week cycling routine and found that exercise decreased thyroid and testosterone levels. However, in the group that supplemented Zinc, thyroid and testosterone levels were substantially higher. The researchers concluded, “The results indicate that exercise decreases thyroid hormones and testosterone in sedentary men; however, zinc supplementation prevents this decrease.”

In a second study from 1996, dietary zinc restriction in young men resulted in a decrease in serum testosterone levels. The researchers also found that supplementing Zinc in elderly men who were moderately deficient in the mineral resulted in an increase in serum testosterone levels.

In a third study done on ZMA supplementation (Zinc, Magnesium, and Vitamin B-6), participants who took 30mg of Zinc over an 8-week period observed a substantial 25% increase in free testosterone levels. This is something to keep in mind even though we do not know the precise role Zinc played given the presence of two other minerals.

It may follow from the data above that Zinc increases free testosterone in normal adults and testosterone in exercise and Zinc-deficient groups.

3. Zinc Improves Sperm Health

A meta-analysis of the scientific literature found that Zinc supplementation improved sperm health and several markers of fertility. The researchers observed, “Our meta-analysis results indicated that the seminal plasma zinc concentrations from infertile males were significantly lower than those from normal controls. . . Zinc supplementation was found to significantly increase the semen volume, sperm motility and the percentage of normal sperm morphology. . .”

Zinc is also known to increase libido (start taking it and you’ll know exactly what I mean). This may have to do with the combined effect of benefits #1, #2 and #3.

4. Zinc For The Immune System

Zinc’s vital role in immune system health has been well documented. Zinc researcher Ananda Prasad summarized research done on Zinc and immune function: “The zinc-deficient patients had severe immune dysfunctions, inasmuch as they died of intercurrent infections by the time they were 25 years of age. In our studies in an experimental human model of zinc deficiency, we documented decreased serum testosterone level, oligospermia, severe immune dysfunctions mainly affecting T helper cells, hyperammonemia, neurosensory disorders, and decreased lean body mass” (link).

I have not come across any studies demonstrating a supplement-induced increase in immune system function in people not deficient in the mineral. To my mind more studies would need to be done to confirm this link. However, the immune system is a primary reason a Zinc-deficient individual should consider supplementation. Immune system function also happens to be the benefit most commonly touted on most Zinc products.

Where To Buy Zinc:

You can get Zinc on the cheap at any store that sells supplements or online at Amazon. My favorite Zinc product is Nature’s Wonder Zinc 50mg Tablets. I used to take 50mg of Zinc Gluconate every day for years when I was hitting the gym heavy, but now I take it about every two or three days. For a ZMA supplement with 30mg of Zinc that was found to increase free testosterone by 25% in the study cited above, check out MET-Rx ZMA Supplement 90 Capsules. You will be hard-pressed to find a better value product.

Conclusion:

Zinc supplementation is widely recommended for its many health benefits. My late uncle who was a medical doctor surprisingly didn’t give much health advice. But he did tell me and all my brothers to supplement with Zinc on the daily. After reviewing the medical literature, I can see where he was coming from.