FOK: I’m obsessed with your idea of “Vegetables for Breakfast” (VFB). Can you explain the habit of VFB and why it’s so crucial for lasting weight loss?

AJ: Pretty much all countries with the exception of the United States eat vegetables as part of a healthy breakfast. Whether it’s the vegetable miso soup in Japan, the kimchi in Korea, or the pickled vegetables in China, most countries eat a savory breakfast. It’s pretty much only the United States that considers sugar, flour, and caffeine breakfast. If you want to lose weight, make sure that at least half your plate at every meal, yes even breakfast, is vegetables. That will dilute the overall caloric density of every meal. In addition, vegetables, especially the dark green leafy ones have compounds called thykaloids, which have been proven to turn off the hunger switch and fight cravings for unhealthy junk food, especially sugar. So whether you want to lose weight, recover from food addiction, or just get healthier, the best thing you can do is to start your day in a savory way with vegetables. But you need to eat them whole, not juiced or blended.

FOK: What is your favorite way to consume “Vegetables for Breakfast”?

AJ: My favorite way to consume any vegetables, besides a delicious chopped salad, is roasted. Whether done in a conventional oven or an air fryer, roasting brings out the natural sweetness in vegetables and caramelizes them so that even people who are vegetable adverse will love them. When you make my recipe for Oven Roasted Balsamic Dijon Glazed Brussels Sprouts, you would swear you’re eating candy!

"My meals yesterday:

Breakfast: Overnight Oats with chia seeds, blueberries and rolled oats

Lunch: Salad with chick peas and veggies with balsamic vinegar and a potato with black beans.

Snack was green juice, fresh squeezed, apple and some almonds

Post workout was smoothie with Kale, hemp seeds, blueberries, strawberries, and almond milk (my only processed ingredient).

Dinner was minestrone soup with beans and veggies.

If you don't think this is an extremely healthy diet than I simply don't know what to tell you."

Training and Time Management

"Even though I live alone with my two rescued greyhounds and have a busy job, I prepare most of my meals at home. I know that whatever I prepare at home is going to be far healthier than anything from a restaurant. I try to prep and stock my fridge so that it's easy to grab something. For breakfast, I usually have oatmeal with fruit and/or a green smoothie blended in the Vitamix. For lunch and dinner, my staple meals are farmer's market salads, rice and bean dishes, and sweet potatoes. Even for training, I like to stick with real food. I bring Medjool dates on very long runs or bike rides and snack on fruit (especially bananas) and nuts. Sometimes I do also have convenient foods like Larabars since they are timesavers and don't have too many ingredients.

I exercise six days a week, usually doing two workouts per day. My typical weekday morning starts with Golden Road Aquatics, a master's swim group, from 6-7AM. I shower at the pool and go straight to work. Then, in the evenings, I might go jogging, take a yoga class, or go to a class at Barr's Boot Camp. Getting in my workouts can be challenging since I'm a busy cardiologist, but I schedule in the time to exercise. I look at my calendar and plan everything in advance so that I know what I am doing as I go into each week. I also do longer, more challenging workouts, like longer trail runs or bike rides, on the weekends."