Unfortunately, I have a kitchen with very limited space, and I wouldn’t use a salad spinner nearly enough to justify the storage space it would take up (waffle irons and immersion blenders fall in the same category). I’ve lived on my own for over a decade now, and have never even considered buying a salad spinner. Granted, for most of those years, I wasn’t making many salads at home. But salads have been a dietary staple during the past two years, and even now, I don’t ever walk by a salad spinner display at the store and get tempted, with lust in my eyes, to pick one out for purchase.

I can thank the supermarket for squashing any desire I might have for salad spinner possession, because pre-washed, pre-chopped greens are so readily available, and in so many varieties. Even my favorite greens vendor at the farmers market pre-washes their merchandise – according to their signage, they triple-wash it (which I think is excessive, but I still buy it). Any type of lettuce or lettuce mix I could want is available ready-to-eat.

Even though a salad spinner just doesn’t fit into my life, I still enjoy a gadget, and I had a little ‘drop-everything’ moment when I came across this product a few weeks ago:

What’s this? A bag that spins salad? I was instantly hooked. I bought a package. Here’s what a Spin’n Stor bag looks like:

Yesterday, I tried out one of the bags for the first time. On Tuesday, I bought some lettuce as part of my produce haul from Whole Foods. What I learned, as I perused the lettuce section at Whole Foods, is that I know jackshit about lettuce. The problem with eating pre-washed “mixed baby greens” or “spring mix” is that I never bothered to learn what the individual greens were. I know a few varieties, like iceberg, romaine, and spinach, but there’s a whole world of lettuces out there, with names like escarole, Boston, mache, and frisee, that I know I’ve eaten hundreds of times but couldn’t pick out of a line-up if my life depended on it. Further complicating matters was that the lettuce section at Whole Foods was terribly confusing. I wasn’t certain if the signs were referring to the lettuces on the shelf above or below, and some piles of lettuce had two signs. I’m not exactly sure what I came home with, but here it is – I picked it out because it was pretty, and if you can identify it, please do so in the comments section:

I cut out the core, gave it a rough chop and washed it in my sink:

Then I loaded the lettuce into the bag:

And then I spun it. I spun it like a crazy person, in big loops with my arm fully extended, like a softball pitcher. The bag worked! The water drained into a reservoir at the bottom. Look how much water it collected!

(Yep, I’m watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire while making lunch)

The cool thing about the bag is that there’s another panel, called the turbo drain, that allows you to drain the water out of the reservoir without it touching the lettuce. Then, you can twist-tie the bag, and store the lettuce until you’re ready to use it, or, if you’re like me and have no patience, you can make a salad immediately:

I added tomato, scallion, zucchini, green pepper, cucumber, and some fake bacon bits. I also used a nonfat vinaigrette, but I didn’t add that until after I photographed it.

Oh, and the bags are reusable. The package contained 4 of them, and each can be used 8-10 times. I foresee a lot of salad in my future!

Keep it up, David!

GROSS. I hate throwing away food, but I had no other option. That left me 1 other orange, which looks mold-free, but I will examine it thoroughly tomorrow morning before I make it part of my breakfast.

It was time to go to the store. In recent months, I’ve begun frequenting the Whole Foods in Beverly Hills. There are three or four other Whole Foods (at least) that are technically closer to my house, but this location is literally blocks from Slimmons, and I’ve gotten in the habit of stopping by after leaving Richard Simmons’ classes. And that’s what I did last night.

My produce procurement actually started at Slimmons. Before class started, my friend Joanne offered me a couple oranges from the tree in her backyard. I love backyard produce! She had brought in a big bag of oranges to share, and I got the last two (next time I’ll have to arrive earlier, I guess!):

Thanks, Joanne!

It was a fun class – my dear friend Vikki, whom I haven’t seen in forever, came for the first time and had a ball. Afterward, I threw a hoodie over my sweaty workout clothes and went to market. Curious what a Richard Simmons’ aerobics class is like? Read this recent post.

I kinda like the Beverly Hills Whole Foods. It’s not a huge store, but their produce section (my favorite section) is sizable. Plus, it’s never that crowded, and parking is a breeze (maybe because I’ve only gone on Tuesday or Thursday night around 8pm).

Sometimes I breeze through the produce section, filling my cart and moving on, and sometimes I linger and really examine the offerings. I’m not afraid to fondle the melons, stroke a banana, caress a peach, or tickle some plums. Sorry, couldn’t resist! (But please note I’m an equal opportunity molester.) Today I must have wandered around each display 2 or 3 times, because it seemed like I was in that produce section forever – and that’s a feeling that I don’t mind at all!

Here’s what I came home with:

• Top Row: mushrooms, bananas, baby carrots, blackberries, green beans.
• Middle Row: lettuce (more on this in tomorrow’s post), zucchini, a container of pre-cut celery, yellow cherry tomatoes, comice pears, black seedless grapes, kiwis, apples (a variety called Lady Alice, which I’ve heard of before).
• Bottow Row: pineapple, baby bell peppers, broccoli florets.

This is where this post will sound like an informercial, because that’s not all! I also picked up a few other things, including…

Rainbow Carrots! I’ve bought them a few times before – here’s my favorite post about them – but I’ve never bought them with the greens attached. Pretty, aren’t they? They makes me want to eat them Bugs-Bunny-style, which I suppose would be pulling them out of my pocket, chewing with my mouth open, and asking “What’s up, Doc?”

I also bought…

Starfruit! It’s been nearly a year since I’ve had one of these suckers, and even though they weren’t my favorite fruit, I thought I’d give it another go.

Lastly, I stumbled upon a vegetable that is so stunning that it quite literally makes me weak in the knees. I’ve seen them before, at farmers markets, but I’m pretty sure I never bought one before. Ladies and gentlemen, take a look at this:

It’s called romanesco broccoli, and I could stare at it all day. It looks like it shouldn’t belong on this planet – like aliens left it behind when they left behind E.T., or built the pyramids, or covered the planet with all those thetans. I don’t know yet what I’m going to do with it, but in the meantime, I’m going to enjoy looking at it. Is it not the coolest produce item you’ve ever seen?

I seriously can’t stop looking at it. I’ve opened my fridge twice in the past half hour just to stare! Once I do eat it, I’ll be sure to share the pictures with you.

And, in my next post, I’m going to be quite literally putting a new spin on salad!

KEEP IT UP, DAVID!

My Saturday and Sunday workouts had additional significance, because my gym membership expired on Sunday. I wrote a few posts last month about my decision to switch gyms, and now that transition is complete (there’s more to this story, and I promise to share it soon!). Buh-bye, Burbank Athletic Club, and thank you for 4 wonderful years, and hello, Crunch! Since Burbank Athletic Club has two locations, I thought I’d spend my final weekend as a member hitting both of them – a little farewell tour.

On Sunday, I hit the downtown location, and had a great workout: after warming up, I did 35 minutes of weights, 5 minutes of rowing, and 17 minutes on an elliptical. But my Saturday workout at the northwest location is the momentous one, because it was during that workout that I reached TWO big milestones.

Milestone #1. For the first time ever, I did a full set (3 x 10 reps) of bench presses with over 100 pounds of weight. It was 105 pounds, to be precise – 30 pounds on each end of the bar, and the bar itself is 45. Woo-hoo!

Milestone #2. For the first time ever, I climbed over 100 stories on the StairMaster! I wish there was more of a story to go along with this, but there isn’t. I got on the StairMaster, threw a towel over the display, and started climbing. I had some great music, and before I knew it, I had climbed 75 stories, and I decided in that moment to that I’d push myself to get over 100. I had been close before – my last outing on a StairMaster resulted in a 98-story climb – but today I went 104. HOLY FUCKING SHIT, I CLIMBED 104 STORIES! It took 22 minutes and I burned 375 calories.

Time to add a new building to My Skyscraper Collection! Unfortunately for me, nowhere on the planet is there a building that’s exactly 104 stories tall, so, instead, I’m adding a 102-story building, and it just happens to be one of the most recognizable buildings ever constructed:

THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING!

The Empire State Building is a landmark and an icon for New York City, and was the tallest building in the world from its completion in 1931 until the World Trade Center was completed in 1972. It’s currently the tallest building in New York City, the third tallest building in the U.S. – after Willis (Sears) Tower and Trump International Hotel and Tower (which I added to my collection last week) – and the 19th tallest building in the world.

I’ve been inside the Empire State Building, but only the lobby – the line for the observation deck was way too long. I’ve read a lot about the building – a few years ago, I read a fantastic book called “Higher” by Neal Bascomb, which is the nonfiction account of the two rival architects who raced, in the 1920s, to build the tallest building in the world. While they were pushing to outdo each other, and creating the Chrysler Building and Manhattan Company Building in the process, a third architect and developer entered the fray, announcing plans for an even bigger and taller building – the Empire State Building.

“Higher” is an absorbing read – meticulously researched and hard to put down. It goes into detail about how the Empire State Building was built – it “went up like a rocket ship” in under 14 months, and the statistics surrounding its construction are jaw-dropping: Over 3,400 workers clocked in daily. An average of 10,000 tons of steel erected each month. 500 truckloads of material delivered every day – that’s 1 truck a minute. 10 million bricks were laid. 6,500 windows were installed.

Some other Empire State Building fun facts:

• On a clear day, you can see five different states from the observation deck: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.
• The 102nd floor was originally intended to be the landing platform for blimps that would be moored to the building’s spire, but after a couple failed attempts (it was way too windy), this idea was abandoned.
• In the early 70s, after the World Trade Center was completed, it was proposed that 11 additional stories be added to the Empire State Building, to once again make it the tallest building in the world. The idea was rejected.

Yep, I climbed that!

KEEP IT UP, DAVID!

Happy Monday! I hope you had a good weekend, because I did. I hit two big milestones at the gym, and kept busy otherwise… but I’m going to get into all that tomorrow. Today, I’m introducing a new feature to Keep It Up, David!

This is kinda sorta completely random, but I have a strange little talent that’s has nothing to do with anything else that I blog about. Lately, though, this talent has really come in handy. About a week ago, I mentioned in a post that I sometimes draw as a mental distraction. There are times when I’m relaxing or watching TV, and all I seem to think about is snacking. It happens most frequently at night – I’ve had a good dinner, and I’m not actually hungry, but I get an overwhelming desire to keep eating, and I start fixating on the food I have in the house. Sometimes I’ll give in, and rustle up some fruit or carrot sticks, but sometimes I try to fight it. And one of the best tools I have in my arsenal is a pencil.

My parents will vouch that once I learned how to use a pencil, I was hooked. A lot of my doodling, even at a young age, was design-based: creating floor plans for houses, designing golf courses and shopping malls, things like that. But I also developed a keen ability to create puzzles. My grandfather taught me how to create word searches when I was about 6 years old, and I can still make a mean word search to this day, ones on par with Wonderword, my favorite word search puzzle out there.

I’m don’t remember when my fascination with mazes began, but it was also early on, and I became quite good at solving them, and then drawing them. I’ve been able to draw them for as long as I can remember (I used to submit them to be included in my elementary school newsletter), and lately I’ve been drawing them a lot. My nephews are now old enough to solve mazes (they’re 5, 6, and 7), so for the past two Christmases, I’ve made maze books for them – a collection of mazes that I bind together at an office supply store.

Mazes are fun for me to draw. I like brainstorming and creating the theme or look of the maze, and keeping track of the dead ends and correct path is a nifty little challenge. The ability to solve a maze is important – all of my mazes have exactly one path from start to finish.

Lately, whenever I’ve needed to distract my own brain from a food fixation, I’ve drawn a maze. And since they’re no fun for me to solve, I’m gonna turn my own little form of therapy into a blog feature, and give YOU the opportunity to solve them! Are you ready?

To download a PDF of Maze #1, CLICK HERE. Here’s what you’ll be downloading:

This maze is the result of my playing around with concentric circles. The directions are simple: CONNECT THE TWO STARS. There is only one path between them. The maze is hand-drawn, by me, using a black pen and a Sharpie, and the original is on a piece of 8.5″ x 11″ paper.

This is the first PDF I’ve posted on this blog, so please let me know if there are issues. I chose the PDF format so you could easily download and print it. I did a trial run, and I was able to print it without a problem, so hopefully you’ll be able to as well.

Good luck and have fun!

KEEP IT UP, DAVID!

Things started changing when the pounds started coming off. Once I no longer needed to shop at big & tall stores (an epiphany I celebrate in this blog post), the whole mall opened up to me, and now I have fun checking out stores and seeing what fits me and what I like. I’ve learned a lot, and they’re still tons to figure out. I already know that I tend to have good luck at Macy’s (most of the time), and that my favorite type of Levi’s are their 514s (slim straight). I’m still on the hunt for a good basic t-shirt with a flattering cut, a heavier fabric, and a reasonable price tag. I’ve also discovered what doesn’t work for me, and that information is just as valuable: I know some brands and labels that run short or are too narrow for my shoulders. And there are stores I used to frequent, like Gap (which I wore a lot of in high school), that just don’t interest me anymore.

What’s most fun, however, is walking into a store that I know nothing about and checking it out for the first time. I did this last summer in Seattle with a store called AllSaints Spitelfield, and it was a complete bust, but still fun. The other day, I did it again, with a store called Zara.

The first time I heard about Zara was a few weeks ago, when I met up with my friends Paul and Court at the Getty Center (an outing which yielded kickass ‘before’ and ‘current’ pictures that you can check out here). I complimented Paul on his shirt, which came from Zara, which is one of Paul’s go-to stores. Then, about a week ago, I complimented Tavi (ugh, yes, this is yet another blog post that Tavi figures into) on a sweater he was wearing, and that, too, came from Zara. It was time to check out Zara.

Zara is a Spanish retailer that only has about 25 stores in the US (and about a 1/4 of them are in southern California), but they’re all over Europe – actually, they’re in over 70 countries on 6 continents. They’re huge. The other day, Tavi and I went to the one in Pasadena, which is housed in an festively festooned storefront on Colorado Boulevard:

The men’s section is large, clean, and well organized:

I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, so I wandered, and ended up pulling two large armloads of clothes to try on: pants, jeans, sweaters, t-shirts (maybe they’ll have the perfect basic T for me!). I picked up things at Tavi’s suggestion that I wouldn’t have chosen for myself. Generally, I liked the aesthetic: a nice mix between clean lines and fun details, with a lot of neutral colors and bold pops of color. I was reminded of the description Paul initially gave me of the store, which turned out to be pretty spot-on: H&M style at a Banana Republic price point. I also noticed, from the get-go, that a lot of their offerings were slouchy and lacking in structure, which is not a flattering look on my body, but I reserved judgment until the dressing room.

The dressing room was illuminating. I learned, really quickly, that Zara is not the store for me. The textiles were a little thin and the European sizing was a little different, resulting in tops that, much to my chagrin, proudly showcased every roll of fat on my body. It was laughable how unflattering these clothes were: they clung like saran wrap, and I felt and looked like a sausage. I fared a little better with the pants – there was a pair of jeans that looked good. They were size 38″ (the largest size Zara makes), although they were the tightest 38″ I’ve ever tried on. They cost $80, and I’m not gonna spent that much on anything that I don’t absolutely love, and these jeans didn’t quite fall into the “love” category.

I was fine with completely striking out at Zara. I was curious about the store, and now I have my answer. I’ve since done a little reading about Zara, and their business model is kinda fascinating. They do no advertising whatsoever, and focus on clothes that are already trendy and popular, as opposed to trying to establish trends of their own. They can design a knock-off and have it in stores in 2 weeks, and if that item doesn’t sell within a week or two, they’ll yank it from the shelves. As a result, they’ll sell 10,000 unique items during a year-long span, compared to 2,000-4,000 items for their competitors. They’ve resisted outsourcing more than other companies, and claim that 75% of their clothes are made in Europe (mostly Spain). I recommend the Zara page on Wikipedia for an interesting primer on fashion retailing.

Zara’s not for me. Big deal. I’m not in the market at the moment for any clothes anyway, except workout pants, which I should be able to find easily at a discount store or on the sale rack at a sporting goods store.

Do you have any ideas for retailers that I can investigate next?

Keep it up, David!

You’ve read about my friend Tavi before on this blog. He’s mentioned on this blog way too much as it is, and now, with this post, his head might quite literally explode. But just to refresh any foggy memories: I’ve known Tavi since high school, he’s an aerialist and dancer, he lives nearby, he’s one of my closest friends. Over a year ago, Tavi and I hiked in Fryman Canyon, a beautiful nearby park. Tavi took me on a gorgeous winding trail – check out pictures here. During the hike, Tavi casually mentioned that he usually runs this trail, which flabbergasted me, because I had difficulty walking it – there are parts that are very steep, and the trail is very narrow.

Earlier this week, Tavi says to me, “Are you ready to run Fryman with me?” I laughed, and replied that I’d never be ready to run Fryman. Tavi thought otherwise, and for the next day or so, I gave it serious thought. I always tend to underestimate my physical abilities. I never used to think I could ever run a 10K, but I’ve done it. Climbing nearly 100 stories without stopping seems impossible to wrap my mind around, but I did it just the other day. I could run Fryman, couldn’t I?

I decided that I could. And that’s how, yesterday afternoon, I found myself walking with Tavi towards the Fryman Canyon trail head.

The previous hike with Tavi wasn’t my first time in Fryman – I’d been there with Jen and Tiffany for a hike (possibly two) at the asscrack of dawn, and also hiked there with Chris. Even though the routes varied, there’s one constant: it’s steep. Fryman Canyon is located in the Hollywood Hills, and you enter at the bottom and can hike all the way up to Mulholland Drive, the road at the tippy-top.

As we approached the start of our run, the steepness loomed large in my mind, and I made a mental goal: Complete the run without stopping, and if I can’t manage to run, than don’t walk for more than 10 seconds. I wanted to keep moving. I knew that if I walked too long, it would be difficult to get back into running.

We started running at the base of the mountain, and thankfully, one of the steepest parts was at the beginning. I say thankfully because 1) it got a tough part out of the way early on, while I was still fresh, and 2) I knew that if I could conquer this part, I could conquer every other part of the trail.

The run was tough. Tough. After the first few minutes of steep uphill running, I felt ready to crawl under the brush and pass out. Having Tavi in front of me was a good motivator – and he was a good sport, stopping every so often and doing jumping jacks or lunges until I caught up with him.

The nice part about the run was that it’s probably the prettiest run I’ve ever done. There’s all sorts of great views in Fryman, which is loaded with ravines, ridges, and switchbacks, and with the narrow trails, high grasses, and encroaching bushes, there were times when a machete would’ve been helpful to clear the way. The downside is that it’s hard to take in the views because the trail is uneven, undulating, and rocky – if you don’t pay attention to your feet, you could easily twist an ankle or worse. And by worse, I mean stumble and fall down a 30-80 foot near-vertical hillside, which are all over the place.

At one point, you have to traverse a fallen tree to get over a ravine. Here I am not-so-gracefully dismounting from the tree:

But I hit the ground and started running again immediately:

After the tree came the second major uphill part, which seemed, at the time, to be as vertical as a ladder, and it was here that it first occurred to me that I very well might die. Tavi was trying to kill me. He was doing a good job of it, too – my heart was pounding, my legs and core were burning, and I was on the verge of tears. That second uphill part was the last terrible part, though, and the rest of the run was downhill or flat.

The run ended with a final descent down a steep embankment, where Tavi got this picture of me picking my nose:

I’m not picking my nose, I’m pushing my glasses up!

The final stretch was along a fire road that led to the street that we parked on, and we finished at a gate that I collapsed onto:

I finished the run in 41 minutes. Add in the walking to and from the trail head, plus a few minutes of catching my breath at that gate, and we were away from our cars for a little over an hour. Last time we walked this route in two hours. It felt great to cut that time in half!

My theory that Tavi tried to kill me evaporated pretty quickly once my heart rate fell back into a reasonable range. And I’m proud that I accomplished my goals: I never stopped, and the only time I walked more than 10 seconds was during the most strenuous uphill stretches, which were more climbing than walking anyway.

As we walked back to the car, Tavi mentioned “the next time we do this…” and I thought, next time? Isn’t doing it once enough? Just like stand-up paddleboarding and ice skating, I’m glad to have tried running Fryman, but whether I run it again is TBD. We shall see. I’m not going to be rushing back tomorrow to do it again, that’s for sure. Only time will tell if I do it again. Doing it once is enough for me to proudly say…

Keep it up, David!

It’s been a while since I’ve written about Richard Simmons’ classes, but they’re still a major part of my exercise plan, and Richard himself continues to be a near and dear friend. I’m typically at Slimmons once or twice a week – I’ve been 9 times so far in 2012, and went 52 times in 2011. Each class follows the same basic format: 45 minutes of cardio (dance aerobics), with stretching, warm-up and cool-down built in. Richard usually varies the intensity throughout the 45 minutes, alternating more strenuous parts with easier parts. There’s always a part when everyone makes a big circle and Richard pulls students into the center to dance with him, and sometimes he’ll have us jog all around the room, or take each others’ hands for showgirl-style kicks.

After the aerobics, we grab weights from bins in the corner of the room, and Richard leads us through about 10 minutes of toning, with a focus on biceps, triceps, chest, back, and shoulders. The specific exercises don’t change from class to class, but the order and the number of reps sometimes does. Then we put the weights away, grab mats, and do 10 minutes of sit-ups and push-ups. The class ends with a 5-minute pep talk, where Richard shares some motivational words on a topic that changes with each class, although they tend to emphasize being kind to yourself, taking care of yourself, and sharing kindness and love with the rest of the world.

The whole class ends up being close to 90 minutes total, and the biggest variable in each class is Richard himself. He loves wearing costumes and building the class around a theme, whether it’s a genre of music, like Latin or Disco, or the music from a specific decade or by a specific artist. Saturdays are the big theme classes, but last night had a theme, too.  All the songs he played had the word “love” in the title, and he was dressed in thousands of red sequins, a red tutu over his trademark red dolphin shorts, and red angel wings. A picture of me and Richard after class:

A bunch of the other students were wearing red, but that thought didn’t even occur to me! Apparently by the end of class, I had a heart-shaped sweat stain on the back of my shirt, and Richard kept pointing it out to people, but I forgot to have someone take a picture.

I’m thankful I have a place like Slimmons in my life. That class – Richard’s antics, in particular – cheers me up every single time I go, and I’ve made a bunch of wonderful friendships there. I can’t walk into that room anymore without seeing smiling faces and people waving, and I have a blast catching up with my friends before and after the workout.

I’m not a big Valentine’s Day person, but I will confess, as a single guy, to feeling a bit lonely on a day that’s meant to be celebrated with a partner. Holiday or not, it’s important to have a place where you feel welcome, each and every time you visit, and that’s filled with positive energy. It certainly makes burning a few hundred calories more fun, that’s for sure!

The evening wasn’t without a few casualties, though – but I guess if you’re wearing thousands of sequins, losing a couple isn’t that big a deal:

I should’ve put those sequins on eBay, but I tossed them in the trash on the way out.

Today is a rest day. My class last night at Slimmons marked the ninth day in a row that I’ve exercised, and my body needs a day to recuperate. Then, it’s back to the gym.

Keep it up, David!

If you’re in the Los Angeles area and want to take a class at Slimmons, check out this information page on Richard’s website. It’s only $12 – the best $12 you’ll ever spend!

LOOK WHAT RECENTLY CAME IN THE MAIL!

It’s my new driver license!

I just realized that I’ve been mispronouncing the name of this ID card my entire life. I’ve always said “driver’s license,” but it’s actually “driver license.” I had no idea.

I went to the DMV a few weeks ago to renew my license, which was due to expire next month. In California, you can go online and make on appointment at the DMV, so I made one for 8:40am – nice and early. I got there on time, filled out some paperwork, and 15 minutes later, I was at a counter with a nice DMV employee named Jackie.

My last driver license was from the summer of 2003. I was 24 years old, and I hadn’t stepped on a scale in at least a year. The paperwork required me to list my weight, and out of ignorance, I lied. I said 290, which was very generous, because I’m sure I was probably much closer to 350. So when Jackie started comparing and inputting information for my new license, one of the first things she commented on was my weight. She complimented me on my weight loss – and that wasn’t based on the numbers, that was based on comparing my old picture (which is below) with the me standing in front of her.

I shared with Jackie that I’ve lost 165 pounds, and she asked a few more questions about how I was doing it, and she shared that she’s been losing weight, and was halfway to her goal. We talked about that a little bit, and I ended up telling her about this blog and giving her my card. I also confessed that I lied to the DMV nine years ago, which Jackie said wasn’t a big deal.

My new driver license lists my weight at a very truthful 235 pounds. Let’s take a closer look at my new license!

I don’tlove my photo, but it’s fine. I love that it’s current and new and not nine years old. I love that it shows that I have a neck!

Here it is, with my old driver license below:

What a difference nine years and 165 pounds makes!

KEEP IT UP, DAVID!

In addition to being delicious, this meal was quite noteworthy because there was a lot of experimenting going on. You know how much I love trying new things, right? Well, this meal involved not one, not two, not three, but FOUR new things! FOUR! I was in hog heaven.

Enough procrastinating, David – get on with it! The whole meal was built around the idea of using…

NEW ITEM #1. About a year ago, I started noticing vegetables in all sorts of strange colors. Naturally, I bought every oddly-colored vegetable I could find! I was diligent about blogging about them, too – so click these links for pictures of rainbow carrots (and more rainbow carrots here and here), Easter egg radishes, black radishes, orange cauliflower, purple bell pepper, and white eggplant.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen an oddly-colored vegetable. Until the other day, when I picked this up. It’s a purple cauliflower!

Isn’t it beautiful? And it’s loaded with antioxidants that white cauliflowers don’t have – hence the purple color. And, contrary to popular belief (or at least my own), purple cauliflower isn’t the result of breeding or genetic manipulation – it’s a naturally occurring heritage variety that can be traced back to either Italy or South Africa. It’s still beautiful once you hack it into florets:

Kristy and I decided to make a big veggie stir-fry, with the purple cauliflower as the star. I also cut up onion, red bell pepper, mushrooms, yellow squash, and zucchini. Meanwhile, Kristy cut two chicken breasts into chunks:

We cooked the chicken in one skillet, and the veggies in another, because we ended up trying two new sauces, one on each component. And that brings me to…

NEW ITEM #2. I bought this bottle of garlic sauce on the island of St. Maarten, when I was the on a cruise in December, and I’ve been dying to bust it open:

I charged Kristy with photographing the bottle, and she opted to create a floating bottle illusion, which I love! The sauce is a super concentrated garlic puree – it smells incredible! There’s only five listed ingredients: garlic, onion, vinegar, salt, and spices, and one serving (a teaspoon) has no calories and no fat.  We added about a tablespoon to a skillet slicked with non-stick spray, and added the chicken to it.

Meanwhile, in the other, bigger skillet, we slicked it with non-stick spray and got the veggies going  – first, the onion, so it would get nice and soft, then we added the cauliflower, since it might need a few more minutes to cook, and then we added the rest of the veggies. After they had been cooking for a while, we added a different sauce to that pan, and that sauce is…

NEW ITEM #3. This caught my eye when I was wandering at Whole Foods:

When Kristy’s photography ends up in a museum somewhere, this photograph will be called “Sauce with School Bus.”

I bought it because I like apricots and I like dijon mustard, but I’ve never had the two of them together. And with 15 calories and 0 fat per tablespoon, it was a lot healthier than a lot of the other sauces on the shelf. When the veggies were mostly cooked, we added about 1/3 of a cup (5 servings) to the skillet – enough to coat all the veggies (and there were a lot of veggies), but only enough to coat them lightly. We also added…

NEW ITEM #4. Fake pasta!

I’ve been seeing this item at Whole Foods for a while now, and finally gave in and bought some. It’s a tofu-based pasta alternative – this variety is spinach fettuccini – and that entire bag (2 servings) has 50 calories and 0 grams of fat (it’s zero Weight Watchers points, for those of you that do Weight Watchers). It’s super easy to prepare: cut open the bag, drain it, rinse it, and heat it up – either in hot water, or you can do what I did, and clear a space in the veggie skillet, and add it in. Be warned: the fettuccini strands tend to clump together, so use a fork or something to tease them out a little bit before you add them.

The cooking of the entire meal was quick – about 10-15 minutes in two side-by-side skillets (I would’ve taken photos but my stove is in the dark corner of my kitchen). Then we plated it up, and dug in!

The final result:

It was delicious. The garlic-sauced-chicken was flavorful, and the veggies were perfect. The apricot dijon sauce was a little sweet and had a great mustard kick. The fake pasta was good – I don’t think you could be fooled into believing it was real pasta, but Kristy pointed out it was very similar to texture and taste to sobu noodles, which are often used in Vietnamese and Thai dishes. The pasta helped round out the dish, and absorbed the sauce nicely.

The best part? Kristy and I each ate a big plate of food, and there was enough leftover for a big, tasty dinner.

KEEP IT UP, DAVID!

PS – If you didn’t have time to visit Keep It Up, David over the weekend, than you missed out! I blogged both days over the weekend, so click on these links to read about an unexpected run and the new skyscraper I added to my collection!

Today I wanted to share two comments that I’ve gotten recently on Facebook – one is a question I’ll try my best to answer, and the other… well, you’ll see. First, the question, which came from a reader named Lois:

I have such a hard time staying focused. Since august of 2011, I have lost 34 lbs. When I focus I can eat all my healthy low cal foods, then somedays I’m just soooo hungry. It’s as if nothing fills me up and my stomach is just screaming for some food. So then I eat a burrito or an In n Out burger, which are delicious, but then the next day I am 4lbs heavier and feel like crap. Do you ever have these hungry days and what do you do?

In another comment to another post, Lois talked about having a bad week, and ended with the question:

Why am I soooooo hungry?????

First of all, Lois, I hope you’re eating! You can’t lose weight without eating throughout the day, and giving your body energy and calories. But I’ve definitely had days where I’ve had three square meals, but my stomach doesn’t stop growling and grumbling. So I know the feeling.

To answer your main question, you’re so hungry because you’re eating less calories than your body is used to. That’s how you’ve lost 34 pounds (congratulations on that!), and that’s how you’ll lose however many you still want to lose. So one way of looking at it is to consider your hunger as a good thing. But that won’t make it any easier to deal with, so here are some other strategies:

• Have plenty of guilt-free snacks around. If I’ve eaten my meal and am still hungry, I’ll pull out some vegetables and eat those. A few weeks ago I ate a 2-pound bag of carrots over the course of a couple hours, without an ounce of regret.
• Keep your mind (and hands) occupied. I focus on my hunger, and am more inclined to act on it, when I’m sitting around watching TV or putzing on the computer. I get my mind off my hunger by being more productive. I like to draw, so I’ll pull out some paper and create something. I’ve gone for a walk to distract myself from the kitchen (and I leave my wallet at home, so I don’t end up at the 7-11 down the street). You could clean out that junk drawer that’s been bothering you or call up a friend you haven’t talked to in a while.You could take up knitting, or building ships-in-bottles!
• Brush and floss your teeth. This works for me – I never want to eat after cleaning my teeth!

Anyone else with tips or ideas, please leave them in the comments sections!

The other Facebook comment I want to talk about came from a reader named Scott, who wrote:

david i read u post so you are doing this to get attention that sad i lost 220 in ten months and i am not craving attention

I don’t get many negative comments, and while I’d prefer to not let this one bother me, I must admit I’ve been thinking about it for the past few days. So, I just want to clear up, for Scott and for anyone else that’s curious: I’m not losing weight to get attention. I can think up a bunch of ways to draw attention to myself that’d be a helluva lot easier than losing 165 pounds! I’m trying to lose weight to improve my health, and so I can live a longer, better life, and so I can feel better about myself. Congratulations on your 220 pound loss, Scott – that’s truly extraordinary. Why did you do it?

Last item on the agenda today is… a skyscraper! This morning at the gym, I made the impromptu decision to start my workout on the StairMaster. I set the clock for 20 minutes, covered the display with my towel, and climbed. Twenty minutes later, I felt ready to keel over, and that’s because I burned 345 calories and climbed…

…98 stories! A NEW RECORD!

I’m not crazy about the skyscraper I’m adding to my collection today – I actually think it’s pretty ugly, but it’s exactly 98 stories high, so it’s a perfect fit. Say hello to the Trump International Hotel and Tower:

At 1,389 feet, Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago is the second tallest building in the country, after Willis Tower (formerly known as Sears Tower). It’s the 12th tallest building in the world. The tower was originally planned to be the tallest building in the world, but after the 9/11 attacks, plans were scaled back. Parts of the building opened in 2008, although the entire building wasn’t completed until 2009.

Looking for a home in Chicago? Consider the 89th floor penthouse. Donald Trump planned on keeping the 14,260 square foot apartment for himself, but put it on the market in 2009. It has 7 bedrooms, 6 baths, 16-foot ceilings, and amazing views, which you can see here. It’s unfinished, which means whoever buys it will have to build out the bathrooms, kitchen, and install all the flooring and decor, but hey! If you got $30 million to spend on a home, surely you can rustle up another couple million for some faucets, Ikea bookcases, and a Frigidaire!

This picture makes me like the building a little more, and it certainly makes me appreciate what I accomplished in this morning’s workout!

I just added Trump International Hotel and Tower to my Skyscraper Collection, which you can check out here. At 98 stories, it’s the tallest building on the list… and I’m so close to breaking the 100-story threshold!

KEEP IT UP, DAVID!