My New Roommate is a Brussel Sprouts Stalk

Can you believe it’s October already?  Time is flying by.  About a week ago, I started my ninth month of dieting.  I just crunched some numbers, and with my total loss of 137 pounds, that means I’ve been averaging a loss of over 3 pounds a week.  WOW.  Keep it up, David!  I was planning on using this blog to share my September work-out calendar, and I promise I will.  But first, I need to address some breaking news.

I was getting ready to pack up and leave work for the day when I got a text from Jen.  You know my friend Jen – you met her here.  Anyway, she sent a text that said: “At trader joe’s toluca lake” and included this picture:

My heart immediately started racing.  After all, it was just yesterday that, after seeing Lynn Chen’s blog about buying brussel sprouts on the stalk at Trader Joe’s, I raced to my local Trader Joe’s in Toluca Lake, only to find out that they didn’t have any in stock at that location.  Only in a bag.  I was told that they wouldn’t stock the on-the-stalk kind until next July, but apparently they got a shipment in earlier today!  Huzzah!  Thankfully, TJ’s is just down the road from my office, so I zipped on over, and bought my beloved brussel sprouts.

With apologies to Lynn and her husband, since I recreated their photo, I present to you me and my new brussel sprouts:

I told the Trader Joe’s staffer that this was the first time I’ve ever seen a brussel sprouts stalk in person before, which I’m sure didn’t justify in his mind why I made him take a very specific picture of me with them.  But whatever.

When I got home, I decided it was so unique and beautiful that I should just display it as part of a centerpiece:

But the brussel sprouts had other ideas.  They wanted to help out around the house.  I have no problem with that.  So here are the brussel sprouts sorting my coupons…

…and loading the washing machine:

…but then the sprouts felt a little worn out, so they settled in on the couch to watch TV and flip through the new Entertainment Weekly:

I’ve thought of giving the brussel sprouts stalk a name, like Bruce or Colleen, since they became such a valuable part of my household, but decided that would be weird.  Plus, I will be eating the brussel sprouts – there’s no way around it.  And it’s harder to eat anything with a name.

Thanks, Jen, for that text!

Moving on…  Since it’s the beginning of a new month, it’s time to flip to a new page in my calendar.  I have a simple month-view calendar that I use as my planner.  I’ve tried actual planners before, but I’ve never ended up using them for more than a few weeks.  Using a month-view calendar seems to be doing the trick for now.  One of the things I note on the calendar is which days I work out.  Here’s September:

Every dot means I worked out on that day.  If the dot has a circle around it, it means I took a class at Slimmons.  If the dot has a square around it, it means I took a Latin Jam class at Heartbeat House.  I just counted the dots, and I worked out 24 out of 30 days!  In August, I worked out 25 out of 31 days, and in July, I worked out 20 out of 24 days (since I started this notation system on July 6).  Altogether, that’s 69 workouts in the past 85 days.

Keep it up, David!