Strong Is The New Beautiful

The locker room gauntlet, at my usual post-work destination, continues to fascinate me. Clothes are furiously being changed as if it's an Amazing Race detour. I like how all of us press on after work and traffic to find the energy to exercise.

Two women were talking about the different gym locations. Rock Hill -- too small. Creve Coeur, one of the nicest clubs in the chain with sauna and steam rooms. In addition, you can order a smoothie while you get ready in the locker room. It's as if we don't like steam and smoothies in the city.

After I got dressed, I passed by this woman and, in troglodyte fashion, I said You rock climb. She was flabbergasted and asked me how I knew. I said The sticker on your water canister. It was cool to be thought of in the same vain as Houdini for a moment.

I headed to the Step and Muscle class. What an uncomplicated name and description for that matter:

Combines step cardio with resistance training moves!

I knew the jig was up when Ms. Perky walked in and said that she had been overindulging. We were going to fog up the windows she proclaimed and I do believe that she said something about it's going to be a slaughterhouse up in here.

I was looking at myself exercising in the mirror. I am so thick. I was trying to obstruct my view by exercising directly behind the woman in front of me but by the time I got through jumping all over the place, I was still looking at the 'Drea in the mirror. I took comfort in the instructor's Nike shirt:

Strong is the new beautiful.

We did the usual: squats, jumping jacks (with weights), your garden variety of step moves. We did ab work, leg jacks, mountain climbers, push-ups, tricep dips all on the step. Who knew that a little unassuming platform could deliver so much pain?

It's working though. While the scale is doing its usual not moving thing, I'm losing inches. My latest group of clothes is loose and last year's winter tops are so loose that they seem like they belong to someone else.

By the way, if I buy one more top in the neighborhood of black and white, someone please stop me.

Surprises On The Falafel Tour

I decided to compare falafel since I had such an enjoyable greek pita i.e. baked falafel at Kaldi's. Plus, I had broken my eight month streak of not dining out and I suddenly remembered how I used to go to Natural Fact Deli for sandwiches and sweet potato chips. Imagine my surprise when I saw that Natural Fact also served baked falafel AND had the nutrition stats on the website. I was so happy that I headed over to Webster Groves but happiness turned into disappointment when I saw a real estate sign in the window. Why, oh, why do they still have their web page up?

I'm trying to be more flexible these days and I knew there was a First Watch nearby. I had breakfast there once after participating in a Race for The Cure and I knew that they had leaner breakfast fare. I went in and asked if there was any nutrition information and the guy told me that I could find it online. I shrugged my shoulders since I was sitting in First Watch and not in front of a computer but he remembered that they had some old not completely up-to-date information.

I had decided that the turkey burger looked good but when I started looking through the notebook with nutrition information, my mouth dropped. The turkey burger had 531 calories. The grilled turkey sandwich was 1,025 calories and had 2637 milligrams of sodium -- over what you should have for the entire day. There were also a lot of entrees with fat grams (54) off the chart. I told First Watch thank you and then left. I think that I'll be eating out even less now.