It's cliche, but as soon as the weather starts to grow warmer and jackets become but a distant memory, people decide they want to lose weight. Go ahead...watch the Today Show between now and Labor Day and count how many "bikini body ready" and "fit for swimsuit segments" you see. Tell me that it's more than five and I'll bake you cookies.
I kid. That would be cruel.
The thing with losing weight for the summer is that it sometimes means fad diets, full of greens with fat-free dressing and various sugar-free dessert options with indecipherable ingredient labels.
That is why, my friends, I'm going to dispel a mix for you today. A salad? Doesn't even have to contain greens. Salads come in all shapes and sizes and whether you want to cut down on carbs, eat less saturated fat or shave a few calories off your daily menu, there's a salad out there for you.
Photo: HealthyEats.com
If you paid attention in history class, then you might recall learning about the Great Potato Famine in Ireland in the latter half of the nineteenth century. After a disease known as potato blight, a kind of mold, devastated the majority of the potato crop in The Emerald Isle, a period of mass starvation, disease and emigration ensued.
The Irish population decreased by almost 25% and from that moment forth, Ireland would be associated with the potato, a widespread native garden crop.
Photo: FarmerTomsCSA.com
On Thursday evening I strayed from my usual gym routine and went to a workout class at the
Lululemon store on North Rush Street. After the class, one of the women working out in the front row set up a card table in the front of the store and piled it high with blood oranges and fresh pineapple.
More than just a refreshing, post-sweat session pick-me-up. the bounty was a product of
Farmer Tom's CSA, a community-supported agriculture program to increase Midwestern consumption and production of organic food.
Ever since I moved to Chicago I've
been fascinated by some of the unusual architecture in the city. It
seems that on every corner, in every park there is a different statue -
a different interpretation of classic American or modern art.
Even though the American Gothic is
both awe-inspiring and fascinating (and bone-chillingly creepy. Yeah, I
went there) I'm a lot more perplexed by "the bean" (pictured above) in Millennium Park.
Actually titled "Cloud Gate" the sculpture is actually a 110-ton series
of polished stainless steel plates inspired by liquid mercury. At 66 by
33 feet, it's the largest sculpture of its kind and offers a mirror
image of the city skyline.
