2021 Week 51 – One Week to Go!

It’s the week before Christmas, and we’ve had some amazingly warm weather lately. I was looking at the long-term forecast, and it says we’re going to be in the 60s on December 25th… In INDIANA! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a 60-degree Christmas in the Midwest.


The Bearded Bagel opened up a brick-and-mortar shop on 96th St. in front of Sam’s club. I haven’t been yet, but they specialize in steamed bagel sandwiches like Broad Ribble Bagle (BRB) serves. Not as big of a menu as BRB but a lot closer. The food trucks have been around the city for a while now and have a pretty decent following.

Speaking of Carbs, the Chef/Owner of Northside Social plans to open a biscuit place around 96th and Keystone. I’m keeping my eye on that as it’s really close to my office (and I love a good biscuit sandwich).

Staying on the food topic, The Union Jack Pub in Broad Ripple has opened a new location across the street from their old locations. They own the building, so they should have a little more control of future costs. I’ve had lunch at the new location twice this past week. For the first lunch, I ordered a Cuban sandwich with a salad. It was very good, and I would not hesitate to get that again, but the guy sitting next to me ordered the 7-inch personal deep dish pizza, so I knew I needed to return.

Pepperoni, Mushroom, & Green Olive Pizza

This was a solid little pizza that was absolutely delicious. LOTS of cheese and toppings with a very flavorful sauce and light doughy crust. All I was missing was a side of garlic butter to dip that crust in.

I’ve been a little less serious about the Low Carb diet these past few weeks and have found myself “cheating” a little more than usual. I’m still eating better than I was earlier this year and have seen the benefits of lowering the carbs and sugars in my overall diet. I can’t remember the last time I had fast food, and I’m totally OK with that!


And finally, here’s a little bit of food trivia I learned about this past week. Did you know Wolfgang Puck lived in Indianapolis? In fact, Indianapolis was his first American home, and he worked here for a couple of years in the ’70s. He still has a presence in Indianapolis with a Wolfgang Puck Express located in the Indianapolis International Airport (IND).

At the age of 24, Wolfgang took the advice of a friend and left Europe for the United States. His first job was at the restaurant La Tour in Indianapolis, where he worked from 1973 to 1975.

https://wolfgangpuck.com/about/

Enjoy the next to the last week of 2021, and Look for our year-end recap next week.

2021 Week 34 – Keto Update

I start my 3rd-week with the “Low Carb” diet this week, and I can honestly say it’s going very well. I’m getting a little tired of the limited food choices, but I found a few cookbooks over the weekend that should help mix things up a little.

My original goal was to do this for 2 weeks, but I’ve been so pleased with the results I’m going to keep up with it for a while. I’ll admit I’ve had a few cheat meals, but just being conscious of what I’m eating vs. just eating to bet full has been truly eye-opening. Also, the energy I’ve gained by drastically reducing carbs (and sugars) makes this all worth it.

Dining out has been a little tricky, but it’s doable. I’ve found most restaurants have a low-carb option on their menu, although it’s not always called that. Asking for things without bread or adding a green vegetable over fries or other starches helps keep the carbs down. Now on to our regular programming…

I decided to refresh the look of the site over the weekend & turned on a new theme called “Kvarken”. It’s an older theme and might not be supported in upcoming releases of WordPress but it was time for a refresh. I still haven’t found the “perfect” theme for the site, but as time goes on, I keep getting closer. Unfortunately, there are so many themes to choose from, and many of them are not backward compatible with what I’ve been using, so I’m a little limited in my options.

I downloaded the Grammarly app over the weekend, and I’m in the process of testing it out both personally and at work. Grammarly is a real-time spelling and grammar checker with a huge list of features available (when you pay for a subscription to access them). However, the free version is also very useful and might be what I fall back to after my 90-day subscription ends.

https://youtu.be/SphqFgCl6Po

Finally this week… The NY Times had an interesting article about the “issues” created when switching from plastic bags to cotton “totes”.

2021 Week 33 – Keto Curious

Last weekend I suddenly became curious about the Low-Carb (Keto) lifestyle. After watching an online video about Carbs, I started doing the math and realized I was consuming more carbs than I realized (a LOT more).

The COVID-19 shutdown has allowed me to cook more and, after finally finding an upright freezer available for sale, purchase more food for bulk storage. This was mainly for convenience, variety, and to reduce the waste of leftovers. However, when I checked the freezer and pantry, I realized how many Carbs were in my diet. So I decided to try an experiment… Reduce Carbs from my diet for 2 weeks.

As of today, I’m one week in, and I have to admit, I’m feeling GREAT! I’ve dropped a few pounds, and I have more energy. Of course, I’ve had a few Carbs now and then, but I’m making a conscious effort to try this for 2 weeks and decide how to go from there.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Kato diet, the video below does an excellent job explaining how things work.

You can find endless resources on YouTube as well as your local library. But, these days, you don’t even need to visit the actual library; you can check books out digitally using the Libby app and read on the free Kindle software from Amazon.

That’s it for this week. If you’ve done Keto or are currently living the lifestyle, I welcome your feedback! I’ve never “dieted” in my life, so this is new to me, but I’m really excited to see the results!