Richard Ha wrote:

On January 7th I started on a program to lose a half pound per week.

Weight on Jan. 7, 2007: 204.5
 lbs.
Weight on Monday, Feb. 11th, 2007: 200.9
 lbs.
Target weight today: 202 lbs.

I lost .4 pounds this week instead of the .5 I’d planned. But I am still 1.1 pounds ahead of target. Resting heart rate is 55 beats per minute. This is fine. I exercised and rode my bike at a relatively easy pace everyday.

I put an air shock on my bike. Chris Seymour, who owns Hilo Bike Hub, noticed I was leaning too far forward at Kulani. Also, my bike’s front end had too much sag so we adjusted that. With some practice, perhaps, I can keep from going over the handlebars. The position feels much better and it’s easier now to lift the front end, such as when I need to go over logs.

I am trying to eat a salad for dinner every evening and practicing what I learned from Chef Alan Wong recently about making my own salad dressing. June and I were fortunate enough to sit in a salad dressing class that Chef Alan recently gave his new chefs. He is an excellent teacher and said to think of the lesson like karaoke, in that the basic principle is like the melody. Once we understand the basic principles of salad dressings, he explained, we can improvise and "sing it" our own way.

For salad dressing, he said a ratio of 1 part vinegar (acid) to 3 parts oil is fairly well-balanced. One part acid to 2 parts oil would be fairly acidic for most people, he said. If one wants to neutralize the acid without adding oil, one can add sugar.

Since I want to lower calories, I used less oil and added Splenda to neutralize the acid. This worked fine.

Some of the basic ingredients he uses are chopped parsley, mustard, minced scallions, minced garlic, Hawaiian salt and ground pepper. I could make the oil and vinegar mixture and then whisk in the rest of the ingredients and pour it over salad greens. If I bottled that mixture, I learned, the oil would eventually separate out. But if I beat in an egg, it would stabilize the mixture and keep it from separating.

Chef Alan cubed some tomatoes, salted them and let them sit for 15 minutes. Liquid came out of the tomatoes and settled on the bottom of the bowl. Next, he added his basic ingredients (described above) and lightly tossed it. Then he poured this over salad greens and tossed that. It became a tomato and lettuce salad. I liked that.

One day I experimented by replacing the tomatoes with ponzu sauce and oil and cubed ahi. I added this to the basic ingredients, tossed it, poured it on some lettuce and tossed it again. This was simple and good. I’m starting to hum along to the melody.

So I’m still experimenting. I’m eating a lot of salads from the lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers we grow. Now that salads are becoming such an important part of my meal plan, I’m glad we are moving toward seeing how nutrient-dense we can make our vegetables.

I’ll write more about my journey as I continue learning about making salad dressings.