Livin' La Vida Lettuce

I'm pretty sure this blog title correctly translates to "living the lettuce life." It might seem like a really odd blog title, but it sums up life as I'll know it this year.

Caesar Salad from Jason's Deli = Tuesday's lunch.

Let me explain how #thelettucelife came about ...

After I came up with my resolutions for 2014 over the weekend, I shared them with my friend Thomas who is the most resolute person I've ever known when it comes to the subject. (Seriously - the only resolution I've ever known him to flake on was learning to play the banjo. However, I'm pretty sure a banjo was purchased at some point, but I don't recall any tales of lessons with banjo specialists ... but this is a topic for another blog some day down the road.) Other than the learning-to-play-the-banjo resolution that may or may not have come to fruition, previous non-runner Thomas knocked out running 1,000 miles in 2011 with two months remaining in the calendar year, ran not just one but TWO half-marathons in 2012, and in 2013 he was really motivated and ran an entire marathon in January. (Which gave him 11 months to not worry about accomplishing his resolution. His other resolution for 2013 was to "not die" when he attempted the marathon, so he went 2-for-2 for all of 2013 on a single day. Not too shabby.)

Anyway, at some point in the conversation we were having, Thomas mentioned that he had yet to officially declare any resolutions in 2014. He threw out the few ideas he'd been mulling over and when he tossed out his idea to choose a salad for 300 meals, I responded with, "I'd do that one with you." During that moment, it seemed like a really good idea. (It is probably still a really good idea, but I should've thought it through for a few minutes before jumping on board ... 200 might've been a less-daunting amount.)

So I ran some numbers the other day to figure out how to make this resolution work and here's the reality of our situation: need to average six salads per week to accomplish this goal ... six of 14 meals each week (lunch and dinner [2] x 7=14) will need to be lettuce-based ... 25 salads per month to stay on track.

Sidenote: major props to accountants, math teachers and other number-oriented career professionals that work with digits all day long. The above math took me an embarrassingly long time to calculate.

Pinterest has provided several salad recipes that intrigue me, and I really want to try out the whole Mason jar salad concept that supposedly keeps the ingredients fresh for up to a week ... it'd be nice to have salads pre-made like that for dinner or when I'm on the go.

So do me a kind favor, please ... if we're ever making plans for lunch or dinner this year, make sure salads are an option because I've got 297 remaining. And if I start to resemble a rabbit at any point, let me know that, too, so I can pull the plug on this idea.