Grocery carts, food, pants sizes

I noticed while on tours with the band over the years that a lot of Europeans go to the grocery store every day. The same seems to be the case here. It's a lot different than the several-hour expedition Americans make to stock up for the month. Naturally, most grocery stores here are not super-sized markets that cover several acres and dwarf concert halls. They are mostly somewhere between that and a corner convenience store.

This photo is of one of the carts at the ICA in Hagsätra, which is sized appropriately for the amount of food most of the customers seem to be buying each time I visit. On top are a loaf of bread, veggie burgers, curry sauce. Mmmmmm.

Speaking of volumes of food, my weight seems to have leveled off around 76 kg (167 lbs). That's nice and I'm happy with that. Early last year when I was on a business trip at the Rentals.com headquarters building in Atlanta, they had a scale next to the vending machines. I weighed myself and when 209 pounds (95 kg) was displayed, I was totally shocked that it had gotten so out of hand. I love food, but I had to draw the line.

I simply stopped eating so much. I started drinking more water, fewer sodas, and tried not to eat late at night. I didn't keep a lot of food in the house, and I began walking as much as possible to anywhere nearby I needed to go instead of driving. I think the walking and elimination of carbonated beverages probably had the biggest effect. I still like to try different unusual sodas now and then, but it is incredibly rare that I buy or drink an entire soda. My head-start in America combined with the extensive daily walking I'm doing here have paid off.

The weird part about losing weight here is that I feel like I'm eating a lot. Perhaps more walking requires more fuel or maybe I'm lucky enough to have gotten a tapeworm. The bad news is that all of my pants are falling off of me now. When I bought these 36's I had to suck it in a little. Now if I push my belly out, it doesn't fill them. The good news is that in central Stockholm there is an H&M on every corner.

When I'm not eating paint, during the past few weeks I've been experimenting a bit in the kitchen. This is something new for me. In the past, I have been accused of eating "little kid food." This is an accusation I flatly deny! Most kids don't like spicy foods or anything remotely exotic, such as Indian cuisine.

Curry is one of my weaknesses. If I go to a restaurant and see something with curry, my mind basically shuts down and I can't really read anything else on the menu. I have to get the curry. Needless to say, when cooking for myself, curry is one of my favorite ingredients.

This photo is of a curry dish I threw together recently. We've got broccoli, cauliflower, and potatoes in a thick yellow curry sauce. While it was cooking, I mixed some peanut butter in with the curry and let a whole egg sit in the middle of the pan. When it was all almost ready to eat, I broke open the half-cooked egg. There were bits of hard-boiled egg, but the center was still liquid, and I let that run all through the mix. Oh boy was this goooood. The mix of curry and peanut butter are something really unique: two great tastes that go great together, as they say.