A little over two years ago, my daughter was born. At the time, I was in moderately decent shape; although I smoked, I ate fairly well, walked all over the place, and generally kept my weight in an area that my doctor and I considered acceptable. However, my daughter's birth, my decision to quit the demon cancer sticks, and the fact that I spent an insane amount of time on the couch with her quickly bore fruit. Within six months of her arrival, I had packed on about 20 pounds.

After I had to buy new, larger pants, I decided that enough was enough. I started going to the gym, watching what I eat, exercising more, and generally trying to regain my svelte, pre-fatherhood body. I spent a lot of time looking in the mirror, looking at my measurements, and looking at my diet. When I moved to New York, however, my weight loss began to slow, sputter, and even reverse a little bit.

It wasn't too hard to figure out why I wasn't losing weight like I used to. While I was busy looking at the scale, I wasn't looking at my neighborhood. On the bright side, the Vietnamese restaurant near my apartment has several relatively healthy offerings and the taco truck a couple of blocks away is great if I don't order cheese, sour cream, and fried meat. However, the Dominican bakery, with its seductive tres leches cake, the Puerto Rican Cuchifritos stands, and the various pizzerias, Chinese food joints, and Gyro restaurants all taunt me with their wares. While I'm pretty good at avoiding the siren song of KFC, Burger King, and all the other fast food places, I am a sucker for homemade, high-fat goodies.

The UCLA School of Public Health recently finished a study that found that men and women who ate a cup of salad each day had higher concentrations of folic acid, vitamins C and E, lycopene and alpha and beta carotene in the bloodstream than men and women who did not. Because many people do not get enough nutrients even when taking nutritional supplements, this is good news to anyone who can make room in their diet for an additional 90grams (1 cup) of salad on a daily basis.

Salad, as it was counted in the study, is considered to be raw vegetables, salad greens (lettuce, etc) and dressing. Scientists say that the results of this study should help to dispell the concerns that they body may have difficulty absorbing nutritents from raw vegetables, though a little bit of low fat dressing couldn't hurt - not to mention that salads are just a little bit more interesting with an added layer of flavor.

It must be a sign of inflation.

For the first time since they opened in Westwood in 1983, Diddy Riese's ice cream cookie sandwiches have gone up in price. The store, which sells ice cream sandwiched between two cookies to UCLA students, put up signs warning customers of the price increase about two weeks ago. The cookie sandwiches went up by a whopping 25%. Okay, so they went from $1 to $1.25, and that's still pretty cheap for an ice cream sandiwch.

According to the Daily Bruin, students were disappointed by the price hike, but understand that it had to be done. Besides, a quarter is not a big deal. It probably won't affect how often a student goes in for a late-night snack. The owner believes customers are more concerned because it was so easy to simply lay down a dollar bill. Now it's a dollar bill and a quarter.

The way I see it, customers can now put down two dollar bills and get back three quarters - perfect change for doing laundry!

There's always a new restaurant opening in Westwood, whether in Westwood Village or further south along Westwood Boulevard. I'm not sure why the turnover in the area seems higher than in other places, but I suspect it has to do with very high westside rents battling against a very budget-conscious college market.

The most recent opening I noticed is Fresh Corn Grill, a few blocks south of the campus area on Westwood Boulevard. We stopped in for lunch.

UCLA has a great extension program - classes that are offered to the general public that go from Accounting to...Wine Pairing. The Spring quarter of UCLA Extension is offering a six-session class that is taught by wine connoisseur C. Scott Hindel and chef Octavio Becerra of Pinot Bistro. The final class is putting the lessons to use, dining out at "a fine dining restaurant," as the course description says (though my guess is that it would be Pinot Bistro).

The course is $585 (ouch) and meets from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. every Thursdays from April 20 through May 25 near the Westwood campus. If nothing else, you can take the class and call yourself a Bruin next year when UCLA wins the NCAA championship. 

UCLA Extension
1010 Westwood Blvd.
Westwood Village, CA
(310) 206-7509
www.uclaextension.edu

If you're like me, then you look forward to sporting events for, er, well, the food. March Madness is at the climax this weekend with the Final Four (LSU vs UCLA, Florida vs George Mason). Though it truly will be madness at some of the more popular sports bars around town, particularly anything near a college, that's all the fun, isn't it? Some options in and around LA that also serve food, in case you want to get there early to squat on a spot, especially since UCLA is playing:

• El Guapo Mexican Cantina, 7250 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046, (323) 297-0471, www.elguapo.homestead.com
• Sports Harbour, 13484 Washington Blvd, Marina Del Rey, CA 90292, (310) 823-0933
• Mr Pockets, 516 N Sepulveda Blvd, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266-6706, (310) 372-4343
• Yankee Doodle's, 1410 Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica, CA 90401, (310) 394-4632
• Lucky Baldwin's, 17 S Raymond Ave,Pasadena, CA 91105, (626) 795-0652
• Q's Billiards, 11835 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025, (310) 477-7550, www.qsbilliards.com  
• Big Wang's, 1562 N Cahuenga Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90028, (323) 469-2449
• ESPN Zone, 1500 S Disneyland Dr, Anaheim, CA 92802, (714) 300-3776, www.espnzone.com