DeRusha Eats: Life Cafe
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – It is the New Year, and folks are filling up local gyms.
But did you know you can also fill up at many local gyms?
At nearly 20 Life Time Fitness locations around the metro you can get in shape by working out on the machines and eating a nutritious meal at the café.
This week, Jason DeRusha is pumping pizza instead of iron as DeRusha Eats at Life Café.
We're all hitting the treadmills and the elliptical machines this time of year.
But inside nearly 100 Life Time Fitness Clubs around the country, you can also exercise your taste buds.
"It's one of the perks of being a lifetime member, is to be able to come and enjoy the food," Executive Chef Ryan Dodge said.
Chef Ryan Dodge creates the menu for all of those clubs right here in the Twin Cities.
"I wanted to put my finger in the water and say to myself as I looked back 'What did I do? How did I affect people?' I wanted to do it for the better. I wanted to give people a better opportunity to be healthy," he said.
Dodge's 2015 menu features lots of greens.
No surprise there.
But those greens show up in unexpected spots.
"We have some green pizzas, some healthy pizzas," Dodge said.
The Super Greens pizza has pesto, kale, arugula, artichokes, kalamata olives and just enough mozzarella.
"That's our version of a healthy pizza," he said.
Share it with a friend, and you're eating fewer than 500 calories.
Or enjoy a turkey sandwich. It's just shy of 550 calories, and the turkey, like everything else there, is all-natural.
Of course, it can be a challenge to keep the calorie count down.
"We spend hours with that," Dodge said. "Let's bring back a bit. A little less olive oil, little less almonds, a little less of this to let the right fats dial it in," he said.
And learning how to create tasty, and healthy, meals is an ongoing process.
"You have to keep learning. This is part of the deal. Understanding the nutrition, understanding how to put the flavors together, knowing the origins," he said.
Chef Dodges's Life Cafe customers are already thinking healthy, they are in a gym.
But he's hoping this style of eating will spread outside Life Time into life.
In order to go to Life Cafe, you have to be a member of Life Time Fitness. But if you know a member, they can bring you as a guest.
That's also a good reason to join, so you can bring guests as well.
