The REAL reason salad diets work

[beingcricket]

My health world has been a roller coaster the last few years. While investigating why I was feeling nauseous all the time (the last time we did this dance in '08), my doc recommended that I get my gallbladder removed. While the surgeon was in there, he discovered that my liver was "very fatty" and recommended a DRASTIC change in my habits - diet

Comments

Long Lunches

[anonymous]

I know just what you mean. This is why I have never been successful in eating salad for dinner on a regular basis. When I do manage to get the veggies together for one, I end up making the chunks big so I don't spend half the evening cutting them up.
I'm really glad all your hard work is paying off. Way to go girl!!!!

Re: Long Lunches

[beingcricket]

Thank you! It's amazing just how much food I put into one salad for myself, but it feels right full-wise, and I adjust if I'm not quite as hungry... but I usually am. :)

[travelbug27]

Well I'm certainly happy your health is improving and that you're on here again! Keep it up girl and stay positive.

Also, sounds like you're eating a garden a day, how can that not be good for a person? ;P

[beingcricket]

Thank you! I feel like I'm getting back on here more regularly lately... and it feels good. Thanks for the welcome! :)

LOL :) I add a few things in there that the specialist prob'ly wouldn't recommend, but you're right. It's crazy - like half a green pepper, 2 celery stalks (? the sticks you pull off one at a time), a tomato, a few handfuls of fresh spinach... it adds up! I'm hoping *adding* the good stuff is a good first step.

[kookamess]

B and I prep salads on Sunday. We make a ton of fruit salads for breakfast and salad salads for lunch and hard boil a bunch of eggs. Just don't dress them and they will last. It's easier to get out a bunch of containers and separate everything. I also use the food processor to rough chop veggies. It's not pretty but it works great. Just pulse it a few times until the stuff is the size you want.

Doing it all at once also makes clean up a lot easier.

I feel your pain!

[beingcricket]

We don't have a food processor - I don't think I can do the same thing w/a blender, can I? (Can you tell I'm not a cook? ;) )

I worry about stuff wilting/going bad if I cut them ahead of time. :( So you cut up & put the different ingredients in diff containers? Are there certain veggies you *wouldn't* do this with? Do you use wet papertowels or anything in there to keep them fresh? Any info is helpful - thanks!

[kookamess]

We basically just make layers of veggies in air tight ziplock plastic salad containers

[kookamess]

Also, homemade soups are another great way to make a big batch of veggies last all week.

[khixan]

Glad to see you're doing well :)
Like kookamess already said, it's easier to prep the veggies once or twice a week instead of every day. I also use a "slap-chop" which is great for anything I want diced. It's loud and silly, but it easy and gets the job done fast. Trick to it is not to put too much in at once. It's awesome you're doing all this! I need to get back on that track myself.

[beingcricket]

Thank you! I would LOVE to have one of those. I bet it'd save a lot of time. Thx! I'm tryin'. :)

[same_sky]

It's great that you're working so hard on doing the right stuff for your health. :) Did it help with the nausea

[beingcricket]

Thank you! Sadly, no, nothing seems to be helping with the nausea. I also recently got off of a bunch of prescriptions, and that helped for a little while, but today, in fact, I'm feeling it again. Blech. Back to the cinnamon disks for now.

I love the *idea* of those, but I'm scared of things wilting/going bad. I don't really have a backup plan if it doesn't work, and I always wonder - does everything actually get distributed when you shake them? Or do you end up with dressing-covered bottom stuff & big bites of spinach w/no dressing? Or do you pour it in a bowl & mix it that way? I'm sooo not educated on this whole thing. :)

[same_sky]

I think some people shake the jar and then eat it from the jar and others shake but then dump in a bowl and mix it all up. I imagine it depends on what you've got in the jar and how full it is. What I personally would do is just put the salad dressing on when I got it out of the fridge, since I am home when I eat lunch anyway. It's cool to have the dressing in there already but it wouldn't be a big deal for me. Like I said, I haven't tried this, but am interested in it so have read a lot of reviews, most of which say that they prep the jars on Sunday and they're good all week. One person said that they were good for five-six days but for best quality, she'd eat in three. Maybe that would be more reasonable.. but prepping a salad every four days would be better than every day! :)

[kookamess]

Even though the Mason jars are super cute I find that it's not enough food for me as a main dish. I use bigger containers and generally get tired of chewing before I'm finished...LOL.