Saturday, March 28, 2009

Lifestyle Change # 1: A Salad a Day.......



For the next couple of months I'm going share some lifestyle changes that I have already made or will be making in the future. Your commitment to health should revolve around several small changes in your lifestyle. This will help you develop a healthy style of living that you can be committed to for life.


" A Salad a Day....."
Well I can't guarantee that a salad a day will keep the doctor away, but it is a easy way to get a couple of servings of veggies in. It is also a small step you can take to eating healthier over all. Eating at least one salad per day with 2 cups of lettuce and other veggies will help you add fiber, vitamin A, and Vitamin C, potassium, and other nutrients to your diet.

According to the Food pyramid you should eat 3-5 servings of veggies per day.
Here are the serving guidelines, each bullet = 1 serving
* 1 cup of leafy vegetables
*1/2 cup of other vegetables, cooked or raw
*3/4 cup of vegetable juice
Okay so how do you eat a salad everyday and not get bored???

First I recommend heading to your local Costco or Sam's Club and picking up 1lb of Taylors Baby Spring Mix. You can get a pound of this for about 3.99. I recommend this particular lettuce because it doesn't spoil as quickly as the bag salad. 1 lb will probably last you a week and half.

Next you need to decide what you need to keep your salad full of flavor. I add crasins, walnuts a little blue cheese, and rasberry vignagerette dressing. I also add any additional veggies I have in the kitchen. I recommend adding at least 2-3 other raw veggies if you can. Also, add meat to the salad to make it meal.

This was my first week trying out my "salad a day" committment. It worked out pretty well. I saved money because I brought my salads to work for lunch. It was really cost effective. My ingredients lasted the whole week. So it's a great way to save money and eat healthy!


Thinking about trying "Lifestyle Change #1 ?"

Here's what you need....

1. Taylors Baby Spring Mix
2. Craisins
3. Walnuts
4. Blue Cheese
5. Rasberry vingarette dressing
5. Add extra veggies and meat!


Keep you salad exciting by substiting ingredients; tomatoes, eggs, chicken, feta cheese (instead of blue), almonds, etc.

Or Please share your favorite salad recipes!!!!

COMMENT!
What lifestyle changes did you make to lose weight????

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I've been having a salad for lunch everyday for the past three weeks, so it's so great to see this post.
As for recipes I made a jerk chicken and mango salad that was good, salmon cake with light asian dressing, and a healthy cobb salad. Changing up the ingredients helps with the salad boredom I encountered when I first started.


Other lifestyle changes: stop eating at a certain time, keeping a food journal and looking through it to see what I'm doing right/wrong, mixing up my workouts and meal planning

Fitness Goddess said...

Thanks for stopping by and sharing Ms. Lmc!

Janice said...

My favorite salad is Organic Spring Herb Mix.
I add beets, tuna, and tomatoes.
I love Paul Newmann's light salad dressings. Two tablespoons for about 50 calories.

Ms. Williams said...

I have also been having salads for lunch for about a month now. My go-to salad is:
-lettuce
-tomatoes
-red onions
-black olives
-chickpeas
-feta and
-balsamic vinaigrette

For the days that I won't be able to eat dinner at a desired time, I have some pita bread and hummus with my salad.

I find that the more I do it, the more creative I become with my salads. Good to know that others are using this same strategy.

dlynn90 said...

I eat a salad everyday for lunch and what prevents bordem for me is thinking that I'm doing something good for my body. Because I have been eating salad for lunch for over a year, my body has gotten used to it and my body can tell when I haven't had it because I start craving it. It takes some discipline, but it's so worth it. My daily salad includes:

Spinach
Craisens
Goat Cheese or Feta Cheese
Almonds
Flax Seeds
Kraft Sesame Ginger light dressing.
Try different ingredients to get the taste you like.

gsutiger2 said...

Craisins are my weakness!

Mixed Springs
Craisins
Feta Cheese
Either Newmans Own Light Honey Mustard
Or a lemon to subsitute for dressing.

Calories can creep up on salads.

.black.girl. said...

I like to trick myself into eating salad- for instance, when I make my world famous tacos (lol) i like to stuff spinach in them!