Eat a salad (and one fruit) a day

I’m finally doing this consistently again. When I was working, I just packed a salad in my lunch and had no problems. Now that I’m at home, I wasn’t doing so well. What changed? I made a game of it! (yeah, I know, I’m 10).

The object of the game is to eat five colors of fruits and vegetables before supper. As you can see from the picture, I usually manage four colors at lunch and another fruit at breakfast (today it was dark purple grapes). My colors took up so much plate real estate that I had to put my chicken thigh and slice of whole wheat zucchini herb bread on another plate to complete my lunch.

This was a fast meal for me, btw—chicken and green bean salad left over from last night, veggie dip left over from who-knows-when so I thought I should eat it, bread made in bread machine a couple of days ago.

I missed some salads in April, particularly on the weekends. So, I’m going to log the May weekend salads:

5: yes
6: yes

12: yes (counting a veggie wrap as a salad cuz it’s my birthday and there were a lot of veggies!)
13: yes (green bean salad made by mil)

19: yes
20: yes (green bean salad made by moi)

26:
27:

About a month ago, I got sick of washing and spinning lettuce, especially since I couldn’t get very good quality lettuce. So, I switched to cabbage for my salad. I based my recipe on the one in Jane Brody’s Good Food Book for Hot Diggety Slaw, but I leave all the hot stuff out, so mine isn’t worthy of that name.

My salad is just cabbage sliced thin like slaw and diced red peppers. Those are both sturdy vegetables that keep well in the fridge even after they are sliced, so I can fix up an entire cabbage and a whole red pepper and eat them for a week.

My dressing is inspired by Thai peanut sauce. It’s peanut butter thinned with equal parts of apple cider vinegar and soy sauce. That can also be made in large quantities and kept in the refrigerator, probably for months. Besides being good on the cabbage it’s also great on steamed or stir-fried veggies over rice.

So, happy St. Patrick’s Day, all you salad eaters, and go try a cabbage salad!

I did this all but one day. I’m very pleased with how this is working for me. I engaged in some stress eating but this goal kept bringing me back to healthier eating.

I’m only working on Tuesday, so I think I’ll keep track of all the days since it’s going to be such an odd week.

Su: Yes

M: Yes

Tu: Yes

W: Yes

Th: Yes

F: Yes

Sa:

Su: Check!

M: Check!

F: Check!

Sa: Check!

Su: Check!

M: Yes, took salad to the family gathering. Someone else brought a salad, too. I was very proud of our family—we emptied both salad bowls!

Sa: Check! It’s easier now that I’m following a food plan (even on weekends!) that says fruit at breakfast, salad at lunch.

I think I can consider my workday salads a habit now and quit recording them everyday (unless I start to fall off again).

Weekends, vacation days, and holidays give me trouble, so I’ll keep logging them for a few more weeks:

Su: We celebrated Christmas with my brother. I contributed salad to dinner—so I knew that I would get my salad today. To satisfy everyone’s dietary requirements, I needed a low salt, low fat, low sugar dressing. I thinned dijon mustard with fresh apple cider and added some black pepper. Pretty hot for a salad dressing, but we mostly liked it. If you didn’t have the low sugar requirement, adding honey would probably be an improvement.

F: almost forgot the salad—remembered just in time to fix a small one before dinner

Sa: Check!

Su: Check!

M: Check!

T: Check! My fruits this week are Maverick Royal Riviera pears from Harry and Davids. Royal Riviera pears are juice-running-to-elbows amazing. They are also expensive—unless you buy the less perfect Mavericks and buy those at half-price from the stores when they are ready to eat today. I did that on Sunday and put them in the fridge to slow the ripening. They are still yummy today.

W: Check!

Th: Ate two salads and a fruit today. Unfortunately, between a “dessert party” after lunch at work and going out to dinner with an interview candidate, I also ate enough calories for two, maybe three, people.

F: Check!

Sa: Yay! I actually did this everyday for a whole week.

I like how I feel eating a salad and a fruit most days, so I’m going to commit to it for another week.

Su: Check!

M: Check! HoneyCrisp Apple—mmmm

T: Check! I went to the Faculty/Staff holiday lunch today and had a choice of three salads—a treat to eat a salad that I didn’t fix.

W: Check!

Th: Check!

F: Nope. Thus revealing my one secret to consistency: if I pack it in my lunch, I eat it. But I didn’t work today (working Sunday), so I didn’t pack a lunch, so I didn’t eat a salad. Oh well. I’ll try to do better tomorrow.

Sa: No salad. No fruit. Weekends are definitely trouble in this area. Well, next week, I’m working 6 days. Maybe that will help.