Salad

There are so many topics to cover in this wonderful blog of mine.
I just got home from yoga, and decided to make myself a salad...it seemed appropriate.

As I was making it, I remembered a time when I was sitting on a couch in my sorority house waiting for a friend when a girl came in with a plate full of salad.
It consisted of:
1. iceberg lettuce
2. cheese
3. croutons
4. ranch dressing

She proceeds to tell me how she is on a diet, and how she is so proud of herself for avoiding the "italian style" dinner we were having that night.

Now, normally I would just smile and nod. But I liked the girl, and the irony was just too much.
So, I broke it down for her. I told her that she would probably be better off eating the lasagna.

Iceberg lettuce: 0 nutritional value
Alternative: go for the really dark green leafy stuff like arugula, spinach, romaine, etc

Cheese: adding to the fat
Alternative: adding about 1/4 cup of cheese to your salad adds about 100 calories depending on the cheese.  Opt for adding more veggies, and if you cant live without cheese try something low in fat like feta.
Fun Fact: all cheese is white, companies add in food coloring to make it orange-yellow. And food coloring is horrible for your body...so pick the white American cheese :)


Croutons: might as well be eating a piece of bread with many additives, preservatives, and trans fat.
Alternative: add nuts

Ranch Dressing: finally, one of the biggest mistakes is using a fatty dressing like ranch or caesar. Even some of those fruity vinaigrettes have tons and tons of sugar.
Alternative: try adding some fresh lime/lemon juice with some EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) and balsamic.

In total, avoid the salads heavy in dressing and yummies like bacon, croutons, etc.

But keep eating the good stuff.