I occasionally like to visit my local hippy skippy organic salad bar in my town. You know, those places where you load up your bowl and then they weigh it at the register and you pay by the pound?
![]()
Today was a busy day at the salad bar. While I stood in line to pay, I noticed the handful of women in line ahead of me all had these magnificently created yet HUGE salads. I never used to look at what other people were eating when I was a fatty...it seems that I do it on occasion now. Kinda weird. Not in a judgemental way and I NEVER, EVER make comments to others, just as a reminder to myself of what and how MUCH I used to eat.
Anyways, these ladies had amazingly beautiful yet GIANT salads with croutons on top of pasta salad on top of ranch dressing on top of shredded cheese on top of pretty much everything else that was on the salad bar that day. I tried to avert my stare as I looked longingly at their salad creations. I imagined how yummy those salads would taste. I tried not to drool. It reminded me of the good ol' days when I would belly up to the bar at Sweet Tomatoes or Fresh Choice. Those were the days. Sigh.
Since I had nothing better to do while I waited, I quietly (in my head) began to estimate and calculate how many calories I thought one of those HUMUNGO salads had in them...I settled on somewhere around 800-900 calories, at least.
Then I looked down at my salad sitting in the small to-go container: 1 hard boiled egg and 2-3 ounces of chicken breast sitting on top of 7-8 pieces of baby spinach (yeah, I counted) and the little dressing cup on the side. Approximately 260 calories and 29 proteins.
I ate that salad about 4 hours ago...and I'm still not hungry. I heart my Lap Band.
Anyways, these ladies had amazingly beautiful yet GIANT salads with croutons on top of pasta salad on top of ranch dressing on top of shredded cheese on top of pretty much everything else that was on the salad bar that day. I tried to avert my stare as I looked longingly at their salad creations. I imagined how yummy those salads would taste. I tried not to drool. It reminded me of the good ol' days when I would belly up to the bar at Sweet Tomatoes or Fresh Choice. Those were the days. Sigh.
Since I had nothing better to do while I waited, I quietly (in my head) began to estimate and calculate how many calories I thought one of those HUMUNGO salads had in them...I settled on somewhere around 800-900 calories, at least.
Then I looked down at my salad sitting in the small to-go container: 1 hard boiled egg and 2-3 ounces of chicken breast sitting on top of 7-8 pieces of baby spinach (yeah, I counted) and the little dressing cup on the side. Approximately 260 calories and 29 proteins.
I ate that salad about 4 hours ago...and I'm still not hungry. I heart my Lap Band.
I've never been a salad eater. I just don't like lettuce much I think. Of course I love all the other stuff those ladies had on their salads, but I would rather just have that stuff and not the lettuce. :) Weird I know.
ReplyDeleteYour lunch sounds delish. I had 3 oz of chicken and 1/2 C of Blueberries for lunch. Yummmo.
I had a similar experience at a coney about a year after I was banded. I was working on a cup of chili and I remember glancing over at the table across from us -- the guy had two coney dogs, a bowl of chili, and a plate of chili cheese fries. Just the thought of all that food made me sick to my stomach.
ReplyDeleteYay....love it!
ReplyDeleteLol I was and still am a big salad lover. I know exactly how you were feeling as I have felt the same way. I had turkey roll up with a slice of avocado and cream cheese all heated. Yum.
ReplyDeleteI had a work meeting today that had lunch catered so I grabbed a salad box... It had a salad with chicken, eggs, and bacon, a bag of doritos, and a chocolate chip cookie. I pulled off half the chicken from the salad and all but a tiny bit of the bacon. I ate my chicken and the hard boiled egg - barely touched the actual lettuce and threw everything else out! in the past I would have devoured it all
ReplyDeleteWe have a salad bar place by my work where they don't sell it by weight. I load the container up and eat it for THREE days at lunch, and then I throw about half of it away at the end of day three simply because 4 day old salad bar cannot be good. Every time I get it out of the fridge it's hard to imagine that it takes me 3 meals to eat half of the salad. When I imagine the amount of food I used to eat, it still amazes me. I wonder at what point my co-workers will think I'm crazy.
ReplyDeleteI love this post! It's so true. Even at fast food restaurants...it is shocking how some of the salads have more calories than cheeseburgers!! Just because it's salad doesn't make it healthy. Congrats to you for figuring that out and watching your portion sizes, food choices, etc. That's YOU making the choices, not just relying on the lap-band to do all the work for you.
ReplyDeleteChristine
www.phoenixrevolution.net
So true. Portion is huge when trying to lose weight or get healthier. I love salads! Love, love, love them! My husband and I load up at every dinner. But within reason. 2 c of lettuce, some carrot, maybe cucumbers, egg, and 'sometimes' cheese. All with a little dressing.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing that some people load up like those ladies and then say, "but i'm eating healthy...it's a salad." Except that your 'salad' is about the same amount of calories as a cheeseburger.
Good post!
I is amazing how much I never really thought about portion size and calories before I was banded. I am sure those ladies really think they are eatign healthy.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean! I used to get the biggest container and load it up...I'm sure it was at least 800 calories (and I thought I was eating healthy). Now, I get the smallest container and might fill it 1/2 way IF I'm really hungry.
ReplyDeleteI had a similar experience liek this on Sunday when hubby and I went out for BBQ for his Birthday. We were seated near the salad bar and I watched people pile all this food on their salad plates...then go back for more, BEFORE their meal came. Yes, sometimes part of me misses eating some of that food (Macaroni Salad), but I sat with my kids meal and after eating half of it, I was full!
ReplyDelete