Lately I have been salad crazed. I recently discovered that, unbeknownst to me, I actually DO like spinach - baby spinach, that is. Here I've lived almost 40 years believing that I didn't like spinach when lo and behold, I DO. 'Tis nummy. And this discovery I believe has re-fueled my salad-crazedness. (Is too a word.) I have been inhaling a large bowl of salad almost every night for dinner, especially at work. Like, such a big bowl it would normally serve a family of four.
Today I went for a nice run at the gym and came home hungry so I built myself the following masterpiece:
Ingredients as follows:
2 handfuls of organic baby lettuce
1 handful of organic baby spinach
1/3 cup (or so) of shredded carrots
Almost half a red bell pepper, diced
Half an avocado
1/4 of an English cucumber
1/4 cup of crumbled blue cheese
About 2 Tbsp of dried cranberries
About 1/4 cup unsalted toasted almond slices
Dressing: 1 tsp dijon mustard, 1 1/2 Tbsp muscat orange champagne vinegar, 1 1/2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, fresh ground pepper.
According to this site the total calories in this salad were 809 calories. That's a little on the high side for a bowl of rabbit food, but take into account the high fat content of the avocado, nuts, blue cheese and olive oil. Now, except for the blue cheese, all those things are high in GOOD FATS. So frankly, I consider this salad a success. And having had my lipids all checked last week and finding out they are AWESOME, I'm not real concerned.
As I get to where I'm doing longer runs and more training, I am VERY aware of how much I eat. Not just because I'm hungry all the time, but because I make sure to give myself enough of what I need. At almost 5'9" and around 130 lbs, I know I don't have a lot of wiggle room for weight loss. That's never been my goal. I use an online site to track my daily calories, adding back in those I've burned on workouts. I eat even when I'm not hungry. I eat when I get home from work at midnight if I haven't had enough calories during the day or if I'm just plain hungry, even though that goes again everything we've ever heard ("Don't eat after 7pm").
I know I'm questioned and criticized out of concern (mostly) but it frustrates me that when you are thin, the world thinks it's okay to share their opinions about your body, something most people would never do to someone on the other end of the spectrum. I mean seriously, would you ever say to an overweight person "I'm just really worried that you're eating too much. Maybe you should lay off." I'm much happier with the body I have now then when I weighed the same but was three sizes bigger. I obviously had some extra padding if, when getting serious about exercise and diet, it melted away.
I'm hurtling toward my 40th birthday and I'm actually excited about it, to be honest. I'm proud to be heading into a new decade of my life, being fit and feeling fierce.
Bring it on.
