I've asked this in the daily chat before but it was weeks ago and there are lots of newbies since then. So, who eats salad of some sort at lunch and dinner? Who eats it at one only? Who doesn't even eat it everyday?


I was in the once a day club for the first 3 weeks and then maybe 3 times a week and now I have to admit I haven't even had any kind of lettuce, spinach, anything in my house in over a week. I think I OD'd on it.

So, give me good easy ways to get it in without having WF dressing because I can't handle much of any of them anymore. I think tonight I'll have a salad with chicken breast chunks and WF creamy bacon because that is one I can do (but only with chicken for some reason) in small quantities.

I like big leaves of lettuce (romain) as bread for a tuna sandwich or turkey breast sandwich but had one whole bag go bad and that ruined it for me for awhile.

What do you do to get in your lettuce?

I have to admit that I can't eat salad without normal salad dressing. I have it two or three times a day to curb my food cravings but I'm using normal kraft dressing...I stick to the ranch that has only 1 carb per seving and try to go light on it. I know the calorie count is a little high and it has more fat (I use regular because the low-fat dressing has considerably more carbs). I know it's not 100% OP but without it I couldn't eat salad.

I have salad with my supper every day. I find cutting up my 2 cups of veggies helps me feel more 'satisfied' at the end of the day. I have cut up veggies for lunch. I use my own salad dressing for the salad and I find that I almost crave it. I've look forward to my salad.

What's your dressing recipe?

Definitely do not eat a real "salad" every day but with that said, I definitely try to get in at least 4 servings of vegetables per day somehow.

I have had salad for lunch almost every day since I started the IP protocol. I make salad dressing with EVOO, vinegar, 1/4 tsp sea salt, and a sprinkle of whatever salt free seasoning I feel like. This is just the standard- I don't think about it, I'm on autopilot with lunch salad.
Evening salads are hit-or-miss. I eat them if they go with the meal (i.e. taco salad) and I wrap my meat in lettuce leaves on occasion. I probably have salad at supper 3 days a week. I find it difficult to get in salad and 2C of veg and the meat- it's just too much food.
What I love is that salad has become my go-to for snacks and midday hunger. If I'm home and I'm genuinely hungry between meals, I throw together a salad and I'm satisfied.
My advice? Prep your salad greens in advance or buy the pre-cut pre-washed kind and make life easy. Don't even think about whether you want a salad, just pick one meal and commit to it every day. Eat it for the benefits, if not for the taste.

It's not scientific at all, but I love it.

In old jar

half oil half white vinegar
tsp of garlic from a jar (love garlic and I'm not chopping that much garlic lol)
squirt of lemon juice
squirt of soy sauce (maybe two)
italian seasoning (just dump some in, so really go with a tbsp or two)
sometimes I put some spenda in there, more often not.

At work I sprinkle some veggie seasoning on my veggies, when I'm done that jar I'll look for a different veggie seasoning, used Mrs Dash in the past. At least then I'm not eating salad at both meals.

Also, when I bake or bbq my veggies (I crave my salad but I know I need to mix it up). I throw fresh thyme and rosemary (MY FAVORITE) with some oil and let it sit for 20 minutes before I put it on the BBQ or in the oven. This would be once a week so I throw tomatoes in there because I LOVE BAKED TOMATOES.

Some of the recipe threads have some good veggie recipes you should check it out. You could totally change up the seasonings too.

I'm going to buy an oatmeal packet and make some rhubarb crisp with some splenda brown sugar (100% splenda not blended) and have 1 cup of veggies for a salad and 1 cup of rhubarb for the 'dessert' for my supper sometime this week. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Let me know how you change it up if you decide to use it!

Agree with M0vingon....prep is what helps. I always have one of those large tupperware containers full of cut up lettuce that's already been through the spinner.

I have had a salad with peppers and cucumbers everyday for lunch on this plan so far. It just fills me up and I enjoy salad. I don't usually ever have salad at dinner because I find having the protein and 2 cups of vegetables is definitely enough food for dinner.

I get my 4 cups of veggies (2 at each meal) but I was told lettuce too.

I don't like vegetables in any form! Dont eat salad, can't stand the taste. don't like dressing either, low fat, full fat, whatever. I tried, believe me, I did. This morning I blended carrots, lettuce, cabbage, cucumber, tomato... and then i forced it down. It wasn't so bad... Tomorrow I'll try it with pineapple and apple added... I mean, calorie counting aside, you can't have a healthy diet without vegetables, right?

Carrots and fruit aren't allowed on IP.

This is just my second week. On my first visit my coach said she would advice getting your self in the habit of eating a huge salad at lunch time. I have done this everyday so far and think it is a habit that will serve me well when I move to maintaining. If I get this habit established it will be easy to just take some meat with it for lunch at work when maintaining.

I like salads but hate all the chopping. That is why the suggestions to chop large amounts ahead of time and put them in bags in right on.

As for the dressings, I am just realizing this may be very important. I had two days last week that I had good loses. They were each days after I had eaten out.I had chicken and salad and asked them to use olive oil. I have read that you have to take in some fat to burn fat. I didn't take the omega pills from the clinic because they fish oils make me nauseated. Dr Tien used to recommend 3 TBSP of olive oil I think I read somewhere. So I think it might be better to make your own dressing with olive oil than to us the ff WF dressings.

where did you find the 100% brown sugar splenda? I have only seen the blended 1/2 & 1/2 and it has 2 gm sugar and 2 gms carbs for 1/2 teaspoon. The rhubarb crisp is so good, but now I can't use the blended splenda with the oatmeal, I just put some cinnamon with the oatmeal and sprinkle over the stewed rhubarb.

We have salad every day with our noon meal and sometimes with supper. I also keep all my vegetables prepared in bags in the fridge, lettuce washed with some cut up and some left as large leaves for rolling up meats in. I bought a salad shaker at the dollar store and found we are enjoying our salads more because when you shake it up in this it mixes the dressing with everything in the container. Even the WF dressings seem to taste better now, I think because you get it mixed up better and not a big glob of dressing in one bite.