Salad for Breakfast - Shocking Stuff

Under Chef AJ's guidance, I've adopted a few strange habits, not the least of which is salad for breakfast. I know this is pretty crazy stuff, because my therapist acted shocked when I told her about it. Not acting shocked - about anything - is a therapist's stock in trade, so like I said, this is big.

This is one pound of chopped lettuce and cruciferous vegetables (plus carrots) topped with a couple of mandarin oranges and half a banana with two tablespoons of ground flax seed sprinkled on top. Still to come is my homemade white balsamic-based mustard dressing.

I don't think I even told her what to me is the craziest part. This isn't just any salad. This is a one-pound salad. I've been doing this for two weeks, but today is the first time I weighed up one pound of greens and cruciferous vegetables before adding the fruit that makes this all possible. Also, today is the first time in two weeks that it occurred to me to put ground flax seeds in it. Duh.

It took me an hour last night (including clean up) to make 5 days worth of chopped salad. Totally cut into my knitting time. Chopped salad is necessary in order to be able to fit the whole thing in a large serving bowl. Not sure how long I can keep this up. I know that salad does not appeal to me much in January. Maybe by then I'll be able to eat a pound of steamed kale without crying.

In case it's not clear, the purpose of a 1-lb. salad for breakfast is to fill you up with a low-calorie belly bomb. After salad, your next course is supposed to be 1 lb. of steamed vegetables. I'm not doing that. Yet. I love the Mediterranean Kale recipe from Own Your Health, but I don't eat a pound at a time. If I did, between chopping salad and chopping kale to cook in the pressure cooker, I wouldn't even have time to eat this stuff. And it does take quite a while to chew through a pound of salad.

Okay, enough whining. I can do this. With some modifications. And that's one of the things I love about AJ. She emphasizes that everyone has their own messed up relationship with food and that what is needed by one person may not be necessary for me. Her whole practice revolves around the idea of food addiction.

One very helpful thing for food addicts is a "clean environment" in which there are no calorie-dense foods in the house. I've thrown out a ton of things I'm no longer interested in eating, but I've had a bag of vegan chocolates in the cupboard since Christmas - untouched. I'm not throwing them out. I might need them some day. 

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