Everyday Systems

I'm fairly new to No S and this wonderful board, so forgive me if this is a question that as been asked and answered a hundred times already, but...

I love salad and make a bowl (cereal size) full (usually Romaine lettuce, avocado, cucumber, green onion - and sometimes fruit) each night at dinner. If I put it on my plate, my dressing (light balsamic) runs into all my other food, but if I put it in the bowl, I find it hard to limit myself to servings that take up what wouldl be the rest of the plate. I feel like I'm cheating to eat my plate of food AND bowl of salad.

Any wisdom for this fairly recent convert to No-S? By the way, I am more satisfied with this plan than any of the dozens I've tried in the past 40 years! We had a potluck at school today and I thoroughly enjoyed my one plate of delicious food. The desserts weren't even much of a temptation! Tonight we went to Costco and I had a hot dog - and didn't even feel guilty! I feel like a normal person (i.e. eater) for the first time in a looooong time!

Could you put the salad sans dressing on your plate, plate your food and THEN move the salad to the bowl and dress it? That way the dressing isn't running willy nilly into your other food but you have a better sense of portions. After a few times, you'd probably have a pretty good idea of how much space you should leave blank on your plate and how full to fill your salad bowl.

Of course, take this with a grain or 10 of salt, because I'm not much of a salad eater

You could do what I do with soup: I put in it the bowl, put the bowl on the plate and put servings of other food around it.

Or, you could do what I do at dinner: I usually put the salad in the bowl, put food on my plate and don't worry about it. The first year I did No-S I didn't realize there was a one-plate rule. I had one serving of whatever was being served and didn't worry about it -- and still had good results. Don't overcomplicate it.

If you're seeing results doing what you're doing, I don't think you need to change it.

A couple of things you could do if you feel the need to change it:

Divided plates
Use wosnes' suggestion (I so this with soup, too)

When I have a salad, it's often my whole meal (I eat more salads in the summer), so it goes on my plate that way. Sometimes, I do have a dinner salad, and since I use a thicker dressing and am not particularly annoyed by food touching or juices mingling, I just put it on my plate.

You could use any of the above suggestions, or do what I do with soup - put your salad in the bowl and use a smaller salad plate for the rest of the meal.

If it's truly almost-zero-calorie vegetables and a sparing application of oil, vinegar, and herbs, put it in a salad bowl and forget about it.

When I make dinner for the family, the first thing I do is cut up raw vegetables. Being able to reach for a piece instead of sampling something more caloric keeps me from getting crankly while I am hungry and preparing dinner, or - worse yet - salivating into it. :D

Sanity says the phytonutrients in the salad outweigh the negligible caloric content, and probably keep you from eating more high-caloric food.

Thank you all for your good ideas. They all have merit and I think I'll give several a try.

I just finished reading the No-S book - which was wonderful, I might add - and his admonition to not overthink the rules is in the back of my head. Old habits are hard to break, though. I've weighed food and counted points/calories for so long (with the end result of being overweight and an unhealthy relationship with food) it's a challenge to find the balance between holding these simple rules firmly without making it all about following rules.

Again, thank you. What a great board!

You can put the salad on your plate, see how much space is left, move the salad to the bowl, add dressing, and then put the other food on your original plate to take up the rest of the space that the salad didn't take up when it was on there. That helps me.

Whidbey Woman wrote:Thank you all for your good ideas. They all have merit and I think I'll give several a try.

I just finished reading the No-S book - which was wonderful, I might add - and his admonition to not overthink the rules is in the back of my head. Old habits are hard to break, though. I've weighed food and counted points/calories for so long (with the end result of being overweight and an unhealthy relationship with food) it's a challenge to find the balance between holding these simple rules firmly without making it all about following rules.

Again, thank you. What a great board!

When it comes to a side dish salad or a bowl of broth based soup, I really don't worry about it much. They're usually low in calories and aren't really the problem that caused overweight or will keep one from losing weight. The biggest reason I put my soup bowl on my plate is that I don't eat in the kitchen and it's easier to carry it (without sloshing the soup) when it's on the plate. I never consider those things "seconds."