Question About Salad

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Galemarie
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Question About Salad

Post by Galemarie » Thu Sep 29, 2005 12:44 pm

Hi,
I'm new here and am planning to start this oh-so-sensible plan on Monday. I have diabetes (Type 2) and take insulin and have a great deal of weight to lose. My question is about salad. At dinner, I eat a salad (mostly mixed greens, maybe a little carrot, onion and pepper with a dressing I make (small smidge of olive oil, vinegar, spices, etc. - not very caloric). If I put this on a plate (I practised) it takes up three-fourths of it, leaving very little room for anything else. Since the salad is very high volume for very few calories, is it OK if I eat it and then fill up half the plate with some protein, other veggies, fruit, etc. Or should I just eat a tiny salad (which seems kind of silly since it's so healthy). I don't want to get obsessed with this but would like to make a clean start. I have not actually dieted but have read about low carb, no carb, high carb, high fat, low fat, etc. and have become totally bemused (especially with the diabetes) about how to eat. The No S is the first sensible plan I've read and I'm excited to begin.

I'll appreciate any input about this- thanks for reading a too-long post.

Galemarie

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carolejo
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Post by carolejo » Thu Sep 29, 2005 2:32 pm

Hi Galemarie,

welcome to this amazingly helpful place!

I'm pretty sure that Reinhard and some other people will chip in here sooner or later, but in the meantime, I thought I'd add my two-pence-worth.

Your plan to eat the plate of salad then have about a third to a half plate of protein seems like a sensible one to me. I would agree that it doesn't seem to make much sense to not eat so much salad.

Personally, I get round this by making my salads in a large bowl when I eat them, then I can fit the protein etc in with them. The bowl I use just for myself for 'salad-as-a-maincourse' is about 20cm across and about hemispherical, coming to a depth of about 10cm at it's deepest part. My salads are 95% (by volume at least) mixed leaves, tomatoes, cucumber, celery, carrot, avocardo and whatever other raw veggies I can lay my hands on. Then I make my own light dressing (sometimes soy sauce with a little honey in, sometimes balsamic vinegar with a little mustard powder, sometimes basil-infused olive oil, sometimes just a twist of salt and pepper is all it needs - NEVER a heavy mayonnaise-type dressing as I like to be able to taste the salad itself!). Then I add a few of the following interesting bits (flaked tuna steak, cubes of mature cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, chicken, ham, pumpkin / sunflower / sesame seeds, mini-spicy meatballs - also homemade) but not all of them at once.

Because the bowl is so large, it all fits in easily, I leave a cm or two at the top, then the salad can be tossed in the serving bowl which saves on washing up too. I get to eat my salad 'all on one plate' and the portion control isn't terrible either.

So I guess where this is going is either do as you suggested yourself and put your protein out separately (be careful though not to over-do it!) or invest in a couple of bowls similar in size to the one I described above and use these for your 'one person maincourse salad'.

Note - I used to make salads for my husband and I in a much larger bowl and we'd just eat out of the same bowl with a fork each. This caused too many marital disputes though, as S kept nicking all the interesting stuff out and leaving behind the other bits he didn't like so much (he'll tell you a different story I'm sure! :lol: ) so now we each have our own 'bowl'!
CaroleJo

Galemarie
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Post by Galemarie » Thu Sep 29, 2005 6:01 pm

Dear Carolejo,

Thanks for responding. My plan was just eat the salad and a reasonable portion of protein (3-4 oz.) with maybe another vegetable and/or a piece of fruit. That will generally fill up half a plate. Your advice about the protein on top of the salad is a good one; I'll probably do that for lunch when I'm brown bagging it.

I'm looking forward to trying this on Monday. I'll let you know how it goes. Again, thanks for responding.

Galemarie

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gratefuldeb67
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Post by gratefuldeb67 » Thu Sep 29, 2005 6:49 pm

Hi Galemarie! Cool name!!!
Anyway...
The three plate a day format is really to keep you from 1.Snacking throughout the day, and 2. Not just going back for a bottomless plate of seconds, thirds and maybe fourths.. Not to keep us from eating good salad... And, by the way,,,, enjoy your dressing as long as it's not
"Cotton Candy" or "Chocolate flavored" LOL... No one ever got fat from too much olive oil on a salad....
If you are talking about eating German Potato or Macaroni "Salad", I would advise against loading up your plate and then having more on top..
Real salad???,,,Go for it~
Have a big ol' satisfying salad, but then don't have five pieces of chicken as well... I think tossing the chicken or eggs or cheese or whatever into your salad is a great idea...

Infact, why not have three salads a day!!! LOL..
Good luck! :D
Peace and Love,
8) Deb

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reinhard
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Post by reinhard » Thu Sep 29, 2005 10:34 pm

Welcome, Galemarie.

I tend to use rather large plates for dinner, so salad usually fits, even if it's a little cramped. This is probably the safest option.

I have also done "virtual plating," leaving a token corner on my dinner plate for a bulky salad in a separate bowl. Could the salad have fit in the corner? Possibly, if you crushed and molded it. This is sort of borderline legitimate. OK, but risky.

The important thing is not to use the salad as an excuse to cram in a full plate of dense dinner food. Whenever you diverge from strict one-plate, you have to be on your guard against this kind of self-deception.

Best of luck to you, however you decide to handle this,

Reinhard

Gman
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Post by Gman » Fri Sep 30, 2005 10:58 pm

reinhard What do you call a big plate?
Size wise?

Kevin
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Good luck!

Post by Kevin » Sat Oct 01, 2005 4:54 pm

Good luck!
Kevin
1/13/2011-189# :: 4/21/2011-177# :: Goal-165#
"Respecting the 4th S: sometimes."

Galemarie
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Post by Galemarie » Mon Oct 03, 2005 12:18 pm

Thanks for responding everyone. I have decided to eat the salad and fill up half a plate (some protein, other vegetables, perhaps a piece of fruit. I think this will work well and keep me from inadvertently going off track.

Galemarie

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Lethaltoenails
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Post by Lethaltoenails » Tue Oct 04, 2005 12:40 am

I put my salad in a bowl and virtual plate it with my regular food, just not heaping up the food plate. One of my borrowed mottos is that if you don't eat something green every day (ie salad) you will die. This has worked well with my kids. They think that's very funny but they DO eat salad.

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ClickBeetle
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Post by ClickBeetle » Tue Oct 04, 2005 2:05 am

Galemarie, welcome! It seems to me you should continue to eat your standard salad and make allowance for a bit of extra room for the rest of the meal.

I would just suggest you make sure that the salad stays of the type you are eating now and that a lot of high-calorie goodies such as croutons, cheese cubes, and so on don't creep in. (I doubt you will have an issue with that since you are diabetic and accustomed to staying aware of your food ingredients.) That would make it more like "cheating," to my mind ...

The reason I say "keep the salad" is I just feel like bulky foods that are low in calorie are not what make most people pack on the pounds, so I would err on the side of keeping your "big salad first" habit, which sounds very healthy!
Chance favors the prepared. - Louis Pasteur

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reinhard
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Post by reinhard » Wed Oct 05, 2005 12:09 pm

Gman wrote:reinhard What do you call a big plate?
Size wise?
I never gave this a thought, but I just measured:

My "big" dinner plates are 11 inches in diameter.

My smaller breakfast and lunch plates are 9 and a half inches.

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snazzybabe
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Post by snazzybabe » Thu Oct 06, 2005 6:52 am

Galemarie,
I was wondering what your doctor recommends you eat as a diabetic. A few on the site might be cross with me for saying but I think diabetics respond better, i.e get healthier and lose weight better on a lowish carb diet. You might be interested to read this intro from Schwarzbein who is a doctor whose patients were all diabetics. http://www.schwarzbeinprinciple.com/pgs ... intro.html

Galemarie
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Post by Galemarie » Thu Oct 06, 2005 1:44 pm

Dear Snazzybabe,

I have read Swartzbein. I found her first book excellent-the second a little hard to follow. Yes, I am careful about carbohydrates and try not to eat any more than 15 grams of starchy carbs (bread, corn, potatoes, etc.) at any one meal. I don't worry about non-starchy vegetables and am a little careful about fruit. This stands me in good stead.
'
Thanks for replying. Actually, being diabetic makes me very much aware of what I'm putting in my mouth. It also makes me want to say "to hell with it" often!!

Best,
Galemarie

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