The recipe for this salad came from my sister's Mother-in-law who is an amazing cook. We had this salad at her house over Memorial day and I haven't gotten it out of my head.
I put myself on a rather strict diet. Not entirely sure how long I'll make myself be this strict but I'm hoping to break some bad eating habits and create some new good ones. The diet I am putting myself on is basically just meat (fish and eggs and cheese included), veggies and perhaps 1 half cup of no-sugar-added apple sauce or a glass of skim milk every day. I hope to keep it up for the whole week and perhaps start adding in It's boring. I hate it. I miss junk food. But I'm going to do it anyway and I made this salad today to have something yummy to bring to work with me. I think there are more than 7 layers in this salad. I practically have a whole produce section in here.
So this diet has been a little rough these past couple of days. For starters I wasn't feeling well anyway...being a girl can be kinda tough sometimes..like once a month. So as I said last week I was really emotional and I'll be honest, I'm an emotional eater. I think I get an endorphin release from sugar. So since I've still been feeling kind of emotional not allowing myself to have comfort foods has been tough. But it's good too. I really need to break those kinds of habits now. That's one of the reasons I want to study nutrition in the first place. I want to learn strategies on how to eat healthily while leading a busy life. Cause I don't think my life is about to get any less hectic in the coming months and I'm certain it's going to be very stressful.
I don't really believe in dieting. I believe in finding a lifestyle that is healthy and doable. The only reason I'm doing this is because I do want to lose weight and I want to try and regulate my hormones a little bit before I leave for school. I'm ready to get off my emotional roller coaster. I think the ultimate goal though is to create a healthy, manageable way of eating and living. I am a firm believer that exercise is a huge part of being healthy.
When I was younger (and much thinner) I did ballet for 3 years. They were probably 3 of my favorite years. I was crazy about dancing. I can't really describe how it made me feel except to say that it was like my drug. I think I must have been creating beta endorphins like nuts because dancing made me so happy. There is just something about moving to gorgeous music that makes you feel absolutely wonderful. And it was so fun dancing with other girls who loved dancing too because it made me feel a camaraderie with them. It was like I got to be a part of it all. And being part of something beautiful made me feel beautiful. I needed to go to dance class once a week. If I didn't I would get really sad and depressed and bored. It sounds dramatic, it sounds silly, but dance was my first true love. An obsession actually. And when I started college I couldn't keep both up. I knew I had to let go of dancing. I had started my first job (which I loved) and was busy taking 5 classes at college and had made new friends and was enjoying myself. I missed it though.
I still miss it. I want it back. I don't know if I ever can get it back. But I know that I need to find other things to keep me busy and entertained besides food. I'd love to find some sort of a dance class to be involved in. Who knows? 20 isn't that old. Maybe I could find some sort of class for adults. WVU does offer ballroom dancing and swing dancing classes...maybe next semester I'll sign up for one or the other. That would be so fun.
Anyway. The whole point of this post was to say that I made a gorgeous salad and I'm going to try hard to be healthy and to use the next couple of years at college to cultivate good habits and get out of my comfort zone. And I'm going to try hard to be excited about it!
PS: I DID tell Dr. H that Monday that I came in the I had started a diet and that I wasn't feeling well so I needed her support and she groaned and said, "here, take this Advil...premedicate." I had to laugh. I didn't take it because I ended up feeling pretty good the whole day. Sweet!
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