- I tried to eat salad for every single meal for a month and almost made it.
- I survived the whole month, but did swap a few salads here and there for other things.
- I learned that salads aren't always quick to make, but you eat so many more vegetables.
- I was way less hungry than I thought I'd be.
When I received this assignment — to eat a salad for all of my meals for a month — I was equal parts excited and nervous.
After a couple of months of way more sugar and carbohydrates than I normally eat, the prospect of eating more vegetable-centric meals and far fewer grains was really appealing.
Yet, I also had this feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach because I was worried that I'd be hungry all month long, miserable and crabby, or snacking constantly, negating any benefits I'd gotten from eating so many salads.
Surprisingly, my all salad all the time diet didn't leave me feeling famished, though I did snack a bit over the course of the month (and indulged in a dessert or two). I tried to balance my salads as best I could, eating very few bowls of just leafy greens, but I also wasn't overly concerned about calories. Bacon on my salad? Sure. Hand-torn croutons? Why not?
While I didn't want to let my salads get too out of control, as it's so easy for salads to do, I also recognized that it'd all balance out, so long as I tried my best.
I made sure my salads had plenty of protein and healthy fats.
The focus was on protein and healthy fats, which definitely made it easier to eat only salads. Nuts, seeds, avocado, vinaigrettes, fish, chicken, beans, and quinoa all gave my salads a little oomph and helped keep me feeling full. Some days I wasn't even eating all three salads because I just wasn't hungry.
Immediately, I noticed that I generally felt "better." I had more energy and made healthier snack choices (at least, most of the time). I felt a bit bloated early on, but as the month went on, I noticed that my clothes were fitting slightly differently.
This was not a crash diet that led to extreme weight loss, and because I personally choose not to weigh myself I don't know if I weigh any less now than I did when I began, but I felt leaner, which was a nice bonus.
I discovered that a diet high in leafy greens has benefits for both your body and mind.
The short-term effects of eating a lot of salad were, honestly, relatively minor. Other than feeling leaner, choosing healthier snacks, and generally having a bit more energy, nothing transformative happened.
Eating more salads though, as a general guideline, might potentially have some important implications as you age. A recent study from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago found that eating about one serving of leafy green vegetables each day, as well as foods high in certain vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other nutrients, can help slow down cognitive decline. In other words, eating more salads full of green vegetables might be just as good for your mind as it is for your body.
Not only that, but WebMD reported that a National Cancer Institute study found that eating lots of fruits and vegetables can lower your risk for developing some cancers of the head and neck. There are lots of benefits to a more veggie-centric way of eating and you don't have to be strictly vegetarian or vegan in order to do so ( I'm not).
I realized that salads take some serious time and preparation to make.
The main struggle with eating salads for all of your meals is that salads don't just come together in a second or two — unless you've done some serious prep work. Washing greens, chopping veggies, roasting or cooking vegetables or grains, making dressings (if you're going to go that route), and more, all take some time.
I made bigger batches of dressings whenever I could, or I simply sloshed some vinegar and olive oil over my salad, added salt and pepper, and called it a day. Grains and roasted veggies were made in bigger batches as well or saved for dinner salads because there just isn't the time to make it all happen earlier in the day — at least, on most days.
Planning ahead or following recipes was the easiest way to ensure that I wouldn't spend an hour staring into the fridge, exasperated and hoping that something would just appear because I had to eat a salad.
The biggest challenge came when I got sick, and the last thing I wanted to eat was a salad.
When I got sick, about a week and a half or so into this experiment, I gave in and ate whatever sounded appetizing that wasn't salad. Salad isn't comforting and, frankly, even though it can be one of the healthiest things to eat, when you're under the weather, it didn't make me feel better so I figured it just wasn't worth it.
Though chicken noodle soup might actually help you get better quicker, I'd argue that one of the reasons it can make you feel better, even temporarily, is because it's warm and comforting, two things salad definitely is not.
Because it was January during a nasty flu season, I unfortunately got sick again during this experiment a week or two later. This time, however, I mostly stuck to salad, wavering only once when I worked late and found some leftover pizza in the fridge.
I learned that warm salads with grains and roasted veggies — especially after you've spent the last several weeks adjusting to eating so many salads — can, in fact, be a bit more comforting. And since my second bout lasted so long, I felt obligated to make more of an effort to keep the salad experiment going.
I'll definitely be incorporating more salads into my everyday diet after this experiment.
Although there is some debate over how long it takes to form a habit, by the very end, it was no longer difficult for me to remember to reach for a salad. Sure, there were days when I wanted something else for dinner (and one or two that I made pasta salad and counted it since salad is right there in the name) and I missed my morning smoothies, but the first day without salad found me unsure as to what I should eat for breakfast because I was so used to it.
While I wouldn't necessarily recommend switching to a super-strict all-salad diet just because, I can say that, for me at least, eating more salads will definitely change things for the better.
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