[NSV] The other night, I actually WANTED a salad for dinner

I like to feel full even while I'm dieting, so I tend to follow /r/volumeeating and center my meals around 8-12 ounce portions of lean meats (boneless/skinless chicken breast, pork tenderloin, etc). I try and balance this, but some meals do end up a bit protein-heavy, so I get cravings for veggies and carbs. The other night, I was shocked to find this leading me to the grocery store to buy kale.

When I used to commute into the city for work I would buy a Chopt salad just about every day for lunch - Kale Caesar with Chicken. But I was firm in my belief that I could never be satisfied by salad for dinner. Then all of a sudden I was struck with this craving, and nothing else would do.

So I "taught myself" to make a salad. I know that sounds incredibly basic to most of you, but it was a major achievement for me - I'm in my mid-30s but I don't think I had ever made a salad before. I had ordered them, or gotten them on the side with meals I ordered out, maybe even helped my wife prep one of hers by chopping veggies, but had never really engaged in the whole process for myself. A massive part of my weight loss this year has been that I have taken a lot of responsibility for my own meal planning and cooking for myself. Again, I know that sounds simple, but it was a major shift to the way I think about food and approach meals that has made a lot of difference.

One of the biggest benefits of my last few months spent logging everything I eat was that I gained a much better understanding of calories - I used to just blindly order a salad and assume that was close enough to being healthy, that my good intentions mattered regardless of what the actual numbers may be. So when I found myself thinking about it I knew everything that should theoretically go into the bowl, but no idea of proportions or how to actually make it healthy. I spent probably a full ten minutes in the salad dressing aisle comparing nutritional info. But in the end I was able to reverse engineer a salad I used to love to order, and now I can make it at home for a fraction of the cost and the calories.

I know I am disproportionately proud of this, but it was a real milestone in my progress both in learning to cook and in learning to eat healthy. The initial craving was a bit of a revelation in itself, but I mostly found it reassuring to see that I had become proficient and flexible enough to meet this new challenge.

submitted by /u/mx-chronos
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