SHIFT WEEKLY: IS YOUR SALAD MAKING YOU FAT?

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Are you ordering salads at restaurants and thinking you are making the “healthy and light” choice?  

Are you shocked when you look at the nutritional menu and see that salad you thought was a good choice is 1020 calories?

Buyer beware—sometimes restaurant salads can be one of the most caloric things on the menus.

We have a cultural unconscious belief that when we order a salad at the restaurant we are being “good” and nowadays that is just not true and so.  I often have clients report to me a weight plateau.  “I don’t understand it—I hardly am eating anything and I haven’t lost any more weight. I eat salad for lunch and even dinner sometimes and I am not losing weight!”

YIKES MY SALAD IS MAKING ME FAT!!!

I ask the client  to report back to me with the list of ingredients.  When we go over what they are consuming by the amount and calories of the ingredients their faces drop.  “Wow that is shocking—here I am eating salads and thinking I am being good when I might as well be eating a hamburger!”

Our unconscious mind associates salads with dieting or losing weight so you may have to retrain your thinking a bit.  The first step is just to get conscious about what is going in the salads from an energy or caloric perspective.  Once you mind sees the numbers you can start to take back your power.

So if you eat salads, especially restaurant salads often you might become more aware of just what you are eating.  I have given you some coaching below as to how to lighten up your restaurant salad order.

Some foods seem like healthy choices but are loaded with:

Bacon bits: 1 ounce = 150 calories

Croutons: 1 ounce = 130 calories

Raisins: 2 tablespoons = 90 calories

Shredded cheese: 1 ounce = 114 calories

Sunflower seeds or nuts: 2 tablespoons = 90 calories

Dressing Details: An average restaurant serving is probably at least 1/4 cup

(4 tablespoons), and the “light” version is not calorie free; it is generally

about half the calories of the regular version.

Balsamic vinaigrette: 1/4 cup = 180 calories

Blue Cheese: 1/4 cup = 300 calories

Caesar: 1/4 cup = 280 calories

Ranch: 1/4 cup = 360 calories

Thousand Island: 1/4 cup = 260 calories

Salad dressing is one of the leading sources of fat in the American diet and is a very

frequent source of hidden calories.

A Baja Fresh Tortilla salad has 1200 + calories.

A Cobb salad can run about 850 calories.

An average Caesar w/chicken salad has 800

Next time you see salads on a restaurant menu, ask yourself: If I took the lettuce away, what  would be left on the plate? The answer is usually a lot of saturated fat, sugar and refined food like candied nuts, huge amounts of cheese, slabs of meat, croutons, olives, and avocado.

Coaching for Salad Sanity:

Next time you order a salad at a restaurant look ask the waiter to put the densely caloric salad ingredients on the side—including the dressing—so that at least you have more control.

Here are 2 other methods I employ at restaurant—it does involve your asking the waiter to do something for you but that is what they are there for right?  To serve you.

Method One—HAND PICK YOUR SALAD

Look at the menu as an ingredient list rather than a bunch of dishes some restaurant owner put together for you.  Pick various greens and vegetables from the different salads on offer and create your own salad—sure you can add some densely caloric ingredients but ask for those on the side.  Sometimes it is easier for the waiter to write down what you want as a “special order” than to do some crazy substituting. I do this a lot and often get asked by people at other tables what I am having because they don’t see it on the menu and want to order it.

Method Two-THE UNDER 400 CALORIE RESTAURANT MEAL SALAD

This method might take some a little tricky footwork to work with the waiter but believe me it’s worth it because this makes for an awesome, healthy salad, that is under 400 calories because you are not using dressing or any heavy ingredients.  Again you will get asked by strangers what that item is because it will look so good. This could be done at home too—so good!)

Start with a base of fresh greens—could be kale or romaine or arugula or mesculin—whatever in on the menu—sometimes that might be only shredded lettuce that they put on hamburgers.

Next ask the server to have the chef throw some steamed or lightly sautéed vegetables on top of the lettuce—this is great by the way as the crispy cold and warm sweet of the veggies mix really well. 

Next ask for about 4 ounces of shrimp, fish, chicken or steak or egg, tofu or even beans on top. Be specific about how much protein—it will keep the calories down.

For the topping I will ask for salsa or marinara or even BBQ sauce—I will look on the menu to find a light sauce that will best complement what I am ordering and what the restaurant specialty is.

I will have a great healthy salad that fills me up with all of the calories of what the restaurant wants to serve me.

Okay—happy salad shifting—and enjoy the salad days ahead.

oxoxRita