I’m so glad you’re here!
You made the decision to take control of your health during one of the busiest times of the year and I can’t wait to help you get started!
Now, before we get started I need to ask you a question…
Where are you on your health and fitness journey?
Where are you at RIGHT NOW??
If this is all new to you or you’re starting over again from scratch, changing everything all at once just isn’t going to work long-term. Trust me, I’ve tried!!
We all know how important nutrition is when it comes to our health, but we need to take BABY STEPS. If you start with improving just ONE or two meals each day you’re going to set yourself up for success. On the other hand, if you start by changing EVERYTHING all at once you’re setting yourself up for failure.
Changing everything all at once is only going to work for about 1% of the people who do it. This is all based on our individual personalities and our ability to accept change in our daily habits. For the other 99% we need take it one step at a time!
This is especially true with meal prepping. There are MANY different levels of meal prepping. A big mistake that a lot of people make is that they try to do this huge elaborate meal prep the first time they do it, and after the first week they become completely overwhelmed and give up.
I don’t want that to happen to you!
So right at this moment all I’m asking you to do is start with this ONE meal…a salad for lunch every day for 5 days. We are going to keep it SUPER simple. After a while if that goes well, you can take the next step!
Sound good so far??
OK, so why Super Salads?
When you eat a Super Salad for lunch it makes it pretty hard to screw up the rest of your day. It’s going to act as the anchor that keeps you from veering too far off course, to remind you just how great it feels to put real, fresh food in your body.
It’s going to set you up for success!
When you eat a big salad loaded with greens, other raw vegetables, lean protein and nuts, it fills you up like nothing else. It gives you more veggies than most people eat ALL WEEK. And as a bonus, it’ll give you the chance to get even more good stuff, when you dress it with a quality homemade dressing. Do this for at least 3 or 4 days, and you’ll be CRAVING greens and veggies every single day. You will slowly but surely stop craving unhealthy, processed food.
I know it sounds totally crazy…but it works!!
But Amanda, I’ve eaten salads before and they just don’t fill me up or satisfy my appetite…
I totally get it…I’ve been there before! And then I figured out what I was doing wrong.
Here’s the biggest mistake most people make with salads: they aren’t using the right ingredients! Iceberg lettuce just isn’t going to cut it! You need to use greens like spinach, arugula, radicchio, mixed baby greens and other dark greens. Iceburg lettuce is a decent choice if it’s the only thing available, but it’s lower in nutrients compared to other greens and isn’t going to give you much bang for your buck. You gotta kick it up a notch if you’re serious about improving your health and feeling better on a daily basis!
Also, in an effort to cut calories a lot of people use fat free dressing. That’s a BIG mistake! You NEED fat in order for your body to absorb all the nutrients from the salad! Using a fat-free dressing severely limits the health benefits you could obtain from your salads, but it has to be the RIGHT kind of fat in the right amounts.
Some kind of lean protein is also essential if your goal is to make the salad a main dish. This is another thing that people skimp on because they’re trying to skimp on calories.
Here’s a fun little picture that lists some of the most NUTRIENT DENSE foods. (It might be hard to read on your smart phone but if you save it to your camera roll you should be able to zoom in and examine it more closely.) What that basically means is that you want to focus on eating foods that deliver the most nutrients with the fewest amount of calories. If you do that, you will start to feel AMAZING in just a short amount of time. (It’s based on ANDI rankings which stands for Aggregate Nutrient Density Index.) If you’re curious to know more I recommend checking out this article: http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/andi-food-scores.aspx
This is the reason why I am so excited to teach you about Super Salads during the next few days…they literally have the power to CHANGE YOUR LIFE and they are SO stinking easy to make! And they taste good too!
That’s all for today’s lesson…tomorrow and Friday we are going to start getting into the nitty-gritty details of how to make your salads. You’ll go shopping during the weekend, and then starting on Monday we’re going to put your Super Salads to the test!!
YOUR HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
Who or what is your inspiration when it comes to being healthy and fit? Of course at the end of the day you should be doing this for YOU but who or what inspires you to be the BEST version of you that you can possibly be?
Find a picture of your inspiration and post it somewhere where you’ll see it every day! Maybe on the frig or as the wallpaper on your phone?
It can be your kids, your mom, your cat, Brad Pitt, a quote meme, or anything else…there is no right or wrong answer!! It’s good to have these reminders close by during those times when you feel like quitting or giving up on your goals.
And if you’re willing to share with the group we would LOVE to see your pic! Please post it in the comments section of today’s daily post.
Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/657486854452159/permalink/660901154110729/
Once that’s done you’re good to go!!
GREAT JOB on your first day and I look forward to seeing your pics in the group! 🙂
