Salad week

Dear forgotten blog and its non-existent readers,

In looking at my last post, I realized that I effectively maintained my weight loss as long as I maintained this blog. In the past year and a half, I have gained about 15 lbs from my diet low of around 145 lbs. The first ten lbs I'll attribute to graduate school and various life challenges; the last five has come since getting my thyroid removed a month ago. My thyroid hormone levels now readjusted, hopefully the five pounds will disappear as quickly as it came. I can't say that blogging kept my weight down-- after all, the busy-ness that kept me away from blogging also kept me out of the kitchen, eating more pad kee mao and burritos than advisable. Still, something must be done in regards to my waistline; I may as well bring the blog back, too. Plus, I'm getting married next year, and I may as well join the masses of dieting brides.

But, I can't bear the thought of going on a diet again. The recipes in the Sonoma Diet book are my most beloved, and I eat them all the time. A return to Wave One, however, just seems overwhelming, especially since it's officially summer now in Los Angeles, and I want to minimize my time spent heating things in my kitchen.

Thus, I declare next week, Wednesday the 6th through Tuesday the 12th, to be salad week. Breakfast I'll stick my regular Sonoma Diet choices-- a bowl of Kashi GoLean Honey Almod Crunch, or two eggs and a piece of toast, but for lunch and dinner, salad. I think I'll allow my regular snacking (typically, a gigantic bowl of stove-popped popcorn topped only with a little salt).

Now, I'm not going raw. I'll be eating plenty of beans and some meat, and I'll definitely be eating a lot of quinoa, bulgur, and other salad-friendly grainy components.  No pasta, though-- not even whole wheat. I'll post every salad I eat here.

These next three days I will use to gather salad recipes, so please pass on your favorites. Oh, and I'll be doing the bulk of my salad week shopping at my local farmers market on Tuesday, so I'll be keeping it local, too.