Eat a bigger salad

As we roll into 2014, I'm working on making a list of goals, instead of resolutions (as advocated by Brian Brushwood here).  One of them is to get back to writing something at least weekly.

I am always looking for the best deal.  I used to walk around Best Buy and divide hard drive sizes by costs.  That's what always used to get me in trouble at fast food restaurants.  Why get the regular size, when super-size is only 50 cents more?  If the foot-long sub is $6 and 6-inch is $4, why would you ever get the 6-inch?  I don't frequent those types of places much anymore, so I don't have those worries anymore, but I found a new calculation: calories to fullness.

Whenever I hear about losing weight or eating better, portion control usually comes up early and often in the conversation.  Generally, I buy in to that.  I tend to weigh my meat, measure my spoonfuls, and generally watch how much of everything I put on my plate.  I even log everything in an app to help me keep track.  However, I have one big exception to the smaller portion rule: Salad.  A few months ago, I would make myself a "small" salad with a meal.  The calorie counter would be almost full and I'd still be hungry soon after.  I took a closer look at my meal, and found that a full salad (minus the dressing) added up to about 40 calories.  So the next day, I pulled out the big bowl, and made a massive salad, and logged it as 80 calories.  In the grand scheme of a day, that's not a big calorie difference, but it a huge difference in how full I feel for the rest of the day.

I know it's not a shocking revelation, but it's one of many little lessons I've learned in making a shift.  All of them seem to fall under the heading "Add, Don't Subtract".  Much like Lent, every time I tried to diet before, I was "giving something up."  This time, I get to fill up my day with whatever I want, but when I cap out, that's it.  I like to say that nothing is off-limits, as long as I log it.  I know that's not strictly true (I'm looking at you, horribly sodium-filled casual dining restaurant menus), but when I'm cooking my own food, it pretty much is.

I'm not completely cured of my food-value searching though.  I can't ever see a time when I'll get the half-salad at Panera, but that's probably OK.