It’s no secret that eating healthy is a major part of losing weight. The problem is that many people think that healthy food is boring and uninteresting to eat. For this reason it’s difficult to imagine having salads for multiple meals throughout the day. There are ways you can liven up a salad to make it more interesting though. This article will give you a few different ideas for tasty salads that can be used to lose weight.
Firstly, you need to understand what constitutes a salad. Usually when making a salad for a meal you should start with some greens. Generally green vegetables aren’t high in calories and hence you can eat as much as you want of them without worrying about putting on weight. Greens include lettuce or spinach. Without a large amount of greens a salad can be unsatisfying when it comes to portion sizes.
Other vegetables should be included in the salad although more sparingly than greens. You could also include fruit and a small amount of meat – be careful to avoid fried meats though as these are high in calories. Nuts are also commonly used in a salad.
Chicken Caesar Salad
This is one of the most popular salads available and is great if you want to lose weight whilst eating tasty food. To cook the chicken Caesar salad you need a small amount of ciabatta bread, some chicken, garlic, parmesan cheese and lettuce. The amount of each ingredient is up to you although you shouldn’t put in too much chicken whilst trying to lose weight.
Salad Nicoise
The salad Nicoise is made using tuna rather than chicken and hence has a different flavour. As with any sort of salad you need to ensure that you keep the high calorie content to a minimum. There are only a few different ingredients included within a salad Nicoise – mainly tuna, greens and olives.
Chicken and Grape Salad
Using chicken and grapes together might seem like a strange idea but can create a tasty and different dish. The amount of chicken you use will affect how healthy it is so make sure you keep it to a minimum. You shouldn’t try to cut all meat out of your diet though – a balanced diet is key.
Creating Your Own
Now that you’ve seen a few examples of how to make a salad interesting you should start trying to make your own. The more variation you can add to your diet the easier you’ll find it to keep your diet going for a long period of time. Just be careful not to add huge amounts of unhealthy sauces to a salad as this can ruin the meal from a health point of view.
For example, you could make a salad using a variety of different nuts in order to give the meal a greater taste without increasing the number of calories dramatically. You should try to include foods that have a range of different properties such as antioxidants, fibre and other beneficial substances. This will help you to have a balanced diet which is important for health whilst at the same time reducing the number of calories you take on board.
The great thing about salads is that they can be changed to suit any kind of diet and situation. The fact that the majority of a salad is made from greens means that unless you put too much sauce or meat into the mix it’ll nearly always be a healthier option than some of the alternatives. You still need to be careful to choose low calorie ingredients though.
I love this! Salads can be some of your more creative meals of the day. I especially love using nuts and berries to give my salads a crunch and flavor zip that could be missing from solid greens. Also helps to keep you from piling on the salad dressing!
Salads can be really tasty but often need a dressing to make them more interesting. Try squeezing some fresh lemon juice over it, you could add a very small drizzle of extra virgin olive oil if you want to which is high in calories but a “healthy fat”.