The Adventure Begins

Copyright © 2013 Adventures in Lettuce

In April, as the days grew longer in my hometown of Chicago and my yard filled with tulips, daffodils and baby bunnies, I realized the inevitable was coming. I was merely weeks away from trading in my trusted collection of figure-friendly sweaters for a much less forgiving wardrobe comprised primarily of body-skimming t-shirt dresses, tank tops and above-knee skirts.

GASP.

It was at that moment that I concocted an experiment: What would happen if I eliminated sandwiches, burgers, pasta and Chinese food from my lunch routine and just ate salads? Would I lose weight? Would I spend more money? Would I have more energy? Would I get bored and give up?

Well, after keeping it up for more than a month, I'm happy to report that the answers are yes, no, yes and no. 

Well, mostly no on that last one. Let's be honest, sometimes a juicy medium-rare burger topped with melted sharp cheddar cheese sounds tempting. But I am determined to persevere. Which brings me to...

Why this blog?

I decided to chronicle my salad experiment in a blog for several reasons.

First of all, I want to publicly record what I'm eating to force myself to stay on track. If I'm being watched by my readers, there will be a level of accountability that wouldn't exist if I was doing this on my own, privately. I'll be much more likely to stick to this if I have an audience.

Image courtesy of Apolonia/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Secondly, I couldn't find anyone doing what I'm doing: writing about places where one can find a healthy, delicious lunchtime salad in Chicago at a reasonable (<$10) price. I can't be the only one looking for salad inspiration, can I? If I'm right, this is my opportunity to address an as-yet-unmet need.

Thirdly, I'm hoping to make contact with other like-minded individuals who are in search of great salads. I'd love to discover new salads from readers. Here, we can join together in a display of...wait for it...saladarity. 

My rules

I've established a few ground rules for my experiment.

1. I must eat salad four out of five business days every week unless I'm on vacation. What's a vacation for if not breaking diet rules, right? If I chose to deviate from salad on day five and I'm not on vacation, I need to make a healthy choice and stay under 500 calories. And I still need to blog about it.
2. I can't eat the same salad twice in one week.
3. I can eat soup-and-salad combos if I choose healthy soups and keep the meal's calorie count under 500.
4. At least once each week—either at dinner on a weeknight or at some point over the weekend—I have to make an interesting salad at home, from scratch, and write about it. No pre-assembled bag salads allowed.
5. I have to keep this up until at least Labor Day. That's 65 salads and 65 blog posts in 13 weeks.

Can I do it? Will anyone watch? There's one easy way to find out. 

Chop chop, let's go.