Salad-a-day Challenge

Like I have shared, I had an eating disorder for 15 years of my life...a disorder that started when I was very young. One of my first memories of this was at age 11, after my mom left my father (and us, in our child minds), when I remember trying to wear my 6-year old sister's jeans. I fit in them and I LOVED that. They fit like capris and I didn't care. I got to wear her pants and she was 5. That made me happy. 

The reasons behind an eating disorder are as varied as are the people who suffer from them. I'll not delve into my WHY for having developed an eating disorder. I've already discussed that in this blog and I'm not revisiting it. If you're curious, feel free to go through the archives. It's there, somewhere. 

Anyway, while the idea of wanting to change my body started at age 11, the actual food stuff started when I was 15. I remember my brother saying, "Get your fat ass off the couch so I can...." whatever. I didn't hear the rest. I only heard that. He didn't even mean it. When I look back, I wasn't even FAT! haha! I was 5'8" and weighed about 130lbs at the time. That's not fat. that's a normal weight. 

To me though, it was a direct insult. I was insecure. 

It hurt like a dagger and was the catalyst that fueled my ED. (no offense to my brother AT ALL) Really, it wasn't what he said. Like I said, he didn't mean it. It was all about ME. My mental state. My experiences. My insecurities. It was ME. 

So anyway....I don't want to be hung up on that. That's my past. It continued on off and on, mostly on with some lulls until 2009. So, most of my life. I say 15 years, but really it was longer....15 years is the time I give because that's the number of years that I was truly screwed up. 

I used to have a "signature salad" that consisted of iceberg lettuce and cucumbers. Basically water on a plate. It had no nutritional value. It was crunchy. That's it. I ate that because I was "allowed" to eat that. 

It made me hate salads. I stopped eating salads for a long time after I recovered, because of THAT salad. I thought a salad HAD to consist of iceberg lettuce...which I don't like. 

Since then, I've learned a lot about food. I know the best salads I've ever had contained NO ICEBERG LETTUCE! 

Last week I ran a free 7-day fitness challenge and for one of my personal goals, I decided to have a salad a day and when I extended that free challenge another 10 days, I continued the salad-a-day thing and I am amazed with the changes I've experienced! 

You'd think someone who was a daily juicer and then continued juicing weekly (until the juicer died) would know that adding lots of veggies to your diet would reap lots of benefits, but.....I'm not always the fastest learner. haha! Anyway, my skin has changed. Just last week my hands were so damned dry they were cracked and bleeding and let me tell you, I was drinking water and herbal tea like a madwoman, trying to hydrate. I was using lotion. It just wasn't working! 

The game changer was the added nutrients! 

So, I want to share this link with you to help you build a GREAT salad, should you want to give this a shot as well. 

SALAD-A-DAY