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Your Guide to Building a Healthy Salad From an Orange County Personal Trainer
As an Orange County Personal Trainer, I know that most people who are trying to lose weight are eating salads on a regular basis. However, what many people don't know is that a salad can be horribly fattening and bad for you if you are not carefully. Of course making the salad the right way can really help you to cut calories and maximize your weight loss. So, here is a simple guide that is going to help you make sure that you make a healthy salad to aid with your weight loss.
Use Some Raw Spinach
The first thing that you'll want to do when trying to build a healthy salad is to use some raw spinach. Instead of going with iceberg, decide to eat a spinach salad. You'll find that it has far more vitamin K in it, which is important for building up your bones and it also includes quite a bit of lutein and zeaxanthin, which aids with eye health too.
Use Bright Veggies
You'll also want to use bright veggies in the salad, since it is the bright veggies that have the most nutrients in them. Some of the best ones to add include carrots, tomatoes, broccoli, peas, peas, red peppers, and even artichoke hearts. Broccoli and carrots help to provide plenty of important beta carotene for you, and tomatoes are a great way to get plenty of Vitamin C.
Go with Some Freebies
If you are trying to lose weight, you'll want your salad to make you feel full without having a lot of calories. So, add some great freebies to the salad. Go with low calorie choices that will fill you up, even if they don't have a huge amount of nutrition in them. Some of the best ones to add include celery, cucumbers, zucchini, and even mushrooms. They have quite a bit of water content in them, which helps you to feel full faster.
Forget Creamy Dressings
While you may love the taste of creamy dressings, this will ruin the entire salad for you. In fact, most of these creamy dressings are full of fat and really add on the calories. So, if you don't want to ruin the salad, make sure that you avoid adding these dressings to your salad and avoid other foods that have them, such as potato salad or potato salad.
Avoid Sprouts
Although sprouts may be great for you and they look great, you'll find that many illnesses that are related to food have been linked to eating alfalfa sprouts as well as mung sprouts. So, you should probably just avoid the sprouts altogether.
Include Fiber
You'll want to make sure that your salad includes plenty of fiber in it as well. Adding some chickpeas to the mix is a great idea and they provide you with 5 grams of fiber. Also, you can add some black beans to the mix, which will provide you with 8 grams of fiber.
Add Plenty of Protein
While all the greens are great, you'll want to have some protein in your salad too. The protein in the salad will help you make sure that you stay full so you won't have cravings later one. If you want to get plenty of protein, some of the best things to add include tuna, chicken, egg, tofu, or cottage cheese.
Forget the Calorie Packed Add-ons
There are usually many add-ons to be found at a salad bar. Although they may not look like much, you'll find that these toppings are usually full of calories. Croutons, bacon bits, and chow mein noodles all have a lot of calories in them. However, if you want to add a topping to your salad, add some sunflower seeds. They provide you with a lot of important vitamin E. Raisins are an acceptable choice as well as long as you don't go overboard with them.
About the Author
Steve Hochman is an Orange County Personal Trainer, and founder of Next Level Fitness and Fit Body Boot Camp.
Personal Trainer Orange County Ca, Personal Training