more salad questions

Do you consider salad a slider food?  I'm thinking it might be for me.  I seem to be able to eat more salad at a sitting than anything else.  I worry about mixing my meat with the lettuce because the juiciness seems to make the meat slide through faster.  Every other meal I eat my meat first and then veggies.  Then I feel full for hours and can only eat maybe a 1/4 cup of veggies.  I think the salad thing might be triggering some overeating behavior.  Anybody else feel like this?  Thanks!

I just find that lettuce chews down to almost nothing, and yes I have been surprised just lately at how much I can eat. Also, it is almost impossible to really measure salad greens or get an accurate picture of what we are actually consuming.

Stick with protein first and if other veggies seem like a better option for you, just go with that. Use your best judgement if any food seems like a trigger - maybe salad is a food you can just have every once in a while.

Lettuce is mostly water so yes you'll be able to eat more.  Load it with protein ~ cheese, ham, chicken, turkey.

I can also eat more salad than anything else. I just make sure it has quite a bit of protein (I make salads with black beans and tuna, or chickpeas and chicken) and eat most of the protein first.

I wandered about this myself.  I had a salad at a pizza place Friday night and actually felt hungry later than night.  It just seemed to go right thru my pouch and it sure didn't hold me for very long.

I can eat a lot of salad too.  I rememer reading where Nik said the same thing, so it made me feel a litle better.  I don't consider it slider food, but it does chew to next to nothing.  I make my salads with a lot of stuff to help fill me up.

Thanks everybody!!!

I don't know.  I think this may be something I'm going to have to be careful with.  I feel excited to eat a salad then feel guilty afterwards because it seems like I've eaten too much.  May just be something to talk to my therapist about.  Seems like a more head than pouch issue.  I think I'm more hung up over this than the fruit! 

Thanks again for the support and advice!!

Unless you're putting a lot of dressing on it I wouldn't worry about it.  I can eat a HUGE bowl of salad greens with cucumbers and tomato's.  I'm anal and weigh everything and the calories for the portion I eat are minimal.

If you like Raspberry Vinaigrette, Maple Grove Farms makes a fantastic fat free one that has 5 calories for 2 tablespoons!

I'm with GD...nobody ever got fat from eating too much lettuce. I do usually put a LOT of protein on my salad, but I still find I can eat upwards of 2 cups of salad even with a good deal of protein on it. I am ANAL about salad dressing portions. I actually toss exactly 2 tbsp of dressing into my salad to make sure I don't overdo it. It seems to work well for me.

I also (personal preference) mince some garlic and put a sprinkle of sea salt and fresh ground pepper in there. But I love lots of water filled veggies in my salad!

I think my approach is a bit different. Sometimes I take the defensive against my addiction. There are some days  when I'm going to want to overeat and I have a HARD time talking myself out of it. And yes I know we are SUPPOSED to question ourselves and why we want to do that but lookit: sometimes it just happens. So now I go to salad on those days. Because I know I can only rack up so many calories and in the end it's the chewing I am craving anyway. So much better to do it on some lettuce than on some cake.

But that's just my approach.

I always eat protein with my salad as well, I like to chop up eggs or add chicken or sliced steak to it. Like you on big pouch days I'll have a HUGE salad to satisfy the craving to chew.  I also add a lot of fresh herbs (thai basil, tarragon etc...) to add a flavour punch.