When you cut back on calories and cut out junk food, it changes how you see and taste all food. Its like cleaning a glass. Everything becomes clear and bright and focused. Take a salad for instance. Before Jenny, I only ate salads when I went out to dinner. I was just too lazy to make a really good salad at home. It takes time and planning to make a really good salad, starting at the grocery store. It seemed so much easier to just eat quick, calorie dense food, like granola bars.
On my new eating plan, there is a salad every day at lunch time. When I started Jenny, I would just grab some packaged lettuce, maybe some jicama, red pepper and baby carrots and use the Jenny Craig dressing, (lite ranch or vinegarette). But my salads have evolved. One day I bought a big basil plant from Trader Joes. That made me think about other fresh herbs that might enhance my salads. I started a herb garden with basil, mint, cilantro and a few other things.
Here is todays salad: Fresh lettuce,( red leaf or that live lettuce that come in a plastic carton with the roots still on it). Cherry tomatoes, red pepper, mushrooms. baby carrots, jicama, cucumbers fresh mint, fresh basil, Nonfat dressing; Asian Seseme seed, caesar,
Every bite is a burst of flavor. Because Im not filling up on junk food, I can taste the subtle flavors of the salad.

I love your post. I am a huge salad fan. I eat two big salads a day, at lunch and dinner. It's usually a darker green leaf lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, red peppers, red onions, raw broccoli. I add my JC meal on top of the salad if it
s meat (like chicken or the meatloaf) and top it all off with Walden Farms fat-free calorie-free dressing. Very filing. I go through 2-3 heads of lettuce a week and I buy the bagged lettuce and have a whole one for lunch each day. I know it's a 'free' food, but I really don't think the experts at JC thought someone like me would literally eat 350 calories worth of salad a day. Still, it is the only thing that really fills me up. I never get sick of it!

Sometimes I look at my salad and think, can all of this be free food? There is just so much of it.
But when I get on the scale, I know Im doing it right!

Sallee I also loved your post! I am also a salad lover and when I read your post it sure it home. I did the same thing, rarely made a salad at home before joining JC. Now I find myself spending most of my time in the grocery store in the produce isle. I like trying different kinds so I won’t get bored. I also have different kinds of lettuce planted in my garden and several herbs in a planter on my patio! My favorite salad right now is:
Baby spring mix, ¼ apple cut in small chunks, 1 Tbsp. craisins, and 6 fresh mushrooms sliced. I use the Lite- Kens Ranch House, Asian Sesame with ginger & soy dressing. It does have 35 calories per Tbsp. so I mix a Tbsp of the dressing and a little water to streeeeech it. I also add a pack of splenda because I like it sweeter.

I do have a question for you. Do you always use the fat free dressings? I have tried them in the past but never cared for them. Are there some you like better that others or any you would recommend?

MommyinPgh where do you get the Walden Farms dressing?

Thanks, Joanne