For those who know me, this has been the extent of my leaf consumption for the past 5 years.  Before that, I didn’t even eat salad.

Yes, it looks bomb, with the homemade Caesar dressing and avocado, but nutritionally, it’s really a poor excuse for a salad.  Cutting out all the rice and pasta, beans and bread from my diet really left me just eating meat.  I wasn’t eating any less veggies than before, I had just previously filled my plate with carbs and didn’t save room for them!  Now that Paleo made room on that plate, I realized how truly empty it was. Sure I ate avocados by the pound, broccoli and bell peppers in stir-fries, and onion in almost everything, but I was seriously lacking in the veggie department. 

Here’s an example of my new salads:

I took this picture at Jimbo’s on my lunch break from work.  While the chicken and avo are still there (and I was being serious about the onion), the darker color of the salad beneath them is not due to a different instagram filter.  I am proud to report that the leaves in my current diet include spinach, kale, rainbow chard, romaine, red leaf, arugula, and whatever else jimbo sneaks into the “baby spring mix.”  I know I wouldn’t have been able to recognize half of those a month ago! I have met my goal of eating at least a salad a day for a week: it can be topped with a burger patty, ground lamb, grilled chicken or whatever else, but it must have a variety of leaves.

Now for the next challenge: adding veggies to breakfast.

Of course all my breakfasts come served with a healthy portion of bacon, but I actually put spinach and mushrooms in my eggs every morning this week!  I am so thrilled with all that I have learned from eating Paleo.  I know that after this challenge I will re-introduce raw dairy, some properly soaked and sprouted grains and legumes, and will cheat on some sugar here and there, but I know that my Paleo plate will remain so full of veggies, that it’ll be the carbs that get left out!