Salad for Breakfast, Chocolate for Lunch

I came up the title of this post over 6 years ago when I was having a casual conversation with a friend, who happened to be an acupuncturist as well as an athlete and a top notch martial artist. Our conversation turned to nutrition, and I jokingly said, “How about having salad for breakfast and chocolate for lunch?”

Here it is, several years later, and I am now eating salad for breakfast almost every morning. And I’m loving it! After taking photos of my mega-nutritious, vitamin-packed breakfast salads and sending them to my sisters, one responded by asking me for the recipes. She said they looked delicious, and she had been struggling trying to find healthy options for breakfast.

Uh-oh. She wanted recipes. Recipes I didn’t have. I always start with a base of avocado kale salad and take it from there, throwing whatever I had in the fridge or pantry that I think might work. Spinach, romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, artichoke hearts, blueberries, mushrooms, shredded cabbage, watermelon, mango, berries, peppers, feta crumbles, olives, and pumpkin seeds are just a few examples. Of course, not all ingredients in one salad, but you get the idea.

I told my sister to use her imagination, and we’ve been having a great time sharing pictures and ingredients of our breakfast salads. It’s also a nice bonding moment for us, and we both love seeing what combinations we can come up with.

So, why did I decide to try eating salad for breakfast? It started after reading a remarkable book on nutrition titled “Eat to Live,” by Dr. John Fuhrman, who recommends that his patients eat 2 large salads a day. That’s when I remembered my conversation with my friend, and I thought to myself, “Why not?”

If you are trying to get more fresh fruit and vegetables in your diet, you might want to give it a whirl. If not, I totally understand. Nothing feels more intrusive and judgmental than someone giving you unsolicited advice on what you should and shouldn’t eat. It just feels so icky, and I do have a lot more to say about that, but I will save it for another day.

And remember, even if you don’t have salad for breakfast you can still have chocolate for lunch. Or dinner. As far as I’m concerned, chocolate is an important part of a healthy diet, especially if it’s dark. So, throw caution to the wind and eat your kale and chocolate, too. I just wouldn’t recommend that combination for a salad. On the other hand, it might be delicious. I’m just not quite that adventurous. At least not yet.