Superior Salads

So, I mentioned a little while ago that I’m back at Weight Watchers. Yeah. That’s been a long time coming. You know, I’ve been through a year and a half of rough times, and every time I would soothe myself with food I’d know it wasn’t the best thing to do, and yet I’d keep right on doing it … “forgive yourself”, my friends advised, understandingly. And it wasn’t just comfort eating that was the problem, a liberal consumption of wine was a definite contributing factor.

So. Here we are, just about four years later, and I’ve gained back nearly all of the 50 pounds I worked so, so hard to lose in the first place. But, whatever. I can’t change the past. It was 18 months from hell in just about every area of my personal life, and I made some bad choices. But at least I can look back on those hard times and say the only choices that I regret are related to the things I put in my mouth to comfort myself, and not to how I dealt with the tough personal challenges I’ve faced.

So…fat Kath, checking back in. So far I’m on week 3, and I’m down 4.6 pounds overall. I am now back in Toronto visiting my sister and her family, so it’s been a bit tougher to stay with the program (how many points are in half a bottle of wine again?) but so far, although I can say I’ve definitely enjoyed some good food (and wine) I haven’t over-indulged, per my usual fashion. Well, except maybe for the FANTASTIC lemon cheesecake last night (thanks Aunt Kathy!).

But other than being a guilty self-confessionary, let me tell you why I’m really writing this post. On Wednesday I was hanging out with my sister, Jen, and one of the other fab urbanmoms staffers, Carol, when some folks from Wendy’s dropped by with a sampling of all their new Garden Sensations Salads. We were treated to one each of the Apple Pecan Chicken Salad, Baja Salad, Spicy Chicken Caesar Salad and BLT Cobb Salad. I have one word: YUM.

Now those of you who are hip to the jive in weight loss will know that not all salads are created alike. And especially at fast-food joints, you may find that the fully-loaded salads have just as much fat and calories as a small burger and fries. (However, I always say that even if I am getting the same fat and calories, at least by eating a salad I’m getting several cups of fresh vegetables, too). But Wendy’s has kinda licked that problem. See, when you order a salad, you basically get your bowl of veggies, and all the “problem” extras come on the side: chili for the Baja salad, candied nuts for the Apple Pecan salad. You can get grilled or fried chicken on your salad (grilled is better, btw) and you can choose from several reasonable dressings, with the pomegranate vinaigrette being the lowest in fat and calories (as well as our favourite). A few things to watch for: cheese comes on all four salads (unless you ask for it without cheese) and the Cobb salad has bacon and boiled egg.

So I forsook the bacon and chili (and the croutons and tortilla strips and candied pecans) and only had grilled chicken on my salad, although I must admit I tried all four dressings (for the record, my favourites were the pomegranate and avocado ranch) and I did eat a little bit of cheese (I can’t resist blue cheese or parmesan shavings). All the fresh ingredients were fantastic: crisp greens, juicy tomatoes, sweet apples and even green avocado. Everything tasted great and I was very pleased with the way the points factored out in the end.

In fact, we all loved them!