There have been many challenges put out by bloggers and social media platforms such as the running man challenge and the ice bucket challenge. Well, I decided to make up my own challenge: The Salad Challenge. A challenge to eat at least one salad a day. This challenge is to help myself be more conscious of what I am eating. It is my goal to help implement more fruit and vegetables to my diet and help slim down for the summer time. If you are interested, I pass this challenge to you.

So why have a salad challenge? I have come to the realization that I am no longer a Division I student athlete. Therefore, I am no longer required to pick up another weight, run another sprint or even touch another volleyball, if I do not want to. Well, after some months out of practice and many long nights and countless food runs, I have learned that it is a must that I become more cautious of what I choose to put into my body. It was so easy before because I could eat almost anything I wanted while maintaining my fitness levels and my physique. However, now it seems very tedious to maintain my old lifestyle. Although the good old “no excuses” motto that I had as an athlete is instilled in the back of my head, lately I have had an internal conflict with balancing school and going to the gym.

So, I sat down one day and made the decision that if I cannot make it to workouts, the very least I can do is be a little more conscious of what I eat. So, for the past week, I implemented at least one salad into my daily diet. I have to admit, it was a very rash decision. After thinking about it, I wanted to do some research.

I went online and learned about the benefits of eating salads. Incorporating salads into one’s meals allows the body to get its serving of fruit or vegetables for the day. Everyone knows that there are many benefits of consuming fruits and vegetables: It strengthens the immune system, increases antioxidants in the body, helps the skin and hair look flawless, and helps decrease the risk of contracting diseases. In addition, salads have the ability to satisfy one’s satiety levels for the meal. By doing this, I can get full a lot faster and possibly help cut calories.

So far, I have found the salads that I have had to be very satisfying and very fulfilling. In addition, I feel good about myself when someone comes by and mentions that I am awesome for choosing a salad to eat and it makes me want to eat salads.

I would like to hereby test the theory that if I continue to eat a salad every day, and hopefully increase the amount of physical activity that I partake in, I will be able to lose a couple of pounds. As graduation and summer time approach, I hope The Salad Challenge theory holds true.