9:45am | I like to stop at Olives Gourmet Grocer after a workout on 2nd street for a nutrient packed green salad. It’s great people watching from their outdoor tables and very healthy. I had always thought it was a tad on the expensive side, but with a salad loaded with greens, grilled vegetables, fresh olives, beans, and a ½ avocado my meal only came to $7.00.
The United States Department of Agriculture recommends five servings of fruits and vegetables per day, with one serving size being approximately a handful. Many functional and holistic food experts also speak on the value of raw or lightly cooked organic fruits and vegetables as they contain the largest capacity of nutrients that help the body function: The simplest way to consume raw food being a salad.
Even though I regularly shop at farmers markets and eat from home, it’s tough to pack a healthy lunch every day and having a place to get organic food is important to me. The key to making the salad affordable is weighing the salad half way full. The Olives deli folks usually have no problem with me checking the weight and it keeps me from stacking up a ten dollar salad.
My salad contained spinach, romaine lettuce, bean sprouts, red beans, squash, carrots, avocado, blue cheese, shredded chicken, olives, and olive oil.
Within that meal I’ve got almost a day’s servings of B Vitamins, Vitamin K,C, Folate and Magnesium, and Monunsaturated Fat to name just a few. Treating your food as a thing to be celebrated and enjoyed but also as medicine is one of the key’s I’ve learned in my own life journey to stay at my optimum performance.
