But I don't LIKE salads!!

I was very disappointed when I weighed myself after the gym on Wednesday - I have not lost a single pound. Ok I have only been REALLY trying for a week, but 1 pound - is that so much to ask?? Apparently yes, it is, even though I had been to the gym every other day for that week.
I have had to conclude that I need to do more on the food front. Evidently cutting out snacks and smaller portions is only serving to stabilise my weight.
At first I was quite down. I don't like "diets", and I definitely don't like diet food. In case anyone hadn't noticed, I'm a bit obsessed with food. I love food. I love simple food, home cooked food, fancy food, foreign food, even junk food sometimes. I love cooking and creating, making something tasty from scratch is so satisfying on so many levels - especially if it's frugal as well as tasty. I love talking about food, every day in work we talk about what we've made for dinner, what we have brought for lunch, interesting recipes we have come across....well, you get the picture. Food is very important to me.
The more I thought about this, the more I got determined to make this work for me. I decided I was taking salad to work for my tea. I don't like salads. I had a think, why don't I like them?? And what can I do about it??
Well, I don't like that floppy lettuce you get, or all the fancy ones. I like a nice, fresh, crisp iceberg. And having big leaves on my plate puts me off too - don't know why. So let's shred that. I don't like salad cream or mayo or vinaigrette or any of those dressing-type things, they need to go. Instead I used a generous drizzle of good quality Greek olive oil - the best in the world. Next I threw in some cherry tomatoes. I cut them into quarters so they would spread some colour - you eat with your eyes long before anything goes in your mouth. I sprinkled over some grated Wenslydale I found in the back of the fridge. It had gone hard, but I threw it in anyways. last in was a grated carrot. I stuck the lid on my trusty tupperware and gave it a good shake. I was worried that it wouldn't feel like a proper meal so I grabbed a small tin of red salmon that had been lurking in the cupboard for months - a present from Nana (don't ask LoL) - and headed off to work. A small tin of sweetcorn from the garage down the road was also duly purchased.
Come 6pm I was somewhat apprehensive. I added my salmon and half the sweetcorn, gave it a good shake and tipped it into a nice bowl.
And the result.....well it was lovely!! The tomato juice, olive oil and cheese had combined to make a really nice dressing and I was well impressed with the tinned salmon - another first for me. I am even happier to think that the whole thing cost me the price of a small tin of sweetcorn - everything else was already in the house! I will definitely be experimenting more with salads over the coming weeks. And I was not very hungry when I got home at 10pm, although I did treat myself to a couple of pumpkin seed ryvita with home made humus on with my pre-bed cuppa.
This morning I put grated apple and cinnamon into my porridge before I microwaved it - another attempt at sneaking more fruit into my diet!! It was very nice, went well with the sultanas that were already in the porridge. I think next time I'll put less cinnamon in though - might have been a bit heavy handed this morning!!