Getting in more steps has made such a difference to me and my diet. Yesterday, we went out for sushi. I ate the pickled ginger that they served with my sashimi, as well as some of the seaweed salad. Both of those things have sugar in them. Plus, I had a salad with a lot of fruit in it for lunch. Yet this morning, I was still pretty heavily in ketosis.

This is good. It means my life and my diet is easier because I can consume a touch more carbs and remain in ketosis.

I’ve been wanting to post about my salads for a while. I eat a lot of salad. The reason I eat so much salad is because the version of the keto diet that I follow (Wahls Paleo Protocol) starts off with six cups of veggies per day. Not just any veggies – two cups of curly greens, two cups of colored, and two cups of sulphur veggies.

Kale, spinach, arugula, rocket, etc. all count for curly greens.

Carrots, cucumber, zucchini, all fruit, counts for colored.

Cauliflower, bok choy, broccoli, cabbage, brussle sprouts all count for sulphur.

Some can do double duty, like kale and bok choy count for either greens or sulphur. I will count them as one or the other category depending on whatever else I’m eating that day.

Having a big-ass salad is an easy way to get in lots of cups of veggies.

When my sweetie talks about putting all the veggies in the fridge into his breakfasts, the reason there are such a variety of veggies is because I want to have a salad bar’s worth of choices. I need to make sure that my salad tastes different enough every time I make one so that I can have it almost every day.

In addition to all the veggies in the fridge, it’s also summertime, so I have a bunch of different fresh herbs that I can add to my salad to change the taste.

The primary herbs that I’ll add to a salad are parsley, dill, basil, marjoram, and sorrel. There are times when I’ll also add rosemary, oregano, one of the mints, lemon balm, hyssop, or bee balm. I use those leaves sparingly, and I’ll chop them up fine before I mix them up with everything else.

Just this week we found red-veined sorrel plants at the store. I promptly bought two of them. If you’ve never had either French or red-veined sorrel, you should try it. The leaves have a distinct lemony flavor to them. They’re absolutely lovely, and add a nice taste to my salads.

So the list of ingredients for my salads is kind of ridiculously long. I easily have ten or more different veggies, plus herbs. I always have some sort of nut that I can add – right now it’s pistachios and pine nuts. For seeds, I currently have chia seeds, though I alternate between those and golden flax. I add nutritional yeast, and when we have it made up, vegan parmesan.

I have four different types of salad dressing usually, in addition to the stuff I make from time to time.

Occasionally, I’ll have a salad without any meat in it. Generally though, I have bacon. We get the Hempler’s green label bacon ends, which is relatively cheap bacon that doesn’t have crap in it – about $6 for two pounds. I’ll cut up an entire package and cook it all at once.

One of the things that I’ve learned about myself is that I don’t care for bitter greens. I’ll have them every once in a while, but I can’t do a constant diet of them. I also prefer sweeter salad dressings. And I’ll put on a lot of salad dressing. I’ve started adding a tablespoon or so of avocado oil to my salads to get more fat into my diet, since I no longer eat breakfasts.

So what’s your favorite thing to put into salads? Because I’m taking more steps, I get to add blueberries to my salads. That helps make them even more yummy.