March 2, 2010 - Day 58

They say sodium is the silent killer. So, ideally I should be watching out for that too (as well as the numerous other things like balancing out sugar, protein, fat, fruit/vegs, and grains). I think a person would go nuts if they tried to keep track of all of this stuff all the time. But just for today I wanted to see how much sodium I'm intaking while I watch my caloric intake. I'm not going to do this after today because I'll lose my mind if I do.

After doing some reading, it seems that we should absolutely not get more than 2400 mg of sodium per day (although there is some debate on that number). For those that have high blood pressure, it is recommended to be less than 1500 mg. For comparison, they say that average sodium consumption per person per day in the US is 3375 mg of sodium, with 75% of this coming from pre-packaged foods. So almost 1000 mg over the maximum. Yikes!

Oh, and one last thing on this subject. Table salt is not equal to sodium. Table salt is 40% sodium and 60% chloride. I should have paid more attention in chemistry class, since I had no idea!

For breakfast

1/2 cup of coffee w/vanilla creamer (35 calories; 1 point; 50 mg)

High fiber oatmeal (160 calories; 2.5 points; 290 mg)
* I decided to use half WW points. I've seen many other people do it, so I guess it's okay. I don't think I'll do it all the time, but this is so close to 2.5 (it was like 2.57) that it seemed silly to round all the way up to 3 like I have been.

For lunch

Water

Leftover penne w/peppers and sausage (250 calories; 5 points; 400 mg)
* It was the sausage in this meal that really upped the sodium. It contributed 375 mg of the 400!

For dinner

Water

1 Subway Roast Beef on 9-grain bread (310 calories; 5.5 points; 840 mg)
* #1, O_o on the sodium! Crazy!
* #2, I was so proud of myself for this dinner. We decided to go to the mall and then check out the food court. All of my favorites were there. Orange chicken, baked ziti, pretzels... but I resisted and just had a few bites of Cam's sesame chicken and rice and instead opted for the much healthier sub. I gotta give it up to Subway. Not only is their nutritional information for each sub listed prominently right as you order (which I verified on-line when I got home), they also provide you with options if you are on a low-fat, low-calorie, or low-sodium diet. Guess which one I didn't look at? :)

A couple of bites of sesame chicken and rice (125 calories; 2 points; 350 mg)
* A guess based on what I read on-line.

Snacks

Some cantaloupe (30 calories; 0 points; 14 mg)

Kashi trail mix bar (140 calories; 2 points; 105 mg)
* These are super low in sodium! Yay, because I love these soooo much! I think I'm going to have to try the cereal soon.

1/2 of WW strawberry yogurt (50 calories; 0.5 points; 55 mg)
* I didn't plan on having this, but Riley wanted yogurt sooooo badly and this was all we had in the house. She never finishes a whole yogurt, so I got half.

Diet hot chocolate (25 calories; 0 points; 140 mg)

1 oatmeal/dark chocolate cookie (100 calories; 2.5 points; 80 mg)

So for today it's roughly:

Total Sodium: 2344
* Wow, this would have been so much lower if I had cooked at home tonight as was the original plan. So, I guess that's the moral of the story. At least I'm under the 2400 maximum, albeit just barely. :/

Total Calories: 1205

Total WW Points: 21

Total flex points left for week: 35 of 35

Days left in flex points week (after today) : 6

Exercise

150 ab crunches
* This was all I could handle as my legs were like jelly today!