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!

February 20, 2010 - Day 48

For breakfast

High fiber blueberry muffin (160 calories; 3 points)

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

For lunch

1/2 of a low-carb chicken ceasar wrap (250 calories; 5 points)

1 apple (80 calories; 1 point)

Water

For dinner

1 roasted chicken garlic sausage (140 calories; 3 points)

1/2 ear of corn (no butter!) (40 calories; 0 points)

Water

Snacks

Strawberry fruit and grain bar (130 calories; 2 points)

1 cafe mocha w/skim milk (175 calories; 3 points)

So for today it's roughly:

Total Calories: 1010

Total WW Points: 18

Total flex points left for week: 35 of 35

Days left in flex points week (after today) : 2

Exercise

About 30 minutes on an elliptical machine

100 ab crunches

Weeding in the back lot

January 23, 2010 - Day 20

Yikes! Cam and I decided to go out to lunch with Riley after our errands about town. This ended up being Red Robin. I thought to myself, "Okay, try to get something healthy." This, I thought, would be the salmon burger. Nope. I was wrong. Even after I ate only 1/2 the bun, I still ended up with 15 points for the meal. Stupid di'jon sauce that came on it! And then I ate too much for dinner. Oh well... it's the weekend, right, so that's allowed? :S

For breakfast

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

For lunch

1 grilled salmon burger (800 calories; 15 points)
* Without the sauce, I would have only been looking at 9 points... still not great, yeah, but so much better!

Water

For dinner

1 serving of (leftover) tortellini w/prosciutto and peas in a cream sauce (520 calories; 11 points)

Water

Snacks

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

Total Calories (roughly): 1390

Total WW Points (roughly): 29

Flex points left: 17

Exercise

200 ab crunches

Does weeding the back lot count? My legs hurt after crouching down for a long while...

January 17, 2010 - Day 14

I'm a little late in posting yesterday's events. Perhaps it's because of what happened yesterday:

My day -

For breakfast

1 banana (90 calories; 1 point)

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

It started off well, then we went out to the Olive Garden to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday. Bad move on my part.

For lunch

1 serving of Olive Garden salad (350 calories; 8 points)
* There is 26 grams of fat in 1 serving of this salad!!! I went to their website and was flabbergasted! People go in their for the soup and salad, and probably think they are being really healthy. Holy cow!

1/2 mozzarella triangle (165 calories; 4 points)

1/4 serving of Shrimp Manicotti (260 calories; 5 points)
* This is less then 1 serving of the salad!!!

1/2 breadstick (75 calories; 1 point)

Water

For dinner

1 serving of dinty moore stew (210 calories; 5 points)

1 serving of egg noodles (210 calories; 4 points)

Water

Snacks

1 serving of Total in skim milk (140 calories; 2 points)

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

Total Calories (roughly): 1570. Yeah, that sucked. I'm shooting for 1400 or lower. Oh well.

Total WW Points: 31. YIKES! But... I went and looked at my flex points for the week, and I'm okay. Granted I'm not sure how many points I consumed yesterday, but I'm pretty sure that my stew w/one dumpling wasn't more than 10 points. So, I'm just treating yesterday like I was on target with 19 points. So, even with today's debacle, I'm still actually under pace, meaning that I have 12 flex points left for the rest of the week (which is only 2 more days).

Exercise
Nothing. Yeah, I need to get back to working out.