Wednesday, March 3, 2004

Sodium Strategies

As you know I've been monitoring my sodium intake, alarmed to find that I was eating way, way too much.  According to the food guidelines you should get less than 2400mg of sodium for a 2000/2500 calorie diet - and when I say diet I mean a general eating guideline, not necessarily a lifestyle only adopted to lose weight. 

Anyway, I found out I was going over 3000mg easy - and on some days even skating right on past 5000mg.  Which is way too much.  It surprised me to learn, once I started watching for it, how sneaky sodium really is.  It's in everything, and some things overload you (i.e. fast food).  In fact, it's even more surprising to me to learn that things that have sugar or carbohydrates are very low in sodium.  Cheeses, even lowfat cottage cheese, have a lot more.  So the shift in the diet has been an interesting one.  What I've found is that my calories have gone down a LOT since I started going by sodium intake, and I'm eating a lot more grains/carbos and sugar.  The good thing is, that's all still under control, I'm under 300g of that per day, which is also included in that guideline. 

Tonight I made a dish my mom used to make - baked chicken smothered in cream of chicken soup and served with chicken Rice a Roni.  Color me surprised when I discovered that the soup and the rice alone added up to over 1800mg of sodium.  After some educated shopping, I found low sodium alternatives (healthy choice soup and reduced sodium rice a roni) which cut that number in half.  I still got the nummy dinner, but I didn't have to sacrifice my sodium goals to do it.

I'm also swimming in water.  I have a sippy bottle that I swear to God says 8oz on it, and I drank four.  I'm waterlogged, thinking I need to drink four more??  Then I realized that also on the label it says "24oz sports bottle".  !!!!  So that means I drank 96oz of water today.  No wonder I sprinted off that stationary bike to run to the bathroom.

** edited to add I just realized it said 1 pint, 8oz.  See what being on a restrictive eating plan does to brain power??  LOL

Oh, and I rode my bike yesterday too.  I'm back on the horse, so to speak. 

Overall a good day.  :)

Calories:  1822 / 24% fat

Sodium: 2881

Water: 96oz

Exercise: 30 mins stationary bike

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Good" evening Ginger. Sounds like you had a great day. It is good to come on and see a smile in your words. You have a following Ginger and support from folks you may never meet one on one but we are all here for you. Keep up the good work. By the way, love your pup. I have a little guy also and he is my love.. Blessings and smiles from the heart rae

Anonymous said...

Hi Gin,
I am trying out "Fit Day", I hope the journal will help me as much as it's helping you! I may not have as much weight to lose as some of the folks but it is a daily struggle for me too. Age doesn't help my weight loss at all. Anyway, here goes!
http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?Owner=Jeannie+B

Anonymous said...

YOU are doing so good. I'm so proud of you and inspired by your determination............Deanna