Sunday morning. Woke up with the absolute fear that I'd mis-calculated my calories when entering what I ate for dinner last night. It was good by the way. For you vegetarians out there, I took a package of Asparagus Stir Fry vegetables, put them in a pan with oil (next shopping trip probably today will include cooking spray that WW recommends instead of oil) and then a package of Morningstar Chik 'N Strips. I added a sauce that I just bought from a friend that sells Pampered Chef items - it's Raspberry Jalapeno. That might not sound good to you but let me tell you, the sweet with the hot and the savory of the vegetables? Y U M. Totally filled me up. Of course it turned the food all purple so it wasn't the most attractive of dishes, but I did NOT care. I added a little bit of salt for flavor (not too much) and if I'd have had garlic that would have been perfect.
Now, about salt. This was actually one of the things that I started to cut way down on a month or so ago. Preface: part of my bad habits in the past and really bad choice for dealing with stress was smoking. I didn't do it long. Cigarettes have never smelled good to me, but for some reason smoking menthols (even worse for you than the regular nasty kind) was a trick I played on my head to say "this traffic is not so bad, the cigarette has made me less inclined to scream at the drivers." Of course there is no such thing as a magical cigarette to make one not want to yell at morons going 40 in a 55. That's the thing about life - there really aren't many magic pills at all. We just have to go through it. ANYWAY, so I smoked for a bit and burned some of my tastebuds and so started adding more salt to my food. According to the American Heart institute, 75% of the salt in American diets comes from manufacurers adding it to the foods that we eat. To make it taste better. (Instead of maybe making it taste good to begin with?!)
From the American Heart Association (http://www.americanheart.org/) I learned that we are supposed to aim for 1500 mg of sodium per day in our diets.
"High-sodium diets are linked to an increase in blood pressure and a higher risk for heart disease and stroke. Reducing the amount of sodium you consume can help lower high blood pressure or prevent it from developing in the first place. Keeping your blood pressure at healthy levels is important, because high blood pressure can lead to heart attacks or stroke." ~ source at website link above.
According to this same website average Americans consume 3436 mg of sodium every day!!! What made me really start paying attention to how much I put on food (which is in addition to whatever there is already in the food) is that I started to get water retention (or edema) in my ankles. Sitting for so long at work and not getting circulation going is one way to have your ankles turn into cankles, adding too much salt to your diet is another. And both are bad. As I've mentioned in previous posts I am on this path to lower my chances of heart disease, as well as getting into a less oval shape. My family has a long and storied history of heart disease, my beloved grandfather on my dad's side died of a heart attack years after having a quadruple bypass for clogged arteries. So, watching salt intake is going to be huge. (it's also why I try to get creative with other spices in my food, and why I use cayenne.....a lot) The AHA website says that it takes 6-12 weeks to re-train your tastebuds to believe that a 1500 mg sodium diet tastes good. But 6-12 weeks versus 10 or more less years at the end of your life PLUS cankles??? (look it up, Seinfeld and Sex in the City had episodes on them) yeah, cutting that salt is worth it.
So, I weighed in today. 5.6 pounds down. I still feel full so even though it's morning I'm not rushing out to eat. Part of this process is re-training myself to recognize what hungry feels like, versus bored, mad etc.
There's a great article on WW that I read today about Change in challenging times. It specifically addresses how major stress situations affect our ability to stick with healthy eating habits. "How to hang on when everything around you is shifting". I thought that the tips were so good that I'm re-posting here. The article is by S. Kirk Walsh and available on http://www.weightwatchers.com/. The tips are:
Be Flexible - this includes forgiving yourself in times of major change/stress. It can be nearly impossible to continue your weight loss in the face of major stressors so it can be a good goal to just maintain. Forgiving yourself for not reaching your goal, and in fact re-setting that goal to reflect the stressful situation that you are going through is a really good point I think. Now, I believe that life in and of itself is stressful enough so that high stress may in fact be the norm. That is why I personally (even tho I have a much lower stress life than many of my friends) am setting small goals along the way. And small goals achieved will lead to big goals.
Stay close to your support group - seems obvious but again, support, support support. Having someone(s) to vent to, to let your emotions out to makes it easier to not just dive into that box of Krispy Kremes. (Or whatever your comfort food is - Macaroni and Cheese?) It helps to feel less alone and more possible to get through it.
Maintain an exercise program - of course you have to have one to maintain it but it is well documented that physical exertion helps to release endorphins that make us FEEL better. I have a sticky note on my wall at work for the times when I am thisclose to just going off on someone... "Breathe, think, smile, walk" These are my release valves when the steam is building up and up. And there's a reason they work for me. (I'm still employed and believe me, my German-Irish temper has NOT gone away.)
Make sure you have healthy foods available - this is one of the reasons that I cleaned my fridge out last week. Having healthy things to eat quickly when things get stressful makes it so much less likely that I will head to Taco Bell or wherever. I can grab an apple and a string cheese packet and while it's not a burrito it's not 800 calories either!
So, week 2 starts today and I'm trying to stay focused on the short term goals (15 pounds to start) and not the 100 pounds that I really want to focus on.
Thanks for reading.
One day. One pound. One step at a time.
~N
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