Healthy American adults should eat less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day. This is about 1 teaspoon of sodium chloride (salt). To illustrate, the following are sources of sodium in the diet.
- 1/4 teaspoon salt = 575 mg sodium
- 1/2 teaspoon salt = 1,150 mg sodium
- 3/4 teaspoon salt = 1,725 mg sodium
- 1 teaspoon salt = 2,300 mg sodium
- 1 teaspoon baking soda = 1000 mg sodium
ONE FRIGGIN' TEASPOON!??! Anyway, met with Ilsa yesterday, good vibe. The takeaway from our meeting is that I have to start denying myself SOMETHING, anything. Obviously, the big gorilla in the room is Salt, with his mate, the ever-sexy Chocolate. (Mmmmm, salty chocolate!) But if we start with the biggun's, I just won't be happy so we're starting small. I eat french fries more out of habit than because I really like them, so they are the first to walk my nutritional plank. It should be easy, as it'll be messing more with convenience than flat-out desire.
Also on the agenda, is to focus on the breathing thing again, meditate for a minute or two on how I'm taking in air and releasing, ummm, co2 or whatnot. Thirdly, the broccoli was a good start, gotta work my way in the produce aisle a bit deeper. We also addressed a topic that's come clear from keeping this journal blog - I like them sweeties. I don't think I'm going to purposefully cut down on them more than I'm comfortable with, but I should focus on whats going on in my head and in my body cravings when I do indulge. Sweets may not be directly connected to my high blood pressure, but it's definitely connected to being a little bit chubby (which, in effect IS connected to blood pressure) and future diabetes.
I was hoping to make a low salt pancake from scratch this weekend, but what the hell is up with baking soda = sodium? Gaaah!
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, large piece of watermelon, hunger 3/5. Second night of insomnia, got to bed around 1ish, think the rich food the night before didn't help. With a sweet tooth in mind, thought a big piece of fruit would help curb it later in the day...in theory....maybe they can genetically engineer a chocolate watermelon?
AM SNACK: 11am, 24 oz still water, hunger 3/5. On Ilsa's sheet about sugar addiction, it says sometimes dehydration can be mistaken for sugar cravings.....B gave me a new water bottle for our anniversary, all over-designed n' everything. Now I don't have to move my neck to take a big swig!!
LUNCH #1: 11:45am, green salad and Italian dressing, hunger 4/5. After yesterday's bad sushi and last night's nudge from Ilsa, brought in the salad, this time a bit of dressing in a small plastic container to avoid the mystery stuff from the caf.
PM SNACK: 1pm, 24 oz still water. This new water bottle is, if we are honest, an adult sippy cup.
LUNCH #2: 2:30pm, fried flounder on hero with lettuce, a little Italian dressing, hunger 4/5. Meetings kept me from going earlier. From the "FOOD IS LOVE" food cart. The bulgogi and gyoza looked tempting- an American-styled food cart that has random Korean items, because the proprietor is Korean - could be either really good or really bad. Wolfed it down walking back to office. Thinking about dessert and sweet teeth, decided to wait a little before something sweet to see how my craving goes.
PS SNACK: 4pm, a large organic chocolate chip cookie. Hunger 4/5. Poked around the same stall I got the suspicious sushi, noticed they are now carrying a line of organic cookies and brownies, made in Brooklyn. Huzzah! The last three ingredients are organic baking soda, organic baking powder and....salt. Not sea salt or organic salt, just salt. Bleah. And no clue of how many mgs of sodium, either.
I was intending to sit and mindfully eat this cookie, but I was so driven to eat it, I started munching it on the elevator then kind of sat infront of the computer and did business while it disappeared into the center of my face. How'd dat happen?! I enjoyed it, but I didn't really appreciate it as much as I could of. Is that how I eat sweets? Ewww.
DINNER: 8:30pm, bibimbop, small amount of japjae, kimchi and weird fibrous veg, hunger 3/5. Went to movies with Danny, was hungry and usually would of gotten popcorn to indulge my hunger, but didn't want to write about the copious amount of salt here. Dinner in Koreatown, really good, though the kimchi was pickly but so good, and the japjae was spectacular as always but I was more concious of it's soy dressing.
EVENING SNACK: 10pm, chocolate haagen daaz baar. Hunger 4/5. Craving sweets. Got these bars as an experiment, as one feels a little bit small, but 2 too much. With a tub of gelato, it's a free for all. Relatively little sodium in this.
EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, 3 small Jaques Torres dark chocolate cornflake clusters. Hunger 4/5. Oh my, these are tasty.
EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, about one third of a dollar bag of ranch-flavored sun chips. Hunger 4/5. Didn't notice these before, Betsy's. Foraging. Tasted surprisingly good, except for the fake-flavoring, but the grainy flavor of the acutal chip was appealing. According to the labelling, pretty low-sodiumish and not too fatty.
EVENING SNACK: 12:30am, largish hunk of potato nik, hunger 4/5. Just hungry. Craving more chocolate, but I know that would keep me up. Potato nik surprisingly tasted a little salty, not expecting that. I think I didn't eat enough at dinner.
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