Day 30 ~ Wow! 30 Days!!!

On January 31 the scale read 27 lbs down. Today is 5 lbs higher than that... I'm sure it is a combination of things, beginning with the amount of sodium! So, I did a count of the MF Meals sodium, and the sodium in the foods I had. But first...

For most people, the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council recommends 2,200 mg of sodium as a desirable intake.  That is equivalent to ONE TEASPOON of salt. (The average person has 20 times that amount, approximately 1 TB of salt every day) 

So here's the counts (from what I ate yesterday):

MF Oatmeal...135 mg Sodium

MF Chili...260 mg

MF Lemon Crunch...160 mg

1 oz Farmer Cheese...120 mg

pickle spear... 220 mg

Zucchini (1/2 C)... >01 mg

Cauliflower (per 50g)... 008 mg

Asparagus (per 50g)... 006 mg

Spinach (per 1/2 C)... 022 mg

TJ's Red Wine and 

 Olive Oil Vinaigrette... (2 tsp or 62 mg consumed) [190 mg (2 TB) serving size amount]

Wishbone Balsamic... (2 tsp or 92 mg consumed) [(280 mg (2 TB) serving size amount]

Pork Pattie... 053 mg (per 100 g = 3.5 oz)

Garlic Garni... (>1/4 tsp consumed or 20 mg +/-) [80 mg 1/4 tsp serving size amount)

MF Peanut Butter Crunch... 220 mg

MF Cappuccino... 110 mg

A Total of 1489 mg of Sodium for the day. That is 711 mg below the recommended amount. 

I was down 1 lb from yesterday... (yay!) BUT --- still up 5lbs from MONDAY! (Which was 5 lbs down from Saturday, which was 3 lbs up from Friday, which was 3 lbs down from Thursday, which was 1 lb up from Wednesday, January 27th; which was the last 'steady' day which held two days in a row)  Did you keep up? *lol*

I'm sure there are other things coming in to play -- more condiments than I should be allowing myself ~ however -- this little game that my body is playing with salt is definitely a lesson being learned that I'd never paid any attention to!  One of the Healthy websites I found while looking for naturally occurring sodium in foods said that many of us carry an extra 20 - 30 lbs of water weight just because of the high amount of salt in the American Diet.  Yikes!

So, I *know* that my first month on Medifast has been a loss of mostly water weight! As a friend said... "[I'm] peeing all my weight away!" and now I see that.  

I'm a little disconcerted about this realization.  A month just to get the salt washed away from my body? While it is a good thing, and my brain engaged in actually having to Pay Attention to this aspect of my food label reading is most certainly a positive thing... I'm bummin' a little.

That being said, my resolve is not dissipated one little bit. My visualization of my pants falling down around my ankles is still very much at the front of my mind (*grins!*).

So -- My Plan, you ask?

I've put together a document of low-salt marinades, rubs & seasoning mixes from a variety of sources, along with some home made dressing recipes.  I'll be printing that out and taste testing over the next month to find my favorites, and will try and change hubby's salt cravings, as he's probably retaining some fluid, too (he is a salt fiend, actually).

After reading the labels of my salad dressings that I'm using -- I didn't like the TJs Organic Red Wine & Olive Oil dressing on my salad, but it is FABULOUS over grilled veggies (I grilled Asparagus and Cauliflower yesterday for dinner), and pretty low in sodium for a salad dressing! Health Fat, though higher in fat that preferred at this point [2 TB is 140 cal, 15g Fat, 190 mg Sodium, 0 carbs]... will be asking about it at my MF Center appointment tomorrow.

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I'm finding that dinner with Mahi Mahi seems to give me the bulk amount of food with a very great scale result in the mornings.  I bought some Tuna, so am eager to try that this week.  

The Shirataki Noodles are definitely noodle-y ~ but there is no way my brain is going to call them pasta... closer to Ramen noodles, I thought.  The ones I boiled in the VERY HIGH SODIUM Chicken Broth (so wasn't paying attention!) were tasty - very rubbery, but I didn't mind that. I took about 3 oz and stir fried them in the 'leftover bits' from the pan I in which I stir-fried the tofu and vegetables (note to self - "Soyaki" from TJs is tasty stuff but Totally. Off. Limits. Full Stop!), and crisping them up made them totally YUM!

The fish smell that everyone says is so awful (or, the "authentic" smell, as the label refers to it... ha ha ha!!!!), was totally less than what I was expecting after reading so much about it. Rinsing a few minutes under warm water, then boiling in (next time Low Sodium/No Salt Broth) with a minced clove of garlic gave them great flavor!

A New Beautiful Me Blog has some great recipes, and I have another package of them, and CodyJo has put a recipe up for Spinach Chicken "Noodle" soup, so I'll probably try that this weekend.

* * *

I've put other things first in the last couple of days -- I was in charge of testing the new chorus Video Cameras and setting them up, and downloading and editing the footage of the amazing coaching we had this weekend. I did plan ahead by looking at the menu at Chuy's and seeing what food on their menu I could have and still stay on plan (Yay For Me!)

I will have been out 3 nights of 5 this week (one night is driving up to my MF Appointment, so while that is within my 'Focus' - it is still 4 hours in the car plus 2 hours in Phoenix area having my appointment and spending time with my mom), and haven't come close to going to bed on time and getting up at 5am.  

This morning I started writing this around 6:30 am - it is now 8:10 am and I've got to get the shower in this morning!!

Food Log Updates tonight!