If you think Corn and Dairy are Gods gift to humans, you might want to skip reading this post.
Food is difficult for me. Not just because I love rich foods (I do), but because I often feel deprived.
I have been reading food labels since before they got very useful, since my mother has been on a very low sodium diet for over 35 years, and my sister and I used to go grocery shopping for us. The reading of labels got more critical when I discovered that I am allergic to dairy, and things stepped up a notch when my wife figured out that she is allergic to Citric Acid. We already were avoiding Sunflower for her, and now I have to avoid Corn. And try to keep my sodium down.
Currently I'm thinking Potatoes may be the other culprit I am looking for that is causing me digestive grief. But I wanted to say that many people do not understand how much of our food supply contains corn, dairy or citric acid. Or, in my view, is "contaminated by" corn, dairy, sunflower, and/or citric acid.
Taken one at a time, each of the above actually brings a relatively long list of ingredients we need to avoid. Some because we know they are what we are allergic to, others because they are too vague to take the risk. Oh, Diana is also allergic to sunflower. I'll cover that, too. Note that these lists are not complete or authoritative, just what I know.
I'll start with Dairy. Specifically, I am allergic to more than one protein in dairy. For sure I am allergic to casein, and there is also something in whey protein that I am allergic to. This means I have to avoid:
DAIRY:
Milk
Cheese (all varieties, including vegetable cheeses that add casein)
Cottage Cheese/Farmers Cheese
Butter
Cream
Yogurt
Buttermilk
Milk Solids
Butter Solids
Buttermilk Solids
Nonfat Dry Milk
Sweetened Condensed Milk
Evaporated Milk
Casein (the protein that makes cheese melt, I am told)Sodium Caseinate
Whey
Whey Protein
Whey Protein Isolate
Milk Protein
I seem to be fine with Milkfat, Butterfat, and Ghee/Clarified Butter, but I usually avoid them in case they aren't pure enough.
CORN:
Corn (including Popcorn)
Corn Meal (and Polenta)
Grits (Hominy and otherwise)
Corn Syrup
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Corn Oil
Vegetable Oil
Vegetable Shortening (unless it specifies a different source)
Corn Starch
Food Starch
Modified Food Starch
Dextrose (Corn Sugar)
Fructose (may be from corn unless another source is stated)
Dextrin
Maltodextrin
Caramel Coloring (usually made from Corn Syrup)
Brown Sugar (because some brands add Caramel Coloring made from Corn Syrup)
If you didn't know, that eliminates 98% of the candy made in America. My local store even sells "honey" straws that are corn syrup flavored with a little honey. I buy a different brand elsewhere that is 100% honey. It also eliminates almost all breakfast cereals, cookies, muffins, donuts, many breads, and other snacks. I can have unsalted nuts and expensive chocolate and a couple brands of cookies.
SUNFLOWER:
Sunflower Seeds
Sunflower Oil
Jerusalem Artichoke (sunflower roots)
7-grain, 9-grain, and 12-grain breads (even if they don't claim sunflower)
That seems pretty tame, until you realize that most products that use vegetable oil have this "and/or" issue, like "canola, sunflower, and/or safflower oil". Also, the healthier a product is trying to seem, the more likely they will have substituted sunflower oil for whatever they used to use. The comment about the high grain breads is from experience. Once a bakery starts adding large amounts of grains and seeds into the bread, it seems that intentional or not, enough sunflower seeds get into the dough that Diana reacts to it.
CITRIC ACID:
Sometimes I feel like I am researching a doctoral thesis for this one:
Tomatoes
Lemon
Lemon Juice
Lemon Peel
Lemon Zest
Lime (including Juice, Peel, and Zest)
Orange (including Juice, Peel, and Zest)
Citron
Tamarind
Ponzu
Pineapple
Berries (except Blueberries)
Most other fruits (except Apples, Pears, and Bananas)
Citric Acid
Sourdough Bread
Sourdough "Culture" or "Mother"
Canned and Dry Beans (Navy, Pinto, Kidney, Black-Eyed Peas, etc.) (Green Beans are OK)
And a Surprising item:
Triple-Washed ANYTHING (Spinach, Lettuce, Mesclin, etc.) - One of the three washes is Citric Acid, and since they are living plants, they will pull the citric acid in from the root end and possibly absorb it in through the leaves.
POTATOS:
I haven't researched Potatoes yet, but Potato Starch, Food Starch, and Modified Food Starch would be issues as well as potatoes themselves.
So, what can we eat together? Meat, Rice, Pasta, most green veggies. Apples, pears, and bananas. Carrots, cauliflower, some breads. In the supermarket, we look for ingredient lists that are 5 or fewer items when we can, as simpler foods are probably healthier and a heck of a lot easier to read the list. When I see one of those ingredient lists that is 2 inches long or more, I assume that it probably has something in it that we can't have. If I am bored enough or motivated enough to read it, I usually find out that I am right. About the only exception to that rule is Clif Bars, which I can have. Which is good, as I obviously don't do well at potlucks or pizza lunches!
Diana can have dairy, I can have tomato sauces and citrus fruits, but we can't share. Heck, if I drink Orange Juice I have to drink some water or rinse my lips off before I can kiss her!
Of course, there are worse things in life than having to eat right.
I'm really feeling for the folks in the Northeast who are still dealing with Sandy, the NorEaster, and related damage, outages, shortages, and displacement. I haven't donated much , but we have given what we can afford at this time.
Showing posts with label hypertension. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hypertension. Show all posts
Friday, November 9, 2012
Monday, November 5, 2012
Tracking my Weight - Or Not (Percent Body Fat - PBF)
In order to stay on track, I need to track my "weight".
In order to stay sane, I need rules about this.
Let me explain that:
- First of all, I mentioned before that I'm not really trying to lose weight, I am trying to get healthy and fit. My measurements for that will primarily be a combination of Percent Body Fat (PBF) and Blood Pressure, along with Cardio stamina/health, if that can really be measured.
- Second, I can get obsessive. At one point in my life, I belonged to Weight Watcher's. Great organization in some ways, but the live weigh-ins were horrible for me. They want you to weigh in every week. They congratulate you if you lose even a quarter of a pound, but on the other hand, I had at least two different "official" people comment on weekly weight gains loud enough for the whole room to hear. I used to stop drinking water on the days I had to weigh in, and eat almost nothing. That isn't healthy. And can't be maintained as a healthy lifestyle. Remember, this is about health, not weight.
- Third, it is a fact that within a day, your body gains and loses weight. Every time you eat or drink something, you gain weight. Every time you use the facilities, you lose weight. If you sprain an ankle, the fluid retention of the swelling means you gain weight. Every time you breath out, you lose a tiny amount of water weight from the water vapor released. Are we getting ridiculous here? Yes, to make a point. A relatively typical person will gain or lose 2-5 pounds cyclically every day.
- Fourth, weight fluctuates from day to day. Based on anything from the amount of sodium consumed to the effects of the moon phase and sunspot activity, weight is not stable, even if consumption and exertion levels are.
So... I need to be relaxed and sane about this - but how?
Well, I try to track my weight based on two rules:
- First, weigh-in every week but only weigh once a week.
- Second, don't worry about a weekly weight gain - look at this week compared to two weeks ago.
And, I use another App on my Android phone for this. A simple app called Weight Tracker++. It allows me to see a graph of my weight loss on my phone or tablet, and if I really want I can export the data to a .csv file that I can import to Excel or Open Office to make a chart on my computer. It also has a "statistics" page where it tells me how many entries I have, elapsed time since my first entry, Latest, Highest, Lowest, and Change in weight (for example right now it reports that I was 323.8 on 9/13/2012 and 310.0 on 10/31, for a loss of 13.8 pounds over 1 month and 18 days (a total of 8 entries).
And this may be repeating myself, but... I'm not concerned about my actual goal "weight". And BMI? Don't get me started on BMI! BMI was never intended to be applied on an individual basis. As a measure of a person, it relates height and weight to each other in a way that allows researchers to generalize about large populations of people. But it counts the same whether the weight entered into the formula is muscle, fat, or because you haven't gone to the bathroom in a really, really long time. It doesn't take into account bone density, muscles, or for that matter it doesn't take into account if you just drank a half gallon of water. Even as a research generalization, it is mediocre, but often the best available since most studies didn't take the time and cost to analyze the percent body fat of the people in the studies.
I've chosen to set my goal on Percent Body Fat (PBF). PBF is a really good measure for health. It is probably the best "weight" tracking measurement we have available. It doesn't matter how tall you are, it isn't concerned with how much of your weight is bone. A male non-athlete PBF of 14-17% is considered "fit", although adjustments for age and gender apply, and some scales show a "healthy" range which seems to merge the "athlete", "fit", and "average" ranges. If you want more information, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_fat_percentage.
There areinexpensive calipers and bathroom scales that will measure PBF, at least one of which is Wi-Fi enabled and willing to talk to a number of phone Apps. Unfortunately, I bought a scale that had a different feature I liked (wider platform for better balance), and my scale will only display PBF as part of a combination of Percent Bone, Percent Muscle, Percent Water, and PBF. Unfortunately for me, if any of the 4 is out of range, my scale won't display any of them. And since fat doesn't contain water, and the scale won't report if Percent Water is below 45%, and I have a LOT of fat on my body... The scale will only display my weight until I get down to some magical point where there is enough water in my body to make my scale happy. SHEESH!!!!! Oh, and calipers are not recommended for obese people.
So, I don't know what my PBF is at this time, but once I get to a reasonable weight range, I will be looking to get my PBF down to about 16%.
Oh, and it may not seem obvious, but the method that bathroom scales use to calculate PBF is "mostly" accurate, and uses low-level electricity to sense body content. Hydration levels and dampness of your feet will affect the measurement. Some of these scales say that people with pacemakers should NOT use them. Some Gyms and Fitness Centers will do a caliper measurement calculation for you to estimate PBF. Either of these methods has a +/- accuracy of something like +/- 10%, although some people claim the calipers have a much lower error percentage in trained hands.
Doctors have other methods that are more accurate, everything from tanks where they measure how much water you displace when you get in, to a machine that scans you with two different frequencies of X-Rays, one of which is absorbed more by fat, then compares the two images to estimate the PBF. I'll skip the X-rays, thanks! There is also a machine now that uses air displacement to calculate PBF, which claims to be as accurate as the dunking method. It is certainly faster and more convenient, although I have no idea how much it costs.
Any of the methods of measuring percent body fat should at least show if you are making progress. My plan is to get down near where I think I should be, measuring weight at least until my scale will measure PBF, then tracking both but concentrating on the PBF. Once I get where I think I should be, I'll arrange to visit a "Bod-Pod" air displacement or dunk tank water displacement center where I can get a real measurement. The cost of that is high enough that I don't care to pay it until I think I am where I should be.
Regards,
Oscar
In order to stay sane, I need rules about this.
Let me explain that:
- First of all, I mentioned before that I'm not really trying to lose weight, I am trying to get healthy and fit. My measurements for that will primarily be a combination of Percent Body Fat (PBF) and Blood Pressure, along with Cardio stamina/health, if that can really be measured.
- Second, I can get obsessive. At one point in my life, I belonged to Weight Watcher's. Great organization in some ways, but the live weigh-ins were horrible for me. They want you to weigh in every week. They congratulate you if you lose even a quarter of a pound, but on the other hand, I had at least two different "official" people comment on weekly weight gains loud enough for the whole room to hear. I used to stop drinking water on the days I had to weigh in, and eat almost nothing. That isn't healthy. And can't be maintained as a healthy lifestyle. Remember, this is about health, not weight.
- Third, it is a fact that within a day, your body gains and loses weight. Every time you eat or drink something, you gain weight. Every time you use the facilities, you lose weight. If you sprain an ankle, the fluid retention of the swelling means you gain weight. Every time you breath out, you lose a tiny amount of water weight from the water vapor released. Are we getting ridiculous here? Yes, to make a point. A relatively typical person will gain or lose 2-5 pounds cyclically every day.
- Fourth, weight fluctuates from day to day. Based on anything from the amount of sodium consumed to the effects of the moon phase and sunspot activity, weight is not stable, even if consumption and exertion levels are.
So... I need to be relaxed and sane about this - but how?
Well, I try to track my weight based on two rules:
- First, weigh-in every week but only weigh once a week.
- Second, don't worry about a weekly weight gain - look at this week compared to two weeks ago.
And, I use another App on my Android phone for this. A simple app called Weight Tracker++. It allows me to see a graph of my weight loss on my phone or tablet, and if I really want I can export the data to a .csv file that I can import to Excel or Open Office to make a chart on my computer. It also has a "statistics" page where it tells me how many entries I have, elapsed time since my first entry, Latest, Highest, Lowest, and Change in weight (for example right now it reports that I was 323.8 on 9/13/2012 and 310.0 on 10/31, for a loss of 13.8 pounds over 1 month and 18 days (a total of 8 entries).
And this may be repeating myself, but... I'm not concerned about my actual goal "weight". And BMI? Don't get me started on BMI! BMI was never intended to be applied on an individual basis. As a measure of a person, it relates height and weight to each other in a way that allows researchers to generalize about large populations of people. But it counts the same whether the weight entered into the formula is muscle, fat, or because you haven't gone to the bathroom in a really, really long time. It doesn't take into account bone density, muscles, or for that matter it doesn't take into account if you just drank a half gallon of water. Even as a research generalization, it is mediocre, but often the best available since most studies didn't take the time and cost to analyze the percent body fat of the people in the studies.
I've chosen to set my goal on Percent Body Fat (PBF). PBF is a really good measure for health. It is probably the best "weight" tracking measurement we have available. It doesn't matter how tall you are, it isn't concerned with how much of your weight is bone. A male non-athlete PBF of 14-17% is considered "fit", although adjustments for age and gender apply, and some scales show a "healthy" range which seems to merge the "athlete", "fit", and "average" ranges. If you want more information, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_fat_percentage.
There areinexpensive calipers and bathroom scales that will measure PBF, at least one of which is Wi-Fi enabled and willing to talk to a number of phone Apps. Unfortunately, I bought a scale that had a different feature I liked (wider platform for better balance), and my scale will only display PBF as part of a combination of Percent Bone, Percent Muscle, Percent Water, and PBF. Unfortunately for me, if any of the 4 is out of range, my scale won't display any of them. And since fat doesn't contain water, and the scale won't report if Percent Water is below 45%, and I have a LOT of fat on my body... The scale will only display my weight until I get down to some magical point where there is enough water in my body to make my scale happy. SHEESH!!!!! Oh, and calipers are not recommended for obese people.
So, I don't know what my PBF is at this time, but once I get to a reasonable weight range, I will be looking to get my PBF down to about 16%.
Oh, and it may not seem obvious, but the method that bathroom scales use to calculate PBF is "mostly" accurate, and uses low-level electricity to sense body content. Hydration levels and dampness of your feet will affect the measurement. Some of these scales say that people with pacemakers should NOT use them. Some Gyms and Fitness Centers will do a caliper measurement calculation for you to estimate PBF. Either of these methods has a +/- accuracy of something like +/- 10%, although some people claim the calipers have a much lower error percentage in trained hands.
Doctors have other methods that are more accurate, everything from tanks where they measure how much water you displace when you get in, to a machine that scans you with two different frequencies of X-Rays, one of which is absorbed more by fat, then compares the two images to estimate the PBF. I'll skip the X-rays, thanks! There is also a machine now that uses air displacement to calculate PBF, which claims to be as accurate as the dunking method. It is certainly faster and more convenient, although I have no idea how much it costs.
Any of the methods of measuring percent body fat should at least show if you are making progress. My plan is to get down near where I think I should be, measuring weight at least until my scale will measure PBF, then tracking both but concentrating on the PBF. Once I get where I think I should be, I'll arrange to visit a "Bod-Pod" air displacement or dunk tank water displacement center where I can get a real measurement. The cost of that is high enough that I don't care to pay it until I think I am where I should be.
Regards,
Oscar
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Well... 4.5 years later!!!
I finally figured out where my old blog was. Only one entry. Oh well.
Earlier this fall, I weighed in at 323.8 pounds, and that was after a bout with digestive issues, so I probably actually weighed over 325 at some point. My doctor thinks I should weigh around 150, my personal belief is closer to 175, but that makes my theoretical goal close to 150 pounds.
I also discovered that I am allergic to Corn as well as the Dairy I already knew about.
And a friend of mine who used to weigh 696 pounds went and lost 425 of them and went from unable to walk 100 feet without resting to walking a nearly 14 mile military-style obstacle race (in 13.5 hours):
http://www.youtube.com/user/spartancoaching?feature=results_main
http://www.facebook.com/ProjectChrisDavis
So, Chris inspired me, my even higher weight "milestone" inspired me, and my new allergy inspired me to change my eating habits. I seem to be reacting poorly to some other food, possibly potato, so that will be interesting to me as well.
Chris started his exercise program with with "progress, not perfection", "just do it", and perhaps "get 'er done" as core concepts.
I was one of the people my friend Chris talked to before he lost his first pound or started his exercise regimen. If he can lose over 60% of his weight, then I should be able to motivate myself to lose 40% of mine (and his doctor says that the skin flap left over from the weight loss probably weighs 40-50 pounds).
But I won't lose the weight or get in shape if I don't change my life.
On the good side, since 2008 I lost my job, retrained myself, and landed a job I love. I am a Mentor and Technical Instructor at New Horizons Computer Learning Centers in Livonia, Michigan.
Also, we managed to get out of the house we were in that trapped my lovely wife Diana in an existance where daily living impacted her health negatively and into an ADA compliant apartment.
Because of those things, my blood pressure (BP) is down, below textbook "normal". Not dangerously low, but because the meds have side effects I would like to reduce them. I haven't been taking BP readings as often as I need to to talk to the doctor about changing my meds, but I see that conversation happening in the next few months as my life continues to change.
Stay Tuned for new entries at least weekly.
Oscar
Earlier this fall, I weighed in at 323.8 pounds, and that was after a bout with digestive issues, so I probably actually weighed over 325 at some point. My doctor thinks I should weigh around 150, my personal belief is closer to 175, but that makes my theoretical goal close to 150 pounds.
I also discovered that I am allergic to Corn as well as the Dairy I already knew about.
And a friend of mine who used to weigh 696 pounds went and lost 425 of them and went from unable to walk 100 feet without resting to walking a nearly 14 mile military-style obstacle race (in 13.5 hours):
http://www.youtube.com/user/spartancoaching?feature=results_main
http://www.facebook.com/ProjectChrisDavis
So, Chris inspired me, my even higher weight "milestone" inspired me, and my new allergy inspired me to change my eating habits. I seem to be reacting poorly to some other food, possibly potato, so that will be interesting to me as well.
Chris started his exercise program with with "progress, not perfection", "just do it", and perhaps "get 'er done" as core concepts.
I was one of the people my friend Chris talked to before he lost his first pound or started his exercise regimen. If he can lose over 60% of his weight, then I should be able to motivate myself to lose 40% of mine (and his doctor says that the skin flap left over from the weight loss probably weighs 40-50 pounds).
But I won't lose the weight or get in shape if I don't change my life.
On the good side, since 2008 I lost my job, retrained myself, and landed a job I love. I am a Mentor and Technical Instructor at New Horizons Computer Learning Centers in Livonia, Michigan.
Also, we managed to get out of the house we were in that trapped my lovely wife Diana in an existance where daily living impacted her health negatively and into an ADA compliant apartment.
Because of those things, my blood pressure (BP) is down, below textbook "normal". Not dangerously low, but because the meds have side effects I would like to reduce them. I haven't been taking BP readings as often as I need to to talk to the doctor about changing my meds, but I see that conversation happening in the next few months as my life continues to change.
Stay Tuned for new entries at least weekly.
Oscar
Thursday, March 13, 2008
The Beginning...
My first few posts will be about what got me where I am. After that I will likely kvetch about where I am, how hard it is to get to the next step, and all the other crap you hate to read ;)
So, what do I mean about the beginning? Well, trying to detail everything that made me overweight would be boring, and most likely I would miss important factors. Let's just say that I work a desk job in the telecommunications industry, I have arthritis, and I don't love exercise in its own right.
What I DO want to talk about is why I started this mission to lose weight.
And why 100 pounds.
In October of 2007 I hit 300 pounds for the first time in my life. Later that month, I had an "annual" physical, and my doctor threatened to put me in the hospital to stabilize my blood pressure - I was only at something like 165/129. Heck, the low number was higher than the high number should be at. Luckily the doctor said that my EKG had not changed, so no heart damage yet. Yet!!! Scary.
So I started trying to improve my health. First off, low sodium diet. Doctor wants me on no more than 3,000 mg of sodium a day. Which is what someone WITHOUT hypertension should limit themselves to. On the internet I found that various organizations recommend at least 1,500 or 1,600 mg, and that most low-sodum diets are reduced to somewhere between 2,000 and 2,500 mg. So my sodium goal is 1,600-2,000 mg/day, with maybe one day a week where I let myself get close to 3,000.
But let me tell you this: Restaurants are not generally set up to help the low-sodium diet. For example, Bob Evans, one of the few restaurants that even provide sodium levels, has some items on the menu that would put me over 3,000 mg in one meal. On the other hand, their Salmon with either herb butter or barbecue sauce, a baked potato with olive oil, and applesauce gets you out the door for less than 800. I am sensitive to dairy, so I avoid it. Tip: the staff don't always know that they have olive oil, but you can ask them to bring the oil and vinegar salad dressing cruets - it is olive oil! But back to restaurants in general... most of them don't have the information on sodium, and some restauratns are even snotty about it. I suppose they think they are too good for me or something. The best fast food choice I found is Wendy's Single. No fries, but if you are hungry, a potato with chives is a pretty decent side. I can't eat dairy without consequences, so I use olive oil (yes, I keep some at work as well as home).
Part of how I got to 300 pounds was sweet and salty snacks. Chocolate covered cranberries, and all sorts of cookies, crackers, Rice Krispie treats, etc. but all of a sudden I couldn't afford the sodium without skipping meals. My salvation? Fruit! Whole, raw, fruit, or canned fruit in some cases when I run low on fresh. For example, I found that for 10 mg of sodium or less I can eat a whole banana, orange, apple, pear, plum, nectarine, two clementines, or a single serving cup of applesauce or pineapple. So I made a commitment to eat at least 5 fruits for snacking per day to substitute for the sweet snacks. I won't let myself eat other snacks like salt-free nuts, low sodium cookies, or crackers until I have eaten the five fruits.
And my other main change is that I have gone back to eating 3 meals a day instead of 2. The meals are a little smaller, but I now make sure I eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with lunch usually being the largest meal of the day. I do still eat crackers or cookies later in the day when I get hungry, but rather than taking as many as I want, I eat one portion
If you believe the last doctor I bothered talking to about goal weight 15 years ago), I should weigh 145. Personally, I want to know what drugs that doctor is on... The only time I weighed 145 after 8th grade was when I was bicycling 40 miles a day back before I got a car. The weight I felt good at for years was around 170. But weight is not really the point. just like it is not healthy to be too fat, it is not healthy to be too lean. I don't have a final goal weight, because I think the only realistic measure of fat/lean is percentage body fat. Weight, BMI, and all of the other ways of describing height to weight ratios are just shortcuts, because they do not take bone density, frame size, and other factors into consideration. So my goal is to make it down to the "optimum percent body fat" or "optimum lean to fat ratio". For simplicity, since nearly everything I read says I have over 100 pounds to lose, I decided that my first long range goal will be 100 pounds.
So, what do I mean about the beginning? Well, trying to detail everything that made me overweight would be boring, and most likely I would miss important factors. Let's just say that I work a desk job in the telecommunications industry, I have arthritis, and I don't love exercise in its own right.
What I DO want to talk about is why I started this mission to lose weight.
And why 100 pounds.
In October of 2007 I hit 300 pounds for the first time in my life. Later that month, I had an "annual" physical, and my doctor threatened to put me in the hospital to stabilize my blood pressure - I was only at something like 165/129. Heck, the low number was higher than the high number should be at. Luckily the doctor said that my EKG had not changed, so no heart damage yet. Yet!!! Scary.
So I started trying to improve my health. First off, low sodium diet. Doctor wants me on no more than 3,000 mg of sodium a day. Which is what someone WITHOUT hypertension should limit themselves to. On the internet I found that various organizations recommend at least 1,500 or 1,600 mg, and that most low-sodum diets are reduced to somewhere between 2,000 and 2,500 mg. So my sodium goal is 1,600-2,000 mg/day, with maybe one day a week where I let myself get close to 3,000.
But let me tell you this: Restaurants are not generally set up to help the low-sodium diet. For example, Bob Evans, one of the few restaurants that even provide sodium levels, has some items on the menu that would put me over 3,000 mg in one meal. On the other hand, their Salmon with either herb butter or barbecue sauce, a baked potato with olive oil, and applesauce gets you out the door for less than 800. I am sensitive to dairy, so I avoid it. Tip: the staff don't always know that they have olive oil, but you can ask them to bring the oil and vinegar salad dressing cruets - it is olive oil! But back to restaurants in general... most of them don't have the information on sodium, and some restauratns are even snotty about it. I suppose they think they are too good for me or something. The best fast food choice I found is Wendy's Single. No fries, but if you are hungry, a potato with chives is a pretty decent side. I can't eat dairy without consequences, so I use olive oil (yes, I keep some at work as well as home).
Part of how I got to 300 pounds was sweet and salty snacks. Chocolate covered cranberries, and all sorts of cookies, crackers, Rice Krispie treats, etc. but all of a sudden I couldn't afford the sodium without skipping meals. My salvation? Fruit! Whole, raw, fruit, or canned fruit in some cases when I run low on fresh. For example, I found that for 10 mg of sodium or less I can eat a whole banana, orange, apple, pear, plum, nectarine, two clementines, or a single serving cup of applesauce or pineapple. So I made a commitment to eat at least 5 fruits for snacking per day to substitute for the sweet snacks. I won't let myself eat other snacks like salt-free nuts, low sodium cookies, or crackers until I have eaten the five fruits.
And my other main change is that I have gone back to eating 3 meals a day instead of 2. The meals are a little smaller, but I now make sure I eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with lunch usually being the largest meal of the day. I do still eat crackers or cookies later in the day when I get hungry, but rather than taking as many as I want, I eat one portion
If you believe the last doctor I bothered talking to about goal weight 15 years ago), I should weigh 145. Personally, I want to know what drugs that doctor is on... The only time I weighed 145 after 8th grade was when I was bicycling 40 miles a day back before I got a car. The weight I felt good at for years was around 170. But weight is not really the point. just like it is not healthy to be too fat, it is not healthy to be too lean. I don't have a final goal weight, because I think the only realistic measure of fat/lean is percentage body fat. Weight, BMI, and all of the other ways of describing height to weight ratios are just shortcuts, because they do not take bone density, frame size, and other factors into consideration. So my goal is to make it down to the "optimum percent body fat" or "optimum lean to fat ratio". For simplicity, since nearly everything I read says I have over 100 pounds to lose, I decided that my first long range goal will be 100 pounds.
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