Well, I have completed my second week, and what I have learned in this second phase of my journey is:
- Watching your calorie intake is important, but you need to drink water.
- Doing exercise is important, but you need to drink water.
- Eating out must be minimal and this included ordering lunch while you are at work. Why? Because no matter how you do it, it is filled with sodium and sodium obviously leads to weight gain.
So, this week, I started out on point. Monday and Tuesday, I had my oatmeal for breakfast or an egg. I also had my midmorning snack… I packed a light but filling lunch and had a home cooked dinner as I do most nights. And then… I don’t know what happened. I was tired due to R and T’s sports schedules we weren’t getting home until 10:00/10:30 at night. That meant I worked, left work to go to where ever the sporting event was being held and stayed there to watch whichever son was playing until it was time to come home. I didn’t have time to go home, cook, and eat. This equates to grabbing something on the run. While I thought I was making healthy choices, I guess the sodium in these choices caught up to me, because this week I gained 0.4 lbs. let’s just call it a ½ lb.
I took the time to look up some of the meals I grabbed on the way: a chicken salad from Wendy’s which I later find out is a whopping 790 calories!!! WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT???? And if that isn’t enough it has 1,100 mg of sodium a huge… WHAAAAAAA— WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?? It also had 44 grams of Sugar. Yep, good old sugar which loves to morph itself into beautiful, big, plump FAT CELLS! Omg I almost fell off my chair. I was afraid to find out what I ate when I ordered Burger King’s Chicken, Apple, Cranberry wrap. I mean it sounded healthy right? Apples, cranberries, and chicken… how bad could it be? Well, I will tell you, it is a better choice than the Wendy’s chicken salad, but it still has 410 calories and a large amount of sodium, 910 mg to be exact, and that wrap brought 18 grams of sugar to the party. I gave up at that point. I didn’t go any further to research the non-healthy, healthy options of the fast food industry, nor the calorie intake of the steak dinner I indulged in Wednesday night. I did, however, investigate the reason why these fast-food chicken options are so high in calories and sodium. My research concluded that in each of my fast food choices and any average restaurantor so it seems, the chicken is soaked in brine to make it plump and juicy. Brine equals… SODIUM!
In addition, to making these “healthy option” choices, I drank 5 sodas this week and 2 glasses of wine. I told you in my earlier post regarding my weight loss journey I would limit myself to 3 sodas per week. I failed at that and I own it. I also did not drink my “minimum” of 32 oz. of water each day. I did stick to my 100 squats per day and taking the stairs on my bathroom breaks to walk 42 down and 42 up. . . Thank you Jesus, I kept that commitment!
Lessons learned this week:
- While exercise in important to your health. It does not guarantee weight loss. Although it could have been worse had I not done the exercise at all;
- Healthy choices are not always as healthy as we think, heed the nutritional facts before ordering! Planning meals is essential to a healthy lifestyle;
- We all must drink water. I am sure if I had drunk enough water I would have felt better. If I had known I was taking in more sodium than normal perhaps I could have balanced it with an extra amount of water to flush it out.
- And, finally, don’t overindulge all at once. Have whatever you like in moderation. Giving up on water, indulging in fast food, a night out to dinner, a few glasses of wine all caught up with me.
I have made a mental note to make sure I drink, drink, drink water this week, I will better prepare for my nightly meals, and while finding myself, make sure some of me (the fat cell part) remains lost…
In the meantime, while you are following your own weight loss journey or waiting to see how mine turns out… keep sparkling~
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