Ever since finding Kelly’s site (which I love!), I’ve been using SparkPeople (which is free!) to track my calories, fat, protein, carbs and fiber. You can add other nutrients, but I didn’t really think about anything else. That is until I started putting together recipes and packaged products my friend at work can buy, so that she has no more than 1500 mg of sodium each day. At first glance, I thought it would be no problem. Guess again!
I never thought about my sodium intake because I don’t have high blood pressure, and my doctor has never recommended that I eat a low sodium diet. Well, I added that nutrient yesterday and am SHOCKED at the amount of sodium I consume. One day last week – while I was at 1440 calories, I had this much sodium! 6,217 mg of sodium!!
So I am curious if I should start monitoring my sodium?? Does the amount of water I am drinking even put a dent into washing away all that sodium?? Gina, Nicole and Melinda – please feel free to chime in on the subject!!
My breakfast yesterday, while it looks like ass, tasted amazing – I’ll call it green eggs on tostadas! Two toasted tostadas, 1/4 cup egg white, one whole shredded zucchini, 1/4 cup diced green pepper, 1.5 ounce cilantro lime rice and .5 ounces taco meat – then drizzled with Taco Bell Sauce – I had two and these were surprisingly filling for the amount of calories!
Over the summer Tony and I discovered amazing butcher hot dogs – they were huge, so flavorful, and well, let’s just say we once decided to deep fat fry them and they were spectacular! We don’t normally think of hot dogs in the winter, but Tony brought these home:
Maybe my friend Mel would know, but these may be from Wisconsin?? In any event, while not nearly as big as the butcher ones, these have a crisp casing that kind of “snaps” when you bite into it. And while it comes in at 170 calories and 17 grams of fat – it is one delicious hot dog! I had mine in a 1 point WW pita with American cheese, sauteed green peppers and sauerkraut, with Pam fried canned potatoes with green chiles on the side. Lunch has a whopping 2,317 grams of sodium!
Does your grocery store have a 50% off meat section? If not, you should ask. I’ve mentioned it before, but around dinner time they put all the meat that is about to reach its sell by date 50% off. I scored with this 1.3 pound ribeye for only $4.83!
Tony and I said last night that we really miss grilling! While we are thawing a bit, it will be a while before all the icicles and snow melt off the Weber and the gas grill. I used our indoor cast iron grill pan – only caveat is that it smokes up the whole house – at least everyone knows that Biz is cooking then! I always think My Year on the Grill would be proud of these grill marks!
Since we like pretty rare meat – on high heat I did each side for 4 minutes per side, then 3 minutes the second time around. I wrapped it in foil when it came off the grill for about 5 minutes while I pulled everything else together.
When Tony was at the store, he scored at the $1 rack! He brought me home these lovely tomatoes – about 7 pounds for $3!
A few years ago, Tony brought me home a cast iron Dutch Oven – while I would some day love to own a whole set of Le Cruset, this pot is wonderful – you can simmer for hours, nothing burns – it weighs 15 pounds! Well the other day I was washing it, and it started to chip on the bottom – it has a lifetime warranty which I still need to call on, but he ended up getting me a new one. It is only $38 at Sam’s Club! So I christened it last night.
My Mom gave me an antique pasta maker and I have plans to try it out this weekend. I was reading someone’s blog (sorry, I can’t remember!) but she was talking about chef Marcella Hazan and that her book Essentials in Classic Italian Cooking was a must have. I first checked my library, but they didn’t have it, so I jumped on eBay and I won the bid for $16! While my library didn’t have the one I won, they did have two others so I swung by the library on my way home from work.
I just started reading the introduction, but she was actually a biologist in Italy and when her husband got transferred to America, she spoke no English, had no friends and nothing to do until her husband got home from work. So he gave her a cook book. Every night she fixed a complete dinner in the Italian family sytoe, first course, second course, and a vegetable side course. And virtually their entire conversation was about what they were eating!
My favorite line so far: “On those occassions when it seemed that my fforts had been especially triumphant, he would rush out of his chair and throw his arms around me.”
I can’t wait to read the rest! And I love the pictures too – and as I looked at this picture, I realized I do not have ONE wooden spoon – all metal and plastic – how could I be a home cook without a wooden spoon?
Stats for Thursday:
- 1,260 calories
- 50 fat
- 139 carbs
- 74 protein
- 24 fiber
- 2,713 mg sodium
- no exercise since I worked on my friend’s meal plan during lunch (so I have to work out Sunday)
Question of the Day: How do you feel about sodium??
Time to make the coffee and make my breakfast and lunch. Come back tomorrow to find out how my Reuben pizza on rye pizza dough turns out! 😀
Sorry – just had to add something else.
One of the reasons excess sodium is also bad, is because most people do not consume enough potassium. Your body needs an optimum sodium/potassium ratio, and if you are over consuming on sodium, while under consuming on potassium, you’ll run into problems. Just something else to also keep in mind 🙂
Although I don’t monitor my sodium intake on a daily basis, I’m aware of what foods would be high in sodium. If I were you, I would really avoid using canned veggies – stick to fresh or frozen. It’s an easy way to avoid excess salt from that. Obviously, cheese is a big offender, and so are breads.
And just so you know – 2300 mg of sodium is equivalent to 1 tsp of salt. Remember that salt is not just made up of sodium, but that it also has chloride in it, so it can be confusing as to how much you really need.
I never add salt to anything and most days my sodium is over too. I was shocked to see a slice of processed 2% american has 360g for one slice. I would eat a slice or two and 2 slices of hormel natural choice turkey and that was like a salt lick( in mgs). Swiss cheese has the lowest amount of sodium btw. Its so hard to eat low sodium if you eat any packaged/processed foods.
It’s amazing how much sodium is in things. I don’t really watch my sodium, but I try to avoid processed foods and canned items which tend to have way too high of a sodium content. I wish they could make healthier convenience food!
My family has a long history of heart troubles and blood pressure issues so I do keep an eye on how much sodium I take in.
I always have to open my sliding glass door when I grill inside, so smoky! Something they don’t tell you about in the cooking shows. LOL
How do you like that dutch oven? I’ve seen them at Sam’s and have been wondering how they were.
Andrea – worth every penny! It’s so thick, holds the heat well and I can simmer pasta sauce all day and it never burns. This size pot (6.5 quart) in a Le Cruset starts at $175!
Honestly, I’ve never really thought much about sodium. I don’t have a history of high blood pressure or anything like that, so I didn’t really gave it much concern. Of course, there was a time when I would be obsessed with logging down everything I ate, but I was really only concerned about the calories.
By the way, GREAT deal on the fabulous meat!
Oh, and another BSI submission: http://www.burpandslurp.com/2010/01/15/the-truth-about-truth/
Thanks Sophia!!
What great buys! Love the new pan, and glad you christened it right away; LOVE mine! Sodium is such a horrible thing. I constantly look at the nutrition panel on products. Cooking things as fresh as possible is the way to go.
Thanks for the shout out! So glad you’re loving spark – I think it’s SO easy, especially since I cook so much to just add in groups and then track so easily!! I’ve never looked at sodium. Now i’m scared! haha
I can’t wait to start grilling – YUMMY!
Wow, look at all those tomatoes! Your breakfast tostada sounds delicious–so many good ingredients all in one. I can’t wait to hear about your pasta making with that antique pasta maker. Sounds like so much fun! Cheers and Happy New Year!
I cannot say that I have ever seen those dogs before, but I think those are from Chicago. I can, however, bring you some fresh made deli ones.
BTW, will you be around on Sunday 1/24? We are making the venture to Ikea and J wants to go the Lucky Monk, after he saw the pics of Tony’s burger… Let me know!
That’s awesome!! I’ll make sure I have no plans – pretty sure it’s still a football Sunday!
I’ll send you an email later today – and J will love the Lucky Monk burger!!
Hmmm…that is a lot, but not shockingly so. American’s eat a lot of salt! I would work towards getting it down — buying low-sodium broths, halving the salt you put into recipe (you can always add more if it needs it!), and you can season with products like Mrs. Dash to get that sodium content lower in recipes and seasonings, especially for meats. The water does help to flush out the system, per se, but salt holds on to water, bottom line. It’s not unusual to see a weight fluctuation based on sodium intake, so just be aware of that. The recommended intake is 2,300 mg a day, so I would aim for that. : ) No frets — the good news is that you’re not hypertensive and you’re being proactive!
I don’t mind! I hope you enjoy it.
thanks so much for the info about your pitas =)
ahhh, sodium – i have soooo much to say about it! I seriously thinks it makes a huge difference for me to keep my sodium on the lower side, before when I didn’t watch my sodium intake, i would easily be at 5,000 mg a day – after i started monitoring it closer, i dropped 5 lbs easily (of water of course!)
Yeah, I use SparkPeople as well, and I’ve been tracking my sodium. I can definitely see a correlation between days when my sodium is high and my weight loss is not that great.
I just heard on the Dr. Oz show that sodium actually causes a lot of other health issues, so we should monitor it even without high blood pressure.
I try to stay under the 2,300 mg recommendation that SparkPeople has.
Making pasta is so fun. I hope you got the chance to try it. It sometimes takes a bit of practice, but soon you’ll have it down in no time.
Your blog is really neat, and needed! And your stack of tomatoes made me laugh lol. 🙂
Laura
i only have one kidney, so salt is ALWAYS on my mind. unfortunately i LOVE salt, but i’m learning to use other things instead. it’s funny you bring this up today because dr. oz was talking about salt. he said a lot of things like herbs and spices like pepper, garlic powder, italian seasoning etc make great subs. and i try hard to avoid anything that comes from a box or can.
i want one of those le cruset dishes so bad, what a wonderful find!
Thanks for the SparkPeople link. I’ve been looking for an easy-to-use calorie/nutrition counter and the site looks like it has much more.
I watch sodium on general principles, which means limiting most prepared foods. AMAZING how much sodium is put into most boxed broths and soups!
Interesting about sodium… I really don’t pay attention to how much I get because my blood pressure is always pretty low, so I’ve been told to actually eat more salt. It’s the one thing I use without much thought at all.
Looking forward to this long awaited reuben pizza!! 🙂