If you read food labels you many things: total fat, unsaturated fat, saturated fat, calories, total carbohydrates, dietary fiber, protein, cholesterol, sodium and more. Sometimes looking at a label can be overwhelming. What do you look at? Should we look at every ingredient and every line? How is it possible to watch our intake of everything?
When I started following WW in 2004 I decided that I was going to ignore all of the information that I had learned about diets previously. I was going to block out every magazine article I had read and infomercial I had watched. I was just going to pay attention to the information that WW gave me. I was too confused. I didn't know what to pay attention to. At that time Weight Watchers had us look at the calories, fat and fiber on a product to find it's points value. I decided that was good enough for me. I was going to track those things only. As long as I was tracking my points, that was all I could concentrate on and I would lose weight. It worked. I lost weight by tracking my points based on those categories.
WW changed their program a couple of years ago. They changed it to use fat, fiber, carbs and protein to calculate PointsPlus Values. When that happened I changed my focus to those categories instead. It was an adjustment but eventually I got used to it.
When I was a leader in the meeting rooms I would often have member ask me about sodium. People wanted to know how to account for sodium. Often, they were shocked that we didn't use sodium to calculate our points. I would give the same answer regularly, "If you are someone who needs to watch your sodium you can do that. You are not required to but you certainly can if you find that you are sodium sensitive." I would estimate that about half of my members found that they were sodium sensitive. I wasn't shy in telling them that I usually didn't have to watch my sodium. It wasn't an issue for me. I could just count my points, stick to them and be fine.
Since then I have gotten a few years older......it happens. I have recently found that my body is becoming more sodium sensitive. There are days when I wake up and find my rings much tighter than the day before. It's uncomfortable. It's disconcerting. It's disappointing when I have followed my plan and eaten well but feel like I have gained weight. It's frustrating when I step onto my home scale to find that I have gained weight. I am realizing that those days are due to water retention. I am becoming one the the "sodium sensitive people."
Yesterday morning I stepped on the scale. My scale must have been preparing for Halloween because the number was scary! I chalked it up to all of the extra eating I had done over the camping weekend. It was my own fault. It was very disappointing though. I was really hoping that the 5 mile hike would have helped to even out some of those extra calories. Chasing a 15 month old around a campsite seemed like a pretty good workout too. While everyone else was sitting around the campfire playing games and telling stories I was walking behind Samuel, taking leaves out of his mouth, dashing to grab him from the fire circle, picking him up as he stumbled for the umpteenth time......I thought I had gotten some pretty good exercise. Looking back the calories I put in my body outweighed any workout that I received.
Apparently, my sodium intake must have been pretty high too. I followed my eating plan well yesterday. This morning my scale was 3 pounds lighter than yesterday. There is no way I lost 3 pounds of fat in a day so I know it was water. I am not shy in telling you that I ran to the bathroom many times to pee yesterday too. (Sorry, I can't come up with a better way to say it.) I was obviously hanging on to a lot of water from the weekend and last week too. I noticed last week that even though I was following the plan well (until Friday) I was not losing weight. In fact, I had gained weight last week on my scale. I'm sure it was due to water retention because I know that I made good eating choices.
I have joined the ranks of "sodium sensitive." What does that mean for me? I will keep watching my points, keep tracking everything, keep to my plan but now stay away from high sodium foods more often. I'm sure it will be something new to get used to but I'm sure it will only make my weight loss that much easier and my body that much healthier.
I welcome feedback in the comment section to any of you who have found yourselves to be sodium sensitive too. What are your tricks? What do you look for?
Have a great day everyone,
Corinna
"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." -1 Corinthians 10:31
Even though it seems counter-intuitive, it's very true that if you're swollen up, retaining water it often means that you need to drink MORE water. Yes, true - if the body senses that it doesn't have enough water, it hangs on to whatever it does have. So, drink up - it can really help, and one might not be sodium sensitive, afterall. Lois W
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