Pretzel “Bites” and Accountability

Recently I have been gaining a slight more fluid despite the careful watch of my sodium intake and the constant studying about why and how sodium enters your body. As mentioned in the last post, approximately 77% of our sodium comes from “processed” foods and restaurants.

My husband, son, and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings for a late night surprise dinner after my husband returned from a sectional basketball game. He’s a big fan of Hoosier basketball. He was famished and must have been craving lots of sodium. He called us after 10:00 pm to see if we wanted to meet him for a late dinner I asked my son if he wanted to go. We went, of course.

I asked for the nutrition menu and our waitress promptly brought one back. It was hard to believe what my eyes were seeing on this chart filled with numbers. Once, twice, and sometimes triple checking the numbers I was seeing, this place absolutely affirms the fact that 77% of where your sodium could come from is found at restaurants. To give you a worst case example, a large order of Boneless Wings (no sauce) was listed around 10,000 mg. It’s all the breading they put on them in the first place, I’m guessing. Then, add your sauce which ranges from 320 – 1220. Let’s just day you want an order of fries and an alcoholic beverage or even a soda. Wow!

My family did not order this. A small order was fine with them. I was happy to see they definitely enjoyed a good midnight snack, since it was the night our clocks sprang forward. For them, it wasn’t a great big deal since we haven’t really eaten out for quite a while, so the dinner was just as they expected…good and filling! I had a cup of ice cream for 55 mg and was just fine.

So, Sunday afternoon I took my daughter shopping at the Castleton Mall. We stopped for a quick treat at Auntie Anne’s Pretzels. I LOVE pretzels. I asked for the nutrition menu and was surprised and delighted to see that the plain Pretzel Bites – plain were only 128 mg. Sold, Ate, and Enjoyed!

That evening for dinner we had our “Low Sodium Trader Joe’s” Orange Chicken. No, really, I’m not being sarcastic. Trader Joe’s has a box of Orange Chicken with sauce and a serving size is 1 cup for only 330mg. I made Trader Joe’s Jasmine Rice which is 0mg and a frozen bag of Asian stir fry mix which had minimal sodium per serving. I personally only used about a tablespoon of the sauce and ate a lot of rice and veggies along with a little bit of the chicken and sauce. Although, I did go back for seconds.

I had found an okay sodium tracker app that I started using, and with the 128mg pretzel that I had plugged in, I was only around 300mg or so for the day, so I was feeling pretty good about my second helping.

Monday morning came and I felt big! I stepped on the scale and weighed 108! I had been fluctuating around 105/106 for about a week. What happened? Could it be because I’m not taking my higher powered diacritic every day now or what is going on?

I told my husband I had ate pretzel bites on Sunday. Being the loving and the one who sets me straight on a lot of things, he jumped all over me for not watching what I was eating. I fought back insisting that the bites only had 128mg. “I even looked twice! Look, I brought home the nutritional menu, see?” I said trying to defend myself.

He wasn’t buying it. He didn’t want to look at it, but still said something just wasn’t adding up. So, when I awoke weighing a lot more and looking big again, I definitely knew something wasn’t right. I took the nutrition menu to work to scrutinize again, and low and behold – I had read it wrong – I had eaten 1280mg!! You add that on to the Orange Chicken that I had and there was the answer.

Well, not only because I needed a new eye exam because it was overdue, I made one immediately to make sure the reading glasses I was going to purchase were the right strength. This is why you have an accountability buddy and reading glasses, apparently at this age. Your accountability buddy should be someone who loves you and one to make you stop and think about things and ask questions. I should have known better. A slice of bread has approximately 110mg of sodium alone. Why wouldn’t a bunch of Pretzel Bites be more?

While I am journeying through this change in diet and routine, I’m glad I have someone who cares and the ability to go to the eye doctor! If you are going through a change in your own diet and routine, please make sure you have someone who helps you keep a watchful eye on you. Make sure your you have your reading glasses handy or have corrected any eyesight problems (those nutritional menus are in tiny print) or else, all your food could end up “biting” you when you weren’t expecting it!