Friday, March 9, 2007

Assessing the Diet Damage-New Orleans

This afternoon I went to the fitness center after nine days off and my trip to New Orleans for the Innovation conference sponsored by the League for Innovation in the Community College. I was most concerned about the sodium levels of my food as I ate most of my meals out and wondered about its effect on my blood pressure. My last night there, I ate a traditional New Orleans meal of fried seafood, and the day before I feasted at the Harrah’s Casino buffet. I hadn’t been able to track my intake and felt that I must have exceeded my goals for calories and fat. When I weighed today I had been back on track for a day and a half. From January 3, 2007, I had been averaging a loss of about .4 pounds per day on my 1400 calorie diet.

The Moment of Truth

When I left, my cumulative weight loss was 22.5 pounds. Today, it was 23.75. So, despite the excesses of New Orleans, I managed to lose 1 ¼ pounds. This was encouraging, but my loss for the 9 day period had slowed to .14 pounds per day.

Next, I moved to the blood pressure machine and was ecstatic when my blood pressure measured 108/75. Apparently, either the extra salt hadn’t affected me all that much, or I had managed to clear it by drinking lots of water and keeping it under 1500 mg for the day and a half since my return.

My conclusion is that it is possible to spend five days in New Orleans without trashing my diet. I slowed its progress, but, at least I didn’t go backwards.

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