At work they pretend to be nice by collecting a list of your favorite items. I say pretend because this would be the perfect occasion for them to be nice, like give me a little care pkg for my ordeal, but I know I won't get so much as a get well card. But I filled it out anyway.
I chose to try to fill it out as if asserting my slightly healthier self. I didn’t just put things I’m supposed to like, that are completely unrealistic. But I thought about what would I eat first at a potluck if I was given free reign and first pick. Honestly, I would go after the fruit. It tastes good, it’s filling, and if someone else spent the money on it, I’ll never pass up things like fresh pineapple or raspberries. (pretty much any berries except maybe gooseberries? Not sure about those; haven’t tried them). For cookies, I put gingersnaps (previously had been Oreos). For dessert I put fruits. I still included a couple guilty pleasures like salty stuff. If that’s the worst thing on my list, that’s still a vast improvement. Did I fully buy into my list? Mostly. It’s not as if anyone is going to run out and get me any of this stuff. But if they did, I could be perfectly happy with gingersnaps.
There’s a story that a WW member used to always walk out of the grocery store with a candy bar in hand, eating it on the way out the door. Then one day the person looks down and realizes that they tore open a banana and didn’t even realize or miss the candy bar. That transition sometimes takes longer than we'd like. It’s always good to dream, right?
Two and a half days until surgery.
Monday, April 29, 2024
Saturday, April 27, 2024
OTC Addiction
Addiction. It’s not a pretty word. Yet I think most of us have little vices, whether we care to admit to them or not. I read an article a while ago about how flight attendants dislike people who request Diet Coke and believe those who do are usually addicts. I shrugged and thought yeah, I’m probably a Diet Coke addict. I’ve mentioned how hard-wired I am to to my salt flavorings (not straight table salt, fun fancy sea salt—there is a difference).
The hospital called and gave me instructions including to stop taking any Over The Counter products. I’m happy for anyone to whom it is business as usual. Unfortunately for me this is no small feat. It’s allergy season and I’ve been taking an otc preventive pill every night for years. I also have been advised to take generic Flonase for when the otc decongestants can’t kick my sinus pain. After the congestion is cleared, who wouldn’t want to dull any remaining sinus pain with a mild otc pain pill? So ugh. I already have a good sinus headache going. Can I put something like Vicks Vaporub on my skin where it hurts or are topicals also forbidden? I googled that topical pain stuff is for sure.
Besides my nightly allergy pill, I also take a natural sleep aid, again, which I have been per provider recommendation, for years. They cleared all my prescription medications, so I can take them freely. Who would have guessed it would have been better to have prescription sleep and pain medication for situations like this? I didn’t ask about my eye drops, but I sincerely hope they are ok as I’m not stopping them. Occasionally I wake up and it’s difficult to move my eyelids because things are so dried out (because I don’t want to put goopy gel in at night). I could see about distilled water for eye drops. Pretty sure that’s what they use for eye-washes when foreign substances need to be washed out of one’s eye.
No vitamins or supplements. I had no idea vitamins were bad. I guess it’s been a few years since I had minor surgery, and the last ones I had were semi-emergent, so they were scheduled within a couple of days. No one told me to stop doing anything, but perhaps they were more concerned about getting me in quickly. Ignorance is bliss on their part too, right?.
The only part more fun than this is that I am not allowed lotion the day of surgery. This makes perfect sense except that I have pretty dry skin and lotion up every time I wash my hands. Doesn’t help that I live in a dry climate either. At least that’s only one morning. Still not going to be fun itching and fretting and will probably beg them to put me under. I have to get up at 4 am to take surgery specific medications, arrive at the hospital at 5:30, and supposedly the surgery starts at 9am. I really hope they dope me up with something on the earlier side.
The hospital called and gave me instructions including to stop taking any Over The Counter products. I’m happy for anyone to whom it is business as usual. Unfortunately for me this is no small feat. It’s allergy season and I’ve been taking an otc preventive pill every night for years. I also have been advised to take generic Flonase for when the otc decongestants can’t kick my sinus pain. After the congestion is cleared, who wouldn’t want to dull any remaining sinus pain with a mild otc pain pill? So ugh. I already have a good sinus headache going. Can I put something like Vicks Vaporub on my skin where it hurts or are topicals also forbidden? I googled that topical pain stuff is for sure.
Besides my nightly allergy pill, I also take a natural sleep aid, again, which I have been per provider recommendation, for years. They cleared all my prescription medications, so I can take them freely. Who would have guessed it would have been better to have prescription sleep and pain medication for situations like this? I didn’t ask about my eye drops, but I sincerely hope they are ok as I’m not stopping them. Occasionally I wake up and it’s difficult to move my eyelids because things are so dried out (because I don’t want to put goopy gel in at night). I could see about distilled water for eye drops. Pretty sure that’s what they use for eye-washes when foreign substances need to be washed out of one’s eye.
No vitamins or supplements. I had no idea vitamins were bad. I guess it’s been a few years since I had minor surgery, and the last ones I had were semi-emergent, so they were scheduled within a couple of days. No one told me to stop doing anything, but perhaps they were more concerned about getting me in quickly. Ignorance is bliss on their part too, right?.
The only part more fun than this is that I am not allowed lotion the day of surgery. This makes perfect sense except that I have pretty dry skin and lotion up every time I wash my hands. Doesn’t help that I live in a dry climate either. At least that’s only one morning. Still not going to be fun itching and fretting and will probably beg them to put me under. I have to get up at 4 am to take surgery specific medications, arrive at the hospital at 5:30, and supposedly the surgery starts at 9am. I really hope they dope me up with something on the earlier side.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
1 Week until Surgery
Officially losing sleep and stressing. My stomach is also having issues, but that could be related to the prescription they gave me for the knee/leg swelling. The good news on that front is it seems to be helping. Only taking it a few days, so fingers crossed settles things down and helps long term.
I'm dismayed at the emotional eating I committed today. Granted, the food I ate was significantly more healthy than usual, but that’s still bad behavior. Reinforcing bad old habits. Surgery is going to make me not want to be very active and also mess with my metabolism, so I shouldn’t be screwing around. For all I know the “good” news is that I lost all this weight so I won’t be so far gone when a lot of it comes back. Not a very pleasant prospect.
One should forgive themselves and move on, but I feel stuck because idk how to manage stress better. You can say one incident isn’t the end of the world, but I would refer you to the lunch I had with my mother last fall. I swear it precipitated an avalanche of poor eating that cost me 15 pounds. I blame the situation and my lack of coping skills; not my mother.
On a humorous note, I thought ok, I have to drink a ton of water the day before surgery, and have to get up at 4 am to drink more and take pre-op meds. I thought hey, maybe it won’t be that harmful if I stay up half the night because I’ll be peeing anyway and then by morning I’ll be too exhausted to worry much more. The pre-op instructions say to have a good night’s sleep. No one’s perfect. Come on, people, you can ask, but you can’t have everything.
I normally acknowledge that meditation isn’t a skill that can effectively be crammed, like studying for exams. But at this point, I don’t see the harm in seeing how many meditations I can do for the next week. Why not. I've got a couple meditation apps and might as well get good use out of them.
I'm dismayed at the emotional eating I committed today. Granted, the food I ate was significantly more healthy than usual, but that’s still bad behavior. Reinforcing bad old habits. Surgery is going to make me not want to be very active and also mess with my metabolism, so I shouldn’t be screwing around. For all I know the “good” news is that I lost all this weight so I won’t be so far gone when a lot of it comes back. Not a very pleasant prospect.
One should forgive themselves and move on, but I feel stuck because idk how to manage stress better. You can say one incident isn’t the end of the world, but I would refer you to the lunch I had with my mother last fall. I swear it precipitated an avalanche of poor eating that cost me 15 pounds. I blame the situation and my lack of coping skills; not my mother.
On a humorous note, I thought ok, I have to drink a ton of water the day before surgery, and have to get up at 4 am to drink more and take pre-op meds. I thought hey, maybe it won’t be that harmful if I stay up half the night because I’ll be peeing anyway and then by morning I’ll be too exhausted to worry much more. The pre-op instructions say to have a good night’s sleep. No one’s perfect. Come on, people, you can ask, but you can’t have everything.
I normally acknowledge that meditation isn’t a skill that can effectively be crammed, like studying for exams. But at this point, I don’t see the harm in seeing how many meditations I can do for the next week. Why not. I've got a couple meditation apps and might as well get good use out of them.
Friday, April 19, 2024
More Medical Headaches
I tried not to dwell on this, but it’s bugging me, so I thought I’d vent and try to get it out of my system.
Went in for more imaging yesterday; pro-actively checking for any miniscule indications of cancer or pre-cancerous changes. Already had an MRI, and they said xrays and ultrasound were also warranted, as they all have different strengths and could potentially pick up different details. Fine, no need to convince me. We make arrangements for both me and my spouse to get off work early (1 car), go one city over, way across on the other side. Kind of a pain, but this is important. They do the xray, then say the doctor there says the ultrasound wasn’t needed. Uhm, ok, not trying to argue with you, but can you write up something to my docs about that to explain that? They said there weren’t findings on a previous ultrasound, so there was nothing to look for. I was tired, hungry, headache, and honestly not arguing, but I did politely ask if they were writing up an analysis if the xray images, could they add a note why the ultrasound wasn’t needed so that would be clearly communicated to my docs. They said no repeatedly. I went home.
The thing is, I had to call hospital scheduling 3 times just to get this. The first two times, they also said, no, all three images seem ridiculous, you need to check with your doctor to confirm. They usually only want one. When I checked back with them, they were all, yes, we know what we asked for, and we meant it. I went home, pulled up the previous e-mail, where two different providers said yes, we absolutely want all three done. I’m not so paranoid that I think there is cancer and it’s being missed, but I really don’t want to feel like I’m getting scolded by them again saying hey, we told you to get all three. This was not a scheduler, but the MD in charge, and he repeatedly said no. Usually I’m the one who throws a fit, so I tried not to. I just said fine, please add a note to my chart so it’s passed along to the ones who requested the ultrasound. I was going to get his name, but in my stupidity, I forgot. I’m an idiot. Either way, though it should not be this much of a pain. You think my providers are idiots, fine, roll your eyes, try to talk me out of it by saying I was randomly told I’m in a high risk category with finger quotes and let me make a choice. Write a letter to the Department of Insurance and say you think my docs are nuts and ordering un-needed tests and suggest they be instigated. But don’t outright refuse services. I mean, come on. They already made me feel bad enough and implied my doctors are idiots randomly assigning me a high-risk label and I’m a sucker for believing them. But let me get what I came there for and go on my way. I should have been able to get all 3 images done at the same time, but since they refused to scheduled them all at first, I had to do 2 different trips so far. You’d think this isn’t a big deal except that with all the appointments I’ve had for this and pre-op, my foot and my opposite leg/knee, it adds up. If my doctors re-evaluate and say ooops, yeah, we didn’t really need the ultrasound, fine. But if the push back, that’s going to make me really irritated. That’s what I’m dreading at this point.
Oh well. 13 days until surgery.
Went in for more imaging yesterday; pro-actively checking for any miniscule indications of cancer or pre-cancerous changes. Already had an MRI, and they said xrays and ultrasound were also warranted, as they all have different strengths and could potentially pick up different details. Fine, no need to convince me. We make arrangements for both me and my spouse to get off work early (1 car), go one city over, way across on the other side. Kind of a pain, but this is important. They do the xray, then say the doctor there says the ultrasound wasn’t needed. Uhm, ok, not trying to argue with you, but can you write up something to my docs about that to explain that? They said there weren’t findings on a previous ultrasound, so there was nothing to look for. I was tired, hungry, headache, and honestly not arguing, but I did politely ask if they were writing up an analysis if the xray images, could they add a note why the ultrasound wasn’t needed so that would be clearly communicated to my docs. They said no repeatedly. I went home.
The thing is, I had to call hospital scheduling 3 times just to get this. The first two times, they also said, no, all three images seem ridiculous, you need to check with your doctor to confirm. They usually only want one. When I checked back with them, they were all, yes, we know what we asked for, and we meant it. I went home, pulled up the previous e-mail, where two different providers said yes, we absolutely want all three done. I’m not so paranoid that I think there is cancer and it’s being missed, but I really don’t want to feel like I’m getting scolded by them again saying hey, we told you to get all three. This was not a scheduler, but the MD in charge, and he repeatedly said no. Usually I’m the one who throws a fit, so I tried not to. I just said fine, please add a note to my chart so it’s passed along to the ones who requested the ultrasound. I was going to get his name, but in my stupidity, I forgot. I’m an idiot. Either way, though it should not be this much of a pain. You think my providers are idiots, fine, roll your eyes, try to talk me out of it by saying I was randomly told I’m in a high risk category with finger quotes and let me make a choice. Write a letter to the Department of Insurance and say you think my docs are nuts and ordering un-needed tests and suggest they be instigated. But don’t outright refuse services. I mean, come on. They already made me feel bad enough and implied my doctors are idiots randomly assigning me a high-risk label and I’m a sucker for believing them. But let me get what I came there for and go on my way. I should have been able to get all 3 images done at the same time, but since they refused to scheduled them all at first, I had to do 2 different trips so far. You’d think this isn’t a big deal except that with all the appointments I’ve had for this and pre-op, my foot and my opposite leg/knee, it adds up. If my doctors re-evaluate and say ooops, yeah, we didn’t really need the ultrasound, fine. But if the push back, that’s going to make me really irritated. That’s what I’m dreading at this point.
Oh well. 13 days until surgery.
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Non Scale Victory (NSV)
NSV for the day/month/whatever. Need to officially retire one pair of pants. I have stretchy waists, and thought hey, get as much use out of them as I can, right? If I have my phone in the pocket, I cannot keep them up anymore - within seconds the band pulls a few inches down. Kind of embarassing, but I guess it's a good thing.
2 weeks until surgery. Or feels like it when the current day is over, and I'm scheduled o-dark-thirty the day of.
2 weeks until surgery. Or feels like it when the current day is over, and I'm scheduled o-dark-thirty the day of.
Sunday, April 14, 2024
Silly Fitness Trackers
Ah, fitness trackers. Yes, I caved and got one. I’m not promoting mine or any tracker, but will admit I got a Fitbit Inspire 3, only so anyone reading can have that information in case they think “well MY tracker doesn’t do that.” Good for you.
Fitness trackers are glorified pedometers at best. Mine does not report sleep, oxygen level, or any of the other bells and whistles it is supposed to. I didn’t get it for that, so it’s not that disappointing, only irritating. The couple of times I attempted the “meditation” options it didn’t track to give me credit for it and my pulse actually went up 10 beats per minute. Like I said, glorified pedometer.
Why did I succumb to buying one instead of a basic pedometer? That could be separate blog post or mini-series in itself. Suffice it to say pedometers that clip don’t work well for me, and I wanted a wrist version. I wanted to count up the “steps” and make progress increasing activity. Flapping my arms around like an air traffic controller is not the same as walking, but it is my current form of exercise due to my swollen leg. I wanted to count all the walking and arm flapping I did all day, even if it was in little bity chunks, and try to be motivated to make the total number grow larger. Even with the upcoming surgery, getting credit for miniscule walking or movement might be encouraging rather than thinking I’m never doing enough.
Now we get to the saga and my point. Previous to having the tracker, I would do various youtube videos and mark down on a calendar how many minutes I spent. I attempted to track several things on my calendar, including meditation, water, caffeine, fruits and vegetable servings, and so forth. I gradually increased activity minutes, so yay for that, but by March my overall enthusiasm for doing and tracking everything was waning.
Enter the tracker. I was pleasantly surprised (if not confused) that it counted moderate activity I had not considered might count, such as walking at work, like the longish trecks to get water. Yay. Plus it added it automatically, so I didn’t have to time it. it reports that I “exercised” if I get my heart rate into the moderate zone for 10 minutes or longer. It had a goal to exercise 5 days a week and I left it at that, even though I’m kind of a perfectionist and would aim to do at least something every day. Here’s where it gets complicated – do I count what I think is exercise, or try to please the silly Fitbit? Today I did some smaller exercises here and there while watching tv with my spouse, and was pleased to get 19 total “zone” minutes before attempting any official exercise. Then I sat down for my videos. I did 15 minutes of strength training, but it didn’t get my heart rate hardly up at all even though I was huffing and sweating. Oh well. That’s fine. I followed it up with a 10 minute cardio workout video. Upon completion, it only added 2 "zone" minutes, and still defiantly told me I had not exercised. Hence the question – which is more important – setting my own goals or that of my silly digital tracker? I can go back to my manual calendar. Just silly
Fitness trackers are glorified pedometers at best. Mine does not report sleep, oxygen level, or any of the other bells and whistles it is supposed to. I didn’t get it for that, so it’s not that disappointing, only irritating. The couple of times I attempted the “meditation” options it didn’t track to give me credit for it and my pulse actually went up 10 beats per minute. Like I said, glorified pedometer.
Why did I succumb to buying one instead of a basic pedometer? That could be separate blog post or mini-series in itself. Suffice it to say pedometers that clip don’t work well for me, and I wanted a wrist version. I wanted to count up the “steps” and make progress increasing activity. Flapping my arms around like an air traffic controller is not the same as walking, but it is my current form of exercise due to my swollen leg. I wanted to count all the walking and arm flapping I did all day, even if it was in little bity chunks, and try to be motivated to make the total number grow larger. Even with the upcoming surgery, getting credit for miniscule walking or movement might be encouraging rather than thinking I’m never doing enough.
Now we get to the saga and my point. Previous to having the tracker, I would do various youtube videos and mark down on a calendar how many minutes I spent. I attempted to track several things on my calendar, including meditation, water, caffeine, fruits and vegetable servings, and so forth. I gradually increased activity minutes, so yay for that, but by March my overall enthusiasm for doing and tracking everything was waning.
Enter the tracker. I was pleasantly surprised (if not confused) that it counted moderate activity I had not considered might count, such as walking at work, like the longish trecks to get water. Yay. Plus it added it automatically, so I didn’t have to time it. it reports that I “exercised” if I get my heart rate into the moderate zone for 10 minutes or longer. It had a goal to exercise 5 days a week and I left it at that, even though I’m kind of a perfectionist and would aim to do at least something every day. Here’s where it gets complicated – do I count what I think is exercise, or try to please the silly Fitbit? Today I did some smaller exercises here and there while watching tv with my spouse, and was pleased to get 19 total “zone” minutes before attempting any official exercise. Then I sat down for my videos. I did 15 minutes of strength training, but it didn’t get my heart rate hardly up at all even though I was huffing and sweating. Oh well. That’s fine. I followed it up with a 10 minute cardio workout video. Upon completion, it only added 2 "zone" minutes, and still defiantly told me I had not exercised. Hence the question – which is more important – setting my own goals or that of my silly digital tracker? I can go back to my manual calendar. Just silly
Saturday, April 13, 2024
10% and Crocs
Finally lost 10% of my total body weight since I started late December. I was happy excited for a few hours, then ho hum. Part of me is paranoid if I’m not super careful, the scale will tip back up just over that milestone. Though I’m taking my weight with shoes, and they weigh a little over a pound, so that’s a tiny buffer. Still I guess it’s something. I can’t tell anyone who knows me in real life since they wouldn’t believe it. Thus I'm posting here.
Part of me still wonders when all this regular uplifting goodness comes from being more active and eating so much better. The only salt I’m having is from occasionl processed foods, like salsa or the spoon of sauce I had on my steamed veggies the other day. My leg is still ridiculously large, so that didn’t seem to help yet, if it would at all.
in other exciting news, after 9 weeks of constantly wearing super cushy Hoka Clifton 9 shoes and arch support inserts (sold separately), the podiatrist said I could gradually start wearing Crocs a few minutes a day and build up. They’re more supportive than sandals, he claims. Need to work down before barefoot, and who knows if I can ever go barefoot again. I have no idea about any other supposed arch support imitation brands, but the doc said Crocs, so Crocs it is. With all the effort and money I’ve already spent on my foot, I’m not going to risk going generic.
19 days until surgery.
Part of me still wonders when all this regular uplifting goodness comes from being more active and eating so much better. The only salt I’m having is from occasionl processed foods, like salsa or the spoon of sauce I had on my steamed veggies the other day. My leg is still ridiculously large, so that didn’t seem to help yet, if it would at all.
in other exciting news, after 9 weeks of constantly wearing super cushy Hoka Clifton 9 shoes and arch support inserts (sold separately), the podiatrist said I could gradually start wearing Crocs a few minutes a day and build up. They’re more supportive than sandals, he claims. Need to work down before barefoot, and who knows if I can ever go barefoot again. I have no idea about any other supposed arch support imitation brands, but the doc said Crocs, so Crocs it is. With all the effort and money I’ve already spent on my foot, I’m not going to risk going generic.
19 days until surgery.
Monday, April 8, 2024
24 Days Until Surgery
24 days until major surgery. Anxiety is beginning to peak, even though I know it’s the correct course of action. It's the whole thing where it’s “starting to get real.” I submitted paperwork to take time off work, and watched a couple youtube videos, trying to have the mindset that they’re not 100% accurate. Still good to attempt to be informed or prepared, or know what questions to ask in my pre-op appointment.
I’ve been losing pretty slowly lately, or minimal up and down more than I’d like. After surgery will not be a fun time to try to be too active, though walking is usually good for everything. I am still waiting for an appointment with a semi-specialist to discuss the swelling in my leg, which is now over 11 cm larger in circumference than then other leg. They said anything over 3 cm is of great concern. Well duh, that’s why I tried to tell the previous ones. Anyway, my knee is finally enlarged and gets hot and painful when walking, so that’s not fun when post-op instructions are to walk as much as possible. I could schedule an appointment with my rheumatologist, but thought I’d start with this semi-specialist sports medicine doctor first. Besides the rheumatologist is usually booked out 6 months.
Meanwhile it’s fun trying to explain to my spouse why I may not be in the best frame of mind to watch surgery shows. Maybe some people wouldn’t care, and that’s great for them. We recently watched an episode of Gray’s Anatomy where they said how sick and disgusting it was that a person had let themselves go for so long. While technically referring to the medical condition, the same is likely all to apt for comments about overweight patients as well. I think they figure why help someone who obviously doesn’t care about their own health, and they must not care at all about their health if they’re overweight. Funny how I wonder if they say the same thing for people who drink too much or take drugs. Probably, yet I kind of think it’s more visually obvious of those who are overweight, and thus the overwhelming attitude is who cares about doing one’s best to help that kind of person. Yeah, I know it’s true, and maybe what I need to hear for more motivation, but it’s not the most fun thing to hear either.
Listened to a meditation the other day that theorized people are motivated by one of the following things: fear/avoidance, wanting something, duty, or love. The first two are negative ways to be motivated, the latter two are more positive. I’m not entirely sure how to be motivated to lose weight out of duty. Not saying this motivation theory is wrong; just not sure what to make of it.
I’ve been losing pretty slowly lately, or minimal up and down more than I’d like. After surgery will not be a fun time to try to be too active, though walking is usually good for everything. I am still waiting for an appointment with a semi-specialist to discuss the swelling in my leg, which is now over 11 cm larger in circumference than then other leg. They said anything over 3 cm is of great concern. Well duh, that’s why I tried to tell the previous ones. Anyway, my knee is finally enlarged and gets hot and painful when walking, so that’s not fun when post-op instructions are to walk as much as possible. I could schedule an appointment with my rheumatologist, but thought I’d start with this semi-specialist sports medicine doctor first. Besides the rheumatologist is usually booked out 6 months.
Meanwhile it’s fun trying to explain to my spouse why I may not be in the best frame of mind to watch surgery shows. Maybe some people wouldn’t care, and that’s great for them. We recently watched an episode of Gray’s Anatomy where they said how sick and disgusting it was that a person had let themselves go for so long. While technically referring to the medical condition, the same is likely all to apt for comments about overweight patients as well. I think they figure why help someone who obviously doesn’t care about their own health, and they must not care at all about their health if they’re overweight. Funny how I wonder if they say the same thing for people who drink too much or take drugs. Probably, yet I kind of think it’s more visually obvious of those who are overweight, and thus the overwhelming attitude is who cares about doing one’s best to help that kind of person. Yeah, I know it’s true, and maybe what I need to hear for more motivation, but it’s not the most fun thing to hear either.
Listened to a meditation the other day that theorized people are motivated by one of the following things: fear/avoidance, wanting something, duty, or love. The first two are negative ways to be motivated, the latter two are more positive. I’m not entirely sure how to be motivated to lose weight out of duty. Not saying this motivation theory is wrong; just not sure what to make of it.
Monday, April 1, 2024
So Long Salt, My Savory Friend
Slowly all my vices seem to be taken away from me. I know most of them aren’t too healthy, but it’s still difficult. I haven’t had Cheetos in over 4 months. Butter, less than that, but so long ago I can’t even recall the last time I had it. And so on. The last vice I thought I could keep was salt.
Yes, I know most people aren’t supposed to have a lot either, but that was my last pleasant treat. Had discussed with my PCP (primary care provider) years ago and he agreed if it was table salt and not processed hidden salt, and it helped me avoid other temptations, it was fine. At the time, anyway. I don’t use any old salt. I have a plethoric array of seasoned sea salts, which in theory are better because they’re stronger, so hopefully one uses less. I had a WW leader who swore on anything that table salt would not kill you. I very much wanted to take that to the proverbial bank.
I know there are other spices out there, and I do use them. Maybe I don’t know the magic combinations that make the combined sum delectably superior to the individual parts. But to say I need to cut out salt, that’s worse to me than giving up meats and even chocolate. Sure, I still like chocolate. But ask me how long I could live without one or the other, and I’d clutch my smoked truffle salt stash and send you on your way with your Cadbury/Hershey/whatever creamy goodness.
I love plain potatoes with seasoning (no high fat diary toppings like cheese and sour cream), but you guessed my favorite seasoning. Each day I could use a different deluxe flavored salt and enjoy a new adventure. Curry potatoes is ok but . . . Sure garlic, onion, red pepper, chives are all fine but . . . I wish I could find something I enjoyed as much. I really like the smoky (salt) flavorings. Chipotle isn’t bad, Siracha is ok in small doses . . . I am disappointed and in withdrawal while I look for that next best elixir. A local spice vendor had some seasoning mixes, and I purchased a sampler pack since I didn’t want to spend all day tasting and re-tasting dry without any food context. So far nothing bad but nothing great. They say it’s the journal and not the destination, but so far I’m not in love with this salt-free journey. I want to get to the end or at least a milestone where I find my next favorite flavoring that make me melt on contact.
Yes, I know most people aren’t supposed to have a lot either, but that was my last pleasant treat. Had discussed with my PCP (primary care provider) years ago and he agreed if it was table salt and not processed hidden salt, and it helped me avoid other temptations, it was fine. At the time, anyway. I don’t use any old salt. I have a plethoric array of seasoned sea salts, which in theory are better because they’re stronger, so hopefully one uses less. I had a WW leader who swore on anything that table salt would not kill you. I very much wanted to take that to the proverbial bank.
I know there are other spices out there, and I do use them. Maybe I don’t know the magic combinations that make the combined sum delectably superior to the individual parts. But to say I need to cut out salt, that’s worse to me than giving up meats and even chocolate. Sure, I still like chocolate. But ask me how long I could live without one or the other, and I’d clutch my smoked truffle salt stash and send you on your way with your Cadbury/Hershey/whatever creamy goodness.
I love plain potatoes with seasoning (no high fat diary toppings like cheese and sour cream), but you guessed my favorite seasoning. Each day I could use a different deluxe flavored salt and enjoy a new adventure. Curry potatoes is ok but . . . Sure garlic, onion, red pepper, chives are all fine but . . . I wish I could find something I enjoyed as much. I really like the smoky (salt) flavorings. Chipotle isn’t bad, Siracha is ok in small doses . . . I am disappointed and in withdrawal while I look for that next best elixir. A local spice vendor had some seasoning mixes, and I purchased a sampler pack since I didn’t want to spend all day tasting and re-tasting dry without any food context. So far nothing bad but nothing great. They say it’s the journal and not the destination, but so far I’m not in love with this salt-free journey. I want to get to the end or at least a milestone where I find my next favorite flavoring that make me melt on contact.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)