Two Cases of Coconut Water for the Price of One--YUM!

I don't know how many coconut water afficionados are out there, but if you've read this blog for a while, you know that I am one. I use the refreshing and subtle beverage as one of my pre-Pilates drinks to minimize my muscle cramps.

But I just like it. :) Plain or with a pack of Splenda. Mmm.

(Though nothing beats fresh and chilled from the coconut itself, like I had a couple weeks ago when we drove to a nursery in South Miami, not to buy plants, but to get some chilled coconuts for the water.)

I also like how it's helpful in keeping blood pressure in the healthy range. (I like some salty convenience foods, like canned soup and mac-n-cheese, and I love cheese, and I try to drink coconut water when I have very salty stuff to ease the bloat effects.)

Well, amazon.com has a special on one of their in-stock brands of coconut water. Even though I got a case today of my usual Zico coconut water, I placed an order for this, cause I figure--two times the water for the price of one? I'm not missing that.

Besides, I am curious to see what tangerine puree does to coconut water. (The free case is of the tangerine flavored one.)

Interested? Visit HERE. Follow the directions exactly to get the $21 dollars off.

Note: I haven't tried this brand--Vita Coco--but like the two I've tried from amazon.com (Zico, ONE), they come from Brazil and (except for flavored versions) state they are 100% coconut water.

~

An Epiphany About Numbers

Most of us have our "ideal" number (the weight we'd love to be if a genie granted us our wish) and our "goal" number (the healthy number we'd like to get to, even if it's not thin-thin). Sometimes, we also have to learn, by experience and trial and error, that we can get to a happy weight that is neither the ideal nor the goal weight we originally envisioned. And it can still work.

Jennette of Half of Me has gotten to and, most importantly, accepted her happy weight:

When I started this journey back in...the stone ages? The bronze age? Okay, maybe it was just 2005. I set 160 as my goal weight because I wanted a number to aim for, 160 fell in the "normal" BMI range and it ended in a 0. Since June of 2007, I've been hovering below or above 180. Sometimes I've been really psyched to get to 160, charting out how many months it will take if I lose a pound every week. Sometimes I've looked at 175 on the scale in the morning and thought, "I'll have a chocolate éclair for breakfast!"

So, let's scratch out that "160" next to my goal weight because I. AM. DONE. 180 is my happy weight. I can run 3 miles without stopping. I can buy normal clothes. My health is pretty damn good, most things considered. My weight is not the first thing people notice about me...unless I'm walking into a book signing. Life is good and I haven't given a shit about getting to 160 for months

Yay for Jennette!

(Coincidentally, that "160" is my goal weight, too. It is a sobering observation that my weight goal is one that would send most women howling wildly to grab diet pills if they saw it on their scales, especially women in Hollywood or South Beach!)

I, being not at all close to my happy number, goal number ideal number (and etc), should never ever get on a scale the day after eating Chinese food. I should learn this lesson by now. It's fricken scary.

Bloat Troll: Ruby Tuesdays & Sodium

Seems like several of my blogging fatfighter friends have had battles with the Bloat Troll lately. I had my defeat yesterday and this morning. But today and tomorrow, I'm kicking troll butt.

First, some context.

My scale readings were really nice in the days before TUESDAY. Down in the 279's. Even went as far down as 278.4. :) But, hubby and I were out of the house all day yesterday--I got my hair cut and dyed, he got his trimmed, lunch out with sister, major groceries run. Then I got home, made my low-WW-points soup batch, we had dinner. And I fell asleep on the couch. I vaguely remember hubby putting a pillow under my head. I was zonked. (Had only slept about 5 hours the night before.)

Note: I didn't drink extra water to compensate, cause 1. at the hairdresser's, I didn't drink ANY. At Ruby Tuesdays, the water tasted awful, left it behind. And at home, I fell asleep watching DAMAGES. I drank my usual 8 glasses and not much more. Sigh.

Now, back to ground zero: Lunch out with sis and hubby at Ruby Tuesdays. I knew ahead of time that wherever we ended up going, I wanted someplace I could get lots of veggies. Fill-me-up veggies. R.T.'s is good, cause they have a salad bar--as long as I stay away from the blue cheese dressing.

Blue cheese dressing. This is one of my "I have no control" foods. So, it's best avoided. If I don't avoid it, I end up ladling it on top like a madwoman, so that I end up less with salad and more with some sort of chilled soup. Only slightly exaggerating there.

Valiantly, I piled my plate high with the non-fat/non-junk items (ie, colorful greens and veggies and a bit of chick peas for legumey fiberness) and skipped the potato salad and other mayonaissey stuff. I put a bit of Italian dressing on half, and a bit of lite ranch on the other.

I also got the white bean chicken chili, cause Scale Junkie had a white bean chili recipe recenty and gave me a craving. And my sis had the artichoke and spinach dip with tortilla chips. I had 8 chips. I counted them out.

The salad was yummy. The beans had a lovely consistently (didn't eat the chicken, cause I am not big on chicken in soup). The chips with minimal amount of dip were crispy and tasty. But the sodium tally was startling.

Here's the thing: Hubby and I used to dine out nearly every night. This will explain part of my balooning up to giganto size. Eating out tends to be very bad for the lipid profile and the hip size. Restaurants don't watch oil use or portions for you. And they certainly don't watch the salt. Even at one of my fave local diners--a "gourmet" one that serves French food--the soups are overloaded with salt. I have no idea why. Makes no sense. To the chefs: If you're making fresh soup with fresh veggies, why the heck do you salt it like it needs to last the winter?

During the last month, I've been getting food delivered daily (at about 3 in the am, which is wreaking havoc with my sleep schedule), and it's mostly low-salt and assuredly low-fat and definitely portion-controlled. It has affected my sensitivity to salt, I realized.

Yesterday, with my first spoonful, I noticed how very salty the Ruby Tuesdays stuff is. I hadn't really noticed before, ya know. When you eat out all the time, you get used to the huge salt factor.

But I haven't been eating out all the time in restaurants. Not for weeks.

There I was, 4 in the pm, slurping up chili and gobbling down green peppers and cucumbers and romaine lettuce and beets with non-cheesy dressings, and my tongue noticed that the Bonneville Salt Flats had relocated to my mouth. And my mind was rolling one phrase over and over: "This is totally gonna kill me on the scales for the challenge weigh-in."

Now, this morning: Mr. Tanita says 282.4

Lovely. I am officially pissed at salt. And I've got a general grudge for the irresponsible salt content of American restaurant items. No wonder we've got an epidemic of high blood pressure.

Anyway, I'll be hitting the papaya and coconut water and clementines today to try and debloat some. And next week I'm into PMS time (maybe, er, perimenopause allowing). Which means water retention and salty cravings. So, even more important to get the current bloat out of the way.

So, there. A crap weigh-in. But I'm not upset. Even with eating out yesterday and those non-diet dressings, and even with going 300 calories over my maximum diet calorie count, I know I didn't eat anywhere near enough to gain 3 pounds. I did, however, swallow a good portion of the Atlantic's salt content. :::shrug:::

I think while nutritional activists are out to kill trans fats and reduce portions in eateries, they need to focus on salt, too. There is no reason a perfectly good chili or salad dressing needs to be salted to the max. None. Make it good and make it low-sodium, I say.

There's my first weigh-in for the Look Great in 2008 Challenge.

Now, let me slosh my way over to the fruit bowl and water jug...:::bloop, bloop, gurgle, burble:::: That's the only way I know to safely fend off a Bloat Troll.

Note: I have some commitments today that will keep me busy, but Zanitta, I'll try and post that recipe you requested--and I am a crap cook, beware--as soon as I can. Happy Wednesday fatfighters!!! And make sure to visit the anti-Kimkins brigade for some startling updates and to add your prayers to those for Christin.

Quickie Weight Update: Red Guest Arrives

Well, the Red Guest arrived, so that weigh-in yesterday (284.0) was indeed a visit from the Bloat Troll.

Here's today's number:

281.5

Next weigh-in will be on my spanking new Tanita scale that I ordered from Drugstore.Com.

I needed one that was wider, sturdier, and with easier to read numbers. I was getting wrinkles from squinting at the read-out on my current one. And I was always at risk of topping off it. On the plus side, it reads in .2 increments, not just .5. A bit of refining in the measurements.

Oh, and I measured my waist and hips today. One inch off both since I added my measurements to the sidebar. Progress!

I want to do much better for next weigh-in. All cheers and "go, go, go's" and prayers welcome.


Well, I have low-fat waffles with applesauce and egg whites on the menu for breakfast. Off I go.

Be kind to your spirit and body today. Support another dieter today. Read an encouraging Psalm or poem. Go outside and look at the sky and see how beautiful the creation of God is. Tell yourself today--several times!--that you are worthy of reaching your dreams of health and slenderness and that success will come to you. You are worthy. God created you to blossom and spread joy and hope to everyone.

Onward and Downward!

CCC, Me, Salt Orgies, and the Bloat Troll

Seems like it's a bloaty week in the FatFighter community.

CCC posted about her tight rings and bloat issues, and how it affected her weigh-in.

Well, Friday, I'm surprised someone didn't show up at my door with a dowsing rod pointing right at my torso, and a team of well-diggers right behind insisting they'd STRUCK THE MOTHER OF ALL WELLS!

I put on, overnight, FOUR POUNDS of waterweight gain. How do I know it was waterweight? Oh, please. No one gains four pounds of blubber overnight. Heh.

No, it was a salty bowl of soup at lunch and a salty cup of chili at dinner with some salty tortilla chips and BAZOOM, there she blows.

Yeah, I woke up the day after the Salt Orgy, and it was like the Hydro Fairy had whacked me on the head while I slept. Rings tight. Eyelids poofy. Shoes snug. Ankles heaving out to there.

My poor, poor kidneys.

It's not good for the body to have so much salt. Certainly not mine. My blood pressure went up a bit--from my usual 120/80 to 135/80--from the salty overload and fluid retention. Horrible!

So, no hot dogs this Memorial Day weekned. No tortilla chips and salsa, no matter how carefully measured out. No sodium-heavy soups. But just don't ask me to give up cheese. It's , as John Malkovich says in DANGEROUS LIAISONS, "beyond my control."

We all have our non-negotiables. For some, it's that half-cup of ice cream at night; for others, it's a piece of chocolate after lunch; for others, it's cream in the coffee. The Princess must have a daily dose of some kinda cheese. I can make it low-fat, sure, and I can make it reduced-sodium, but you know cheese is never going to be nice without a good portion of its salt content. Just how it is.

But balance is king. Or Queen. And bloat can be slain, like any nasty troll. Yes, this weekend, I'm slurping smoothies and munching on fruit to get potassium into the Princess systerm in order to help my beleaguered kidneys drain me of the excess fluid.

I imagine I'll be extra chummy with the bathroom. :::flush:::

Anyway, best of luck to CCC in the post-bloat weigh-in (watch her lose like 3 or 4 pounds, watch.)

And, between restful naps, home chores, family gatherings, and shopping this Memorial Day holiday, may we stop and remember the fallen, those who died so that we can enjoy all the blessings and security and freedom that we have in this land. Freedom's not free. Someone fought for it. Some fought to their deaths.

Remember and be grateful.