Day 25 – So Much Gain In One Day?

Yesterday is one of the days in the week that I do not workout. I have five days every week that are available to me to schedule a workout and there are two days that have such time constraints that a workout is out of the question. So yesterday was one of the “time constraint” days with no workout. I would think that in one day I could “hold the line” and at least maintain the weight loss achieved to date, but no. I got on the scale and was surprised that I had gained 3 pounds! After a gain of one pound the day before I am looking down the barrel of a four pound gain in just two days! Plus tomorrow I will be posting my gain/loss for the week and it’s not looking good at this point. Just to break even for the week, I will need a 3 pound loss by the morning. Maybe if I cut my left arm off I can squeak by…but do I need the whole arm or just the hand?

So what went wrong? I already bought a new scale and I even bought a new battery for it. But is the scale just messin’ with me? After all, we don’t have the best relationship… I step on its face every day and it lies to me so maybe the scale can’t be trusted...hum.

Look what this weight loss struggle has done to me! I am beginning to see inanimate objects as evil creatures!

Let’s take a look at what might have happened to me. I can accept the one pound gain on day 24. After all, a little fluctuation is understandable. So looking at yesterday’s diet I know there was a change from my “normal” fare. Breakfast was the same: Mini-Wheat cereal with low-fat milk and a small banana. Lunch was different though. I had an appointment to meet with a friend for lunch. We went to Panda Express and I had Chow Mien, Black Pepper Chicken, and String Bean Chicken. So yummy! Now I am looking at the Panda Express web site to see the nutritional info for the items I selected, so let’s take a deep look at what I ate.

Chow Mien: 440 calories with 14 g of fat; 1,050 mg of sodium.
Black Pepper Chicken: 215 calories with 13 g of fat; 880 mg of sodium.
String Bean Chicken: 190 calories with 9.5 g of fat; 650 mg of sodium.

Totals: 845 calories with 36.5 grams of fat and 2,580 milligrams of sodium.
These are huge numbers! And this is perceived as a healthy fast-food restaurant. I took another look at the menu and nutrition information to see if I could find better choices for the next time I go to Panda Express. It turns out that I don’t eat the worst stuff but I could do much better. So the next time I go to Panda Express I will ask for the following menu items.

Steamed Rice: 430 calories with 3 g of fat; 35 mg of sodium.
Mixed Veggies: 140 calories with 11 g of fat; 165 mg of sodium.
Broccoli Beef: 170 calories with 8 g of fat; 570 mg of sodium.
Totaling: 740 calories with 22 g of fat; 770 mg of sodium.

By making some simple selection changes I could have reduced the calories, fat, and sodium by the following numbers.

Reduced calories by 105
Reduced fat by 14.5 grams.
Reduced sodium by 1,810 milligrams.

However, story about my food choices is not over. Last night we went to a friend’s house for dinner and had tacos. But of course, I was hungry when we got there and I totally lost count of the number of chips I ate before the tacos were ready! I did manage to limit my self to two tacos made on the smallest tortillas. Then to finish my gluttony for the day I had three cookies.

OK. Maybe no real surprise how I gained three pounds. Back to the normal diet and definitely back to the gym today!