hi mary, i don't think there is a lot of sodium in the packets, which is why we are required to take the sea salt every day. but the sea salt that we use is not supposed to retain water, it is supposed to help flush water, while keeping the blood pressure from dropping too low. i used to have type II hypertension. it was so bad that i was put on serious BP meds at the age of 28. with this diet, my blood pressure is usually around 117/70, which i excellent for me. no more BP meds!

are you taking the omega 3s? if not, i highly recommend them for your arthritis. i find that they help tremendously with my joint pain. i no longer have to take my prescription ibuprofin or naproxen. it takes a good month for them to build up in your system and fully kick in, but it is well worth the wait.

where are you in your cycle? perhaps you are retaining water from that? give it a week and if it doesn't get better, talk to your doctor about it.

Longdivision reply
 

Are you talking about Fish oil? I take flaxseed oil tablets, vitamin D, and E. I know I have fish oil that I could take if you think it's important too. My husband has a huge supply of Mega Red (he went crazy cuz it was on sale at Walgreens)

So looking forward to starting this tomorrow! Weigh-in Wednesday is a good day for me to start new things!

here is an article that my coach wrote about omega 3s. i think this should be helpful. you should be getting your O3s from multiple sources, so just flax isn't enough. you could take multiple pills, or you could switch to one that includes multiple high grade sources. i use nutri-west. it has seriously done wonderful things for me. it's a bit on the expensive side, but my skin looks really nice and my terrible knee pain is almost non-existant, so i think it is worth it.

Nutri-West
 

Thanks for the advice, I'll check it out tonight.
Mary

Great article! Now I know that I should take them all at night instead of the morning. Thanks for info!

My day is going good so far. I will post my food journal this evening. Need to work on getting my vitamins in. This is sooo much easier for me when you are dealing with a group that has a no cheat attitude (at least for this week)

Ok I am in, but I have to start tomorrow, since I had a bar today for lunch.

I thought this was a good article (and that you must have a good coach, envy, envy). But the teaser at the end kind of spoils it: "To make Omega 3s more effective in your body you will also need to take the co-factors (vitamins and anti-oxidants) that assist the assimilation process. Be consistent because to change your omega fat ratio will take about 2-3 months to change your body chemistry." What specifically is meant by "co-factors"? Do you know???

Hi Mary. My eyes popped a little when I read "I drink way more than 1/2 my body weight daily." Why? Drinking too much water is almost as bad as drinking too little, especially if you drink a lot of water at once. Please check this out, OK?: http://chemistry.about.com/cs/5/f/blwaterintox.htm

Oops, an edit: There is a LOT of sodium in the soups although I haven't seen the stats on the new tomato soup because it became available after I moved to Germany. I have a sheet than has fairly complete nutritional values for all the standard packets. Unfortunately I can't figure out how to attach it. Maybe someone else can help? [It really should be updated and put in the Phases or Newbie stickies?]

1/2 ounce per body weight plus 10 ounces is ENOUGH.

I am not quite following the 1/2 your body weight in water. So if I currently weigh 160, then half of my weight is 80 lbs - so is it ounces (80 oz)? I presume this is correct because there is no way it could be the other way around unless it is 80 lbs a week, but even that is kind of a stretch.

Yes. That's correct. Plus add an additional 10oz

Clarification and daily food
 

I have always been a big fluid drinker, so 90 oz really isn't that much when you include the decaf coffee and decaf ice tea in the mix.
Sorry if I made you think I was drinking 90 lbs. of fluid!:D

Food journal for today.
Breakfast--Capachino
lunch -- 2 stalks of celery, 1/2 green pepper, 1 hunk of cauliflower and 1 chocolate pudding
supper--2/3 grilled chicken breast, 1 turnip mashed with s&p. (yes I had the salt)
Bedtime snack is in the freezer. Chocolate and vanilla pudding.
1/2 tonight and 1/2 for the morning. I have to add a big bowl of lettuce with EVOO and vinegar to tonights food. I was still hungry and my huband came home hungry, so I made him BLT's, and hey, the lettuce was clean. So now it's gone!

Luckily my hubby is at a meeting tonight so I didn't have to cook for him.
I also took all my vitamins.

the ones i take are called "complete omega3 co-factors" by nutri-west. they contain b12, c, b2, b6, folic acid, magnesium, and selenium. you take them along with the omega 3s and they allow your body to absorb the maximum amount of omega 3s. hope that helps.

I think I am done eating for the say.

Breakfast. Strawberry Drink

Lunch. 6.5 oz steak spinach. Salad. WF dressing. Evoo

Snack. Turnip fries. Chocolate drink. salad. WF dressing. EVOO

Dinner. Crispy cereal pancake. WF syrup. 1/4 two of baking powder. 1 egg white (actually have ? as to how ti count the egg whites) I'm nutritnally challenged

20 more oz of water to go for the evening.

Stinko
 

I had that mashed turnip for supper and it was pretty good!
However that said. I went out to get some firewood and when I came back inside I was hit with this foul odor! Turnips STINK!:barf: