There is a saying, “when you are overweight, even drinking water adds on weight,” and it was a feeling I agreed with at one point in time. About two years ago, my BMI index was on the overweight side, and my allergies were taking a toll on my personal life. This is when my husband and I decided to make some changes to our lifestyle. We thought we were eating healthy, so it was confusing as we could not put a finger on what made me overweight. We decided it was time for us to research more.
For most people, the high sugar content of the food consumed tends to make them overweight. In my case, I did not consume high sugar content food, so I had to determine what was causing my weight problem. After a lot of research on the Internet, I decided to try and reduce the sodium content of my food and see if that worked.
We decided to pay more attention to the sodium content in the food we consumed on a regular basis, like bread. My favorite foods to eat are MOMOs, traditional Nepali dumplings with ground organic chicken, vegetables in a wonton wrap and steamed for 20 minutes in a steamer specifically designed for that purpose…it all sounds healthy, right? It is! But what I did not realize was the fact that they all had a high sodium content, which added calories to my diet.
Small things like these added to my calorie intake and made me gain and retain my weight. Then I decided to look for the sodium content of each processed food/product that I consumed. I found that many processed foods contain (to my knowledge) high amounts of sodium to preserve them. I made changes accordingly.
Did you know that, on average, whole wheat bread brands have 240 to 400 mg of sodium per slice? Due to this, I decided to make my own bread and I have not had store-bought bread since! I realized that these changes were easy, non-time consuming, and only a small change had to be made. I looked for food with low sodium content, making sure not to get anything that had more than 8% sodium. With these seemingly small steps, I slowly but surely started getting back to my ideal weight, and my allergies got much better.
I just wanted to share this with as many people as possible, hoping that it is an initiative for someone to start. Like they say, “those who move mountains must start by removing the stones.” With the past two years, I have had food I love and maintained a healthy weight.
