Take Out Chinese Failure

BroiledNotFried

I ordered Szechuan Tofu with Veggies.

I measured. 1/2 cup rice and 1/2 cup of the szechuan tofu.

This is just a little bit of food.

About 451 calories (I estimated w Szechuan sauce, fried tofu and rice).

But, the sodium is over 4,000! Puts my daily total at over 6,000 mg.

I am drinking water. h20, h20, h20

carp68

I feel for you. I posted a couple of weeks ago about ordering veggie lasagna out at a restaurant and finding out later that it was darn near the WORST item I could have eaten.

Nothing to do but take it as a learning experience and stay the course.

jdcole67

I love Chinese take-out and even when you eat primarily veggies, the sauces they use are just loaded with sodium...like you, I double up on the water and just make sure I don't eat it too often...one meal won't wreck you, but just make sure you don't indulge too often...I hate giving up any type of food, since it just leads to cravings down the road, so I just make sure I moderate the frequency of eating it...

sdirks

I feel your pain! I wouldn't let myself order take out for a long time--then I found a sushi place that would make me a side of steamed veggies, no salt and no sauce, for $3. God bless them, right?!? The sushi rice is still made with salt--it has to be or it wouldn't hold together--but at least I can control the amount of salt I'm getting.

Eating out nearly anywhere gets you insane amounts of sodium. One more reason to cook at home in big batches and freeze everything for a rainy (or just lazy) day, right?

BroiledNotFried

Yeah, last night my husband treated me to a fancy steakhouse (national chain). I did stay within limits by getting the salmon....but I found out that the small amount of rice pilaf had over 1,200 mg of sodium in it! That's 5 pickles!

caterpillardreams

I love to eat out as well but I find that learning how to cook those meals gets you more pleasure and you can alter recipes to fit your fitness goals. My family and I have been eating out less because of financial reasons at first but then once you begin eating good food at home, that take out stuff is not as appealing. Trust me, and online you can find so many recipes its amazing. I say do not give up Chinese food, just learn how to make it and you will be better for it.

mworld

when you messup on sodium, a good thing to do is try and boost your intake of potassium rich foods to balance out the spike

BroiledNotFried

I am a stay at home mom and get to eat out about once a week. This weekend, we did it three times. We were out & about, getting ready for P90x. I'll eat a banana today.