I'm accustomed to eating more.

I've read the books, perused the magazines, listened to the talk shows, even gone to a few Weight Watchers classes. I know that most Americans consume food portion sizes that are too large for their dietary needs.

I know this. But did I truly KNOW? Josh is working on losing weight to help obtain a healthier blood pressure, and since he is being food conscious, I am jumping on the bandwagon with him. I've gained my pre-wedding weight back, and I want to remove it again, and keep it off. Weight loss is a lifestyle choice, and over the past year my lifestyle has been lazy and indulgent.

Now, I'm not going overboard. You won't see me counting points or removing all carbs from my diet, or anything like that. Honestly, I never survive those types of things. But, you might hear me talk about more exercise, not eating late in the day, and reaching for an apple instead of a Fudge Round.

Today, I participated in reading labels at the grocery store. Josh is watching out for sodium. Not because he necessarily has to, but he knows it does affect blood pressure. It's startling how much sodium is in the food we eat. Many fast food meals contain half to over a daily amount of the recommended sodium intake.

I enjoy food too much. The main attraction for me & Josh when we go to Disney -- our breakfast, lunch, & dinner reservations. The topic in the car on the way home from work -- What's for dinner? I think about food a lot, and for good reason. Prepared the right way, it's delicious!

And, anything in moderation can be okay. But, my shocker for the afternoon is what I consider to be moderation, and what the nutrition label is telling me is moderation. Salsa is not too bad in the realm of things to eat; it's low in calories, fat, & carbs. It's only trouble is the sodium included in a lot of the store bought brands. And, of course, I like to eat it on tortilla chips, which obviously aren't as healthy. So, I go to make myself a snack, I decide to eat the recommended serving, and I decide to use our electronic food scale to figure out how much 33 g of salsa really is (about 2 TBSP). That 2 TBSP has 250 mg of sodium. Recommended for me would be about a maxium 2300 mg of sodium daily, and for someone with high blood pressure it's more like 1500 mg. After measuring out 33 mg, I looked at the nearly empty bowl, and I thought to myself, "Really? That's it?" And I thought about the restaurants where I eat much, much more of that when I'm waiting for my quesadilla, taco, or other Mexican treat to come out from the kitchen.

So, my lesson learned for this weekend is that I need to not just glance at the nutrition label, but actually ponder what it is telling me, because I might just be accustomed to eating more. I am going to have to program myself to actually eat in moderation, and not just think I am.