My diet is the area that I improved the most on this year. Diet, along with exercise, is one item that you have control over in preventing future heart disease. I am now a regular reader of food nutritional information labels. These labels reveal a lot of amazing information about the product. Watch out for sodium! This pretty much eliminates packaged and frozen meals. No Hamburger Helper, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, Rice-a-Roni, etc. I don’t miss them.

Remember that your sodium limit for the day should be around 3500 mg (2400 mg for heart patients). Minimize fat grams and sugar. Good-bye donuts and cake. I admit I have one every Sunday and sneak one on a work goodie day. I also don’t miss these sweets. Round this out with 5 fruits/vegetables and 3 dairy a day to make the diet complete. It took me some effort to reach that goal.

Eating out poses an interesting challenge. If it’s a special night out, I cheat but am also cautious. I find the Applebee’s Weight Watchers items to be the best. I am glad one is close to home now. Even Outback has some good choices. Their Hearts of Gold Tilapia rocks. No more Taco Bell. They are on the “no” list. Again, I don’t miss them. I do Subway for their 6 grams of fat teriyaki chicken sandwiches and Arby’s for their Turkey Market sandwich.

The big revelation for me was Chipotle. Jason (OSRB) has posted a link to http://www.chipotlefan.com/ where you can calculate the nutrition label for your favorite burrito [Click on Nutrition Information]. I did and it was terrible. I used that calculator and tried variations. I quickly learned that it would be on my no-visit list. Thanks to Jason for that information. I urge you to go to that web site and check it out. I keep saying that I want to go wild and visit Chipotle, but every chance I get I back out. It is seriously so bad… sodium, fat, calories… you name it.

I am far from perfect on my diet. I still have issues on controlling portion size. We have been doing Dinner Plans where the meal portions are controlled. It helps a lot. I am down 15 pounds over all. I was down 31 pounds at the lowest. I am trying to get back to that weight. My goal is to turn my “B” into an “A” for next year.