This article originally appeared on http://www.justbento.com.
Practical and fun bento box tips and ideas, healthy bento recipes from Japan and the world. Brought to you by Makiko Itoh of Just Hungry.
Hello from Columbus Ohio
posted by mooncake on Tue, 2009-02-17 04:16
Hello, I'm Amy and I live in Columbus Ohio, and I've been lurking around this site for a while, but now I decided to try and join the forum. I hope I get a lot of nice ideas for more interesting lunches.
I was out of work for a good part of the year last year, and when I finally started working again, I didn't feel comfortable spending money on lunch. I'm in "training" mode, so my lunch is only 45 minutes, not enough time to go very far.
I started reading Just Bento, and I actively started making my lunches in an oblong Rubbermaid container. After a couple of months I bought a couple of boxes from Ichiban Kan and I haven't looked back. I initially wanted to use my boxed lunches to control my portions and lose some weight, and to just make my lunches so nice that I didn't mind not going out. It's been three months, and it's working so far.
Unfortunately, I was diagnosed with high blood pressure last month (it runs in my family, but the past few years of stress have probably hastened the process), so now I'm trying to cut back on salt. It's rough on a person that loves their soy sauce and Sriracha hot sauce, but I can get the flavor with less, and sometimes I spoil myself, because I know I can still make something nice and healthy to make up for it. Hopefully losing weight and making healthy meals will help get my condition under control. I make meals with or without meat, so I'm open to everything.
I hope I get to know all a little better.
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Hi Amy, lovely to meet you. We'll look forward to hearing how the blood pressure goes , and if weight loss helps it. Pity about the salt, but them's the breaks I suppose. Being able to eat it again would be a pretty good incentive for weight loss I'd think.
Bronwyn
My blog is Food and Shoes
Hi Amy, lovely to meet you. We'll look forward to hearing how the blood pressure goes , and if weight loss helps it. Pity about the salt, but them's the breaks I suppose. Being able to eat it again would be a pretty good incentive for weight loss I'd think.
It is...the funny part is that I've never been much of a salt junkie. I had stopped eating a lot of fast/junk food in the past year or so because it suddenly started to taste the salt to the point where I couldn't stand it anymore. At home I don't over salt either, so I probably need to drop a couple of sizes, and not let life get to me so much.
I've been halving my condiment intake (sauces are my weakness) and that's helped a lot. If I use them in a recipe, I figure out how much I can use so each serving doesn't taste drastically different, since some of the no salt added items I've tried just taste odd. A lot of them make up for the salt with sugar...can't win for losing :P
Thank you both for the welcome!
Maybe that too-much-salty-tastingness was your body telling you to stop eating it! I have low blood pressure myself, and have found myself using more and more salt as I get older. Not so much AS salt, but I like anchovies and olives and other salty things that I used to hate.
I thinking about that a few weeks ago. I remember when the my tastes started to change, I kept trying different restaurants, in different parts of town, and I wondered why they were salting everything so heavily...I'm very grateful that my body gave me such a big, obvious hint. It's been easier than I thought it would be, except for ketchup. Salt free ketchup just isn't the same.
Hi Amy! Welcome to the forum. :)
Hi Amy,
I know how you feel, My DH was diagnosed with Meneairs disease it an imbalance of the fluids in the innner ear, & one of the things we had to change was the salt intake, I stopped salting the cooking water for veggies & pasta, discovered the joy of fresh cracked papper, then I got diagnosed with HBP so I have to watch it even closer! I switched to Mrs. Dash for most of my salt needs, & I include a small portion of something specifically salty or Vinegary with every meal, usually pickles, or hot pepper rings so I dont miss salting my whole meal as much. Pickeled Purple cabbage is a god send, a little goes along way to satisfying that craving.
New Bento Enthusiast
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