Day 23 - Too Much Of A Good Thing Is Morbidly Hilarious

Not paying attention to my daily weigh-ins is tough when the number stays stagnant or increases. But, that one critical moment per week is when it really matters, so I'm not thinking about my weight at this point. Though, I may have some insight into those fluctuations...

My naturopath had given me a tip a while back, to take a few spoonfuls of ground flax around mealtime to help me feel satiated. As I've mentioned before, I have a hard time getting to the point of feeling "full", so any help in that regard was welcome. Sure enough, the ground flax delayed my "need to feed" for longer than usual. Incorporating it into my daily routine was simple as it's a very inexpensive product ($0.12/100g), and it's fairly pleasant to eat, apart from the dryness. Also a good source of fibre and Omega fats, I would rarely go without a daily dosage. As I began to grow accustomed to it's fibrous abilities, I slowly increased the amounts I'd be taking in during the day. My daily portion had topped out at around 1 cup (168g) per day. For Day 23, I had unintentionally filled up my container a little more than usual, around the 250g mark. "No big deal, it's only flaxseed.", I thought. Near the end of the day, feeling quite full of flax, I decided to check out the nutritional information on NutritionData.com. "Flaxseed........ok, there it is........one serving, ground flaxseed........37 calories, 3g of fat.........hmm, not too bad at all.", my eyes moved upward to gaze upon a little tiny number at the top of the chart, ".....Serving Size 7g...........wait.....WHA?!?!?!?!?".

That's right, folks, and I'll do the math for you. My average flax intake for the day would yield 888 calories and 72g of fat. And though it's the "good" kind of fat, that's still about 120% of my daily fat intake. For the flax ALONE. Also considering I'd like to keep my daily calorie intake around the 1500 mark, that's almost 60% of my daily calories right there. I'm normally pretty diligent about researching this sort of thing, but it must have slipped right by me all those years ago. Oh, and for those keeping score at home, my most recent serving worked out to 1325 calories and 107g of fat. All I could do was laugh. A lot.

The evening consisted of some cooking, a little computer project, and catching the tail end of The Biggest Loser. I'm not much for reality TV, or TV in general, but that show obviously hits home for me. If you look past the countless instances of forced suspense and well placed advertisements, there's real human emotion to be found under it's glossy corporate exterior. I realize it's horribly cliché, but they really inspired me to work even harder at bettering myself. I hopped on and extended my usual treadmill variations with an additional 5min run, returning to the mat yet again for my regular session, (45min/2.75mi, 400/30/30). All in all, a productive day, though the entertainment unfortunately came at my expense once again. Blasted flaxseed...