Today is my birthday and, after nearly two years of basically starving myself on my angioplasty-induced low-fat, low-salt diet, I’m splurging today on some of my old, unhealthy favorites.
Pictured here is how I started my birthday, which I had taken a day off from work for. Wise potato chips are the chips of my youth in New York and still the best in the country, in my estimation. They remain thin, crispy and with just the right hint of oily lusciousness. It is difficult for me to resist buying them now that they’re sold in the Chicago area where I now live too. So today, I gave in and grabbed a bag. 
Of the seven ounces in the bag, I likely ate five in one sitting. That’s 750 calories and 50 grams of fat, plus 800 mgs of sodium! I easily could have finished the bag but resisted.
Next I bought a giant, frosting-covered chocolate chip cookie. I used to routinely buy these for birthdays, parties and special occasions but can’t remember when we last had one in our house. I ate about a third of that in one sitting, estimating the calories for that at 770 with 38 grams of fat and 577 mgs of sodium.
So without eating anything else so far, I’m already at 99 grams of fat, roughly two and a half days worth on my new restricted diet, and 1,490 mgs of sodium, my daily limit.
Tonight, its Chinese food, which will surely double or triple my sodium intake for the day, and chocolate layer cake, which will likely add another 50% to my fat content. Then tomorrow, it’s back to being an old man on a restricted diet.
John
The No Salt, No Fat, No Sugar Journal 