Well, seven days later I weighed in again. I had only one item with a high probability of having HFCS, a “pepperoni dog” at the Orange Julius in the Seattle Center. (I also fudged at the coffee shop this morning, but that was after weigh in.) There was no other significant change in my diet. I ate other things with sugar, I ate out several times, I didn’t consciously change my calorie intake (aside from not drinking non-diet soft drinks), I didn’t get in anything more than incidental exercise.

The result?

I lost a pound, from 331 to 330. Which isn’t epic, but fits within recommended weightloss guidelines. We’ll find out in a few weeks if this is just a fluke. I did forget to weigh myself before I took my shower, which probably doesn’t make a huge difference but I like to have all the bases covered when I try to weigh in and feel like I’ve accomplished something.

I feel like I’m slimmer and have more energy, but I didn’t do any concrete assessment of that before I started this.

I had a couple moments of feeling ravenous and low blood sugar, including a spectacular moment on Monday on the bus. It started out as a feeling of over-caffeination: nausea, jitteriness, a bit of a headache. In retrospect it doesn’t make any sense, since I had less caffeine than normal that day. But from there all my symptoms became exponentially worse: I felt very dizzy and weak, I broke out into a horrible sweat and both of my hands went really tingly, like I’d stuck them in a vat of static electric bumblebees. It was awful. I managed to get off the bus, slowly walked the block home, had some water and a good meal and felt mostly better. Still weak, but otherwise fine.

I also learned a lot of things about educating yourself about nutrition when dealing with restaurants. Most places have the nutrition statistics (calories, protein, Vitamin D, whatever) posted on their site. Many will also have an allergy alert, but not all. And very few actually tell you the ingredients in their food. I imagine part of this is just inability: If they are a nationwide chain, they may vary slightly depending on local providers. But it’s still frustrating.

I have, however, discovered that the companies I’ve emailed so far have been good at answering whether they use HFCS. So far the main places we’ve cleared are Razzis Pizzeria and Jimmy Johns Subs. There’s another place I’ve emailed, but I’m drawing a blank.

Well, time for work. Talk at you guys later.