But I don't know how to fix it. I can't get into The Daily Plate right now for exact numbers but my sodium is super high ALL the time. (I'll get those numbers as soon as I can.) I always figured as long as I drink 3 32oz bottles of water a day it kinda cancels out. Maybe not!
I can't count calories AND sodium or I'll be a mess. Help me make this easier!
Last edited by LynseyLikes2Lose; 03-24-2009 at 12:58 PM.
Do you add salt to your foods or are the foods you are eating high in sodium naturally? I did a few things to cut down on my sodium:
1) no more added salt to prepared food, ever.
2) cut the salt requested in recipes to little or none
3) replace all of my seasoning blends with salt free versions or make my own blend with the component spices
4) replaced high sodium food items with lower sodium staple components
5) no salt added tortilla chips - sounds like a little thing, but I eat a lot of chips and salsa!
6) no frozen meals unless they are a last resort, buy only the low sodium options
7) lots and lots of water
8) rinse my salmon and tuna before eating
9) low sodium chicken broth
One of my downfalls is hot sauce - I love it and eat it on everything, I've found one with lower sodium per serving, but realize I'm going to get some from those sauces and I'm not willing to give them up. So, I had to give up the other sodium bombs to afford the hot sauce.
I can tell when I eat something with a lot of sodium - I'll hold onto five pounds of water overnight and then drop it in three to five days.
Last edited by Shannon in ATL; 03-24-2009 at 01:07 PM.
I never salt anything. I don't ever even lift the salt shaker at home. I do use a lot of garlic salt when I cook though. Which isn't good either I suppose. I also drink a ton of water. Most days it's well over 100oz.
Do you have Excel or a spreadsheet program?
I do my food journaling and calorie counting on Excel because then I can just highlight everything and hit "total". I can see my calories for the day, sodium, fat, carbs, protein, sugar, fiber, cholesterol, potassium, blah blah. It takes a little time to get started, but I eat generally the same kinds of things a lot so after a week or so I could just highlight from previous days and copy/paste. Not too bad at all.
I have a couple of heart-healthy cookbooks (one from the American Heart Association, the other from the Women's Heart Association [I think]) that have recipes that are super-low in sodium. As long as I eat food that I cooked from those recipes for lunch & dinner, I figure I'm OK.
That is quite a bit of sodium! I TRY to keep it to 1000mg a day, boy it's hard. Lots of sodium is bad for so many reasons. Yes, you hang onto water weight, and that slows down your metabolism, plus it just plain old makes you feel like you're not making any progress!
Working out consistently and drinking TONS of water (I try to do a gallon a day) helps.
I have the same problem, so now I don't put any salt in my cooking at all. I only use Garlic POWDER, Onion POWDER, paprika, and other herbs and spices when cooking. Season-All has less salt than Seasoned Salt; Use celery seed (and crush it) instead of celery salt; and so on. Or you can just make your own by mixing the above mentioned spices and adding a bit of black or white pepper to them.
Most things come in LOW-SODIUM versions now, so you should be able to find lots of them. Try to switch to fresh or frozen whole foods (meaning no sauces and such) as much as possible for most of your meals.
Something in your daily menu is very high in sodium; go over the individual foods and try to find the culprit(s); then find lower sodium substitutes for them. Hope this helps a bit ...
I think I have the same problem! I never eat pre-prepared foods, but when I cook, I'm pretty sure I add way too much salt. I love salty foods, and I do think I drink a lot of water, which may be why. I've also been on a plateau for the past week despite being within my calorie allowance every day, so I think I need to kick my salt habit... maybe it's making me retain water.
I guess gradually weaning myself down is the way to go. I really dislike food that hasn't been seasoned in some way, and I don't plan to cut it out altogether, but... I think I might have to start journalling the amounts of salt I add to things. I guess at least paying attention to it at first is better than ignoring it altogether. I've been totally ignoring salt throughout my diet, like you said, counting calories and sodium is a pain!
According to FitDay, my average sodium intake is 2,200mg per day... bear in mind that's only salt that's occurring in the food items I'm eating, not including any of the salt I've added into food (which is going to double/triple that, at least...). Actually, looking at that, I'm rather horrified. I put so much salt in my food, and if I've not even written that down and I'm already way over the limit, my actual intake must be pretty dreadful.
I must do something about this! I just think it's going to be so hard to un-develop my taste for salty, savoury food...
I live in Asia so everything has way too much salt in it. I thought it was IMPOSSIBLE to cut out salt but I picked the saltiest foods (processed) and figured out just as tasty replacements.
What are the foods you are eating that have the highest levels of sodium? I think it will be easy to offer suggestions when we know what you're eating.
Also when I ate very high sodium (sometimes in the 4000-range), I too stalled on my weight loss.
I used to eat those frozen meals every day for lunch because it was easier. When I noticed how high my sodium was I had to figure out a different plan. Now I might bring two hot dogs and cook them there, with apple sauce and cottage cheese on the side. Or tuna fish with rice cakes and fruit. Or left over chicken or turkey that I cooked myself. It hasn't been too hard and I do feel better. More satisfied too.
Oi, that is a lot of sodium...definitely a good idea to try and cut that down. The biggest offenders of sodium I can think of are...
- pre-made or frozen meals
- pickles
- cottage cheese
- canned soups
- chips
- fast food
- lunch meats
- cheese
- V8 juice
........
I think the biggest ones for me are that I eat a lot of turkey sandwiches, frozen "diet" meals, and I also eat a lot of cottage cheese. I'll have to do my best to make sure I'm under that 2400 mark at least 5 of the 7 days a week. What are some good quick lunches I can bring to work with less sodium? Mine are killing me I guess.
I think I've figured out the root of my problem.
