Eating more without going over my sodium intake?

twinmomtwice4

I've increased my calories to 1500 and I'm eating more clean foods, less processed stuff. But I'm noticing that even in the homemade stuff, there's still lots of sodium. Less than processed of course but still a big amount.

So how do you all manage to eat more calories without going over your daily limit of sodium??

ETA: My diary is open if you anyone wants to take a look and give me some pointers! Thanks!

ladyfingers39

I find this very hard also! I'm sure you have read some of my frustration with sodium in the past few days

I look at every label now before I eat it. No more lunch meat for me, that's for sure. Raw nuts is a good one. Fruit! I will look forward to others responses.

gemiwing

Here's what has helped me-

Eliminate canned food unless 'no salt added'.
Evaluate bread products (breads/bagels/pizza crust) for sodium content- compare labels in the store.
Skip lunchmeats- even low sodium ones are too high
Use salt alternative (morton's or NoSalt are good) for cooking
Skip any-pre flavored foods- this means hamburger helpers, chili, beef stew, raw/frozen chicken, hamburgers and chicken nuggets.

I love chicken- the frozen chicken from Tyson had TONS more sodium than the ones from Purdue. So now I buy Purdue.
I love hamburgers- so I buy hamburger meat and patty my own. Takes five minutes tops.
Ezekiel has a low sodium bread that is passably tasty- I no longer eat bread at all but when I did it was fairly good as toast.

Your diary is the best tool really- if you notice a food you like has too much sodium then finding a specific workaround is easier than trying to rehaul the whole system at once. Baby steps are ok- plus your sodium didn't look that high in your journal- did I not go back far enough? Usually unless someone has heart disease, sodium between 2000 and 2500 is fine.

twinmomtwice4

Thanks for the responses and the feedback!

Guess I gotta give up some of the lunch meats!!!

My sodium intake usually doesn't go over 2500 and I don't have high blood pressure so I guess I'll just continue to keep an eye on it and make sure I'm making healthy choices.

JMarigold

I use quite a bit of chicken broth in my cooking and I found that I could find very low sodium chicken broth at the store if I looked. Before that even the lower sodium chicken broth had 500 mg per cup. Now I have one that has 75 mg per cup.

I also found that some of my seasoning mixes/dry soups were the culprit. So I've switched to using either the seasonings separately or the Mrs. Dash No Salt seasoning mixes.

You can find lunch meats with lower sodium, but it will still be pretty high.

Cheese also tends to be pretty high sodium. But I'm not giving up my cheese.

Diet drinks also have sodium (mostly) if you drink those.

I've cut out diet drinks. By reducing my sodium a lot in most other areas I've found I can still get in the foods I love (like cheese) that are higher sodium.

gemiwing

Cheese also tends to be pretty high sodium. But I'm not giving up my cheese.

... By reducing my sodium a lot in most other areas I've found I can still get in the foods I love (like cheese) that are higher sodium.

Here! Here! You can have my cheese when you pry it out of my cold dead hand! :laugh:

twinmomtwice4

Hahahha, I'm not giving up cheese either!! It's worth every mg of sodium!!!!

krissypea79

I just decided to start really watching my sodium as well. It's amazing how it adds up, that's without eating bread, pasta, anything boxed, canned or processed!! Here I was thinking I had found the perfect product to use with every meal - those little Laughing Cow cheese wedges, but yikes, at 220mg a pop, I can only afford them once a day, if that.

I have begun my quest to find healthy foods that will keep me under 1500-2000 a day (going to try anyways!!!). So far, for all you cheese lovers - it's an acquired taste, but if you like it, you will be happy to know that 1-ounce of goat cheese only has 45mg of sodium in it!!! I was very excited to find that out!!

I read that Boar's Head makes a natural roast beef that has something like 135mg sodium for 2-ounces - significantly less than other deli meat! I've been eating the Hormel natural deli meat with no nitrites or nitrates, but they are not lower in sodium.

Butternut squash is a delicious veggie that you can do a ton with, and it only has 2mg of sodium per half cup!!!!! Awesome!!!

Just a few ideas to add to the usual ones like chicken, fish, veggies, etc....it really is amazing where you'll find sodium - I had no idea it was in celery!!!!

Good luck everyone!

JMarigold

Cheese also tends to be pretty high sodium. But I'm not giving up my cheese.

... By reducing my sodium a lot in most other areas I've found I can still get in the foods I love (like cheese) that are higher sodium.

Here! Here! You can have my cheese when you pry it out of my cold dead hand! :laugh:

No kidding!!!!