Sodium...

As you say, stop adding salt in cooking, and try to cook your meals from scratch with fresh ingredients, you'll find sodium mainly in preprepared convenience foods and fast food.

Sodium isn't as bad as people think it is. Generally it won't effect your BF%.

Sodium isn't as bad as people think it is. Generally it won't effect your BF%.

Sodium makes you swell and retain water. It also is a culprit for elevating blood pressure to unhealthy levels if BP is an issue for you... and many folks don't know as HBP is the silent killer.

I use NoSalt and various spices. Don't buy fast food, canned soup or processed foods.

Good Lord, I can't help but go WAY over my sodium limit. Any suggestions to quell this savage beast?

Bacon and processed meats, hard cheese, canned soups, bread, seasonings, almost anything processed/ with an ingredients list .... pick your battles, if you adore bacon cut back or out on the others and have small servings. Buy some reduced/ low salt seasonings - you can get stock cubes, bouillon powder, yeast extract, soy sauce, plain tomato paste, spice blends all come in lower sodium versions. Then make food from scratch in bulk to save effort. I never add salt to anything, I add a no salt or reduced salt seasoning so there is a ton of flavour and only a little sodium. Many times salt and sugar is added to ready made food because the ingredients are so poor it would not have flavour otherwise.

You don't need energy drinks packed with man made chemicals, you need carbs and electrolytes from real food. If you are lacking in energy you are training too hard/ not resting enough, not eating a balanced diet, have an underlying illness that needs diagnosing and treating. Make your own sausage patties with plain ground meat and low salt seasonings, or have half a serving of the sausage plus some plain cooked omega-enriched eggs for more protein. You can do the same with bacon and cheese, always combine a small serving with a low sodium protein like plain chicken.

Also my biggest issue. Frozen meals and veggies get me. My lifestyle makes it tough to have prepared meals.

Ya, it's tough to do if you don't cook from fresh. I can find bags of frozen veggies that are low Na though...

Funny thing salt. Turns out I need it to survive. I had already gone the way of not adding salt to meals for the most part, I avoid salty snacks out of habit due to the fact that they are just empty calories, and I really made sure not to have any but what is naturally in the food itself (meat, eggs poultry all have sodium in them naturally). I became lightheaded, dizzy, etc, and did more reading on the subject before pinpointing my problem. I'm on the low side of blood pressure, if I restrict my salt too much, my blood pressure sinks even more. Plus I live in Florida where often the mere act of getting out of bed can cause you to break out in a sweat, turns out I needed more salt.

I don't go hog wild with it, I will add it to water for cooking pasta, when I allow myself pasta, sometimes a dish just needs a dash of salt, I have low sodium products if available, like turkey bacon, and when I'm feeling that low I have a serving of original V8 as my energy pick me up.

I generally cook with all flavors of Mrs Dash, and there is an herb blend called Herbs de Provance that works great on poultry and pork. I will cook with those, then only add salt to the finished meal, AFTER tasting it first to see if it needs any.