Sodium

Is it causing a problem? Do you feel you are retaining water?

If you are eating a diet of whole, unprocessed foods and drinking adequate water, and you don't have a medical problem, there is no need to worry.

Focus on getting enough of your macronutrients and eating your 1200 calories plus your exercise calories, and you will experience success in weight loss.

What have you set your sodium limit to? Mine is 1500 mg/day. I set it low because I do not like salt, not for any medical reason. I may exceed it occasionally, but typically only when I go out to eat.

Over the years, I found that gradually reducing my sodium intake, especially by reducing and eventually eliminating "added" salt (sprinkled on popcorn, etc.), my taste for salt decreased and I actually prefer less salt.

Some things that I do:

#1 and most important: I ALWAYS MEASURE. If I don't measure it, I don't have a good idea how much I'm adding. (For me it's a little easier because I only add a small amount due to my distaste for salty foods.)

2. Do not add salt to anything unless it absolutely needs it (for me, that's oatmeal). I add 1/16th tsp of salt to my morning "Old Fashioned" oatmeal (295 mg sodium).

3. Purchase fresh vegetables, or sodium-free canned/frozen veggies. I might add a little salt to these to enhance the flavor a little, but not nearly the amount that would be present if they were processed with salt. Usually I like them just as they are--without salt.

4. Try salt-free vegetable juice. My grocery store has a store brand that has no added sodium. V8 tastes like the Great Salt Lake to me by comparison.

It isn't easy to reduce sodium intake, but the good thing is that there are more sodium-reduced or -free products available in our stores. When in doubt, buy it fresh.

I've been having the same problem too. I've just started playing with food choices to try to stay under or at most a few hundred above.

I've also just been trying to watch the content, and switch some choices. Like dry beans barely have any, but canned beans do. Still haven't quite gotten the hang of it yet, though...