The sodium STRUGGLE is so real!!!

It's not nearly as daunting as it seems. You get used to doing more cooking, and finding ways of doing it simply, and once you've gotten into it, it just becomes part of your daily routine.

Low sodium is great once you get used to it.
For one thing, after a while all fast foods taste like a salt lick with cheese and tomato. This does curb the impulse to run to McD’s

Some useful things:

An instantpot. A dehydrator for dehydrating the onions and tomatoes and other veggies you then add to stews and other items for a pop of flavor. A garlic roaster.
Kikoman makes a decent low sodium soy sauce.
Amy’s (or maybe it’s Annie’s? I get them mixed up) makes a great canned half sodium refried beans.
Happy Pho brand makes an instant pho that is delicious and very low sodium. Replace ramen easily. Amazon has it. Three flavors, ginger, garlic, and mushroom.

If you are not sure where the sodium is coming from in your diet, if you open your diary, we can probably help you out with that (if youve been logging accurately).

this is one of those things that I just dont have a problem with (and I might be the only one in my entire family, but I'm also probably by far the healthiest person in my entire family). My sodium levels (aside from a random high level day occasionally) on my MFP charts are always WAY below the daily number and even in my bloodwork (done just monday) is lower than it 'should' be. not concernedly so, though. So, the bloodwork confirms the logging (the database itself is filled with inaccurate entries, so I dont go by that alone, I let my bloodwork confirm anything like that. ) There are very few things i make that I purposely ADD salt to. I just tend to use other seasonings and herbs. But I've always cooked like that. Which is why the nurse always does a double take at my blood pressure and asks me if i feel okay. My doctor knows I feel just fine LOL

Common items with high 'hidden' sodium

dining out
lunchmeat/deli meats/beef jerkey/ meat stick 'things'
Sausages (of any kind), bacon, pork (pretty sure pork tends to be higher sodium but you may want to verify that)
(most) condiments of any kind
cheese/cheese like substances (cheese whiz/nacho cheese dip/queso/etc)
frozen meals/frozen snacks (hot pockets, pizza rolls, other frozen snacks)
canned veggies/soups/canned items in general
many (if not most) prepared/convenience foods
snack foods in general (chips, pretzels, cookies, crackers, etc)
Breads (this one actually surprised me not long ago- for some odd reason I was tracking sodium in my diary at the time and had a really high day- the culprit was some sort of bread I had that day! dont remember what kind, now. For me it doesn't matter, but for someone where it does matter, it can be an issue)

Learn to look at/ read labels - per serving size (and if you eat more than one serving size calculate for that amount). Shop the 'outside' aisles in the store. There's not much I go to the inside aisles for (and if not for the fact I have a teenage son, it would be even less LOL). Learn to make as much from scratch as you can. An instapot or crock pot can be your best friend with many things, especially if you work outside the home. Truly though, I don't work and most of the dinners I make take less than a half hour. Most are pretty simple, just because I'm a fan of quick and easy Also easier to log LOL

your body needs fat, fat is not bad in and of itself. What i bet you find, though, is that if you cut out or significantly reduce the items in the list above (assuming some of them are the culprits in your sodium issue), that your fat intake goes down, since many of these items also contain fairly high amounts of (not necessarily good) fats.