{"id":4849,"date":"2009-09-15T22:21:54","date_gmt":"2009-09-16T03:21:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/?p=4849"},"modified":"2009-09-15T22:21:54","modified_gmt":"2009-09-16T03:21:54","slug":"sodium-how-much-is-too-much-taking-it-one-day-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/sodium-how-much-is-too-much-taking-it-one-day-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Sodium: How Much is Too Much? Taking One Day At A Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Finally I seem to be allowing this head and chest cold to loosen its hold on me.\u00a0 I lost 4 days of work when it began because I didn’t recognize it as a cold at first.\u00a0 That means I didn’t jump in right away with my immune tincture, vitamin C and grapefruit seed extract, and consequently I spent the first 4 days sleeping almost around the clock.\u00a0 When I was awake, I was busy using up all the tissue in the house and coughing, coughing, coughing.\u00a0 Since I never feel like eating when I can’t breathe, I lost a few pounds in the process.\u00a0 YAY!\u00a0 The next 5 days, I began feeling better.\u00a0 I still wasn’t psyched about cooking, so I began eating canned soups and Kahiki frozen egg rolls<\/a>.\u00a0 I love Campbell’s condensed Chicken Noodle Soup<\/a> and, like the egg rolls, it is delicious and low fat.\u00a0 Then suddenly it seemed my cold got worse.\u00a0 I felt I was back pedalling and didn’t know why.\u00a0 I began feeling low energy and my head was filling up again.\u00a0 Then I realized that, by trying to save time by not cooking, I was resorting to processed foods, which I don’t typically eat much of.\u00a0 So, along with my cold, my body now had to work to fight off the energy zappers I’d so quickly introduced.\u00a0 Darn, and I know better.<\/em><\/p>\n

So I stopped eating that stuff and made a big Thai Tom Yum Soup<\/a> with extra chilis and nam prik pao <\/a>to kickstart clearing out the sinuses.\u00a0 I began eating handfuls of fresh spinach right out of the bag, a favorite snack.\u00a0 I began drinking a lot of water, I mean a lot of water.\u00a0 I began thinking of high salt, out of the blue, and wondering if the nighttime headache I’d gotten the last few days were due to that.\u00a0 I felt compelled to drink a lot of water, as though that would help flush it out of my system.\u00a0 My throat was parched and I felt very – well, saline<\/em>, as though I was one giant salt lick.<\/p>\n

I’ve never been concerned with how much sodium is in my food, becasue I don’t eat that much that is processed.\u00a0 But I began going through the pantry reading labels.\u00a0 I tend to forget that whatever has a label usually has a lot of added salt.\u00a0 It’s easy to forget when I eat mostly fresh fruits, vegetables and meats.<\/p>\n

Then I went to the store and once again began reading labels.\u00a0 Holy shift!\u00a0 U.S. dietary goals say we’re supposed to have 2,000 mg of salt a day maximum, which is one teaspoonful. Yet most processed foods (processed = anything with a label) have that much in one package.\u00a0 The label also says that one package is several servings, yet we treat the product as one serving.\u00a0 Hmmm.\u00a0 I just never paid attention to the sodium content of foods before.<\/p>\n

I began having the thought that the salt might be somehow impacting my cold and keeping me from getting better.\u00a0 Like it was drawing the healing water out of my cells or something.\u00a0 I thought that might be making me tired.\u00a0 So when I began drinking more water, that made me feel better.<\/p>\n

I knew these thoughts were my guidance system talking to me via my own internal dialogue.<\/p>\n

I began thinking of all the people out there that have high blood pressure.\u00a0 I have friends who have it, and take medication for it every day.\u00a0 I also know what they eat.<\/p>\n

I’m not one to judge someone else’s eating habits, because had it not been for a serious health event in 2004<\/a>, I wouldn’t be eating the healthy diet I now eat.\u00a0\u00a0 Fear is a good motivator.\u00a0 So is pain.\u00a0 I wouldn’t go low fat to take some pounds off, but a couple of bouts with gallstone pancreatitis convinced me I never wanted to have that pain again.\u00a0 Ever.<\/p>\n

Fear is a good motivator.\u00a0 I knew if I slipped up and started going back to eating the high fatty foods I’d grown up eating – the typical American diet – I was going to have a problem again.\u00a0 And no way did I want that.\u00a0 So the choice to change to a healthy diet was an easy one for me.\u00a0 Do it or die, in pain and debilitated *smile*\u00a0 Easy choice!<\/p>\n

And it was easier than I thought it’d be.\u00a0 That’s because of the whole “pain and fear as powerful motivators” part.\u00a0 That means I didn’t need to cultivate will power<\/a>, I just needed to research and embark upon a new course of action.\u00a0 If I’d had to figure willpower into the equation, I am sure I may not have fared so well.\u00a0 It also helped that every night as I went to bed, I listened to my Reprogram Your Eating Habits <\/a>mp3 file.\u00a0 It was almost like cheating since I could listen to it in my sleep and it still worked.
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So I can’t give my friends grief for eating high sodium foods when they know it’s bad for them.\u00a0 Choosing to stay uninformed is a choice in itself.\u00a0 These friends think the worst that can happen is they die.\u00a0 Nah.\u00a0 The worst that can happen is that they become disabled and dependent upon others and have to live a lifestyle which is far less than they could be living.<\/p>\n

If they make the choice to be informed and knowledgeable about what’s going on with their own body, then it’s easier to make the choices to ensure they remain strong and self sufficient. Every moment is a new beginning and small steps, one day at a time, can make the going easier.<\/p>\n

Even me.\u00a0 Now that I’ve mastered keeping below 40-50 grams of fat a day, and maintained my weight and excellent health since 2004, now I can work on my portion sizes.<\/p>\n

And I believe this is where that whole will power<\/a> thing will come in handy.<\/p>\n

\"Add<\/a>
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\nLISTEN FREE<\/span>: Reprogram Your Eating Habits<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

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