Self Sabotage: Sodium Overdose...

If you have read prior posts in this blog you will know I have been having problems the past two weeks with water retention. Massive water retention - to the point that my calves and ankles are swelling up tremendously and having serious problems. Also it is causing my weight to fluctuate.

I have been breaking out my Sherlock Holmes hat and pipe and magnifying glass, pacing the floor, examining the evidence. Or playing the old board game, CLUE with myself.

Surely, it was the COOKS with the SALT in the work CAFETERIA! I was playing my own version of Colonel Mustard, in the library, with the candlestick. Well, I think I may have finally figured out the culprit. I got a good look at him in the mirror this morning when I was shaving!

I was ready to blame my diet drinks, my Lipton Diet Green Teas, and just about everything. I finally sat down on the Calorie King website and checked sodium levels for what I have been eating. ARGH!!! I see my fingerprints all over the crime scene.

Here is some of the foods I have been eating frequently for a quick meal:

3-5 beef hot dogs with some melted cheese on top and a few dill pickles or green olives, with spicy mustard on top. ARGH!!!

I thought I read the labels but didn't understand that sodium nitrate or sodium nitrite (in the hot dogs) was the same thing as sodium (as in salt). I has even bought and used some no nitrate and no nitrate dogs (Oscar Meyer) but bought a whole lot of different kinds of dogs so I would have some variety in taste and all. And I had no idea the pickles were so salty. I kind thought the olives were, but I didn't eat more than ~5 - 10 of them at a time, and only occasionally.

Add that with the sodium I am getting in my bacon or sausage and in my eggs (at breakfast), and in other meats, and I am waaaaaay overdoing it. No wonder I am having major problems the past couple of weeks retaining water.

I am my own worst enemy - I plead GUILTY to Self Sabotage!! It was easy to look outside and assume someone else had done this to me (my first instinct in this instance). Because surely I was not overdoing it. But unfortunately I regret to say that I am the culprit. I have committed the heinous acts against myself. I have been sitting on the dynamite and pushing the plunger myself. ARGH!!!

So where do we go from here? Well, I am doing what I can to lose the water. My legs are so swollen I almost thought I would have to go to the doctor tonight. I am changing my diet to avoid all the hot dogs and pickles and all. I saw some no nitrite and no nitrate Oscar Meyer hot dogs at Walmart, and though I tried them, I continued to buy a variety of products (mostly bad for me sodium-wise). Going to do more fish, chicken, hamburger, and other meats, and cut back on the franfurters and such until I can get some low sodium dogs in the fridge.

I cannot believe I have been undermining myself like this. Knowing I have circulatory problems in my legs and sensitivity to salt, I never sat down to do the actual math and homework to figure out what I was shoveling into my mouth. It never occurred to me that I was the one doing this. I suspected the diet cokes, the cafeteria at work, my vitamins, potassium deficiency, and all kinds of things. Can't believe I never looked at the OBVIOUS!

Ah well, ...you live and you learn. Kudos to the Calorie King website with its online information. HTTP://www.calorieking.com

A portrait of my own self-sabotage