Changing the Way I Chip Away at a Low Sodium Diet

I believe it’s common knowledge to everyone of you “My Facebook Friends” and friends in general that we connect “Face to Face” or “Phone to Phone” that I was born with Congenital Heart Problems, as well as a wide range of other medical issues.

For the most part of my younger life I spent a lot of time in the hospital and then went through a great period ofnot having any heart issues up until 2006 when I was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) and since then many other labels have been placed on my Medical History: Cardiomyopathy, Chronic A-Fib, Value Issues, ICD (Pacemaker, Defibrillator) patient, restricted to a Low Sodium Diet (under 2,000 – The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend limiting sodium to less than 2,300 mg a day — or 1,500 mg if you’re age 51 or older, or if you have high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease.)

Over the past several years, the Low Sodium Diet and Exercise have been echoed from my cardiologist and I have chipped away little by little to get to the habit of living on a Low Sodium diet.

This past visit to the Cardiologist we spoke of more risky methods to help improve my quality of life and I didn’t like what I was hearing. I didn’t want a new heart, I am attached to my old one, so what could I do when I heard her say, Limit your sodium to 1,500 per day? Chip a lot different to make more of an impact.

I bought a kitchen scale to actually weigh the food such as meats and fish, new measuring cups to really get a serving size that matches the serving size on the label. (BTW – 1/4 cup M&M’s plain has about 25mg of sodium).

Since my appointment on January 12, I haven’t eaten out one time. I have eaten more fruits and raw vegetables than ever and haven’t had a potato chip. (I use to count out how many chips I could have for 90 mg) but I might do that a couple of times a day and not eat because I was still bloated and got full because of all the fluid I was retaining. Therefore, I was losing weight, but I still looked like I might have a baby due soon. I was uncomfortable and hard to live with.

As you can also see from my FB posts I’ve been working on Cardiovascular exercises. The picture is the proof that actually listening to the doctor and eating fresh fruits and vegetables are your medicine and they can help you stay fit. I basically lost around 8-9 pounds and my stomach looks so much better and I feel better too.

Today I had a Heart Cath to check the pressures of my valves and to look at the heart function. I am extremely happy to report that the doctor told me that the pressures were actually better than the last Heart Cath and whatever I’m doing, keep doing it!

Since I was on medicine to help with the water retention and potassium supplements that are necessary with taking diuretics, I was told to suspend two out the three diuretics and go off the Potassium because it was actually to high (mangos, grapefruit, and kiwi are high in Potassium).

I’m starting to study to understand how, as Dr. Oz puts it, “Our food is our medicine.” In my research thus far, I have been very fascinated about all the benefits of the food we eat that are considered “healthy.”

I’m going to try and help myself learn as much as I can about fruits first and then begin with learning about vegetables. If you want to learn with me, my intent is to write about these foods and the benefits it will have on your body and maybe we all can learn a thing or two that we have also heard when we visit our doctors, either with our children, our parents, our spouses, and alone: I want to be able to answer truthfully YES to the basic questions:

Are you eating your fruits and vegetables?
Are you exercising?
Are you getting proper rest?

Apples will be first on my list – “An apple a day, keeps the doctor away!”