My doctor told me to go on a diet

Apparently, after years of good health in spite of obesity, I have developed high blood pressure. Boo! Of course, my doctor recommended that I lose 30 pounds, but also that I concentrate on a low-sodium diet. I protested. "I don't eat a lot of sodium! I don't add salt to anything but popcorn, because I don't really like the taste." For some reason, my doctor didn't laugh at me; she just nodded and wrote me a prescription.

A few days later, I decided to start reading labels and try the low-sodium thing after all. Holy shit! BREAD has 100-200 mg of sodium in every freaking SLICE! Cheese is high in sodium. My favorite brand of pizza has 1000 mg of sodium in just one small serving! There is excessive sodium in salsa, pickled jalapeños, guacamole, cookies, every kind of chip / crisp and every kind of dairy product. (Cue wailing and gnashing of teeth.) Adding it all up, I was eating around twice the recommended daily limit for sodium every day.

I'm adjusting to a new diet, after a fashion. I've switched to a no-salt bread, which is an incredibly dense "sprouted" whole wheat loaf that I could probably use to beat someone into submission. I guess it's a good thing that I like the taste. Instead of my favorite pizza, I've been making my own pizza dough and baking pizza from scratch. It's not quite as tasty, but it satisfies my cravings. I've switched from cheddar to swiss cheese, which has about 1/3 the sodium for some reason.

Still, there's nothing like being deprived of something to make you crave it. Yesterday I had my head in the fridge, looking for a snack, and I found myself wondering what it would taste like if I dipped bacon into sour cream. I didn't try it, but I did eat the bacon. Yum.