Vacation Report

Pretty sure I didn't blow my sodium budget, although I probably came close a few days. The sodium restriction did make things much more difficult. It was much harder to find a place to eat that had something which could work for me. We had much less spontaneity than we are used to. My breakfasts were a bit monotonous - had fresh fruit and granola with yogurt every day. We always eat bananas and trail mix for lunch, which was not a problem since we chose the trail mix carefully (thank you Trader Joe's). But dinners were sometimes a challenge, especially in remote places (and also on the airplane). If all else fails, portion control is a viable option.

Other than the food restriction, we had a great vacation (if a bit overscheduled). Once we got to Seattle, we drove more than 1300 miles and hiked over 36 miles of trail. Not a lot of downtime. Very pretty scenery though, and we have this weekend at home to recover.

First Vacation with the Sodium Restriction

Not sure how well it will go, but if we can't find healthy restaurant food in the Pacific Northwest, we might as well give up all hope now. Normally on vacation, we eat fruit and trail mix for breakfast and lunch (not a sodium problem), hike all day, then go out and have a great dinner. I'll let you know how it works out in practice.

Snacking 101

Getting hungry between meals is common, at least in my experience on the low sodium diet. The problem is that a lot of snacks are too salty for me to eat now. I really miss the days of eating pretzels and popcorn. I am still learning the ropes (and over relying on nuts to tide me over), but as I find good quick snack ideas I will post them here. Aside from the obvious things - fruits, raw veggies and unsalted nuts, I am finding a few other things that fit the bill.

Low sodium snack idea #1 - no sugar added applesauce with powdered cinnamon mixed in. Sodium count = 0mg and it tastes great. Takes no time to prepare. Easy!

Low sodium snack idea #2 (and this also makes a great breakfast) - yogurt with granola and your favorite fruit. Sodium count approximately 130 mg (mostly from the yogurt), assuming 1 cup of yogurt and 1/2 cup granola. Read your labels and choose wisely.

Low sodium snack #3 - Terra sweet potato chips. 10 mg sodium per ounce of chips (about 17). Add some Mrs Dash to taste and they really hit the spot. You could eat the whole bag and not blow your sodium budget.

Low sodium snack #4 - Trader Joe's trail mixes. TJs has a very large variety of trail mixes, and many of them are suitable for low sodium eating. I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of my favorites are still OK for me to consume, within reasonable limits. Even the spicy ones!

Low sodium snack #5 - dark chocolate (70% cocoa or greater) is generally sodium free, or so low as to be negligible. And one of my favorite things ever. :-)

Happy snacking!

The First Day

The day I got the diagnosis was almost anticlimactic. After my hearing test, which showed low-frequency hearing loss in my left ear, there were two likely possible causes: an acoustic neuroma (which is a benign brain tumor) or something called "Meniere's Disease". When I first started experiencing symptoms and searching for possible causes, I had ruled both of these out because they are rare. Unfortunately for me, all the common causes were ruled out by my doctors after lots of tests. So it turned out to be Meniere's by default - because it wasn't any of that other stuff.

I was pretty bummed out by the news that the primary treatment was a low sodium diet. I'll have to do that forever, and hopefully it will prevent the vertigo attacks and stabilize my hearing loss where it is now. Most importantly, we don't want this spreading to the other ear.

Disappointed, but determined to cheer ourselves up, my husband and I decided to go hear a live band at a bar that evening. I knew it would be a challenge to find something I could eat, but what the hell. I ordered the garden salad with grilled steak and balsamic vinaigrette on the side. I didn't think it would be that salty, which was a nice theory, but when I got the salad it was also covered in cheese (which has lots o' sodium) and black olives (which contain metric craploads of sodium). I felt like a little kid having to pick all that out of the salad before I ate it.

And that was the not-so-awesome start of my new low sodium lifestyle. I'd like to say it gets better from here, but so far this is hard as hell. I feel like there is so little I can actually eat and I am constantly HUNGRY. It is probably way too early to make any sort of prognostications. I'd settle for learning more about what I can and can't eat and having meal choices not be such a damn depressing chore. Time will tell. I hope I get better at this. I also hope that my taste buds adjust and at some point things will not universally taste like they need salt!!!