hi just wondering if everyone has a hard time keeping their sodium intake down? Eating high fat/protein seems to make it difficult. Any suggestions? Thanks! I know that intake should be around 2400 mg but mine seems around 3500mg.

Avoid cheese and cream and prepared foods like luncheon meats (which have a solution of sugars and salts added - even the roast beef, chicken & turkey.) Tinned foods also can have high sodium counts.
Milk & dairy have high sodium levels when they come from the cow - it's not added. Some veggies are naturally high in sodium - like carrots. Put your foods.

Stick with plain meats you bake, broil or roast yourself. Unsalted butter on the veggies. Just some suggestions.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Be careful with salad dressings, too. I sometimes get carried away with them and they have a ton of sodium. I now use olive oil and some rice wine vinegar. Beware of bacon and sausage, my other 2 vices. Like tofi said - avoid anything canned, especially canned tuna unless it is low or no sodium kind. Also things like pork rhinds are high in sodium... I noticed my sodium level increased dramatically when I went on this diet a few months ago, I have only recently (a couple of weeks) been able to curb it and get it below where it was when I started. Good luck!

One thing that helped me was getting a pottassium salt subs for cooking and for anything I wanted to sprinkle salt on. Read lables too. I found those bonless skinless chicken breasts that are so convinent are injected with a sodium mixture for preservation and high sodium. The less something is processed, the less sodium it has usually. I do allow myself occasional higher sodium treats like turkey pepperoni, but I try to have it early in the day with extra water to flush it out.

If you have a problem with convience foods, try doing things like making your own jerky. That way you control not only the salt, but the sugar as well. Another reason I lke Diet Rite is it has 0 sodium, most other diet pops have added for some reason. Just be careful. On a few things labled low sodium they add in sugar to make up for the taste of the missing salt :\

I was shocked when I started keeping a fitday journal and looked at how high my sodium intake was! I have had to watch it a lot closer. The fitday really helps with that.