The next time I'm looking for an apartment, number one of my list of criteria is going to be "bedroom can't have a streetlight directly outside the window."
Blergarrrrgh.
A quick note about the Great Sodium Cleanse of 2011. I've cut way back on prepared and processed foods (Trader Joe's, sob -- I even gave away my unopened jar of curry simmer sauce, so that it wouldn't tempt me) and takeout (I miss you, Seamless!), and though that's something I probably should have done anyway, it also means I've been forced to use my kitchen a lot more, which has been an interesting challenge. Story for another day. And I've been using less salt in cooking, sometimes even -- gasp! -- none, though mostly what I'll do is cook without adding salt, then add a teeny bit of finishing salt at the table. I'm using low-sodium soy sauce, and only half of what I would normally use. I've tried not to add salt to side dishes at all, when bearable. Look, I'm trying.
But despite my efforts, and despite the fact that I've cut back and my taste buds haven't shriveled up and died, there is still quite a lot of pain involved.
Exhibit A: sodium-free bread. I bought this at Trader Joe's, and have been trying it for the past couple days. It's weird. It tastes like tin. Me no like it. Apparently, bread really needs salt. Now you know.
Exhibit B: sardines, which I love, have sodium. Not a lot, but they are preserved and canned, so it's not like they make sodium-free sardines. I had some the other day but felt guilty about it.
Exhibit C: It is really, really hard for me not to have soy sauce. Even though it's the low-sodium kind, using it in cooking -- which I've been doing -- is probably wrecking all my hard sodium-reducing work. But I can't help it! I love soy sauce, OK? I'm Asian.
Exhibit D, E, et al.: I walked down the frozen-foods aisle of the grocery store the other day and started pulling out frozen dinners just to see what the sodium content was. EGADS. It shouldn't have come as a shock to me that these things were loaded with sodium, but it still kind of did. Not that I ever eat frozen dinners, but I am inordinately fond of Swanson's turkey pot pies for lunch, and it turns out that each one contains 750 mg of sodium. Considering you're only supposed to have a maximum of 2,300 mg per day, that's a lot.
So no more Swanson's turkey pot pies for me. Other things I can't have: hot dogs, cold cuts, Popeyes fried chicken (990 mg for the leg + thigh, 500 mg for the biscuit), cheese... sigh. I have to stop. This is depressing me.
But don't worry, I'm still going to reward myself for all this sacrifice by going out to dinner once in a while. If I have to choose between treating myself to a fab dinner at Zabb Elee (awesome and authentic Thai food) and eating a Swanson's turkey pot pie, I'll take Zabb Elee in a New York minute.
And incidentally, since I started all this, my blood pressure has gone down -- though I'm still not sure if it's the sodium reduction, the diuretic my dad gave me in L.A., the herbal pills my sister-in-law gave me, or my new rule that requires me to get out of the damn apartment (and/or exercise) once a day. Maybe all of the above?
