How I Kicked My Salt Habit

I have a notorious salt habit. My brother and I grew up as latch key kids with working parents. After school, we would come home to have bologna sandwiches or salty french fries with our favorite Hi-C fruit juice or a sugary soda. It was a way of life for us. I was also a couch potato but was active enough to keep my weight stabilized. I don't blame my parents because they were just hard working folks that meant well by us. When my mother came home, she always cooked a healthy dinner for us kids. She could have served us TV dinners but as tired as she was, she slaved over a stove and made us dinners with plenty of veggies. It was just our lunches that were a total disaster.

As I got older and more health conscious I began to really detest some of the unhealthy habits I grew up on. So, I set out to change them on my own - one at a time. One of my hardest habits to kick was the salt habit. When I tried going "cold turkey", I would always go back. So, I had to develop ways to "ease" the salty foods out of my system and my diet for good.

Here are some of the successful strategies that have helped me:



* Use sausage substitutes
My favorite sausages have loads of salt in them. So, I now use veggie sausages for substitutes. I buy MorningStar veggie patties and links. I actually cut them into strips and cook them with sliced apples. With the apples in them (another trick I use; read about my 50-50 Swap Rule), I don't need as many sausages. Also, the apples break up that greasy taste from the sausages.

* Compromise on the potato chips
Potato chips have tons of salt in them as they are quite salty. I grew up on potato chips and have a serious fetish for them. No, I mean it's BAD!!!!  Potato chips are highly addictive to me and really toxic for my body. The salt in the chips bloat me up with water around my stomach and my joints which in turn causes my knees and back to hurt tremendously. So, over time, I've learned to compromise and halven the amount of chips that I have. First off, I don't allow huge bags of them in the house during the week. Then, when I do have them, they must be lightly seasoned. Either plain ruffles or lighted salted. I also mix my potato chips with unsalted tortilla chips or taco shell that I break up. Finally, I serve the chips with some kind of fruit such as sliced apples, veggies like celery or carrots with hummus.

* Make homemade soups

my 6-quart crock pot

In my twenties, I dieted a lot and got hooked on canned soups. They are some of the saltiest creatures around! The sodium in the typical can of soup is surely enough to mame a small animal. Now, I love soups that are homemade in my slow cooker. I make soups like chicken soup, Beef Stroganoff, and Minestrone. I typically make soups on a Friday to go into the weekend which we are more likely to overeat. This way, having a soup with meals will lessen the amount of salt and offensive foods.


* Minimize the salt in your seasonings
In general, I love spices and cook with them all the time. Although spices are healthy, they can be a bit salty. Some of the saltier spices are Italian seasoning, Old Bay seasoning, Garlic salt, Lemon Pepper, Meat Tenderizer and Taco Seasoning.

Some of the ways that I've found to minimize the salt in my seasonings are below.

1) Use a different flavor profiles like lemon-lime, lemon-garlic or honey-lemon. (for chicken bullion, I like to use lemon-garlic or honey-lemon. For an example, see my honey-lemon salad dressing.)

2) Temper the salt with brown sugar or honey.

3) Replace the seasoning with a less salty seasoning (for instance, for taco seasoning I use a thin sauce made from paprika, honey, red chili peppers, pepper).

4) For meat tenderizing, I use less salty spices like chives, parsley, pepper, tiny bit of chicken bullion, onions and garlic)

5) Replace salty seasoning with onions (white and green) and garlic.