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It's been over a year since I zealously stripped excess sodium out of my diet, to the point of now making all my own meals using ingredients that don't contain any sodium, making my own salad dressings and spice/herb mixes, and buying only no-salt-added groceries when at all possible. At the same time I made some other changes including cutting out alcohol and a good amount of sugar, although I still have a small amount of dark chocolate every day. I've lost another 10 lbs in the past year (I am within my healthy weight range & BMI) and have gained some strength in my muscles from working out with light weights and doing exercises like squats & wall sits. Plus I still typically walk or hike about 3 miles per day and do a bit of yoga. Sadly, none of this has brought my blood pressure to normal and I still take the same meds for hypertension. I recently read about not only limiting sodium but also getting enough potassium, the lack of which might contribute to hypertension. The daily RDA of potassium is a surprisingly large number. So now I'm adding a few servings of high potassium foods to my diet each day such as dried apricots, low sodium cottage cheese, butternut or other winter squash, or sweet potato. So after a couple of weeks of this, who knows. In any case, I am healthier today than I was a year ago and will keep on trying things to manage my blood pressure. I can say I'm happy with the things I've done for my health in the past year. 😀

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Nonya Bidniss