I'm just so bursting with ideas for this series on healthier living, it's hard to come up woth some sort of sensible order to present them.

Today I'm going to address sodium intake. I feel that cutting down on salt is extrememely important to healthier living.  I'm not going to advise anyone on how much sodium should be eaten in a day.  I'm just going to tell you how I lowered my salt intake. 

Here are some tips I have come up with to lower sodium intake:
1.  Read labels on foods.  Processed foods have so much salt in them.  I try to buy products that have lower sodium levels.
2.  I make as many foods as I can from scratch and I do not add salt.
3.  There are many canned vegetables that now come prepared with no salt.  I drain many vegetables and wash them before cooking.  Some vegetables obviously cannot be drained or rinsed (i.e. tomatoes and creamed corn) but green beans, kidney bean, black beans, etc. can.

4.  Mrs. Dash, baby!  I have a variety of flavors and use it like salt.  As you can see, I have several bottles beside my stove.
5.   Trader Joe's actually has many products with lower sodium.

I've been successful in cuting my sodium intake.  I now find that foods that are heavily salted just do not appeal to me.