Is it Wednesday already? (Givinya)

I'm not having much luck with scales, party for the reason that I outlined in my comment to Swift Jan in the post below, and partly because it doesn't appear that the numbers are decreasing despite the fact that I'm feeling happy, healthy and fit.

So, if the scales are to be believed, I'm still above my goal weight.

If the evidence of your eyes is better, then you'd see that I'm looking pretty fit and healthy until I turn side-on and then you'd see the spare tyre that's giving me grief.  I believe that after having children, I can't expect to have a supermodel-tummy. 

In fact, supermodels who have had children say stuff like, "Yeah, that last 5kgs were really hard to lose - I had to really work at it."  Which means there's not a whole lot of hope for me, without my personal trainer, chef-prepared menus and without five child-free minutes a day in which to even walk the stupid dog.

But without the spare tyre, I could fit into my skinny jeans.  See, there's motivation.

Right - to business.  I've been having fun with my New Approach To Bread - keeping to 2 slices of Grainy Lawson's bread a day has been awesome!  The white-bread blowout of Saturday was not greatly satisfying, and I don't have cravings to go back there.

But I have a new challenge: SALT.  My blood pressure is taking a little hike upwards, and while I sort my medication out (I have essential hypertension following pre-eclampsia in my first pregnancy) I thought that decreasing my salt intake wouldn't be a bad idea.  After all, if I started limiting salty foods, I'd find that the fatty foods would also be limited.

I need to know how much is too much.  I found this out on The Vitamin Update:
"An amount of about 500 mg a day is considered adequate to maintain the body's salt concentration. Intake should be no more than 2.4 g of sodium per day which is the amount found in around one teaspoon of salt. ... In Australia, the recommended intake is 920 to 2300 mg per day."

500mg sounds like it's ideal but unattainable - otherwise why would they concede 920-2300mg?

And The Better Health Channel had this:
"The National Health and Medical Research Centre’s (NHMRC) suggested dietary target advises that Australian adults should aim to consume no more than 4g of salt a day (or 1,600mg of sodium) in order to prevent chronic disease. ... Nutritionists recognise it may be difficult for many people to reduce their salt intake to the ideal level, given our current food supply."

The average of 1600mg might be a good starting point.  I need a figure in my mind when reading nutrition information.

I thought it was kind of 'Nutritionists' to acknowledge that it can be hard to eat well, "given our current food supply."

Again from The Better Health Channel:
Heart Foundation advice is that all Australians should at least reduce their salt intake to less than 6g of salt a day (approximately 2,300mg of sodium a day) as a first step towards reaching the recommended levels. This is approximately 1½ teaspoons of salt.

Okay, so if I find 1600mkg is hard, I'll aim for 2300 to start with, and go from there.  I'll let you know if I'm anywhere near this (because I am already following many of the healthy eating tips on both those pages linked above) or if I'm not, and how hard it might be to cut down.