I'm So Salty

For my personal adjustment class, we are required to do a project where we quit bad habits for a week. It's a three-week long project where the first two weeks are basically me documenting how bad this habit of mine is and how much I think about said habit.

The habit I chose is to reduce my salt consumption. Salt is necessary for the body (or at least that's what Google said), but the average human consumes more salt than the body actually needs (also what Google said). My mother and I bicker a lot regarding my salt consumption. And to be honest, I agree with her. I do eat way too much salt. For example, I cannot eat plain rice. I have to have soy sauce. On some occasions, I will not even stop at soy sauce. I will also sprinkle furikake (a Japanese rice seasoning made of bonito flakes, seaweed, sesame seeds, etc.) or I will load up on ketchup. And I will eat this on top of the salt that has been already added to my food.

Last night, I decided to go around my house checking the sodium content of the food I usually eat. Prior to this though, I was already thinking of my salt-free diet during the third week of this project. I thought I'd be eating cereal, oatmeal, and bread. But as I checked the cereal boxes and milk cartons, THEY ALL CONTAIN SODIUM. Soda contains sodium. Oatmeal, although small amounts, contains sodium. Bread contains sodium. Some brands of bottled water contain sodium. Almond milk contains sodium. Juice contains sodium. Bananas contain sodium! The only things I found that did not contain sodium were plain white rice and plain pasta (assuming you don't salt the water when you boil the pasta).

I've come to the conclusion that when the week comes where I don't consume salt, I will not survive because all I'm allowed to eat are strawberries (Google says they have no sodium), plain rice, and plain pasta. And all I'm allowed to drink is water. I'm aware of the difference between artificial and natural sodium, but the instructions for this project is to quit our bad habits cold turkey. My instructor gave me the permission to consume natural sodium, but I personally want to see how far I can push my limits. I've done some research (more like a 5-minute Google search) and there are some diets plans that provide little to no salt in the diet.

I'm both excited and afraid to do this project. But either way, I hope I come out of this less salty than I initially was.