I created this blog, The Salty Blog, as a way to document my new journey into living a low-sodium life. Back in late April I visited my doctor and found out that I had very high blood pressure. My doctor threatened to put me on two or more medications. I balked. I really don’t like the idea of constantly being on prescription drugs, and besides, in the past I had lowered my blood pressure by losing weight–back in 2006 when I followed Weight Watchers. I told my doctor that I wanted to try losing weight first and see if that corrected the problem. He agreed and set a rather ambitious deadline of one month to lower my blood pressure from 170/100…and something frightening…to 140/90, which apparently is the high limit for blood pressure. Once you go over that level, then the blood pressure police knock down your door, push pills down your throat, pat you on the back, and hope everything goes well. But seriously, I have known people who had real problems with their blood pressure medications, and I always keep in the back of my mind the very long list of side effects that those medications often warn you about. May cause dizziness, liver damage, and sudden and irrational racial intolerance. And my doctor really didn’t have much faith in my ability to lose weight, citing that it’s so much harder for men at my age to lose weight, and just look at how friggin’ fat you’ve always been, holding up my record and showing how I’ve steadily gained weight since signing on with Park Nicolett as my medical home base. Thing is, he really didn’t know who he was messing with. In my mind I was like, “oh it is on! It is so on…like a morbidly obese Donkey Kong!” At that point my mission was clear. Lose weight, lower my blood pressure, then come back and be like, “In your face medical profession!” I was pumped up…and I still am. Over the month of May I have lost 10 pounds and my blood pressure has been steadily coming down…more or less. It’s been a real eye-opening journey though…and I felt like sharing some of it with anyone who would like to read or listen or watch. Everything I post will certainly have an element of humor, since that’s what I do. I will primarily focus on my journey to lower my salt intake as well as caloric intake. Along the way, I will take shots at fads and probably call into question some of popular beliefs out there. I will certainly share cool, informative articles that I find. And most importantly, have a lot of fun.
Look for my upcoming posts. Salt Substitutes…er…there is no real substitute. / Salted Caramel? Whatever Happened to Regular Caramel? / The Elimination Diet Craze and Why I Don’t Care about Gluten