The fat and salt of it

So here's the part I didn't get around to in my previous whining, bitching emails: in the past 6 months (since you-know-when), I have apparently gained 15 pounds. Ho. Lee. Shite.

Now, since practically everyone reading is of the feminine persuasion, you might think it's weird that I didn't know how much I weighed until I went to the doctor last week. But see, here's the thing: I know I'm fat. I've been fat since the day adolescence kicked in. My weight--albeit far too large of a number-- has been stable for years, so there was no need for a scale. Between TTC and other medical appointments, I was weighed often enough in a doctor's office that I knew that my weight stayed within about a 5 lb range... until I miscarried, got depressed, and started eating poorly and too much.

Now I have the lovely situation where my doctor and the nutritionist he sent me to completely disagree. The (male) doctor is concerned about my weight & BP, and wants me on a low-cal diet to shed some pounds. The (female) nutritionist, on the other hand, is far more concerned about the typical Southern diet & sodium & BP, and wants me on a super low-sodium diet, screw counting calories. The nutritionist, a doctor in her own right, basically told me to use good common sense when it comes to fats and sugars, but not to freak out about counting calories, carbs, and all that stuff. My focus is counting sodium. She says that if I stay true to a good low-sodium diet as we went over, I will by default be eating healthier and making better choices, so worrying about counting calories & carbs would just be too much on top of everything else. I think I like the nutritionist's view. She's looking big-picture and long-term, and I like that view.

Here's what sucks, though: do you have any idea how much sodium is in practically everything we eat? Dude, it's everywhere. Even an 8oz serving of 2% milk has about 120mg of sodium. For me, as little sodium as I'm supposed to take in right now, that's more than 10% of my daily allotment. Eight ounces of milk. My personal ambrosia. Yes, I am a milkaholic, and I can't believe my sweet cow teat juice is so salty.

Anyway, I hesitate to say this for fear of running people off, but I may start a kind of sodium diary here, so I can keep tabs on how I'm doing. Hey, at least I won't neurotic and female and fretting about calories, right? Just geriatric and worrying about sodium.