I got rid of what I could not have at home (helps living alone). I also live 9 miles from town so not tempted enough to drive to local convenience store. I do keep frozen fruit on hand to snack on and fresh apples, oranges, tomato’s and carrots to snack on. I also get unsalted nuts and low or no sodium sodium chips to snack on. My biggest cravings are salt and savory foods. I read labels constantly and if 100 mg or less sodium I may try it. Because my heart cath found no blockages or buildup the dietician told me not to worry about getting fats out of my diet - from my label reading no fat appears easier than no salt. For the most part I think I do okay with the 1500 mg of salt a day.

My "answer" has been to make the good foods taste as good as possible (onion flakes, frozen pepper and onion medley, Kroger and Aldi's versions of Mrs. Dash, paprika, turmeric, chives, etc...), and that reduces (doesn't completely conquer) my cravings for the ones I'm not supposed to have. I make bread, biscuits, and even heavy pastry with whole wheat flour I sift the hound out of, baking powder and soda substitute we ordered off Amazon, olive oil, sometimes 2%milk in tiny quantities, and water. The breads aren't likely all that "good" for me, but they are sooooooo much lower in sodium than the commercial "cardiac murder" stuff that they really do help me lower the overall sodium, and not feel like quite as much of a freak, ... or quite so deprived. For I must face it, ... the deprivation is very real, ... as is the "freakdom." The only time the freak of the week routine has been more than I could really deal with was the day after Christmas when the techs at my PCP's office couldn't manage to draw blood for a lipids and metabolic panel, and just stood there looking at me like I was an insect, and declared that I was too dehydrated, and my hands were too cold for anyone to draw blood from me (they stuck me 6 or 7 times, and those did bleed on my shirt cuffs). Halfway over in the day, another tech was as good as they were bad, and drew plenty, ... but it was a LONG time to fast.

That is a great plan -- it can't hurt. I will try it. My first line is to ask for that 3rd tech, ... and accept none of the others, but I don't mind making it all the easier. I'd figured the plavix I'm on would have things pretty well thinned, but perhaps not so much as I might think.

If you get some lemon juice in those plastic lemons and put some in a bottle of water and drink one each day at least 2 days before you need blood drawn it helps a lot and thins the blood a little so it's easy to draw. That's what I was told to do when I sold plasma and it really worked good.

In know how you feel. We have plenty if reasons to avoid those things, but I lack the motivation. What have you triec