Sodium Diet

On Thursday the doctor told me my sodium and chloride levels were well below normal, and I needed to eat mroe sodium.  His suggestion was to eat a burger and try to get more sodium in my diet and I would feel better.  Well, I ate the burger and some fries, but only felt a little bit better.  And as much as I loved eating the burger I cannot sustain a diet that requires me to eat a burger every day.   So I turned to salt pills, a lot fewer calories.

Now neither my cardiologist or my internist told me how much sodium I should take, they just told me I needed to up my sodium intake.  What I didn't know was by how much.  The daily recommended amount of sodium is approximately 1500 to 2400 mg of sodium a day.  I probably was only getting 1000 mg a day most days.  Which means I was low, and now that I am below low  in sodium and have a condition that requires me to have more sodium I probably need to increase my sodium more than I realized.

Of course at the onset of starting the increase of sodium I did not have all this information.  If I had then I would have probably taken much more than I did initially.  So, figuring out exactly how much sodium I needed to take, was a slow process.  Friday was the first day I started taking salt pills, but did not start taking them until in the afternoon.  I took a pill every hour, and began to feel better about 9 pm, by that time I had taken about 7 pills (each pill is 452 mg of sodium).  On Saturday I started my day off a little bit better, but it was not until 2 pm and intaking 5000 mg of sodium that I actually felt like I could function and had some strength.  Sunday I kept my intake steady and by noon was feeling better.  By the end of Sunday I had taken 5000 mg of sodium.  Today I have had 8 pills and 2 v8 (330mg sodium), and two snack size bags of pretzels.  Again almost 5000 mg of sodium.  It appears I need 4000 mg - 5000 mg of sodium.

I am actually amazed at the amount of salt I have to take to feel normal and like I can ride my bike again.  I guess if that is what it takes then that is what it takes.  Tomorrow will be my first time on the bike in a couple of weeks, and actually I have not been strong on the bike for quite some time.  I am looking forward to it, but I am guessing I may have to take more sodium because I will be sweating it all out.  Which means back to the drawing board.  I probably will do what I do for a race which is one bottle of Carbo Rocket before the race and one after.  Hopefully that is all I will need.  I wonder if I can convince Brad to make a diet Carbo Rocket.

On another bright side of things.  With all this salt intake, my water intake has increased.  I am now drinking about 1 gallon and 1 quart of water a day.  Nothing like staying well hydrated.