Trying to get Healthy Inside and Out

So I've had to start trying to eat in a healthier manner. Seems I have high cholesterol and really high triglycerides. If you know me, you know that aside from aspirin and ibuprofen for my headaches, I'm not a fan of medications. So I've decided first to try and deal with this via nutrition management and exercise.

Now I've been weight training pretty regularly for a few months now, but I've only just recently started on my cardio work (soooooo boring), so I've got the exercise part covered. The nutrition part is a pain in the ass though.

What I'm learning nothing new to me – I know healthy eating is harder when you're poor (do I smell a conspiracy?), but it's more difficult than I realized when working on a really tight budget (that has to account for feeding another adult, two teens and a five-year old). And frankly, the menu is kind of boring, but I can learn to live with that. It does mean I get to eat more fish, which is okay. But no tartar sauce, which blows.

Where I'm running into problems is

1. Sodium content: Goodness gracious! We eat a lot of canned and packaged foods, and I've always known those had a high sodium content, but until I started tracking my actual salt intake, I didn't realize how much was involved. I seem to be averaging a bit more than twice the recommended sodium intake per day. I wonder how low my blood pressure would be if I ate the amount of salt I'm supposed to eat (note that according to the doctors, I don't have high blood pressure, even after smoking a cigarette).

2. Protein: I seem to be able to meet my caloric, fat, and carb requirements (with some effort), but I'm falling pretty short on my protein every time (remember, I'm weight training to add, so I have to get a lot of protein). To hit my protein requirement, I have to go over on everything else. I guess I'm going to have to try protein supplements, but I can't really afford that right now. I can only imagine that I'd have made even better muscular gains if I'd been consuming proper protein (and I'm pretty pleased with my gains thus far, even if my shirts are getting smaller).

Anyway, I'm looking for suggestions on anything I can eat that is inexpensive, very low in fat, and very high in protein (more so than yogurt) for the short term until I can afford to look into supplements.

So I've got exercise pretty under control, and I've started on proper nutrition. Now I need to deal with my smoking. Due to some other issues, I'm not prepared to actually quit smoking but am willing to entertain alternatives. My doctor gave me some Nicotrol Inhalers for now. Near as I can tell, those are designed to make me never want to inhale anything again via a Pavlovian coughing response. Seriously. My smoker's cough isn't as bad as what those cause with a fresh cartridge. I'm looking into vaping (e-cigs) as an alternative. I'm not terribly interested in ditching my nicotine addiction, so much as getting to where I'm not inhaling a cloud of assorted toxins every 30 minutes. Vaping seems like it might meet both of those needs.

Now, I'm not talking about the cheap little e-cigs you can pick up at the shady corner convenience store (I just can't bring myself to trust the contents of those). I'm talking about an actual vaping kit (complete with multiple flavors of nicotine!) I've talked to some folks who seem to have had good experiences with those, and theoretically, is could save me money (which could then go towards additional protein).

Even my doctor said the vaping was a great idea if it will help me stop actual cigarettes.

So I'm open to constructive input on any of these things. Suggestions, recommendations, well wishes, etc.

Be well.

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