I have been eating a low-sodium, low-fat, low-cholesterol, low-saturated fat, low sugar diet for a few years now. After consultation with a nutritionist during my cardiac rehabilitation program, I increased my protein consumption. Since I do not enjoy meat, that tweak has been challenging, but is now accomplished with Greek yogurt, nuts, and seeds.
Although Attila prepares and eats his own breakfasts and lunches, we do eat dinner together, so that his diet has seen reductions in undesirable ingredients.
Our palates have adjusted to our diet.
When I first undertook a low-sodium, low-sugar diet, I felt very deprived, and downhearted. Everything tasted bland, or even worse, like cardboard. Certain favourite foods no longer tasted great, some recipes were still acceptable. I soldiered on though, eating to live, missing living to eat tremendously. Now those two ways of being have merged into one, eating to live is now the same thing as living to eat, at our house anyway.
When we tasted the first batch of Sweet Pepper Relish, we were shocked by how salty it tasted, even though we had reduced the salt called for to 3 teaspoons in the batch. In the second batch we made yesterday only 2 teaspoons of salt were added, still very salty, at least to us. We are using up the last of the red peppers today by making a third batch of relish, and have reduced the salt to 1 teaspoon per batch. We both tasted it and it is perfect for us.
Salted food meant for the preferences of the general North American populace tastes way too salty to us. It is the same with sugar, we reduce the sugar in recipes to half or less than what is called for, and our adjusted palates find it quite delicious. Our home prepared food does not leave us craving more salt, sugar, or fat.
Canning applesauce called for using two canners simultaneously to accomplish the job in one day. That is the last canning project of the season that will call for using two canners at once, at least that is the plan. So yesterday I washed and dried one of the steam canners, and set it out to dry overnight. This morning I packed it away in its box, and returned it to the basement pantry, where it will await the harvest season of 2026, if all goes to plan.
Also, as the canning season winds down, there are a lot of canning rings piling up in the kitchen. I like to string them together in small quantities, and store them in a tote in the basement. I had run out of string, so asked Attila what we had. He reminded me that there were a lot of fabric lengths suitable for my rings, that I had given him. He fetched me a few, and they work perfectly.
What are these fabric lengths? Well, as I’ve indicated many times, we don’t like throwing things away if they can be repurposed for other uses. Over the years, as pairs of my underwear reached the end of their life, I cut them into pieces for rags, saving the elastic if it was intact, and cutting off the leg trim in one long strip. That leg trim makes a very strong, washable, durable length of fabric, suitable to be used in place of short rope or string. So that was what I used to tie my canning rings together.
Attila uses the strips of leg trim from my underwear to tie his garden plants. The material is soft and strong, gentle on the plants, and will last multiple seasons.
It is a good thing we enjoy our domestic projects and economies, because they are crucial to our survival. We live on monthly government pensions, CPP and OAS, which does not add up to enough for comfortable living for the most part. We look at rents for one bedroom apartments, most are at least $2000 a month, and those are primarily in basements of older homes. It would be extremely difficult to survive on our pensions if we needed to pay that kind of rent for a small basement dwelling. Lucky for us, we have Mist Cottage, and some savings for domestic projects and future emergencies. But there isn’t much to spare even so. Our garden, diy home renovations, food preparation and preservation, sewing projects, and much more, allow us to have a decent standard of living, which we work very hard to maintain.
Not everyone has the opportunity to have their hard work sustain them, I wish that that opportunity for everyone in Canada, and around the world.
Maintaining ourselves is not just work though, it is our entertainment. And happily, we do find it entertaining. So far, so good.
Worldly
Weather
21°C
Date: 2:00 PM EDT Sunday 21 September 2025
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 102.2 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 21.2°C
Dew point: 13.8°C
Humidity: 63%
Wind: SSE 17 km/h
Humidex: 24
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”
Joseph Campbell
1904 – 1987
I can relate to your cutting salt in recipes. We are big on cutting sugar. We usually cut sugar amounts from half to a third of the suggested amount.
What a great idea for tying plants to stakes! I once cut up a worn-out pair of Lululemon yoga pants; graduated to pipe cleaners, which work well enough; but I like your idea even better.
Teri, cutting down the sugar is such a great idea. I love sugar, always have, if I’ve ever had an addiction, it would be to sugar. I come by this honestly, my Grandpa loved sugar too, most of the family loves sugar. But to my great surprise, once I cut down on sugar consumption, sweet food tasted just as good. Now, after many years of low sugar consumption, I will get heart flutters from eating a few teaspoons of homemade jam, my body just says no.
Kate, it was my idea to cut the leg trim for ties for the garden, then it was Attila’s idea to use them for the canning rings. “They” say it takes a village, I think “they” are right!