Water Retention

Recently the Cellulitis on my leg has come back with a vengence! Which means I'm currently on another round of Anti-Biotics, which firstly messes with my weightloss and apetite, and secondly means I am not allowed to use my compression socks. With not using my compression socks, comes swelling in my legs from water retention, which again messes with my weightloss even more!

I have had trouble with water retention since getting so drastically over weight, and the swollen legs from it are probably the cause of both my poor blood circulation in my legs and the cellulitis. As the legs swell the skin becomes stetched and breaks in the skin occur from the slightest bumps. Breaks in the skin are where the infection begins causing the cellulitis.

So, even though I am no medical professional, logic tells me that I can deal witht he water retention which is probably 1 of the main causes of my leg problems in 2 ways.

A) I can continue to lose weight till I'm thin enough that I hopefully stop retaining water...(will that happen? --  The doctor seems to think losing the weight is key to sorting my leg problems)
B) I can try deal with this water retention issue NOW!

Obviously I'm going to do both :P Since A is already in hand and going well, but a long term plan, its obviously time to kick B into high gear! So I have done a little research on the internet about water retention and this is a summary of what I have found:

A) Exercise - Obviously I am already doing loads of this.
B) Drink more water! Aparently water retention is your bodies way of holding on to water to prevent dehydration. So drinking more water stops the body holding on to water.
C) Reduce Sodium in diet! So not only did I have a kidney stone a year (or 2?) ago, but now it would seem that Salt (sodium chloride) may also be causing my water retention. A little known fact to those who don't live with me, is the extreme amount of salt I eat! I'm not a sweet lover, but a savoury/salt lover! If I cook anything, it not only gets salt added while cooking, but gets a healthy shake of salt before eating too!
D) Increase potassium! - GO BANANANANASSS!!
E) Natural Diuretics! - Eat more Cabage
F) Increase Vitamin C! - More of those messy oranges!
G) Keep legs and feet up as much as I can!

I'm taking the salt one very seriously! This weekend I decided to set some short term goals I want to try lengthen and include into my new eating life style:

A) Drink less Low Cal Fizzy / Cordial Drinks. In the past I could drink 4 litres of fizzy a day. Even recently there are days when I can drink 2 litres of the stuff without even realising it. To replace my Fizzy I have been drinking low cal Squash. But again, I tend to over do it and can polish off 2 or 3 litres a day. So I want to replace those with just plain old water! at least 2 or 3 litres of plain water a day!
B) No Salt! Long term this is going to prove hard to follow through, and merely aiming to decrease the amount of salt I add to food will be a good start.

Hopefully this will help both my diet and my water retention problem. If it doesn't help the water retention, unfortunately the water retention may actually be a symptom of something far worse! Heart or Kidney disease! :s Though I don't think I'm showing any other symptoms to suggest this is anything quite that bad, so heres hoping my new efforts solve my problem! :)