I agree with zuzu. Cut out the alcohol and other beverage stimulants (soda, coffee and caffinated tea) and instead try to drink water, decaf tea, fruit juice, etc. If you want to have some alcohol, limit it to red wine, which has been shown to have heart benefits, especially red zinfandels.
Salt is a major foe, it's everywhere. Best way to get away from it is to move away from prepackaged products and make it from scratch. For instance, instead of canned tomatoes, chop up a few fresh ones. If you like mexican, look at flour tortillas, the amount of salt is incredible and fairly fatty if I remember right as well, switch to corn tortillas which have almost no salt or fat in them at all. Which brings up another point, use whole wheat flour, spelt, quinoa, rye, buckwheat or cornmeal instead of white flour, which is pretty much nutritionally devoid.
Get a good dutch oven and make soups from scratch, what you can whip together is far tastier than that stuff Campells passes off for "soup".
What you whip together doesn't need to be anything elaborate, you can make some pretty good stuff very easily, not much harder than "a man, a can and a plan" sorta cooking, but no can here
Cut out as much meat as possible and move to fresh cooked beans, lentils and split peas, they are excellent sources of protein and very high in fiber, plus very cheap dry. Lentils and mung beans do not need to be presoaked overnight, but it isn't hard for beans that do, just sit them out the night before. Some do take about an hour to cook, but if turn it on first thing when you get home from work, they'll be well on their way by if not done the time your ready to sit down. Try going vegetarian, even if for a short while, maybe a few days meatless and others can eat some. Portabella muchrooms, tempeh, dense tofu and textured vegetable protein (TVP) all can be cooked to be meaty like, and if you like grilling, don't worry, you can slap the portabellas, tofu burgers or tofu hotdogs on the grill.
Bread surprisingly enough has a bit of salt in it too, like 7-11% RDA per slice in most brands I remember my mom buying, ouch. I rarely eat bread anymore, instead I predominately eat brown rice, which is a lot more nutritious than white rice. Brown, basmati, and wild rices are good. If you don't like rice, well you obviously don't have a rice cooker
I eat tons of rice since I got my rice cooker, it comes out perfect everytime (plus I use it to cook beans and other stuff in) I love it sooo much.
I'd also try to cut out dairy as much as possible, only dairy I still eat is plain cultured yogurt for the beneficial bacterias. Most flavored yogurt has a ton of sugar in it, get the plain and mix in your own fruit or granola, tons better tasting.
For oils, use grapeseed, olive oil or sesame oil, these are very good oils and healthy to use.
Move to as much fresh fruits and vegetables as possible.
If you have to have a sweet fix, try using honey, agave nectar or molasses (blackstrap is best, but is an aquired taste I suppose). There are also a number of sugar substitutes, many of which can be easily found at health food stores or in the healthy foods sections of mass supermarkets. As for desert, nobody said desert has to be bad for you, try something healthy, like cooked acorn squash and pecan nuts is absolutely devine and completely guilt free. Rice pudding with raisens or berries, black bean patties with honey, barley cakes with honey or molasses, and tapioca also come to mind.
I know what your going to say, "that stuff tastes like hay/has no taste/etc", but just as you've been conditioned to tons of salt and suger and whatnot, it can be unlearned, plus if you become handy with spices and herbs it's amazing what can be done.
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