Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Chapter 2 page 255 - lifstyle revolution update (cholesetrol edition)

As you all may remember (or click HERE for a refresher) I began a lifestyle revolution back on January 28 as a result of my doctor's phone call saying my triglycerides were a little high and that I should take fish oil to lower them. Fish oil is super healthy and the benefits are tremendous, but I just couldn't wrap my head around taking it daily (not at the young age of 35). I decided to completely change my eating habits for 3 months (at which time the doctor wanted to repeat my blood tests) and see where things stand. After 3 months, if they were still high, then I would keep my new lifestyle and add fish oil (I should say that my doctor isn't aware of this plan . . . it's more of just in my head and I've gotten the green light from some other health care providers whom I work with).

So, for the last 5 weeks, I have REALLY limited my consumption of white flour (I don't avoid it all together because my life just couldn't roll like that, but I definitely make an extra effort to limit it). I have also really tried to increase my fruits and veggies to at least the minimum of 5 daily and usually I get the max (9+ servings). The F&V have been the hardest part. Not that I dislike them, but because you can't just get 9 into you day without some concentrated planning and on-point decision making.

As part of my job, one of our benefits is that we can get a free lipid panel (HDL, LDL, triglycerides, and total cholesterol) screening one for free once a year (it's our "birthday gift" - woo hoo, party on man! - it's not exciting, but it is generous). I hadn't used my 2010 birthday gift, so I thought that on Monday it was about the half way point in this 3 month experiment and I thought it was high time to "check in" on my efforts. I was confident that it would be down a few points, but . . . .check this out -

January 11th tests
March 7th tests


Total Cholesterol - down 49 points (isn't that a rock star drop?!!!! woot woot!)
176
127

Note: It's preferable to be below 200


LDL ("bad" cholesterol) - down 24 points
86
62
Note: It's preferable to be below 100


HDL ("good" cholesterol) - this one is EXTREMELY disappointing (post about this coming soon) - down 11 points (YIKES!!!!!!!!! - already started a plan to focus my efforts for the next 6 weeks on getting this back up)
46
33
Note: It's preferable to be above 60 (here, the more the better!)


And now, the whole reason I'm doing this,
Triglycerides - down 61 points!!!! (oh yeah! Kickin' some trig booty!)
222
161
Note: It's preferable to be below 150 (as you can see, mine are still considered high, but so much improvement -woo hoo)

So other than my HDL tanking (it's always been 46-48, ALWAYS!) which I am definitely going to spend the next 6 weeks working hard on - I'm THRILLED!!!

4 comments:

  1. I don't know anything about cholesterol and have never checked mine. But sounds good!

    I don't understand how you can get penalized for not having enough of the "good" one. Sounds bizarre to me!

    Do you eat something that makes the "good" one low? I don't understand that part.

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  2. Way to go!!! That is quite an accomplishment! Just think how healthy everyone would be if we just ate the way God intended us too!! I am excited for you!!
    Suz

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  3. Yay! With the exception of the low HDL, your test results are great. Is there anything you can do to raise the HDL levels?

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  4. Those are definitely rock star drops! It's so great to see that the lifestyle is more than looking good in clothes - it's about improving your health. You are such a great example for people!

    BTW, I agree on white flour. What would you do about the occasional slice of cake? Seriously.

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