I knew something was wrong. I didn't have to get on a scale to know I'd gained a bunch of weight, but sometimes it takes getting on one to get the reality check. But it's not just the fact that I've gained five kilos (over 10 pounds) in the last four months, but the results of the blood test that's got my attention.
My blood sugar is fine, my cholesterol level is a little high, but not too much. But my triglyceride level is really high. Like, scary high. Like, double the recommended level high.
We're changing my pill perscription (yes indeedy, birth control can be a contributing factor, isn't that fun?) and my icky doctor (who ordered the blood test just for this reason after being off the pill for a few years) suggested seeing my regular doctor, as he thinks I may need additional medication. I'd like to see if I can bring it back down with my diet, since I know damned well I haven't been eating right, before my next check up at the beginning of December.
Heart disease is a big killer in my family, and I'm not kidding around when I say that I feel like I've just passed the last warning sign before the edge of the cliff. It's time to turn this boat around, kids. You wanna help? I'll take every low-cholesterol non-cardboard-tasting recipe you've got, kindly deposited in the comments box. I and my heart thank you.
5 comments:
Yikes.
I'm not a fantastic cook, so can't help you in the recipe department, but damn girl! That's scary.
My fiance has high cholesterol too. I'm a vegetarian, so at home we don't eat meat. I am also not a cook. Some of my regalar-rotation recipes include quinoa with some combo of beans (latest incarnation: black beans, dark kidney beans, chickpeas, red pepper, tomatoes); veggie stir-fry with brown rice; whole-wheat pasta primavera (my version: sauteed veggies with marinara added at the end). We always start with a green salad with as many fresh veggies as we have in the fridge. For breakfast we do minimally processed granola or uber-healthy cereal with almond milk or organic nonfat yogurt, sprouted whole-wheat bread with organic freshly ground peanut butter, or just a big fruit smoothie with superfood green powder (I keep a variety of frozen fruit and OJ on hand for this purpose). I bring my lunch to work and either do leftovers from dinner or get a takeout salad from someplace.
Once you eat this way for a while, the other, less healthy, stuff you could be eating seems gross and overly heavy to you.
Also, doesn't exercise help with triglycerides? Mine were slightly elevated about 10 years ago and I started walking long distances everyday, which brought them down. As you know I'm also a yoga evangelist and have recently been converted to the wonders of circuit training!
Feel free to e-mail me. I'm on a huge health kick these days and would love to talk about it more!
Not sure how good it is for cholesterol levels but I've lost 10kgs since June on the Dukan diet. The book costs about 5€ and you'll find it in any French bookstore. Best 5€ I've ever spent!
I used to work with this incredible woman who once got a medical diagnosis of diabetes... super-bad, off-the-charts diabetes, too. She immediately made certain changes in her diet but refused to go on medication and told the doctor to give her one month to turn things around, and then she'd get retested. During that month, she refused to say or even THINK "I have diabetes"; she said she was not going to "claim" that illness in HER body, no way. So she just went on with her life, made moderate changes in her lifestyle, and instead of seeing herself as sick she visualized her body being perfectly healthy with everything being balanced.
One month later, when she got her test results done, the doctor was ASTOUNDED that all signs of diabetes were completely gone! He said he'd never seen anyone turn around so well and so quickly. He conceded that just the lifestyle changes she'd made, alone, would NOT have completely reversed the condition so fast (although they would have certainly helped to some degree).
I tell you this just to say that not only will some lifestyle changes be helpful, but your thoughts about it are also important. If you get scared and STAY scared, it can work against you, but if you can manage to focus on the positives, then you can only attract the conditions for good health.
Work with the doctors and make the lifestyle changes you need to make, but otherwise go on with your life and be happy. Attitude really IS everything!
not to disagree with bold soul, but make sure you do whatever necessary. Type 2 diabetes might be completely reversible - "curable" even - with those changes, but type 1 is not - no life style change can help there...so just make sure you don't have something you do need modern medicine for :-) and FYI, my doc says that other than a pill, exerciseis the best way to reduce tri...too bad I can't get THAT in a pill!
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