Beyond Willpower

So, our lowering our cholesterol plan   is going well. So far we've implemented everything except two things on that list. (Wine and exercise, still waiting to hear back if we can use the gym at work!). I won't know about my cholesterol until February. BUT, in jan of this year it wasn't that bad. I checked online and nothing was more than 10 points above or below where it needed to be other than my triglycerides which were a little bit higher. I'm cooking at home WAY more often and not eating out so much. I bought a slow cooker so I can make bulk food easier and take it to work. The slow cooker just came yesterday. So that will start tomorrow! In other news, I bought a light therapy box to help my winter depression. Normally by this time I'm feeling down and I'm doing just fine so hopefully this continues to work out! Anyhow, will continue to keep you updated!

So joey had a dr appt yesterday, he has gained a good bit of weight since his appt last year, and he had blood work done and his doc called today to let him know his cholesterol is high and he needs a 'strict diet'. (no talk of statins yet, but they are the devil so we're trying to avoid that for both of us, my cholesterol is high as well.) His dad has had a heart attack so I hate it, but I'm worrying. Heart healthy changes we plan to make: 1.) Lean meats only 2.) Oatmeal for breakfast 3.) Start taking pharmaceutical grade fish oil 4.) Start taking cinnamon supplements (lowers blood sugar AND cholesterol) 5.) Drinking a glass of wine a day (Good for raising good cholesterol) 6.) Switching our unsweetened black brewed iced tea to unsweetened green brewed iced tea. 7.) Increasing fiber (half of every meal should be fruits/veggies) 8.) Juicing carrot/apple/orange  juice once a day. (high fiber/lowering cholesterol recipe) 9.) Exercise to lower bad and raise goo...

Blood work. My cholesterol is high, my triglycerides are ridiculous, my sugar (A1C) is 6.1, all as of last October. I have an appointment for my yearly physical on January 26th. I've been doing all I can to improve these numbers. I'm eating between 7-13 servings of fruits and veggies daily. More on days I'm off and can stay home and munch, and less on days I work. I've decided to start prepacking baggiges of fruits, veggies, and nuts, to snack on while I'm at work so that I can get as many servings in a day as I can. I wasn't going to weigh myself for 3 months, but then realized I need to weigh myself NOW so that if what I'm doing isn't working I can adjust it somehow. I've lost 5 lbs so far on this particular Way Of Eating, and I've lost a total of 25 since my high weight. Woot! Nothin' to sneeze at! I feel like my body is so sick, and I am doing what I can to make it well again. That means eating ALL the fruits and veggies, whole grai...

Well, I got my 6 month check up at the study and my blood work keeps coming back better and better, even though I've gained some. For the first time in memory, last check up my sugar was normal at 99, this time it was normal at 95, my cholesterol was 209 before, and now it is within' normal ranges at 195. These are still high numbers for as well as I eat, I feel like genetics have something to do with the cholesterol. (my very thin vegetarian great aunt had an eleventybilliondruple bypass a few years ago.) Okay, maybe it was a quadruple, but still it was bad. and my gpa has high cholesterol as well. I've doubled my dose of fish oil, hoping that helps. Oh! My triglycerides, which were 146 last time were 119 this time!!!! WOoooooooOOooooOOooo! :D At one time they were 260, normal is under 150. My thyroid is a bit low, my hair is falling out and crispy in some places and I am not binging but I'm gaining as if I were. I'm worried. I am tracking everything ...

So, I haven't had much to say lately, mainly because it's been a struggle and I feel like you guys are probably sick of hearing me whine. I'm sick of hearing me whine. It's been about a week or maybe a bit more, that I've been doing well. I haven't been weighing,  right now I don't think it's that important. It's more important to get my eating on track than it is to beat myself up for not losing or for gaining .5 ounces or whatever. I've decided to set my goal low. Every 6 months I get weighed and blood work and all that for my study I am doing, and my goal is to lose 20 lbs in the next six months. I know it's slow going, but I think it's all I can handle at the moment. I'm doing well with my food, drinking fresh juices, I think tomorrow I will start tracking again. For the last week I've just been trying to make better choices. btw, I had my blood work (cholesterol, thyroid, sugar, etc) checked in january and I haven...

So, I was trying to get into this study that focuses on diet and exercise that they are doing here in Pittsburgh. Anyhow, they did a bunch of blood test... I got my results!  *and this is what my face looks like right now!* They aren't too bad! I wish they were SLIGHTLY better...but...even though I was veggie for over a year, I was just recently vegan, so hopefully when they redo the test results in 6 months some values will be better.   These are fasting results: My sugar was 111, a little high, it needs to be between 70-99, but down 13 points from it's high. BUT: My A1c was only 5.5! Which is good! (three month reading of sugar) My cholesterol was slightly high at 209, needs to be below 200, and my HDL (good cholesterol) was a little low at 44. Needs to be 59+. She said exercise would help.  Triglycerides were good at 110. My two of my thyroid readings were good, one was slightly high, the T4, at 12.6. Should be between 5-12. She said it's not signific...