So I went to the Doctor today to find out how I fared in lowering my cholesterol over the past five months.
A steady diet of oatmeal and fish has brought my cholesterol down from 5.8 to 5.2. I can’t recall if that is HDL, LDL, or WTHDL (I have no idea nor ambition to become like my parents who sit around talking about this kind of thing!) but all I know is the doctor said he was impressed with the change and that I should keep up the lifestyle change and see him in October.
That being said, I would like to share my story of how I lowered my cholesterol for those out there who feel that it’s hard to do so.
Things I have Changed:
– In the morning, instead of having a yogurt, I switched to oatmeal. I’m talking about the oatmeal that I can put into a bowl and microwave for 45 seconds. Dad went to a cardio-training center and they told him this type of oatmeal is a higher in fat than regular oatmeal. I think I’ll stick with this stuff for the time being.
Because I ate oatmeal in the morning, I had to start waking up 10 minutes earlier to accommodate this new change in my lifestyle. While you all are probably having a good laugh at reading about this slight change, I’m just listing everything I can think of that I have changed so I can look back in years and say “Oh yeah! That’s when I started eating oatmeal.”
– I ate more fish. A lot more. 3-4 times a week. The doctor thought four times a week was pushing it so he recommended 2-3 times a week. I like my fish. I usually pick up salmon or trout and put it on a bed of rice. Grill that thing on the George Foreman and you’re set. While this may be a little more costly, in the long run, I would like to think that it helped in the lowering of cholesterol.
– I was more conscious of things that contained cholesterol. For example, I avoided the bacon at breakfast the other morning at Uncle Greg’s. I also try and avoid pizza whenever I can (which is sometimes hard considering pizza is the ultimate easy-order item when there are a group of people). But I can honestly say that the times I’ve eaten pizza on average in a month would be once a month. I didn’t tend to eat that much pizza anyhow. Is pizza bad for you? Unsure, but I guess the cheese doesn’t help in cholesterol matters.
– Exercised: Well I did join a gym in the new year. Considering I just went for my blood test in February, I don’t know if exercise changed my cholesterol in a grand fashion considering I had only been going to the gym for awhile (whereas I had changed my eating habits since October).
In the end, I consider it to be very simple changes to my dietary system to achieve the result I did. I would like to think that oatmeal and fish were the key factors, but who knows? I will continue on this track and see what happens in October. At least I am happy that it is something I can control and not something that I couldn’t control and would have to take medication for it.