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.
4 replies on “Good News in Cholesterol Land”
Keep up the good work!! With our family history, we have to do what we can to stay ahead of the inevitable.
Yeah dude, pizza is not so good for you because of the cheese. You can make pizza at home with soy cheese, and that’s a healthier option.
sounds like you’re on the right track…
You might have to check your mercury levels though from eating all that fish…
Sam, I think it’s interesting that you made that point. I tend to believe that nowadays, everything leads to a problem, like the doctors say eat fish for your cholesterol but not too much cause the mercury will give you this this and this. They say it’s good for one thing but not for an other one, and that some other things will give you cancer and the list goes on. I like to think that if you don’t go to the extreme with something, you’ll be fine. Extreme is the problem. (Heck, I didn’t check with science on this… just my way of thinking…lol)