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Healthy Eating

In April 2015 I had some blood work done for a life insurance quote and noticed that my cholesterol was high.  I scheduled an appointment for my yearly checkup with a doctor and thought I'd bring it up.  She agreed that it was pretty high, especially since I'm fairly young and am pretty active.  My dad has had high cholesterol for years and there is a family history of it.

My doctor challenged me to take two months and try to eat better. Then we'd do some more blood work and see if things improved.  

After two months I went back in and my cholesterol was higher.  Ugh!  So, she challenged me to "tighten" up my diet for six months and we'd check it again.  I "tightened" it up pretty well for a few weeks and didn't eat meat, or dairy or sugar was kind of going crazy (and so was my family).  Mealtimes were super stressful for me because I wasn't sure what to feed me and my family.  After an email to my doctor, we agreed to change the six months to four months and she assured me that eating low-fat dairy and less fatty meat, like chicken was okay.  

I've made some changes in my diet and still have a way to go.  My family has noticed that I eat kind of differently than them.  They're welcome to eat what I'm eating, but I'm not forcing them to.  They have jasmine rice with their stirfry and I have quinoa.  They eat spaghetti made of noodles and I eat squash.  They drink milk at dinner and I drink water.  

Hopefully the changes I've been making will make a difference with my cholesterol at my next doctor visit.  I haven't been taking statins and don't really want to if I don't have to.  

I have noticed that when I do eat a buttery cookie, I don't enjoy it as much.  I feel guilty for one thing and also the butter is kind of overwhelming .  I've loved trying new foods and taking a little extra time to make healthier meals just for me.

I've been blogging along the way.  It helps me reset my goals and reevaluate how I'm doing.  I ♥ blogging.  It helps keep me sane.  


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