In Part 1, I was told I needed to lower my cholesterol from the very high number of 236 (it should be under 200). It led me to think about some of my bad habits. Here were my thoughts.
(NOTE: I AM BY NO MEANS AN EXPERT IN HEALTH OR CHOLESTEROL MANAGEMENT--WHAT FOLLOWS IS MERELY MY OBSERVATIONS OF MY OWN STEPS I’VE TAKEN TO TRY TO LOWER MY CHOLESTEROL.)
I considered some of the things in my life that I was doing and was forced to admit that not all of it was very good. Some of this may seem harmless, but actually some of it was really hurting me:
Alcohol.
Oh, for me it’s tough to imagine a life without alcohol. I admit, it’s been a constant in my life for many, many years. I have never been a binge drinker (well---once in awhile, as some of my friends know)--usually I drink to relax. To this end, I drink every day, about 3 to 5 beers a night.
But tell a Doctor or a non-drinker that you have “3 to 5 beers a night” and it sure as hell sounds like a lot.
Because I am serious about lowering my cholesterol, I need to change this.
Because I do not feel that I want to completely cut alcohol out of my life, I must compromise.
What I changed:
“3 to 5 beers a day” gets reduced to 1-3 a day, usually no more than 2.
What this does, I realize, is it makes me look at alcohol from a different perspective. I start to notice that if I am aware of the fact that I am only “allowed” 1-3 a day, then I want those “1 to 3” to count. So I don’t want to waste one of my “1 to 3” by say, drinking one in the afternoon or drinking one when I don’t really want it, or say, drinking one after I’ve already had a few when I really won’t appreciate it. I’ve found that since I started rationing and thinking about it, I’m usually okay with just one a night, which as far as I can tell from any of the on-line sources I’ve read about cholesterol, is perfectly okay (2 a day for men, 1 a day for women because women metabolize alcohol less rapidly.) (A note on this: if you don’t drink, don’t start. And I may be rationalizing my rationing of alcohol by quoting possibly biased information.)
The point being, this is a big change for me. And the whole point is that I needed to do something.
Cheese.
The hardest part of this whole thing has been cheese. I truly believe it is the one area in which I have never considered as part of a problem, but when I think about it, I eat it every day. It is on every sandwich, it is on every pizza, and it is bad, bad, bad. And damn, it is so good. But I have to cut it out.
What I changed:
I gave up cheese. Or I looked for a low-fat cheese: under 3g of fat per serving--it was harder than I thought it would be. I learned that I could live without it. Or I learned that I could live with less of it. Still haven’t quite figured out the pizza thing…
If I were to completely dumb down any info or wisdom I have gained from this experience of changing my diet and habits, it is that no cheese and less beer and more exercise equals less weight and (hopefully) lower cholesterol.
Whole Milk.
Fatty and bad for me. I always used whole milk on my cereal, in my coffee…
What I changed:
I went from whole milk to 1% now to skim milk in my cereal. And you know what? I got used to it. I started putting soy milk in my coffee. Much less fat and it gets some soy into my diet, which is good for lowering cholesterol.
Bacon.
It’s just really bad for you, as are hot dogs, as is bologna, because it is all just processed crap (as Jamie Oliver would say in his Food Revolution). Bologna really is just one big hot dog, by the way. When I used to work at a deli and had to slice it, I could see that it really was just a giant hot dog put into slice-able form.
What I changed:
I just don’t eat it anymore. It’s just not worth it. Plus, I already had experience with giving up bacon.
Next up: Specifics. Things I added to my routine that helped me.
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