High Cholesterol… Am I on the right track?. I am 44 years old and have moderately high cholesterol. I am 5’9″ tall and weigh about 180lbs. I found out about the high cholesterol about a month ago. Since then I have cut down a lot on most of the junk food I eat (I can’t keep away from the 3 times per week popcorn). I don’t eat much meat. The only meat I eat is some fish (if you can call that meat) I’ll have that maybe once a week.
I used to be a pretty strict vegetarian. Now I eat Eggs (I switched to Egg Whites), I drank whole milk for most of my life. I tried Soy Milk but it takes some getting used to. I only use milk with cereal so I will drink 2% now. I used to eat mostly Pasta and a veggie for dinner and weighed between 110 and 115 lbs. When I weighed 130 – 140 lbs I was pretty happy. I’d like to get back to that weight. I walk about 1 mile probably every other day. Gym fees are way too costly in my area. I live out in the sticks so walking or riding a bike is sort of treacherous. I’d need to carry a gun to keep any stray wild animals from attacking me. So working out is quite a task in my area. I have to drive 15 miles just to go to the track but it’s my only form of decent exercise at the moment.
Any suggestions would be helpful! Thanks!
high cholesterol. Well, good job switching to the egg whites!
As far as exercising goes.. I live in a pretty “woodsy” area myself. But, if You invest in a set of weights (or even fill up old milk and juice containers with water or sand) Thats’ a great way to start lifting weights (which helps to burn more calories than any cardio will)
Also if you have a set of stairs, you can run up and down them, and do squats on them (if you google it, I’m sure a stair workout will appear)
Also, Workout dvds are great. Look at Jillian Michaels 30 day shred, The biggest loser workout (if you are just beginning), Gaiam Pilates for weight loss, andany Kathy smith dvds are the ones that I rotate around.
Hope that helps.
agreed, 30 Day Shred is great. She has made me a believer in videos. There have been several times where I was not in the mood to go to the gym, went home and decided to start the video just for a few minutes and ended up finishing the whole workout on a day I would other wise have ended up doing nothing.
Kick up the intensity. You’re on the right track, but walking a mile every other day just isn’t enough. That’s only about 350 calories burned a week. If you’re going to walk, it needs to be an hour. If time is an issue, add some jogging to the mix and eventually build your way to jogging the whole time. When the weather warms and jogging becomes easy, you can start to throw sprints in there too. Gradually increase the amount of time you can jog comfortably. Go slowly, as all speeds of jogging are considered high intensity. You want to stay in your aerobic zone (heavier breathing but able to talk) so that the workout is an enjoyable experience. Also, get an mp3 player and listen to your favorite tunes to keep you motivated since track running can get boring. Be sure to visit a running store and get fitted for the right shoe for your stride and foot – makes all the difference. Google “bodyweight exercises” and you’ll see there are a lot of things you can do at home that’ll work wonders.
have you talked to your doctor about this?. it doesn’t sound like your diet is bad at all, so i’m wondering if changing that really is going to make a difference (especially something like switching from eggs- which have good cholesterol- to white), or if there’s a better approach.
focus on losing the weight. and the cholesterol will likely follow.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/reduce-cholesterol/CL00012
Exercise as well as eating balanced meals (be sure to eat breakfast) will help you get there. You have already been given good suggestions on how to exercise for your circumstances.
Science is changing on this …. … in a few regards.
One is the association between total cholesterol and heart disease risk. The links aren’t as simple as all that, and seem to be more related to specific sub-types of cholesterol, if at all.
Another is the association between dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol, which has been recognized as weak for quite some time. More pronounced is the relationship between dietary carbohydrate and blood lipids (fats, a/k/a triglycerides).
Very provocative, well researched, and somewhat controversial book by Gary Taubes, Good Calories, Bad Calories, which I’m currently reading, spells this out in excrutiating detail.
As Jewel0523 notes, reducing your body weight (and more specifically: body fat) should help markedly. Following a lower-carb diet, with little or no processed carbs (white flour, white rice, sugar, HFCS, soft drinks, starches, fruit juice, alcohol) should help.
I’m still researching but am becoming convinced.
K-dingo, I love your posts!. You’re helpful, straightforward, and your advice is right on!
I, too, have done a lot of research on this kind of thing (as well as others), you just phrase it better.
The thing people seem to forget is eggs are a great source of complete protein, if you eat the whole egg.
Insulin spikes (from eating processed foods) are a larger contributor to heart disease than cholesterol, because of the damage it causes to the artery walls. That’s why diabetics are more prone to heart attacks and strokes.
One other thing to keep in mind…the liver manufactures cholesterol because it is a needed component for the health of every cell.
Thanks …. … and yeah, eggs are great — they’re part of my regular diet again after years in which I’d thought they were “bad” (we’ll see where the science goes on this in the next decade or two….).
I’ve changed my own eating and food-buying habits significantly over the past few years. I’d never eaten any particularly large quantity of processed foods, but have cut that back to very, very little now. Along with changes to my exercise and living choices, it’s made a huge difference.
I’m still learning, and post both to share what I’ve found, learn from others, and compare notes and references on stuff.
And as to Taubes & his book: there’s a heck of a lot of information on cholesterol, types, roles, and production, as well as insulin, diabetes, heart disease, and other “western diseases”. Digging for critics of his, found a few, will be posting a summary at some point.
Lose some weight and add fiber.. Being overweight actually keeps your cholesterol higher; even if you just lose ten pounds it will make a difference. Fiber keeps cholesterol low too; make sure you get 30 grams a day. You may have to work up to it. Taking a psyllium supplement can help you get some fiber, but learn which foods are high in fiber and include more in your diet. The popcorn is good if you eat it without butter.
To lose weight it helps to write down everything you eat, and measure it by calories or points, etc. If you don’t like soy milk, just drink nonfat milk. Some of them have extra milk protein in them and taste almost like there is some fat in them. Or drink 1% fat milk. Soy can interfere with thyroid hormones and that will interfere with weight loss, so it is not always the best choice when lowering cholesterol. Fermented soy is ok; it is the unfermented soy in soy milk or tofu that is a problem.
Good luck!