About a year ago it was time for my yearly physical. I wasn’t feeling sick, but I wasn’t feeling exactly well either. So I asked my doctor to run routine bloodwork. The only thing that came back out of the ordinary was my cholesterol.
It was high. Really high. 253 high.
And people that know me in person are really shocked by that, because I’m somewhat of a stick girl. Weight has never been an issue for me, luckily, although I had put on 10 or 15 pounds since I went back to work full-time. But my good cholesterol was really good, so he wasn’t quite ready to prescribe medication. He told me to make some changes in my diet and retest in a year.
And here we are, livestock farmers. I was feeling like a bit of a bad advertisement for our products.
But I just knew it wasn’t the meat causing the problem. I felt it was junk foods, and processed foods in general.
So I eliminated my near-daily bag of microwave popcorn habit. I’ve always been pretty good about cooking from scratch, but I tried to get even further away from pre-processed foods. (I wish they’d come out with organic Velveeta. Would that be an oxymoron?) I did not change my meat consumption at all.
I started buying some organic foods, mainly dairy products. And butter. I switched from margarine to organic butter, which would seem counterintuitive to lowering cholesterol but it felt right to me. I also started eating eggs most mornings, with my daily bowl of oatmeal. Another counterintuitive measure that just seemed right to me.
And I’ve been making exercise more of a priority in my week.
I had my retest a couple of weeks ago and…drum roll, please…191!
62 points.
I feel like some sort of high point shooter. MVP of the cholesterol bowl.
congratulations, this post is right up our (the pile of omelays) alley. we believe that our bodies have developed the ability to process natural organic foods (fats, oils, honey, rapadura[mineral sugar], eggs)–diametrically our bodies don’t know what to do with hydrogenated oils, refined sugar, artificial flavoring and specifically velveta. i preach this mantra to all my friends all the time(on some deaf ears). i am happy to hear supporting “it just feels right” evidence. my vice is coffee and probably will have to go away in some orwellian version of my future.
As gross as it sounds, you might consider taking a daily fish oil (omega-3) pill. I down mine with a healthy swig of orange juice. It sure has made a difference in my cholesterol count. Also, eat more salmon and tuna.
Ask Tim about his flax seed sometime… if you dare 🙂
Great news! I had a similar experience when I when on the South Beach diet. 2 eggs a day for breaskfast, butter, nuts, and lots of meat and cheese. Limited carbs such as bread, potatoes, pasta, and milk. And no sugar. Excercised 3 days a week. Lost 60 lbs and my cholesterol went from about 230 to 110. Go figure… steve@netwoods.com
Ok..Where do you get the organic butter????????