Start Me Up!
So I went to the doctor last week for a physical, the first one I've had in about 5 years. In general, I feel like I've been reasonably healthy, despite the spare tire I've been keeping around my waist for the last 8 years. I've been loathe to get rid of it, because it reminds me of the happy college days, when my fraternity served generous portions of midnight snack every week night, the likes of which included (but weren't limited to) mozzarella sticks, chicken nuggets, chocolate chip cookies, and french fries. This is what happens when you keep a deep fat fryer in the kitchen, even though it was strictly against the fire code. Good times...
For the past 9 months, I've taken up running several miles a week to get myself into shape to participate in several footraces. These days, I average about 10-15 miles per week, and even though I'm killing my joints, the regular exercise has done me some good.
So like I said, when I went to the doctor, I wasn't expecting anything too crazy, because I'm probably taking better care of myself now than I ever have. So I was pretty stunned when he showed me my blood work and my cholesterol level was TWO HUNDRED AND FRIGGIN' SEVENTY-ONE. Those Lipitor commercials on TV always use 200 as the number you don't want to be above, so 271 seemed pretty bad. And my doctor confirmed it: 271 is REALLY bad.
How could this be? I'm 28 years old, and though I admit to pigging out on fatty foods back in the day, my fried food intake isn't near what it used to be. The doctor told me that it was likely I had a parent with high cholesterol, and I inherited his/her genetic predisposition for high cholesterol. But on the plus side, my HDL levels (the so-called "good cholesterol") were also high, and that was a good thing. Nevertheless, he recommended that I lose about 10 pounds over the next 4 months, do the blood work again, and go from there.
The first thing I did was call up my genetically defective parents and figure out who to blame for my situation. Turns out it's Mom. Of course it is. Dad's got problems with high blood pressure and triglycerides, but unlike Mom, he was considerate enough not to pass that stuff along and complicate my life (Dad's always been good like that).
Afterwards, I went online and tried to figure out how bad things really were. My LDL levels (the so-called "bad cholesterol") are 193. How bad is that? The American Heart Association calls anything above 190 "very high risk." Drug therapy is usually considered at those levels. Yikes. The "> 190" range is the highest range they have. And I'm there at the ripe old age of 28.
I've heard great things about the effectiveness of cholesterol-lowering drugs, but I don't like the idea of using medication to treat something like this. It just seems wrong to have to do it this age. So now I embark on my journey to drop a few pounds and to stay away from high cholesterol foods.
Which brings me to this blog. My wife suggested I keep a journal of what I eat, so I can have some sort of accountability whenever I fall off the wagon. Wow, that sounded pretty lame. A journal? What kind of loser keeps a journal? Hip and cool people don't do that kind of thing. I did some research online to see what the kids are doing these days and it turns out that there's an attractive alternative that's more hip and cool. A blog. Do losers keep blogs? I think not!
So I've committed to posting my daily eating habits on this blog. Now that I'm essentially on a...(sigh)...DIET....(sigh)...it probably won't be that interesting, but hopefully there will be some fun moments of weakness when I snap and order the 8 by 8 at the local In N Out, then shamefully admit it in this space.
Not that the blog will be an exclusive list of things I eat. I'm sure I'll have some other opinions and random thoughts that will find a home on this page as well. To be forewarned, I'm not a particularly enlightened man, so these opinions are likely going to be about NFL football, fantasy football, video games, and just things that bother me in general.
So here we go!
Breakfast: A bowl of Cheerios with skim milk
Lunch: Pho with flank steak, tendon, tripe, and lean brisket
Dinner: Plain tofu with soy sauce, spinach salad with cranberries and crushed almonds
Snacks: None
...
Oh man....this totally sucks already.
For the past 9 months, I've taken up running several miles a week to get myself into shape to participate in several footraces. These days, I average about 10-15 miles per week, and even though I'm killing my joints, the regular exercise has done me some good.
So like I said, when I went to the doctor, I wasn't expecting anything too crazy, because I'm probably taking better care of myself now than I ever have. So I was pretty stunned when he showed me my blood work and my cholesterol level was TWO HUNDRED AND FRIGGIN' SEVENTY-ONE. Those Lipitor commercials on TV always use 200 as the number you don't want to be above, so 271 seemed pretty bad. And my doctor confirmed it: 271 is REALLY bad.
How could this be? I'm 28 years old, and though I admit to pigging out on fatty foods back in the day, my fried food intake isn't near what it used to be. The doctor told me that it was likely I had a parent with high cholesterol, and I inherited his/her genetic predisposition for high cholesterol. But on the plus side, my HDL levels (the so-called "good cholesterol") were also high, and that was a good thing. Nevertheless, he recommended that I lose about 10 pounds over the next 4 months, do the blood work again, and go from there.
The first thing I did was call up my genetically defective parents and figure out who to blame for my situation. Turns out it's Mom. Of course it is. Dad's got problems with high blood pressure and triglycerides, but unlike Mom, he was considerate enough not to pass that stuff along and complicate my life (Dad's always been good like that).
Afterwards, I went online and tried to figure out how bad things really were. My LDL levels (the so-called "bad cholesterol") are 193. How bad is that? The American Heart Association calls anything above 190 "very high risk." Drug therapy is usually considered at those levels. Yikes. The "> 190" range is the highest range they have. And I'm there at the ripe old age of 28.
I've heard great things about the effectiveness of cholesterol-lowering drugs, but I don't like the idea of using medication to treat something like this. It just seems wrong to have to do it this age. So now I embark on my journey to drop a few pounds and to stay away from high cholesterol foods.
Which brings me to this blog. My wife suggested I keep a journal of what I eat, so I can have some sort of accountability whenever I fall off the wagon. Wow, that sounded pretty lame. A journal? What kind of loser keeps a journal? Hip and cool people don't do that kind of thing. I did some research online to see what the kids are doing these days and it turns out that there's an attractive alternative that's more hip and cool. A blog. Do losers keep blogs? I think not!
So I've committed to posting my daily eating habits on this blog. Now that I'm essentially on a...(sigh)...DIET....(sigh)...it probably won't be that interesting, but hopefully there will be some fun moments of weakness when I snap and order the 8 by 8 at the local In N Out, then shamefully admit it in this space.
Not that the blog will be an exclusive list of things I eat. I'm sure I'll have some other opinions and random thoughts that will find a home on this page as well. To be forewarned, I'm not a particularly enlightened man, so these opinions are likely going to be about NFL football, fantasy football, video games, and just things that bother me in general.
So here we go!
Breakfast: A bowl of Cheerios with skim milk
Lunch: Pho with flank steak, tendon, tripe, and lean brisket
Dinner: Plain tofu with soy sauce, spinach salad with cranberries and crushed almonds
Snacks: None
...
Oh man....this totally sucks already.
