Friday, May 29, 2009

Blood work results

I got great news from the dr today.
About a month ago I went in to see the dr because of high blood pressure and some swelling in my lower legs. During the check up she suggested an Echo Stress test on my heart since the EKG came out abnormal. I did I found out that my heart is in good condition (thank you) but my lipid panel was very bad. It seems that I have struggled with my Triglycerides for about the past 5 years or so being very high. They have gotten up to over 560 before! I've tried to cut the fat in my diet but it's never really helped to knock down the number too much. With my blood pressure going up, my weight going up, Cholesterol going up my next stop was my glucose. Welcome to Drug City, it's where I'll be living until my time is up on this side. Nope. I'm not going there without a fight. My doctor suggested pills for all the problems. I suggested a change in diet. After searching the web for my problem I decided to do the "low carb" diet. Two weeks ago my Triglycerides were 750, I had not fasted and ate a chicken salad from Chick Fil A a few hours before going. But that still is mighty high. And the one before it a month ago was 460 and that was fasted! Well the good news is that after just two weeks my Triglycerides are an amazing 134! My HDL (good cholesterol) has risen and I finally got a reading for my LDL (bad cholesterol) which because of the high Triglycerides I've not been able to do for a very long time. And I've lost 4 lbs in 2 weeks as well! A grand total of 12 lbs in a month and a half! Yahoooooooo! The thing that bugs me is that it's been me that has taken the time and effort in seeking an alternative to taking the drugs, not my doctor. Though our conversation she was very excided about my improvement she still suggested a pill for my high LDL! Please lady give me some time here it's only been two weeks since I changed my diet! She told me that if I chose not to take any drugs that I need to come back in two months for a recheck on my levels.
I can't even put into words how much better I feel. I have more energy than I have in years. I have no cravings, no acid ingestion like I did before the diet change, my mind is no longer foggy and my breath even smells better when I wake up! Strange. All from changing the stuff I eat. What I did was totally elminate sugar and starch (pasta, rice, white bread, corn and potatoes) and eat anything else I wanted. It was hard for about 3 days at first but after that I was fine. Being half Japanese letting go of rice is kind of hard for me since I ate it with EVERYTHING. But instead of rice, pasta and bread I now use veggies as a filler and it works. If I do eat bread it's not much and whole grain wheat. I still go to Wendy's. Now I get a burger and chili instead of fries and remove one bun. If I need more I'll get more, no limit just carb limits. A year ago I would have not agree with this diet. It seemed unhealthy to me since grains are pushed so much in our country. But that is what keeps us so fat. Our bodies are never allowed to burn any fat it just keeps storing it by our consumsion of carbs and sugars. Too my surprise I eat better now than I ever have, alot more veggies to fill in the carb void. All in all I'm please and really hope to continue this way of eating for the rest of my life. To be continued.......

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