Gonna Need A New Tag Line

Well I returned from the doctor with good news this morning. Back at the beginning of December I went in for a physical since I hadn't been in for one in over four years. The last time I'd been checked out was in early 2000 after being hired by Hughes. At that time I was in pretty good shape. My weight was good. Normal blood pressure. Just generally in pretty good health. Fast forward to December 2004.

At that point I had gained around 30 pounds and my blood pressure was 145/94. My cholesterol scores were outrageous as well. Now for those who don't know, like I didn't, here are the basics on how a cholesterol score works. You have a Total Cholesterol level and having that less than 200 mg/dL (milligrams of cholesterol per decileter of blood) is the desirable level. There are also LDL(bad) and HDL(good) cholesterols as well as triglycerides. For LDL you're looking for something below 100 mg/dL as optimal, but between 100 and 129 is near to slightly above optimal. For HDL the higher the better. Scores of 60 or higher help to lower the risk for heart disease. Triglycerides are another form of fat in the blood and scores less than 160 mg/dL are acceptable, again lower is better. Another indicator that is useful for predicting the risk of heart disease are Non-HDL cholesterols. The target from my doctor was less than 160 mg/dL. There was one other statistic that he used and what I would guess is a quick indicator of overall cholesterol status. This was Total Cholesterol divided by HDL cholesterol. My target score was to be less than 4.

So with all that in mind here is where I was in early December of 2004:

Total Cholesterol(TC): 225 (Should be less than 200)
HDL(good): 48 (Should be greater than 60)
LDL(bad): 165 (Should be less than 130)
Non-HDL: 177 (Should be less than 160)
TC/HDL: 4.7 (Should be less than 4.0)

And now in early March of 2005:

Total Cholesterol(TC): 179 (Should be less than 200)
HDL(good): 41 (Should be greater than 45)
LDL(bad): 121 (Should be less than 130)
Non-HDL: 138 (Should be less than 160)
TC/HDL: 4.4 (Should be less than 4.0)

So, everything went down including my HDL. Now a higher HDL is good, but since my TC went down significantly and my HDL only dropped a few points this actually made my TC/HDL ratio go lower and why my goal for HDL is 45. With my current TC score if I bring up my HDL to 45 I will be meeting my goal for this.

So what did I do to effect these changes?

• Number one was to stop eating fast food. I've had In-N-Out once since December 4 and I've haven't had any other fast food.


• The second thing was to to eat LESS in general.


• The third thing was to eat foods low in fat and cholesterol. I've also started eating oatmeal in the morning occasionally.


• Fourth, I've started exercising.

That's really it. Now I haven't made all my goals yet. My blood pressure is better, 133/80 versus 145/94, but it still isn't as low as it should be. Doc says more exercise is probably in order which makes sense since I'm not as on top of it as I should be. Overall though I made great progress in three months and it wasn't that difficult to do. I haven't cut everything out that I used to eat with the exception of fast food so I'm still eating well. I guess it all comes back around to moderation. Boo.

Oh almost forgot I weighed 180 lbs. in December and today I'm down below 170 lbs.