The battle gets more serious

I was sick last Monday. Really sick. The only things that passed my lips in over 24 hours: 1 bottle of grape gatorade and 4 pieces of toast. That kind of sick.

Dave was sick at the same time. Nora and Ryann had the day off of school... they got up around 8:30, turned on cartoons and spent the next 12 hours watching tv. Dave and I laid in bed and dozed in and out for the entire day. Ugh. It was terrible.

(side note: it was actually kind of nice to be sick together. While we didn't interact hardly at all during the day, it was less lonely to be laying in bed next to someone else who was feeling the same way. Weird? Dave thought it was weird when I told him this.)

At some point in the early afternoon the phone rang - it was the doctor's office with our cholesterol results. They weren't good. Me = 235 (HDL 65, LDL 165, Tri 100). Dave = 225.

Really? We both run 3 - 4 days per week. We make healthy food choices 90% of the time. We don't eat a ton of meat or fried foods. Our biggest indulgence is weekly pizza on Saturday nights.

High cholesterol is in my genes from every nook and cranny in my family. When I was 22 and got my first job, they happened to be having free physicals for the employees on my first day of work. My fasting cholesterol - at 22 years old - was 288. My doctor at that time told me my ratio of total cholesterol to HDL was good so he wasn't worried. Since then I have really changed my eating and have exercised very regularly when I wasn't pregnant. Last December my cholesterol was down to 216. Periodically it has been 204, 210 and then 216, but never got below 200. This has been a battle for my entire adult life.

So what to do? The doc sent Dave the low-fat diet hand out that he gives me everytime I'm there, but wants me to make an appointment. I am 33 - I don't want to go on meds for the rest of my life, which could possibly be 40-50 years of prescription medication.

So I researched diets and books last week. Seems that the low-fat low-cholesterol diet handout that the doc gives us is pretty out of date. Appears that a Mediterranean diet would be good in addition to adding a multitude of supplements. I bought the book, "The New 8-Week Cholesterol Cure" (new meaning updated from a previous version) and an American Heart Association cookbook.

We are on a mission - both of us this time. Fortunately Dave's cholesterol was high, too, because now he is taking this seriously and I'm not on my own. We're going to try to lower our cholesterol naturally instead of with prescription meds.

I haven't finished the book, but this is what I've figured out so far:

* need to eat lots and lots and lots of fruits and vegetables. Very minimum 5 servings each day, but closer to 9 servings - basically the more the better. This requires a committment to going to the grocery store more often, increasing our grocery budget, and spending time preparing them after we get home.

* need to eat fish at least once per week, ideally twice per week.

* it is okay to eat nuts, but not big handfuls. Nuts are good. Peanut butter is good. But it needs to be small quantities.

* drinking alcohol in moderation is good for you. In fact, research has shown that people who consume alcohol in moderation (women = 1 drink/day, men = 2 drinks/day) have less heart disease and less risk than people who abstain from alcohol entirely. Beer or wine - either one is good and helps, neither do so more than the other in terms of CHD. Red wine has additional antioxidants, but beer is also good (which is good because I just learned to love beer).

* We need to add some vitamin supplements - well, I need to start taking mine. Dave does a good job of it already. Vitamin E, Vitamin C and Selenium are musts because of their antioxidants. When buying Vitamin E I need to look for d-alpha something or other - NOT dl-alpha something or other. The first one is most similar to Vitamin E that occurs naturally in plants and is the best for your heart.

* Fiber, fiber, fiber. Hello, get your fiber. Actually, I do not have a problem with this since my daily menu consists mostly of fiber. Oat bran is the best, but I haven't quite figured out what that is other than oatmeal. Drink a metamucil type thing before meals - must contain or be made with psyllium (good news: Target brand sugar free fiber therapy is 100% psyllium and is much cheaper than brand name... and we have it in the house already).

That is as far as I've gotten. There is some promising info on how to block cholesterol from being absorbed, which means we can still eat pizza and eggs (mmmmmm. eggs) and Dave can eat beef. And Niacin - I will be taking Niacin as well, but I haven't read that chapter and I'm not sure if I need to consult my doc about that one first.

I find this all very interesting. It is going to require us to increase our very, very lean grocery budget. Ramen noodles no more. And supplements are not cheap - especially when two people are taking them... but then again, neither are prescription meds. So we're committing to this and we'll see how we fare in 3 months. Let the battle begin.