Managing Cholesterol Levels

When I had my physical this year, my healthcare provider was concerned about my borderline-high cholesterol. Making some changes improved my numbers. I’m hopeful that my levels will continue to remain at a good place and that I won’t need to take medication to manage my cholesterol.

My total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol have always been either at the high end of the normal range or just outside of it on the high end. My healthcare provider generally would not say anything about those results. When I got back those numbers after my physical in July this year, I was concerned that they were higher than they’d been in the past. However, since my other numbers were normal, I decided not to worry about them too much. About two weeks later, I heard back from my healthcare provider who said I should go on a low-fat and low-cholesterol diet. I had researched and found information that high total cholesterol and LDL alone weren’t necessarily indicative of a problem, but I decided to heed what my healthcare provider was telling me. I knew it would not be unhealthy or extraordinarily difficult for me to modify my diet and lifestyle in ways that would help lower my cholesterol. I knew it at least would be better than having to go on cholesterol-lowering medication. I also did not want to have a discussion or argument with my healthcare provider about why I didn’t need to go on medication or why I would not go on medication. I’d already been down that road with iron supplements and iron infusions, so I was not eager to go down it again.

I started out by switching out the full-fat dairy products I use, like yogurt, cottage cheese, string cheese, milk, and sour cream, with low-fat counterparts. I normally eat about one egg a day, but I decided to use egg whites for some of those so I could cut down on my consumption of whole eggs. I still use my Egg Pod to hard-cook four eggs for breakfast on Friday, and for the rest I use Egg Beaters. One of the big surprises for me was finding out that chocolate candy is very high in saturated fat, especially dark chocolate candy. I decided to switch to the smaller size of chocolate candy bars and to limit my consumption. Chocolate candy was my go-to for dessert or other things. Whenever I feel I need extra calories, I try to incorporate things like extra fruit and vegetables or whole grains rather than chocolate candy or cookies. I found some large whole grain gluten-free bread slices at the store, and I’ll sometimes have one or two of those slices with a meal. Whenever I eat the Egg Beaters, I may sometimes add a bowl of whole-grain cereal, like teff or millet. I also decided to bring back out my air popper, and I bought a container of popcorn kernels so I could pop fresh popcorn.  It’s wonderful plain.  I have some of the “That’s It” fruit bars that I may eat as a snack or a meal add-on. I had a glass container that I would use for cookies that allowed for an easy grab if I wanted something extra. I now put whole-grain crackers in there and have those instead. I put cookies elsewhere, where they’re not as easy to reach for and grab. I had started doing more 10 and 15 minute workouts in the morning so I could sleep later, but I decided to try to do more workouts that were longer. I try to do 20 minute workouts during the week and 30-minute or longer ones over the weekend so that I can get more workout minutes in to my week. So I could get up at the same time, I try my best not to get distracted by other things and make sure I move on from one thing I need to do to the next thing without stopping too long in between. For other food items, if there were good alternatives that were lower in saturated fat, I would switch to those alternatives. For example, I decided to switch from Natural Jif peanut butter to Crazy Richard’s. I also switched from ice cream to frozen yogurt.

I was concerned about the taste and satisfaction of the low-fat dairy products. In the past, I remember trying plain fat-free yogurt and being completely grossed-out by it. Full-fat plain yogurt, on the other hand, was really good to me, and I could eat it without any add-ins. Lower-fat and fat-free dairy products would often have sugar and other ingredients added to make them more appealing. I get Daisy’s low-fat cottage cheese and low-fat sour cream. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by them. They definitely taste different, but they taste just fine to me. Low-fat yogurt is also good, and I’ve found that I can tolerate it without add-ins as well. Sargento has a low-fat version of mozzarella cheese sticks, and it’s good as well. Initially, I had wanted to switch out my whole milk for 2% milk. However, there was not a lot of difference between the 2% milk and the whole milk. 1% seemed to be a lot better choice, and I didn’t know how I would like it in comparison. I knew I didn’t want fat-free or skim milk. I’ve found that 1% milk is good as well. All in all, I’ve not missed the full-fat versions of my favorite dairy products.

I decided that I would check my lipid panel again on my own so that I could make sure that I was on the right track before my healthcare provider checked it again. In October, I decided to order it via LabCorp On Demand, and on Halloween, I left early to have my blood drawn. I got my results back the next day. I was pleased to see that my total cholesterol, while still high, went down. My LDL cholesterol had gone down by a larger amount. I looked at past results for those two tests, the results that did not alarm my health care provider, and some of those were higher than my numbers from October 31^st. I decided not to be concerned with my current results. The other three values were still normal, but they improved also. My HDL cholesterol went up. My VLDL cholesterol and triglycerides went down. Overall, I was pleased with my numbers and felt I was on the right track.

I’m very thankful that I’ve been able to incorporate daily diet and lifestyle changes to normalize (or get closer to normal) my cholesterol and other lipid values. I’m hoping that the changes I’ve made will continue to serve me well and keep my numbers where they need to be. Hopefully I won’t need to go on a statin and/or other medications to control my cholesterol!

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