Summer Continued

I am beginning to think that I should stop the count (Day 4, Day 5, etc.) - it already has me stressed!  Why, I do not know, but I always get tense counting things.  I play a game with my daughter - it's like Boggle but on-line it's called Scramble.  It's a timed game and I actually hyperventilate when I'm counted down by one minute.  When I started my sugar-free program and was about three weeks into it (keeping a calendar that each day I would mark "SF" as proof that I had been sugar-free) I was listening to the accompanying CD and she said, "Please do not mark on a calendar every day you have been sugar free."  LOL - was she speaking to me?  I stopped immediately.  The premise was to guard against black&white, all-or-nothing, thinking.  Boy was she right, but I'm just that sort of person.  So anyway, I need to acknowledge every glorious day of summer but as of today I'm not counting. All it will do is get me anxious about how summer is moving along and how I may (or may not) be moving along with it. 

Okay, so as long as we are talking about numbers, the results of yesterday's blood test are starting to come in (some take more than a day to be calculated).  What has come in so far is that my cholesterol and LDL have both significantly gone up since my tests 6 months ago.  I took myself off my statin drug after reading so many negative studies (my bad - I didn't even bother to discuss it with my doctor).  I have horrible horrible leg cramps - and not just the calf - I get them in my shin, in my quad, hamstring - and they are so bad, my leg still aches the next day.  Since going off my statin I haven't gotten a single leg cramp.  I have to find a way to naturally lower my cholesterol so that I don't have to go back to that drug.  On the other hand my HDL went up and my triglycerides plummeted, so I know that my dietary changes have made some dent in what I am trying to accomplish.  My daughter, the expert on these things, said that in addition to dietary changes, increased exercise will also affect cholesterol counts (I know it helps with insulin resistance as well).  My glucose, already a bit high, is exactly the same as it was 6 months ago.

She has given me two sites to explore - based on research and not gimmicks - that I will share here with you:

The mayo clinic website.

And also the HSPH nutrition source.

I am sure there is no information on either website that I haven't already come across and read, but with my daughter's email to me:

"i love you too!  so be healthy so you live forever and i never have to be without you!", I will take a fresh look.  

Add reading those websites to my summer projects list... but no counting how long it takes me!

Miriam