No, I don't have any exciting progress to report from my holiday hiatus. In fact, I'm not going to weigh in officially until next Monday, so I have a week of "recovery" and a new starting point. I need it.
Today it all starts simply with a big banana for breakfast. I need to do some snow shoveling so the mail carrier can get to our box, and I need to do some video lectures to get our homeschooling week started. But I wanted to report my blood work results from last month:
I'm afraid I don't have spectacular details of blood work to show the benefits of nutritarian eating, as my numbers are pretty similar to those of two years ago, when I weighed about thirteen pounds less and was exercising more vigorously than I have been lately. But two years ago I had also been on Wellbutrin for the previous nine months and that threw my blood pressure up higher at that time and may also have had some effect on blood work. (When I got off the W. my weight shot right up almost 30 pounds in six months.) Three years ago, though, I weighed 30 pounds more than I did when this latest blood work was done, and that provides an interesting comparison. Here are all the numbers:
Year (within 2 mos. of December) . . . 2006 . . . 2007 . . . 2009
Weight (compared to December 2009) . . . +30 . . . -13 . . . 0 (after losing about 18 pounds in under three months)
Regimen . . . None . . . Wellbutrin, small portions, and vigorous exercise . . . Nutritarian and light exercise
Blood Pressure . . . 135/82 . . . 140/80 . . . 120/80 (I had the same reading a few months ago)
Fasting Glucose . . . 91 . . . "Fine" . . . 92
Total Cholesterol . . . 194 . . . 181 . . . 181
HDL . . . 39 . . . 48 . . . 39
LDL . . . 137 . . . 123 . . . 121
Triglycerides . . . 89 . . . 51 . . . 105
At age 48 I'm happy with my blood pressure and LDL. I can get the HDL higher (best above 50) with more exercise and perhaps some red wine, as well as getting off more weight (though I understand the HDL can be suppressed during and soon after weight loss). I don't know a lot about triglycerides, but even though they're elevated they're still good numbers.
TODAY'S MENU
Breakfast--large banana, two tiny clementines, half ounce roasted edamame
Lunch--Campbell's Healthy Request Italian Wedding Soup (about a cup) with added red kidney beans (about 2/3 cup) and a big handful of fresh spinach wilted into the soup; gala apple
Snack--tastes of FUSION HUMMUS--ITALIAN and --MIDDLE EASTERN
Supper--Appetizer party at a friend's. I had a lot of good fresh veggie and fruit choices, but I had several other sorts of things, too. We had some car/snow trauma this evening that set me up with few resources to deal with temptation in the aftermath of stress. But still it was better than it could have been, and I had a lovely time with old friends.
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I'd love to know what you think of these or if you have suggestions for improvements!