Low Cholesterol + Junk Food = Weight Gain

          

          Taking advantage of my lower cholesterol level due to taking generic Lipitor, I went to Vons grocery store to buy ice cream which was on sale. Not merely a sale but the container had exactly ½ gallon instead of the downsized 1 ½ quarts which is the norm nowadays. I don’t remember the last time I bought ice cream, but I know it’s been years. With the ice cream, I became a little bit more adventurous with my diet which meant that I started eating food that I used to eat before my cholesterol level started going up. For three days I ate a couple of hamburgers, ham and cheese sandwiches for two nights at work, and half gallon of ice cream (a coffee flavored concoction with caramel bits, YUM!). That's not even counting halloween candy. Well,  in just those few days of a fare of unhealthy foods, I gained weight. I don't know how all that eating has affected my cholesterol level but I'm supposed to have it checked a week after Thanksgiving.

 That just shows you that even if cholesterol level is normal or low, you still have to be mindful of what you eat because the calories can still make you gain weight. To add to that, it's the type of calories that will do it and in this case, fat calories from the burger, ham, and ice cream. The weight gain is a risk factor in itself so regardless of cholesterol level, I still have to eat healthy foods, especially that I am no longer able to run and can't rely on it to burn off the extra calories.

                So I ate badly for three days and gained about three pounds which I tried to work off with exercise. I had to add extra minutes to my workouts to try to burn off the weight gain but that didn't work out too well. Even an intense one hour session of a spinning workout barely made a dent. In my delusion, I tried to justify the weight gain as muscular weight due to a more consistent routine of weight training in recent weeks. Um, yeah, right!

 Then I did two days of sensible eating and got my weight back in control. It all boils down to portion control, not going overboard with the calorie intake, and choosing good calories instead of junk ones. Mind you, this is just an experiment of one and I'm not trying to be preachy here since all I've said has been researched and advised time and again. The most important thing about losing or maintaining weight is eating sensibly and using exercise as a supplement. A healthy diet counts more in keeping weight down than making it up by exercising excessively just to compensate for eating badly.

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Cholesterol - How Low Is Too Low?

This is not an endorsement of the product, I just like the warnings

How low should your cholesterol level be before it becomes dangerous and unhealthy? That was the question I had for my doctor after I got my cholesterol level results last week. After my chest pain episode last August, a routine blood test showed that my LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) had hit 130, which was at its upper limit of normal. So I was started on Atorvastatin (generic for Lipitor) 40 mg. and had been taking it daily for seven weeks. Well, the recent results showed that my total cholesterol dropped precipitously by 100 points in just 7 short weeks of taking the Lipitor. The LDL went from 130 to 44. My HDL (the good cholesterol), which was already good went up about 10 points.  I didn’t even think the huge LDL drop was possible so quickly. I thought maybe the consumption of fresh unprocessed foods in Zamboanga contributed to the decrease, but I’m sure, not by much.

 Of course I checked on the internet before my doctor’s appointment to find out how very low cholesterol might affect the body. Well there’s the increased risk of some cancers, anxiety, and depression. Hmm, none of those I want to experience. So I did what I thought a rational person would do, and that’s to catch up on my cholesterol intake. For the first time in years, I had chili cheese fries for lunch one day. I stopped eating those when my cholesterol started to rise about 5 years ago. I don’t expect to go overboard and start eating all the junk food available, but at least it’s good to be able to indulge once in awhile. In the meantime, my doctor said my levels were still within normal limits, although he ordered another cholesterol level in a month, and halved my dose from 40 mg. to 20 mg. This means I have to split the pill in half thereby saving me some money. If my cholesterol level goes down any further in a month, the doctor said he will decrease the Lipitor to 10 mg.

 When I first tried to split the 40 mg. pill, I thought I may have to use much force especially that it wasn’t scored in the middle. I was surprised at how easily I was able to cut it in half with the pill cutter. The smaller Lisinopril blood pressure pill is much tougher to split even though it’s scored. Well, I’ll let you know in a month’s time what the new results are. In the meantime, can I start eating fried chicken, eggs, and ice cream again?

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