We're like how we were again

[clevermanka]

As a state employee, I have to go through a health screening every year if I want to continue to receive discounted insurance. I had mine done yesterday morning.

My numbers this year:
Total Cholesterol: 170mg/dL (< 200 Desirable)
HDL Cholesterol: 69mg/dL (> 60 Optimal)
LDL Cholesterol: 89mg/dL (< 100 Optimal)
TC/HDL Ratio: 2.5 (3.8 or below = Low Risk)
Triglycerides 58mg/dL (< 150 Desirable)
Fasting Glucose: 88 mg/dL (< 100 Normal)
Blood Pressure: 104/70 (<120/80 Normal)

Last year's numbers:
Total Cholesterol: 185 mg/dL
HDL Cholesterol: 72 mg/dL
LDL Cholesterol: 102 mg/dL
TC/HDL Ratio: 2.6
Triglycerides: 54 mg/dL
Fasting Glucose: 95 mg/dL
Blood Pressure: 99/60

Pretty much the same. I attribute the higher glucose to Tuesday evening's shenanigans. Also? My finger would not stop bleeding from the pinprick. I told the lab tech that I'd had an extra glass of water that morning (truth) without mentioning the two bottles of wine the night before.

So...yeah. Eating a lot of saturated fat with no whole grains ever is really killing me. The tech told me to just keep doing whatever I was doing. I wanted to tell him what I was doing, but people in the modern health care establishment don't want to hear it.

Seen on Tumblr:

ADORABLE. Click the image to go post for re-blog.

I came across this DJ's website with a lot of mash-ups. Not the style you'd really hear on a dance floor, but some great stuff. One of my favorites, from his YouTube site:

Comments

[miischelle.livejournal.com]

Wait....your health screening is just a pinprick?

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Yep. Well, they also took my blood pressure and a waist measurement.

QUALITY and THOROUGHNESS. Expect nothing less from the state of Kansas.

[miischelle.livejournal.com]

I'd prefer a pinprick. They always take a whole tube from us, and the nurse can never find my rolly vein...

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I'm certainly not complaining about the pinprick. I'll take that over an actual sample-giving any day.

[carmy-w.livejournal.com]

That tumblr gif really IS adorable!

Wow-I wish my tests looked that good!

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I wish my tests looked that good

I can help show you how, if you're interested. It's a commitment, but so worth it.

[carmy-w.livejournal.com]

My cholesterol levels suck, but I think it's as much my family history as anything. Plus I've put on some weight that I need to drop (and it's FINALLY coming off!), and need to exercise more.

I would be interested in what you do, though! I'm on a cholesterol med now, and while my levels dropped the first year, they were right back up again the next year (which coincided with the weight gain, so....).


Oddly enough, I don't have BP problems. I have an active tremor, and take a beta blocker to reduce it, and I'm almost to the point of needing to reduce my RX for it, because my BP is so low that if I have an arm outside the covers at night, it's tingly when I wake up.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Basically, this is what I do (http://whole9life.com/category/whole-30/). I'm not that strict all the time (you know me and my wine), but I eat basic paleo-style (except for wine) 99% of the time. That means:
No added sugar of any kind, real or artificial.
No grains. And yes, corn is a grain.
No beans or legumes.
No dairy.
No processed or packaged foods with more than three ingredients on the label. And I only include three because coconut milk can't be purchased without a stabilizer/thickener. The rest of my (minimal) canned goods have only one or two ingredients (tuna, vegetables).

I do eat a lot of animals (and eggs, until I found I was allergic) and fresh vegetables. I keep fruit to a minimum because of the sugar content.

If you give this an honest shot (and by honest, I mean three months of faithfully eating basic paleo after an initial Whole30 (http://whole9life.com/2012/08/the-whole30-program/)), I would be shocked if your numbers didn't improve.

Starting January 2, I'm going to start an even more restricted eating program, based on eliminating things that might be triggering my autoimmune issues. So I'll be doing Whole30 and then some for at least three months. If you want to start with me on January 2 so you feel like you have some solidarity, that would be great!

This is not easy, but it's certainly not impossible, and everyone I know who has done it (not "tried" it, but really committed) has seen amazingly positive results. Not everyone stays 100% paleo (not everyone has my allergies and issues), but all the people who stuck it out for the first couple months and didn't give up have continued an eating style that's about 80% paleo-compliant and they all report feeling tons better.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

shinga draws things which are pertinent to your interests:

http://cdn.headtrip.keenspot.com/comics/20121105.jpg

http://headtrip.keenspot.com/

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Ha ha ha ha! Oh, man, if I had a sex dream about Loki or Tom Hiddleston, I'd be blogging like crazy about it. So far, the best I've been able to come up with was David Tennant, though.

PERHAPS ALAS.

[carmy-w.livejournal.com]

Gonna have to get Chris a Loki helmet for some reason!

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

They are so very unlike each other, it wouldn't work. At all. I would just laugh so hard it wouldn't do either of us any good.

I'm much more Loki-like than McKitterick. Poor McKitterick.

[carmy-w.livejournal.com]

Wow-

Bookmarked! Those are great!

[miischelle.livejournal.com]

Wait....your health screening is just a pinprick?

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Yep. Well, they also took my blood pressure and a waist measurement.

QUALITY and THOROUGHNESS. Expect nothing less from the state of Kansas.

[miischelle.livejournal.com]

I'd prefer a pinprick. They always take a whole tube from us, and the nurse can never find my rolly vein...

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I'm certainly not complaining about the pinprick. I'll take that over an actual sample-giving any day.

[carmy-w.livejournal.com]

That tumblr gif really IS adorable!

Wow-I wish my tests looked that good!

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I wish my tests looked that good

I can help show you how, if you're interested. It's a commitment, but so worth it.

[carmy-w.livejournal.com]

My cholesterol levels suck, but I think it's as much my family history as anything. Plus I've put on some weight that I need to drop (and it's FINALLY coming off!), and need to exercise more.

I would be interested in what you do, though! I'm on a cholesterol med now, and while my levels dropped the first year, they were right back up again the next year (which coincided with the weight gain, so....).


Oddly enough, I don't have BP problems. I have an active tremor, and take a beta blocker to reduce it, and I'm almost to the point of needing to reduce my RX for it, because my BP is so low that if I have an arm outside the covers at night, it's tingly when I wake up.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Basically, this is what I do (http://whole9life.com/category/whole-30/). I'm not that strict all the time (you know me and my wine), but I eat basic paleo-style (except for wine) 99% of the time. That means:
No added sugar of any kind, real or artificial.
No grains. And yes, corn is a grain.
No beans or legumes.
No dairy.
No processed or packaged foods with more than three ingredients on the label. And I only include three because coconut milk can't be purchased without a stabilizer/thickener. The rest of my (minimal) canned goods have only one or two ingredients (tuna, vegetables).

I do eat a lot of animals (and eggs, until I found I was allergic) and fresh vegetables. I keep fruit to a minimum because of the sugar content.

If you give this an honest shot (and by honest, I mean three months of faithfully eating basic paleo after an initial Whole30 (http://whole9life.com/2012/08/the-whole30-program/)), I would be shocked if your numbers didn't improve.

Starting January 2, I'm going to start an even more restricted eating program, based on eliminating things that might be triggering my autoimmune issues. So I'll be doing Whole30 and then some for at least three months. If you want to start with me on January 2 so you feel like you have some solidarity, that would be great!

This is not easy, but it's certainly not impossible, and everyone I know who has done it (not "tried" it, but really committed) has seen amazingly positive results. Not everyone stays 100% paleo (not everyone has my allergies and issues), but all the people who stuck it out for the first couple months and didn't give up have continued an eating style that's about 80% paleo-compliant and they all report feeling tons better.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

shinga draws things which are pertinent to your interests:

http://cdn.headtrip.keenspot.com/comics/20121105.jpg

http://headtrip.keenspot.com/

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Ha ha ha ha! Oh, man, if I had a sex dream about Loki or Tom Hiddleston, I'd be blogging like crazy about it. So far, the best I've been able to come up with was David Tennant, though.

PERHAPS ALAS.

[carmy-w.livejournal.com]

Gonna have to get Chris a Loki helmet for some reason!

[carmy-w.livejournal.com]

Wow-

Bookmarked! Those are great!