|
||||||||||||||||||
 |
From: Becky ( -75.211.202.141)
Hi Everyone! It’s been quite a while since I last posted here. My how time flies!!! I hope all of you are doing well, and starting out this new year in the best possible way! I didn’t intend to go so long between visits, but as other priorities surfaced in my life, some things got put on the back burner. Since my last post, I have been devoting a great deal of time to resolving a recent health issue. In early November I had a routine blood test and found out that my cholesterol is (was?) 252. From everything I’ve read and come to understand, this would be high for anyone, but for a vegan, I would have thought almost impossible. But I know the test result wasn’t an anomaly because my cholesterol level has been rising steadily over the years. Several of my family members also have cholesterol levels near or in the 300 range (but they aren’t vegan or even vegetarian). Well, this really alarmed me. I realize this isn’t life threatening (at this point), but I also realized that in order to stop and reverse this trend, I had to take a really close look at all aspects of my life to see where I could make changes, and hopefully avoid getting on the statin merry-go-round. Even though I eat a vegan diet, I wasn’t always eating health. After all, coke and potato chips are vegan, right? But even though I knew some of the obvious changes I could make, I felt I needed to research even more to see where I could further fine-tune my diet. So, I read Caldwell Esselstyn’s “Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease” and found that I really needed to take my diet one step further by eliminating any added oils (not even a drop, as he says in his book); I had to lay off the processed foods (even the whole grain varieties); avoid highly sweetened foods; cut down on my alcohol consumption (even a glass a day might be too much). I was scared enough when I got my cholesterol test results that initial adherence to this was very easy. But I knew as time went on, that scare factor would diminish, and I knew I needed to sort of immerse myself in a culture of like minded eaters and thinkers. So, I have been spending a great deal of time on another board to gain support, knowledge, ideas, recipes, etc. So, that’s where I have been lately! Looking forward to touching bases with all of you again! :) Hugs,
|
