From: Poe (171-32.dynamic.visi.com)
Subject: Weight, cholesterol & a success story
Date: April 15, 2002 at 6:38 am PST
In Reply to: The coffee addiction is bad, bad, bad......... posted by Yam on April 14, 2002 at 4:19 pm:
My diet has been so raunchy I shot up to 165. I hadn't been that high in years. The past week and a half I've been back on a vegan diet, have shed 2 pounds that I know of, have thrown in some walks here and there and I feel fabulous. If only it wasn't so hard to forget this good feeling. I've learned not to be hard on myself for getting into bad eating binges. They happen and I have to move on. Just keep remembering the awesome feeling after eating healthy and good exercise.
Here's the success story:
My sister has jaw dropping bad cholesterol. It runs in the part of the family that she seems to have taken after (I was blessed from the opposite side of the family with naturally very low cholesterol). No amount of good eating, medicines, ect could bring it down for her. It was at a dangerous level and she'd been under doctors cares since a teenager. Her son at the age of 6 has been tested and is already at a bad level, she he unfortunately has the same thing.
Six months ago I think it was she tossed out the rule book, told her doctors to be quiet, forgot about the millions of "expert" books she'd read (and she's read EVERYTHING anyone has ever had to say on the topic), and started following her own eating plan. She will never go vegetarian, but she started really watching what she ate. More veggies and starches than meat, cut out the candy, ect. Her cholesterol did not change, as it never has. she decided to do an experiment. She started buying natural peanut butter, rather than the processed popular brands. She eats a little bit of fat every day in the form of a very small serving of nuts or olives. She switched to olive oil (I know, fat is fat is fat). She lost over 30 pounds and her cholesterol, here's the kicker, hasn't been this low in over 20 years.
The moral of this lesson, which I was forced to learn, is that a little bit of fat is ok. That was a hard one for me. Go ahead and have the nutbutter once a week or once every two weeks, or maybe only pms time (I have a long road ahead of me on this topic).
Just wanted to share a great story. My sister inspires me to no end. And she's ready for the first 10K of the year at the end of this month. I may go just to cheer for her at the finish line.
Cheers to all those who are struggling. It can happen, and I know it will happen again for me when I'm ready. It's worth it.
