Thursday, March 10, 2011

Weighing in on the cholesterol

This morning, hubby woke me up at 5.30am to get ready for a mandatory health check-up at his workplace. I had been waiting to do a blood test forever just because I was super curious about what my cholesterol levels were. I was pretty sure I was well within the normal range, but it’s good to know anyway. Here are the results of the health check-up:

Weight = 120lbs (117 when I arrived in the US. Nobody believes me when I say I can put on a pound a day.)

Body Fat% = 18% (17% when I arrived. This is not looking good.)

Blood Pressure = 102/72 (Normal)

Cholesterol (total) = 141 (Good)

HDL = 33 (40mg/dL or lower indicates a major risk factor for heart disease. Crap, this is scary.)

Triglycerides = 61 (Normal)

LDL = 96 (100mg/dL or higher indicates a higher risk factor for heart disease. Normal)

Cholesterol Ratio: 4.3 (3.5 or less is desirable. HDL is the culprit in my case.)

Ok, so the truth is that I generally keep my overall fat intake low, which means that I’m inhibiting intake of good fats as well. I will now admit that I have a problem: fatphobia. I think avocadoes, nuts, olive oil, and all other good things will make me fat. I think this comes from years of being overweight and having had tough times getting down to a normal size. Although I have read enough to know that good fats actually help keep the weight down, I can’t bring myself to eat them. That will somehow now need to change.

3 comments:

  1. Do you like tuna fish? I like to mix tuna fish with avocado, makes me feel better about the fats because I'm eating it with something that is low in fat and high in protein.

    Did you read the article in Runner's World last month about this very subject? I'll try to find it for you.

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  2. I love tuna! This sounds like a good idea...maybe I could toss in some veggies and make a salad. I haven't read the RW article...is it online?

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  3. Avocados are really tasty and they're just the thing when you're craving something savory.

    I eat them with a squeeze of lemon and they're wonderful - I'm not so crazy about walnuts but I do like raw almonds. They crunch like croutons but without being bread.

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