Last September, Jocelin and I had our cholesterol checked at HEB on a whim.  To our surprise, our cholesterol was BAD.  Not 'bad' compared to superfat people, but 'bad' for young 30-somethings who *thought* they were taking care of themselves.  We exercised semi-regularly and ate ok, which we thought was enough to stay healthy and resistant to heart disease.  Boy were we wrong.  My total cholesterol was 205 and Jocelin's was 196, which are both in the "borderline - high risk" category.

Fast forward one year later to this past weekend, when I got checked again...  170, baby!  I was sooo excited.  Even the nurse was impressed!  While I was waiting, I heard all the nurses repeat the same thing over and over, "well, your cholesterol is a little on the high side, at 218..." and to another person, "... at 222..." and to another, "at 208..."  So when I saw that 170 I was pretty pumped.  That's 35 points!  Here's how I think it happened:

I honestly think 100% of the improvement was made in the last 6 months.  First, we started exercising regularly in March.  We cancelled our Gold's Gym membership to save some money, and we started P90x like everyone else on the planet.  Since I don't go to the gym anymore, P90x is all I do these days, and Jocelin will agree that we are both in better shape NOW than we EVER were when we went to the gym. I lost 10 pounds down to 148 and went from 13% bodyfat to 7.5%.

Even more important than the exercise, however, was our change in diet.  I talked about this in my book review of The China Study, but I firmly believe this is what made 80% of the difference.  We started eating alot less meat and alot more fruits, veggies, tofu, beans, and nuts.  I was counting calories (mainly for weight loss) and consuming as much fiber as possible.  Because we were substituting beans for meat, I was regularly eating over 80 grams of fiber a day, when 40 grams per day is already considered ALOT of fiber.

BTW, if you're not familiar with fiber (since you eat 100% meat and 0% veggies), let me enlighten you:  fiber is awesome.  It helps prevent heart disease, cancer, diabetes, it keeps you regular, and it makes you feel full.  And lots of food have it.  What else can you ask for?  IMHO, I think fiber is THE key to lowering cholesterol.  I've learned alot about it in the last few months, and I have to say I am a huge fan.

If you're wondering what Jocelin's new cholesterol level is, we don't know - she wasn't able to make it to the testing.  She was singing with Austin Stone's Choir for the City.  But she really wants to get tested next month.  We'll let you know.  I'm hoping for significant improvement, because then we can validate my theories above.

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