Argh...the trouble with CHOLESTEROL

I am not sure if I shared with many of my friends out there my current struggle to get my cholesterol down to appropriate levels...

So here's the story...
In May while I was having a fairly random blood pressure check, Meg, sent me straight to bed. Meg, is a dear friend, who also happens to be a nurse and runs the Health Centre on campus. Apparently, my blood pressure was silly high and I needed to get it sorted immediately, if not sooner. B left his classes and shuttled me off the the community hospital, where I was promptly medicated and sentenced to a battery of blood work...

In case you don't know...I am only 33 and not terribly overweight...

That month we found out that not only was my blood pressure staying high, but my cholesterol was also high. So on to medication I went...it was around this time that I thought, "Hey, I am not afraid to die. So if I live however I want and die young no problem."

As you might guess B was not too thrilled about this attitude. Nevermind that it was totally self-centred and would leave him as a single parent to four girls. So the lifestyle change began...

Since then I have had three more cholesterol checks. When the second one came back in the lower range of normal I went of the statins and tried to manage it all with diet and exercise. It has been very unfortunate that I don't have any nasty eating and lifestyle habits to give up...

So I have given up meat...including chicken, eggs, dairy(which I didn't really eat anyway) as well as salt (to keep my blood pressure under control). Now, those who know me, know that I really like to eat...so you might be able to imagine what a pain in the butt these changes have been.

Sadly, today when I got the most recent results back things are not as I had hoped. On the up side the good stuff is up, but the bad stuff is not as under control as I wanted. As I was thinking about the last week or so I realized that I haven't been as strict as I was in the previous months. Without articulating the thought, I was thinking that maybe with some restrictions everything would be okay. Besides the fact that B was out of state; I always do better with accountability. But now with my eyes wide open I see that I need to commit to a basically vegan diet...with regular exercise...one would think that having four girls to keep track of would be enough exercise!!!!

I would love to hear from any of you who have recipe suggestions that have no eggs, no butter, little fat...but that produces a tasty treat!!!


P.S. If you haven't had your cholesterol checked...no time like the present!!!