Bad Health and Analytical Results

[mipafox 438]

Three years ago I had to go to the doctor for the first time in a few years. Matter of fact, I didn't have a doctor.

 

I did not eat out much. Take out lunch once a week at most. Meatball sandwiches or pizza once a month. Had been to McDonalds about 5 times over 10 years. Never ate any fast food. If anything, I would go to a deli or pizza shop. Once a month. Thought I was eating pretty healthy.

 

I weighed in at 232 pounds.

 

My blood pressure was 185/120. That is a dire emergency if there are symptoms present.

 

Then came blood tests. Everything was VERY bad. Cholesterol off the charts, triglycerides 790. They had to estimate my cholesterol because the triglycerides were so high they were causing interference. Liver function 3x the normal range. Some of the highest results my doctor had ever seen. At the bottom of the last page of the analytical it said "Cease contributing to your 401K" (just kidding)

 

Sugar high.

 

Ultrasonic to gauge how bad my liver was. Then CT scans head to toe to determine how bad my liver was and what other things might kill me first. CT scans said I would live if I cleaned up my act, but nobody holds out hope for that. People don't do that. And, even when they try really hard, which is rare, they usually fail.

 

Today my BP is 120/60. I don't take any cholesterol drugs. Every single one of my numbers is normal, including lipid profile, triglycerides/cholesterol etc. Liver is normal and completely healed.

 

I am in perfect health and basically this never happened. If I keep my shit together.

[lunker 274]

Glad to hear it. My buddy on diabetic meds ended up not having to take them after losing 100 lbs. I lost 90lbs over the last few years and am a lot healthier for it. I still have about 80 to go unfortunately.

[mipafox 438]

Glad to hear it. My buddy on diabetic meds ended up not having to take them after losing 100 lbs. I lost 90lbs over the last few years and am a lot healthier for it. I still have about 80 to go unfortunately.

 

Good to hear it. Don 't worry about the 80. Slow is steady and steady is fast. I learned that from squids. When that last 80 is gone, you are going to have to conduct yourself the same way you are now. So it doesn't matter one bit unless the scale goes up.

 

The squids also taught me that if you can't see land, it aint gay. In case that comes up. But it sounds like both of you are on the right track. There is no destination. No weight goal nor medical test result goal. Just the track. Keep on it forever and things just keep getting better, given time.

[Vlad G 345]

Out of curiosity, what was you diet before and what is it now?

[lunker 274]

Before, I ate literally whatever I wanted (five slices of pizza, lots of beer, etc). Without trying to sound facetious, I am eating less and exercising more (four or five times a week). I don't eat after 7pm, when possible. I do my best to keep carbs down, but slip fairly often. I am still trying to shake my love of Milky Way bars and Dr Pepper.

[Vlad G 345]

So it sounds to me like you had a carb heavy diet (despite or because you tried to eat "low fat" as the stupid guidelines recommend) and you are trying to switch to lower carb diet, which makes a lot more sense. Good for you.

[Old Glock guy 1,127]

Mipafox, what do you feel are the factors responsible for your dramatic improvement?

Lunker, besides watching your diet, do you get out for some exercise? Just walking for a half hour or so a day will do wonders for you physically, as well as mentally. Good luck to both of you!

[lunker 274]

Mipafox, what do you feel are the factors responsible for your dramatic improvement?

Lunker, besides watching your diet, do you get out for some exercise? Just walking for a half hour or so a day will do wonders for you physically, as well as mentally. Good luck to both of you!

 

I have woods near me that I( hike through a few times a week. I also do weight training at least twice a week.

[mipafox 438]

Mipafox, what do you feel are the factors responsible for your dramatic improvement?

 

My best guess, in descreasing order of importance:

 

1. Luck

2. Quit smoking

3. Diet

4. Weight loss

5. Cut back on beer

6. Exercise

 

And when I say diet, not just avoiding things I'm not supposed to eat. Also eating a crapload of stuff I need for my medical conditions. Tons of potatoes, tomatoes, and carrots for potassium. At least 2 oz of spinach. Black beans and shirataki noodles for soluble fiber - every day. Salmon 2x a week and tuna 1x a week for Omega 3 (capsules are not the same). 1 oz. shreaded orange peel in my salad for cholesterol. Half an orange or berries every day. 100% of my RDA for fiber (boosted by Fiber One as a snack). Handful of walnuts and piece of chocolate with my fatty meal of the day. TBSP of ground flaxseed for ALA (a little extra Omega 3 production) and TBSP of sunflower seeds for nutrients since my diet is not very nutritious.

 

If this sounds like bark and berries, it aint. It's taken time to make a decent menu, but I eat like a king. Chicken nuggets, french fries (baked), potato skins, tacos, homemade sausage, soup, beef stew, mashed potatoes and gravy, burritos, pulled pork, burgers/meatball sandwhich or pizza on the weekend, all made from scratch to avoid salt. My lunch is 4 to 5 courses. I gotta jam the food in and it takes about 45 minutes. My lunch for one day takes up half the fridge at work LOL. They think I'm crazy.

[matt6669 71]

My best guess, in descreasing order of importance:

 

1. Luck

2. Quit smoking

3. Diet

4. Weight loss

5. Cut back on beer

6. Exercise

 

And when I say diet, not just avoiding things I'm not supposed to eat. Also eating a crapload of stuff I need for my medical conditions. Tons of potatoes, tomatoes, and carrots for potassium. At least 2 oz of spinach. Black beans and shirataki noodles for soluble fiber - every day. Salmon 2x a week and tuna 1x a week for Omega 3 (capsules are not the same). 1 oz. shreaded orange peel in my salad for cholesterol. Half an orange or berries every day. 100% of my RDA for fiber (boosted by Fiber One as a snack). Handful of walnuts and piece of chocolate with my fatty meal of the day. TBSP of ground flaxseed for ALA (a little extra Omega 3 production) and TBSP of sunflower seeds for nutrients since my diet is not very nutritious.

 

If this sounds like bark and berries, it aint. It's taken time to make a decent menu, but I eat like a king. Chicken nuggets, french fries (baked), potato skins, tacos, homemade sausage, soup, beef stew, mashed potatoes and gravy, burritos, pulled pork, burgers/meatball sandwhich or pizza on the weekend, all made from scratch to avoid salt. My lunch is 4 to 5 courses. I gotta jam the food in and it takes about 45 minutes. My lunch for one day takes up half the fridge at work LOL. They think I'm crazy.

 

You should really consider putting together a so called menu and sharing it on this forum. If what you say above is true, you would have quite a few followers because I know a lot of people on this forum have tried to diet and end up quitting due to the horrendous foods people try to eat while they are dieting.

 

Good for you! I'm in the process of trying to lose 15 pounds but between my crappy eating habits and now going on a cruise for vacation, those 15 pounds are going to have to wait a little while longer

[Krdshrk 3,878]

I'd say #2,5 and 6 are the ones that made the most difference....

[lunker 274]

If genetics fall under luck, then luck is far and away #1.

[mipafox 438]

You should really consider putting together a so called menu and sharing it on this forum. If what you say above is true, you would have quite a few followers because I know a lot of people on this forum have tried to diet and end up quitting due to the horrendous foods people try to eat while they are dieting.

 

Good for you! I'm in the process of trying to lose 15 pounds but between my crappy eating habits and now going on a cruise for vacation, those 15 pounds are going to have to wait a little while longer

 

I wasn't trying to lose weight. At first I was trying to keep myself from suddenly dying from extremely high blood pressure. I figured I'd get around to losing weight. Then, son of a gun, I had lost weight. So I figured I wouldn't change anything. After that I just refined my recipes over a year or so to make better tasting food of a wider variety and to add more and more potassium, soluble fiber, omega-3, etc.

 

But, you are right. I'm old enough to know I'm not going to eat crappy food for very long. After the "emergency response" the key was to find the foods I was willing to eat that gave me what I needed, because I wasn't willing to eat most of them. And then make good food while jamming them in here or there.

[Jon 264]

Wow, Ed. Congrats on such a huge turnaround!

[hd2000fxdl 422]

Great turnaround, I was 315 on my cholesterol, tried to change diet took omega 3 for a month and dropped it to 270 but the Dr said while that was good, it wasn't good enough and I am on Lipitor, probably for life, runs in the family. Triglycerides were still high and I added going to the gym an hour a day 5 days a week and all my numbers are now great. Wish i was able to do what you did, but different genetics I guess.

 

Harry

[mipafox 438]

Great turnaround, I was 315 on my cholesterol, tried to change diet took omega 3 for a month and dropped it to 270 but the Dr said while that was good, it wasn't good enough and I am on Lipitor, probably for life, runs in the family. Triglycerides were still high and I added going to the gym an hour a day 5 days a week and all my numbers are now great. Wish i was able to do what you did, but different genetics I guess.

 

Harry

 

1. "Taking" Omega-3 provides limited results. Buy wild-caught Pacific Salmon fillets every other week, frozen, $10. Both Giant and Wegmans sell them, although Giant leaves the skin on and that's a ****. You get two freeze-wrapped (at sea) fillets of approx 6 oz each. Put one in your fridge in the morning to thaw. Don't do anything that night. The next night, cut it open and hit with pepper (salt if you can afford it), rub a few drops of lemon juice on it, and then rub a few drops of Pure (NOT Virgin) olive oil on it. Put in fridge for 30 minutes. Set oven for BROIL. Move the top rack so that the broiler pan is 6 inches from the heat, set to HIGH broil, open oven door to the broil catch (just before it closes it catches 3 inches open), and slap that f'r on there. Broil 3 minutes, flip, broil 3 minutes, pull it the heck out. Cut in half and freeze half and eat the other half for lunch the next day.

 

This is the simplest thing I ever eat. It takes me longer to make a simple and stupid salad because I have to wash and dry crap.

 

I don't like fish much. Broiled fresh-frozen salmon is amazing. It's better than chicken and sometimes better than beef, depending on my mood. You can make a sandwich out of it. If you can't fit those sandwich calories in your diet, just eat it. It's extremely good.

 

2. Every day, put a tablespoon of flaxseeds through your coffee grinder. And eat them. Ground flaxseeds do not store, and unground ones are not absorbed. Grind before use or store in fridge for a few hours at most.

 

3. Eat Fiber One. The "rabbit food" style is only 60 calories. Eat it as a snack in the late morning to boost your fiber. No milk. Doesn't taste bad, tastes OK. Goes down quick.

 

4. Black Beans and Kidney Beans - Soluble fiber. I doubt you'll do this, but it would help a great deal. Make it all spicy and Mexican once a week and then eat throughout the week. I suggest Ms. Dash Fiesta Lime seasoning since it tastes just like Ortega taco seasoning but has no sodium.

 

5. Tofu-Shirataki Noodles - I very strongly doubt you will do this. But they will kill your triglycerides out-right. They will run them out of town due to the soluble fiber.

 

This aint spaghetti. It takes a little getting used to. Find it in the health food refriderator section of the grocery store. I like the wide noodles. Put a pot on boil. Drain and rinse the noodles. Boil them for 3 minutes. Fry on a non-stick pan with no oil for about 10 minutes while flipping them and cutting them up with a non-stick spatula. The longer the better. Cook two 8 oz bags and you have 4 servings, enough for a week. You are probably not going to use these for spaghetti dinner (yuck). They're not that good. Use with cheese sauce and meatball pieces, as part of stir-fry dish, soup (++ good), gravy and meat, or put next to a potato and cover both in spicy beans and sauce.

 

Cook once per week, and eat it four times per week, religiously.

 

6. Do NOT put together TBSP of Turmeric, Cumin, etc. etc. Spices contain powerful alkaloids. You don't want liver damage or severe blood thinning or precipitating the next Coming etc. Just my personal opinion, but this is last resort kinda stuff. You should only put stuff in your mouth that people have been routinely eating for at least the past thousand years. No miracle vegetables from Kenya, etc.

 

7. Pills and capsules never do what food does. That's just the way it is, and I'm no tree-hugging granola cruncher.

 

I'm not a doctor. I'm not pushing anything. I don't want to lay out my menu because the priority was nearly complete elimination of sodium, weight loss was not even on the list, so there is no reason the average person would want to go to the extreme lengths I did if they just need to lose a few pounds. If anybody is in a situation similar to mine I would tell you what has worked for me if you have questions.

[hd2000fxdl 422]

Thanks for taking the time. Won't do it all, but printed it out and will try some of it.

 

Worst part of when I went to the DR and he put me on the Lipitor, he told me when to take it and what to eat, When he finished with what my diet souled be, I said I can't do that, ALL the food he named to stay away from were all I ate and I'd starve to death.

 

Again, appreciate it, I will work some of it into my diet.

 

Harry