I am SO middle-aged

[samwibatt]

...that I found today's news that my cholesterol is down to 139 - with no medication! - to be a total high-five moment. Back when I was smoking and getting 1/3 of my calories from Coca-Cola it was in the 220 range. So yay, mostly-vegan diet and elliptical trainer and nic patches!

Comments

[unspeakablevorn]

Yay!

[chillyrodent]

Ha! I totally relate. We 40-somethings need to take our (mild) excitement where we can get it.

139 is a spectacular number. It means your HDLs and LDLs (I first wrote LDS) must be dazzlingly similar, or at least dancing in some awesome ratio.

[samwibatt]

It stacked up like this: HDL 47, LDL 72, Triglycerides 102.

The worst results I have handy, Sept '07, were:
Total 230, HDL 27, LDL 138, Triglycerides 324. That was just after my thesis defense, when I was probably in my worst shape pretty much ever.

The HDL improvement is the one I really get a kick out of.

LDS, heh. I'm pretty low in that, too.

[chillyrodent]

Nice numbers! The HDL jump would be from your exercise, right?

Congrats on the nic patches!

[samwibatt]

I assume so - plus I think smoking knocks it down, so the nic patches helped me there too. I've now been smokeless for 14 months (and patchless for about a year), and I'm happy to say I haven't felt tempted to smoke since about last April. Phew.

This all came from, basically, a little midlife crisis in late 2008 when I decided that if I planned to be alive in a year's time, I might as well invest a possibly unpleasant year in improving my future quality of life, if you could but dig it.

I've gotten a good handle on the most life-threatening lifestyle habits I had, and it's getting toward time to add some positive ones. I'm thinking tai chi or some other grace-building effort and remembering how to make friends in real life.