Your Heart is a Muscle

Last year, I got confirmation that my 32 years of unregulated eating habits was biting me in the ass. At 32, my cholesterol levels beat my dad’s when he was in his 40s. It’s not like I didn’t know this was coming. It definitely hit me hard and I honestly wasn’t sure how I was going to get it down. But one year later, I’m glad to report that it’s gone down (not to normal levels but it’ll always be elevated given family history). Read on for the tl;dr of it all. Writing this mostly to help me remember that we did it.

To be honest, I thought it was a lost cause given the family history, I didn’t know if anything I did would actually matter. But I was a pretty horrible eater (fast food 3x a week minimum and hawker food for everything else). I didn’t cook and I always did takeaway (of the non-good variety). So I shouldn’t have been surprised right? The results (3x above the normal) still hit me hard and the diet portion really was the toughest part.

Starting with cooking my own food was a huge step and creating a routine out of meal prep (Sundays at 3pm) was the game changer. It’s a good thing I can eat the same thing for dinner four times a week and it’s been salmon ever since! I mix it up sometimes with a week of chicken here or there but the salmon bakes have been my constant companion. Anyone have recipes they want to share?

Cutting out fast food was also tough. I’ve had Jollibee once in the past year (when I moved house as a treat for myself) and McDonalds once (as part of a bet I won and I got the pancakes!) so it’s possible. I have yet to have some KFC (my one weakness) but I feel like it’ll be a slippery slope if I get a taste of my sweet sweet chicken. So one day, I’ll try it again.

There was also the commitment to increase cardio because apparently exercise increases good cholesterol while diet is what controls the bad cholesterol. I had been exercising in the past but not as much cardio (I’m not a fan!). So varying my runs to a swim and a cycle here and there definitely made things more interesting.

I’m not going to lie, I get lazy — a lot. But the damn rings on the Apple Watch keep me accountable. Who knew I’d like streaks and being reminded I haven’t gotten off my ass for an hour? It’s good reminder and just another dumb excuse for another thing to charge, but I’ll take it.

Over-all, folks have asked if I intend on keeping up with this brand new lifestyle and I’m happy to report that I may ease up on my self-imposted restrictions bu over-all, it’s been not too bad so I can’t complain.