18 Month Checkup

Okay!  I am going to ponder!

Does the cafeteria have Egg Beaters or egg whites? Sometimes I will use one whole egg (Omgega-3's) along with an egg white or Egg beaters. This seems to fill me up. You could use low fat cheese, veggies, chicken for fillers. Maybe, you could make up some egg bites over the weekend, pop them in the freezer, and grab them in the AM to heat up in the microwave at work.

I love Greek yogurt with some added protein powder, cinnamon, small amount of a high fiber cereal, and 1/4-1/2 cup of berries.

Oatmeal with flaxseed, added protein powder, vanilla, some berries, and cinnamon would be good. Find an oatmeal without any added sodium or sugar. Whole foods has an instant oatmeal cereal that has good stats. I can only eat 1/2 the package, but it is very filling and might help to lower your cholesterol numbers. You could cook this in the microwave.

For lunches, I use leftover meat from the night before. I always take my lunch and snacks with me. Gives me the control and I always know what I am eating. Less expensive. Takes some preparation the  night before, but I have been doing this for years. If the meat is too dry, I mix some avocado and/or salsa in with it. Yum.

Gail

Thanks this looks doable. I used to do oatmeal but I ussually don't eat it during the Summer. But now that it's getting cooler may be a good choice.  I like the ceral and yogurt sugestions.

Thanks

Hi Mikey Mike
Great report. Glad you are doing so well and thanks for sharing your doctor's comments which are helpful to us all.

I have had the same cholesterol issues and I cannot take statin drugs due to side effects. So I take fish oil to increase the good kind which works. I also decided to try an experiment and take red yeast rice (a natural statin that had given me some trouble before) but now it doesn't bother me. I take two pills in the am and two in the pm. I also read about which are the highest cholesterol foods and decided to stop eating eggs for breakfast and cut back on the red meat some. After six months of doing these things I lowered the LDL by 33 pts putting it just barely into normal range and the ratio between the two is good. the total is 213 but its because the HDL is higher. Triglicerides are very low. Doctor is very happy.

So instead of eggs for breakfast, I have greek yogurt or fat free cottage cheese. You can have a vegggie burger or tofu sausage. there are these smoked tofu sticks that are kind of a grab and go thing. also , i make these "roll ups" from Flat Out low carb flat bread (7 carbs a slice) and divide it in half and spread it with a bit of almond butter and roll it up into two rolls. these are low cholesterol, easy to make, has some protein and you can eat it in the car and they keep without refrideration.  Also, I sometimes have oatmeal and I put in a couple tbs PB2 powder which gives extra protein and tastes good and also a spoon or two of unflavored soy protein powder which is almost undetectable. This is a filling breakfast and tastes good.

Hope this helps. I used to have hideously high cholesterol and the wls lowered it some but the above program got it into normal range. 

Congrats on your good medical report.   Diane

I'm going to try the red yeast rice. I've read about it, and the article had good things to say about it. Costco carries it. Sometimes niacin is helpful, but many people can't tolerate it, because of the flushing aspect.

I also use fish oil, use healthy fats like avocado, almonds, walnuts (all in small amounts), and eat wild salmon 2-4 times/week. I eat eggs with Omega3's about twice/week, along with egg beaters or egg whites.

Congrats on the wonderful checkup!

I, too, worry about my cholesterol. My levels weren't great at 3mo (esp. my triglyercides) and most of my issues are likely to be genetic as my rail thin mother has out of control cholesterol that she couldn't control by diet. I've added flax oil and an omega 3 supplement (Coromega) to help and I may look into red yeast rice as I've read about Diane's success with it so I'm curious. I'd like to avoid statins for as long as possible.

As far as foods: soy sausage and bacon are actully really good. Morningstar Farms is a good brand. The sausage is more like the real thing than the bacon, but the bacon is good in a fake bacon way.

My fav meatless brand is Gardein. They don't make sausage or bacon, but their "burgers" and "chicken" are amazing.

Thanks, I tried some of the Morning Star products before. Thanks for reminding me...another good option.

Congrats on a great visit with your doctor.  I'm sitting here whistling at your beautiful body fat %.  :)

I was on Zocor prior to WLS.  My entire family was/is on cholesterol meds.  Both my parents weighed in at 120 and never ate chicken skin, high fat cheese or butter for over 30 years and still had high chol.  My brother is 6', 170 and is on the meds as well.  I never liked taking them and stopped at surgery but my doc has been monitoring.

I had bloodwork done on Friday and my cholesterol is coming down, but still not great.  I'm hoping to get it down more.

Total 225
Triglyicerides 54
HDL  68
LDL 146 - down from 153 at my 1 year check in February. 

I don't eat many eggs because I'm allergic to them and rarely eat cheese of any sort.  I'm going to watch your progress as you change up your diet.   I think I'm going to add more fish into my plan.

Please let us know the changes you make and how you feel.