lowering cholesterol

[Dobby]

just had mussily and yogort all I could think about was bacon butty but its early days I did eat all the mussily, and no bacon

[HeyWayne]

just had mussily and yogort all I could think about was bacon butty but its early days I did eat all the mussily, and no bacon

Bacon butties are fine in moderation dude - as with most things. There's plenty more than just muesli that you can have though. I have Marmite on toast every morning and a bowl of fruit salad. I love Marmite, so that's no struggle, and we change the fruit salad all the time to keep in interesting. We keep the bacon/sausage sarnies for the weekend.

Good luck dude, keep it up - it'll be worth it.

Oh, one more thing I forgot to mention about giving up smoking - you'll be able to properly taste everything, including all that fantastic veg you and MrsD have been growing. Sounds like a cliche, but it's true - everything does taste "more".

[lainey lou]

Oh, one more thing I forgot to mention about giving up smoking - you'll be able to properly taste everything, including all that fantastic veg you and MrsD have been growing. Sounds like a cliche, but it's true - everything does taste "more".

I can vouch for that, gave up 10 years ago.

Eat an apple a day and lots of garlic- great for lowering the cholesterol. All that loverly fresh stuff you've been growing, get stuck in Dobster.

The less you eat the bad stuff the less you want it.

[marigold007]

I agree with everyone. Porridge is great. Get a porringer and make it the night before if you are lazy in the mornings. You can also cook it in a thermos. Learn the difference between saturated and unsaturated fats and low and high GI foods. Change your cooking oils and watch out for the salt. I sometimes find a happy medium with things like rice. If you don't like brown rice, you can mix it half and half with the white until you get used to it. White basmati is way better than white long grain, btw. I gave up smoking, after trying everything else, with the CBT programme given by the NHS and a few weeks of Zyban. Had to quit the Zyban though cause it makes you look like the guilty party...but by then the therapy had done its job. And follow Two Sheds advice. Make sure that plate is half full of good stuff, but make sure its good stuff that you like!!

I read on the bbc (?) a few days ago that experiments have been done that showed that a meal high in sugar and fats made one over eat. Apparently, it switched on some chemical in the brain that tells you to overeat. Anyone else see that article? I cannot find it anywhere now! I believe it though cause once you are successful on a good diet, you don't much crave fatty sugary foods and often feel full faster and even crave water, but once you go on a curry bender with wine and beer (or pick ur favourite bender) you crave this stuff even more.

Happy medium? find a low fat/sugar alternative to the bad stuff you crave. I like the chocolate options drink, meself.

[Two_Sheds]

aim for 4g of fat per 100g. Walk around the supermarket and I dare you to find anything that does this...
There are real horrors on supermarket shelves.... avoid processed foods.

Yep, absolutely right.
Fruit & veg: almost zero fat. Eat more veg, beans & pulses. The English need to adopt a more Mediterranean diet - we tend to have veg as a garnish, rather than as the main part of a meal.
Apparently 68% of people in hospital are there because of diet-related problems (Jamie Oliver says)

[Two_Sheds]

I decided if I have a choice between a cig or chocolate or cake or cookesys then my sweet tooth wins im going to give the cookes a try on the GI website
I know I was bad yesterday I eate 2 bountys .....
I know its cos I'm not suposed to its the rebel in me, And I know I have to do something now or soon

I'd recommend clearing out your house ... bin or give away all the bad tempting stuff. If you don't see it, you don't want it.
Fill your fridge with healthy snacks like apples, yogurts, cup soup (watch the salt) chopped veggies & hummous.
I did this with Mr Sheds, who used to snack on 200g blocks of chocolate & cheese between meals ... he doesn't even miss them now.

Good luck mate - you'll have more energy if you ditch the cr@p food, and I'm sure Mrs Dobby will appreciate that

[Two_Sheds]

I quite enjoyed smoking too, I liked the physical act and I liked the taste and I liked the vague dizzy feeling when I hadn't had one for a while, and I REALLY liked the fact that one ciggarette would stave my hunger for about 30 mins. ....
I was eventually the ONLY person I knew who smoked (the last three bastions of the weed gave up last year) I felt very foolish. Like an idiot who had to go out into the cold to feed the habit. It was actually made harder, not because people would comment but because people DIDN'T, it was like they were pitying me in silence.... 'poor thing, look at her'. I felt ashamed.

good for you
I can't understand why people think smoking makes them a rebel .. what's rebellious about filling your lungs with tar, and the pockets of Philip Morris

A glass of water will also see off your hunger pangs. Actually, a lot of the time we think we're hungry, we in fact are thirsty.

[Two_Sheds]

The less you eat the bad stuff the less you want it.

it's really true, though you don't believe it until you've tried it for a while (apparently it takes 3 weeks to learn a new habit - god, I'm full of useless info and dodgy statistics )

I used to have a fresh cream belgian bun and a big minty Aero every day for my morning snack ... I couldn't imagine giving them up, they were so tasty. I put on a stone in weight though, so gave them up. Now, I couldn't imagine eating something so greasy and yucky.
I don't crave junk, I don't miss it. Now and again I really want some Chilli Doritos. I give myself an hour ... if I still want them after an hour, I'll go out and get some. However, if they were in the house, I'd want them all the time.

[Farmer_Gyles]

i started on the healthier lifestyle thing a while back, but i've always found the "eat more veg and pulses" thing and "no more bacon butties" and the whole "saturated / unsaturated fats" thing really off-putting

no need to become a total health freak and live on lentils and stuff - no need (for most of us) for drastic changes - small changes can make a BIG difference

instead of choccy, i'll have an apple or a banana - still nice, but healthier - have white meat instead of red meat - a bit more veg and a bit less meat

i love choccie and cream cakes and red meat and stuff - and i'm NEVER giving them up - i'm just being careful, not too often ....

stopping smoking is VERY difficult - almost 4 months for me - i want to smoke, but i've got the inhilators so that kinda cures the cravings

i've put about a stone on - i'm struggling to keep it off - mind you, the last few months have meant a LOT of time working on the computer - but work is easing up so i'm getting back to exercise again, including the lottie and dog walking ..... the weight will drop off ....

[jackie j]

As OH is vegetarian I use soya mince in any dish that requires mince we eat lots of veg, no meat, no fish. OH is diabetic and on tablets he also has high blood preasure also on tablets for that. His real big problem as far as I'm concerned is that he only drinks diet coke and lots of it about 8-10 ltrs a week but he says its ok as he doesnt drink anything else. He cant see the problem so now I dont say anything he is very overweight and started to loose some but then put it all back on again, he bought himself a new bike and has started cycling again at weekends but his habits are really bad so this bit of exercise isnt really doing him much good. He snacks at night when I have gone to bed and when he cooks he dishes up far too much for everyone and uses far too much oil. He thinks that eating multi grain bread and using a little olive spread is ok never mind about putting lots of cheese and bought egg filling in. He doesnt eat fruit cos he says too much sugar but he could still eat a little. He manages to stay off chocholate but only just. If you ask him how much does he wants of anything that is far too much for three of us he says a third or my share. It took me a long time to persuade him to go to the doctors about his bad headaches etc but as I dont go in with him but I know he doesnt tell the doctor the truth about what he eats/ drinks.
So good luck and stick with it at least you are trying and have taken steps to adjust.

[nelliegemini]

On the giving up smoking thing. I stopped two years ago = no gum, no mints and no book, just chose a day and went for it., BUT ...

No one told my to, my OH never nagged - it was by me and for me - I just got so angry that the government took all that tax (after 35 years of smoking I could have afforded my own chest specialist in the spare bedroom!) - they then said that smokers would be further down the queue because it was self inflicted!

I was soooo mad I stopped smoking just to spite Blaire/Brown.

So there you go, vote with your lungs.

I'm not saying 'look at me I'm so strong' - my self control is dreadful, I'm trying to get off the medicinal glass of wine every day - but anger and self rightiousness did the smoking thing for me - now if I could just get angry about cheese, wine, the skin on roast chicken, crackling, dripping, chips etc.

And all that money I saved meant I could give up my part time job.

Also - the tablets they give you to reduce chlorestrol (statins?) made my OH so ill he came off them after 2 days, and it wasn't even a high dose.

Oh yes, and I put on two stone - but nearly all gone now thanks to WW.

[Dobby]

on the smoking thing Mrs D also smokes and I toled her if I decided to give them up I would not expect her to,
the book came today with 2 cds so going to start reading it prob monday cos working sat sun

I siad to MrsD is there a pumpking pie and dubble cream recipe that is low fat
and a yule cake recipe
my pumpkin pie is mmmmmmmmmmmm eveyone likes it the recipe is on the vine not really helthy but very very nice

[Hilary B]

Some tips if you like 'things made with mince' such as Cottage pie, chilli con carne, etc I keep a supply of Bulgar wheat, and use it like this
precook the mince the day before adding a tina amount of water, and while freshly-cooked, drain it in a sieve collecting the liquid. When the liquid cools, the fat will set, and can be removed. Mix the mince, the stock/cooking water, and a handful of bulgar, and heat. The Bulgar will absorb the liquid and act as a 'mince extender'. There is no reason you can't add flavourings (eg onion/chilli spice, or both) at the start. For cottage pie, also mix in some grated or small-chopped root veg when re-heating with the bulgar.
You can reduce the mince to a third the 'recommended' amount for the recipe by this method, which saves money as well. To increase the 'meat flavour' stir some Bovril into the stock at a convenient point.
If you use 'extra-lean mince' (about a quarter the fat content of 'standard' mince) you don't need to 'pre-cook and de-fat', just add the bulgar and some water or bovril-stock after dry-frying onion and mince (the first stage in most mince-recipes, apart from burgers). Measure the bulgar by VOLUME and you need about 2½ time the volume of liquid to bulgar, apart from any that cooks out of the other ingredients.
As someone said, the biggest problem with giving up smoking is that it only works when you want to give up more than you want the next ciggie (my choice of phrase, but the same basic idea). My sister finally managed to really quit only a year or so ago, after 'giving up' about twice a year for the past 30, and it only ever lasted to the next 'family crisis'. She eventually went to a hypnotist.

[Catrina]

My cholesterol is also 7.8 and I am supposed to go for another check but keep putting it off. I don’t eat chocolates, biscuits, cake, sweets or puddings or anything like that (no seriously) but I do like crisps, cheese, white wine. We do eat lots of veggies, but we do like red meat, as in spag bols, casseroles etc. but we also eat a lot of beans and pulses, fish and chicken so I don’t know how to reduce my cholesterol. My youngest sister also had a high figure and her doctor told her not to eat red meat for a year. !!! She did not want to go on Statins. I heard that they cause your muscles to ache. I already have Fibromyalgia so don’t need any more help with aching muscles. Any suggestions anyone as to how to reduce my level. And I dont smoke as both my parents died of smoking related diseases (my mum at 56) I am 55.

[SueA]

Hi Catrina, you sound like you have a fairly healthy diet to me but the only thing I can suggest is cutting out crisps or only having the occasional low fat bag & cut out any hard & high fat cheeses. Did the doctor/nurse not give you a leaflet with suggestions on, I came out with charts & booklets & all sorts! I think someone else has also suggested that you can use soya or quorn mince in some dishes, I use them as I don't eat meat & my husband says he can't tell the difference. I admitted to using quite a lot of 'Clover' on sandwiches etc. & was told this wasn't as bad as butter but I should still cut down or try to not use any & use a low fat mayo instead. I'd go back & get another check & ask for some advice but I don't blame you for not wanting to start taking statins.