re-starting. Labs and #'s

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xrj22
xrj22 Posts: 197 Member
in Introduce Yourself
I am re-starting. Did a quite successful diet a year and a half ago, but only maintained for about 6 months, and I fear I am about back where I started. Is anyone else here doing this at least partly because of lab #'s on your physical. For me getting serious about getting healthy started with finding out my cholesterol was 246. This was even though my weight was just bordering on overweight, and my eating wasn't really THAT bad (eating out a lot, but mostly not fast food or junk food). I did really well and got it down to 160 with diet and exercise. But, as I said, I have been slipping badly for the past year. Just got my blood drawn this morning, and I am incredibly nervous. Also dreading going into the doctors appointment (even though it is an incredibly compassionate naturopath.) Does anyone else get this nervous about lab #'s???

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  • booboo1000
    booboo1000 Posts: 58 Member
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    Even with a huge weight loss, great attention to my diet, and increased activity my cholesterol was high. I went back on a statin and and kept up the other stuff. (My thyroid med also had to be tweaked.) All of my blood work re:lipids are now going great. It was a very quick return to normal labs.
  • booboo1000
    booboo1000 Posts: 58 Member
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    I'm am *much* more relaxed now about my labs.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,201 Member
    edited October 2021
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    Yup.

    My doctor encouraging statins was a big motivator for weight loss (bad test results happening over a course of quite a few 6-monthly visits, as he monitored my thyroid levels and cholesterol/triglycerides alongside). I felt like I'd given up enough cognitive bandwidth to chemotherapy (for cancer), didn't want to give up more (a risk with statins), so *finally* got serious about weight loss.

    I lost nearly 60 pounds in a bit less than a year at age 59-60, have maintained a healthy weight since (I'm 65), and my formerly-high blood lipids and blood pressure have been solidly normal ever since. What I didn't predict was the other positive "side effects": Things like less joint pain (I have OA in various areas and a torn meniscus), and just a generally better sense of well-being, improved nimble-ness, and more. So worthwhile!

    Nonetheless, I empathize about labs: As a cancer survivor still at risk, every time I have some diagnostic test, I start to worry . . . as if the test itself would bring on some condition, almost 😆, rather than simply revealing something already present. It's weird, how my brain works.

    Wishing you good results this round, and great goal-accomplishment results of various sorts in the long run!

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