So my middle son is on a certain medication because he is autistic and has some behavior issues. This med helps prevent him from having explosive breakdowns. But this particular medicine puts him at risk of having high triglycerides (bad cholesterol). Because of this, he has to have blood draws done yearly to monitor this. Well he had his blood drawn Tuesday and it came back as having high triglycerides. Now he wasnt fasting so we knew they would be a little elevated, but they were still quite a bit higher than we expected. I feel horrible, but he doesnt eat that unhealthy, plus he is autistic, kids with autism tend to only eat certain foods and us parents are just happy they are eating. So I have a new challenge of figuring out how to lower his triglycerides but still offer him the foods he will eat. So I figured this would be a good challenge for the whole family. and why not include my MFP Family in this challenge also, because who doesnt want to prevent heard disease, right? So...

CHALLENGE TIME

Lets lower our cholesterol and reduce our chances of heart disease!!!

Some of the top ways to lower Triglycerides are

Exercise-specifically cardio, walk run, bike, hike, ect
Eat Fiber- Fiber has proven to lower triglyceride levels
Omega 3s- eating foods high inOmega 3 fatty acids twice a week reduces triglycerides
Diet-reduce the amount of sugar and saturated fats you eat

hers some replacements to make it as easy as possible-

Replace

Beef
Pork
Bacon
Sausage
Hot dogs
Processed meats

With
Chicken
Turkey
Fish (avoid canned in oil, canned in water is fine)
Nuts
Beans
Soy

Replace
Lard
Butter
Mayonnaise
Palm oil
Coconut oil

With
Margarine (non-hydrogenated, trans fat free)
Canola oil
Olive Oil
Sunflower oil

Replace
Whole and 2% milk
Cheese
Ice cream
Creams

With
1% or skim milk
Low fat cheese
Low fat ice cream
Low fat creams

So what are you going to do? So far our plan is to Exercise, my son agreed to going for a run with me at least once a week. Im not a milk drinker, but my family is, so we will be switching to 1% (shhh my husband doesnt know yet) cutting out butter (this one hurts me, lol. I love butter) buying ground turkey and chicken instead of ground beef. Also replacing white bread, pasta, tortillas, and rice with whole wheat everything, and brown rice, and replacing sugary cereals with oat based ones like oat meal, cheerios, and other oat based cold cereals. Also I have some lemonade flavored fish oil that I bought a while back that my kids will again be taking to get Omega 3s.