Just one day after doing divination to try and figure out what is holding me back from losing weight and how I can get motivated and be more consistent, I went to the doctor for a follow-up.  I had a long list of symptoms: diarrhea, foot and ankle pain after I recline my feet, knee and wrist pain that felt like old injuries coming back, waking up at 3am without being able to get back to sleep, waking up in the middle of the night to pee, being tired most of the time, and some depression.

My doctor had a bunch of tests done and most of them had come back.  I did not have Lyme’s Disease or an autoimmune disease.  My thyroid numbers were normal, thanks to medication.  I had the markers of a UTI.  My cholesterol numbers were also off. While the total cholesterol was within normal range, my good cholesterol is 35 when it should be above 60 and my bad cholesterol is 120 and it should be below 70 (the paper said 100 and it was crossed out and 70 was written in).

My doctor recommended I get 30-60 minutes of exercise daily, keep a food journal,  and gave me a paper about a low cholesterol diet.  It involves eating less saturated fats, and more monounsaturated fats (whatever that means).  I flipped through and it looked like your typical food pyramid with 6 grain servings, 3 vegetable servings, 2 fruit servings, 2 protein servings, etc.  Then I saw a typical meal plan and noticed that it included margarine!  There is NO WAY that eating margarine could possibly be good for me.  Then I saw the copyright from the paper.  It was from the ’90s.  This information was 20 years old.  It must be outdated.

I spent the drive home worried that I would have a heart attack or stroke and my little boy would have to grow up without a mother. I thought about how I would just have to find a way to fit exercise into my already busy schedule.  I also racked my brain for a low-cholesterol diet.  In my time researching and trying different diets over the years, they had almost all claimed to lower cholesterol.  That includes the keto diet and paleo diet — both of which are chock full of the fats that I am apparently not supposed to be having.  I also worried that my next appointment was 6 months away.  What if I choose the wrong diet to follow and it makes my cholesterol worse?  I won’t even know about it for 6 months!?

I checked the American Heart Association and Mayo Clinic websites on what to do to lower my cholesterol.  They agreed about several things:

• Have a heart-healthy diet.  The two differed on what that meant. They only agreed that I should reduce my saturated fats and trans fats. The American Heart Association suggested a plan similar to the one the doctor gave me.  The Mayo Clinic recommended adding Omega-3 fatty foods, foods with soluble fiber, and whey protein.
• Get more exercise. I have a membership to a website that puts out workout videos three days a week.  They’re a half hour long and I can choose from beginner, intermediate, and advanced.  Of course, I’m on the beginner one.  On the days I don’t do those exercises, I will walk for 10 minutes after work.  I will work my way up to a half hour.
• Lose weight. This one is going to be tough. I have hypothyroidism.
• Quit smoking (a non-issue for me).

I knew that the food industry puts out conflicting information so that people will buy their food, but I didn’t expect to encounter it on actual medical informational websites.  If there is one heart-healthy diet, everyone could clearly agree on what it is, couldn’t they?  So now I’m confused about how to eat.  I will start exercising, but I will have to do more research of my own.  And I really don’t have the time or the energy to be dealing with all of this right now.  I have a full-time job, a part-time blog, and I’m a mom, so that means I don’t get a rest when I get home either.