The Plan

Back in middle school, during a routine physical, my cholesterol level was found to be at a fantastically high level. While I was taking trips to the nutritionist, cutting out french fries (sort of), and watching my family contemplate whether taking Lipitor was safe for my 12 year-old body, I suddenly found myself going through puberty. As my height increased, my cholesterol decreased. We all breathed a sigh of relief, saying, "that's the end of that."

Years have passed. Since starting university, I have actively embraced a healthy lifestyle: biking, eating organic food whenever possible and almost completely cutting meat out of my diet, learning to read nutrition labels, ingesting fish oil with increased militancy. A couple of weeks ago, I again had a routine physical where my cholesterol was checked for the first time in years. A few days later, my doctor called to tell me that I was in great shape... except that my cholesterol is at a level usually seen in overweight individuals in their 50s. One's cholesterol is supposed to be under 200 (combined HDL and LDL, "good" and "bad" cholesterol respectively); mine is currently around 280. I am not just a person, I am a CHOLESTEROL MACHINE.

Though my doctor asserts that this is most likely genetic, that my cholesterol will probably never lower on its own given that I already enjoy a pretty healthy lifestyle, I refuse to take this lying down. I am cutting out all animal fats (cheese, milk, meat except fish, etc.) from my diet and eating as much nutritionally-rich food as possible. This is not going to be easy for me, given my new-found love of brie. So, to make this as fun as possible, I will be documenting my dinner every night for the next few months (i.e. until I get my cholesterol checked again). We'll see if this works, or if the doctor is right and this is indeed all genetic. Either way, I'm going to learn to love tofu.