The "blessing" of bad genes

I blame my Dad's side of the family. I'm told that's the side I take after, so that's where I'm pointing my finger.

I had a check-up at the end of July and my cholesterol is back up. It was 244. I've had it as high as 289 before, but then I was able to keep it down around 205...but now it's creeping back up. So the doctor asked if I wanted to try to get it down by myself again (without prescribed drugs) and I said I sure did.

Not going on meds is a BIG motivating factor for me (hence the "blessing" of bad genes). In the past 5 weeks I have not been dieting to lose weight, but I have been walking almost every day and I have adapted my diet (who knew I could survive on so little cheese?). As of this morning, I am down 12 pounds!

In February I had posted about my weight. I was at 172 then, but by my doctor's visit I was up to 180...so I'm now at 168. Which is very thrilling. (I try not to think of where I could be now if I hadn't gained all those pounds at the end of winter...I could be at 160...trying not to think about that...I'm happy at 168...as long as I keep losing...)

I have to say Glen is losing weight too. And since we were both dropping pounds so rapidly I really worried that our scale was broken and that I really wasn't losing any weight. I had Glen double-check his weight with the scale at school and it looks like our scale is probably not broken. What a relief.

So, my genes lead me to a disposition to high cholesterol...and staying off meds motivates me to eat right in a way that wanting to lose weight doesn't...and so I'm doing better. Hence, my bad genes have been a blessing!

So, thanks Dad, for passing your genes along to me!

I'll find out in a few months if any of this is affecting my cholesterol levels...sure hope so.