Friday, July 28, 2006

Blood Work?

Dude, I just got blood work lab tests back and my cholesterol is above 200. I'm like, WHAT?!?!?!

I try to eat green-ass, organic like, everything! So now I need to see what strategies I need to employ so my arteries aren't permanently blocked. Crap. I need to find cardio I can afford and stick with.

Anybody got suggestions? I like to walk and I LOVE to dance. I refuse to pay 100 bucks for special shoes, cause I ain't got it like that and I don't want to contribute to some fingerless child somewhere just because the Jordans be hot.

HELP! I gotta continue more yoga, too. OBVIOUSLY!

Ack!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

You can find inexpensive athletic shoes at places like Payless. You don't need to drop $100 as not every running shoe is made by some fingerless child in Rangoon. ;-)

Doing active, fast walking an hour a day could be a big help. Two women in my office building do it every lunch hour - no matter how hot it is outside (they then move it to the morning and then stay in for lunch). They're in their work dresses and sneakers and walk around this dirt track at a fairly quick pace. It's funny - because the guys in my office say, 'Don't those women have jobs? What are they doing walking?' LOL. But it's all possible.

The issue is whether you want to dedicate atleast an hour of each day to exercise. That then becomes a question of priorities - if exercise comes in, obviously something else you do, whether it's leisure time or something else, has to be crossed out. Trying to cram everything into one day doesn't help, because sleep deprivation is also a major cause of blood pressure rising, fat retention, and whole series of other physical and psychological problems.

Or make exercise into leisure and see if you can find a dedicated walking partner for the evenings. Or if you can figure out at home that there's music that you can constantly move to enough to keep your heart rate elevated for an hour, you can do that and not worry about shoes or extra equipment altogether. Hell, you can create your own movement like salsa tae-bo! In the privacy of your own home, who care how ridiculous it looks! As long as it's working and you're able to do it for an hour atleast 4 times a week.

But regardless of exercise, diet-wise I'd start with maybe less meat, dairy, and desserts (sugar is also to be very aware of) and more veggies and definitely fiber. Oatmeal every morning is a HUGE cholesterol fighter, plus it's dirt cheap which is an added bonus!

It's not an overwhelming process, having an exercise schedule. Once you get it going, it'll come natural to start scheduling things AROUND exercise versus the other way around. My view on it is, if you don't have your health, what do you have? And as body and mind are one, taking care of one can only help the other.

Hope that helps! :-)

Karen said...

Um, what O said. And I would suggest looking into dance classes around the Bay Area. One of the things I TOTALLY miss are the incredible dance classes that are usually $10-$12 each. Try afro-brazilian for a wicked workout.

Oh, and if you live some place where you can have a garden...plant one and I guarantee you will be eating well. I've got tomatoes, squash, peas, beans, etc coming out of my *(&!