High-risk to Low-risk in 1 year!

Monday, July 30, 2012

My father passed away from heart disease. My mother takes 10+ prescription medications, most of which are heart related. All my siblings are all on cholesterol and blood pressure medications. You could say the writing was on the wall for me.

A year ago my doctor wanted to put me on cholesterol medication. He said I was at high-risk for heart disease based on my total cholesterol. I asked him to give me a fighting chance to lower it by making healthy lifestyle changes instead of taking medication. He agreed but wanted me to do a blood test every 3 months to check progress. I became a full-blown Sparkie after that physical.

I started walking and making better food choices. I tracked both food and fitness and became active on SP. I found it very helpful to join team challenges and even become a team leader. It was a challenging year; I hit many bumps along the way but never gave up. Giving up was never an option. I had my eye on the prize and that was my health.

At every 3 month checkpoint, my cholesterol markers slowly improved. My latest blood test results came in the mail on Saturday. After I opened it up, the happy dance began.

My best report:



Total Cholesterol: 184 (desirable)
Triglycerides: 58 (normal)
HDL: 63 (optimal)
LDL: 109 (near optimal)
Radio of cholesterol/HDL: 2.9 (low risk!!!!!)

It took one year and hard work to accomplish this and I’m not going back. I’m hooked on health.

Fight the good fight!

and my sparkies!

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Vacation planning...what a difference a year makes

Thursday, July 26, 2012

I'm planning a trip to Chicago with my family. We love big cities and will be staying downtown.

What a difference a year makes. Over a year ago I would be planning what restaurants to hit. Now I'm planning how to get my exercise in.

- We could rent bikes and ride along the lake shore. Bike tour sounds fun.

- We are walking everywhere (except nighttime)

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Summer 5% Challenge halfway checkpoint

Monday, July 23, 2012

Not really happy with halfway checkpoint. I’m on target with weight but my waist-to-hip ratio just went in the wrong direction.

Weight: 164 (Down 5.8…still on target)

Waist: 33.5” (stayed same)
Hips: 39” to 38”

Hip to waist ratio: .87 to .89 (85+ is considered high risk)

I’m considered to be a "normal" weight but my waist-to-hip ratio still puts me at high risk. I’m at a higher risk since I only lost inches at my hips and not waist.

I want to be an avocado!



Waist-to-Hip Info:

www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness
_articles.asp?id=776

Waist-to-Hip Calculator:

www.sparkpeople.com/resource/calcula
tor_waist.asp

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Free pizza at my gym tonight. Seriously? OMG!

Monday, July 02, 2012

I pushed myself out the door this evening to go to the gym because the left over cold pizza was calling my name. "Lori, You know you love cold pizza...come here. Eat me!". I didn't have any yesterday and wasn't going to let it tempt me today.

I walked into the gym and stopped dead in my tracks. Oh crap!!! It's the first Monday of the month. It's FREE PIZZA NIGHT at Planet Fitness. PF has free pizza once a month. So I walked by a table full of ladies chowing down on pizza. Next to them is table with at least 12 large pizza boxes.

Can someone please explain to me why PF does this? And the bigger question is why members eat it. I just don't understand. Yea, I want to workout and then eat 500+ calories of pizza.

I was planning to workout a full hour but it got cut short. The entire place smelled like pizza. I couldn't take it anymore. I would rather smell sweaty armpits than pizza during my workout. Seriously!

The answer is NO! I didn't grab a slice when I left.

Sorry for the rant. Junk food at a fitness facility is my pet peeve! If they want to give something away for Free, give away water bottles.

Just say NO to .

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Mutual Friend Lookup

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

I'm always searching for this page since it's tough to find, so I thought I would blog about it.

Every wonder who hasn't added you as a friend?
Every wonder who has added you as a friend but you haven't?

To find out everyone who has added you as a friend, everyone you've added as a friend, and all of your mutual friends:

1. Select 'Friend Feed' from the 'Community' option in the Toolbar.
2. In the first paragraph on the Friend Feed page, find 'Click Here' and click it.



There are a couple of Butterfly team members (GEMINISUE & TRAVELGRRL) that haven't added me.

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