You should get a second opinion on the cholesterol angle. I'm not questioning the doctor's instructions that you get it down, but if you eliminate it from the diet altogether your body may amp up its own production of cholesterol (my old man hasn't eaten red meat since about 1970 and has had chronically high cholesterol basically since shortly after he gave up red meat because of the compensation effect).

And the "get some exercise" angle may be at least as important; as I understand it, one type of cholesterol tends to go down with exercise.

But seriously: Get a second opinion on the "no nothing, ever" diet. Sounds too draconian, the product of someone with a pinched face who can't stand the fact that everyone else isn't as miserable as he is. The goal is to get those numbers right, not to establish some kind of credential for ritual purity.

XXXgirls.com? ;)

Seriously Val, you should take better care of yourself, but I wouldn't worry about the blood glucose as much as getting down the cholesterol. My mom is diabetic, and my whole life I've been tested. The normal range is considered 80-120, looks like you are right in the center of normal.

Try adding oatmeal to your diet. It seems hokey after all the commercials, but it has been shown to lower cholesterol. If you're worried about the blood glucose, try cinnamon. A recent study showed that adding 1/4 tsp of cinnamon per day can help lower your glucose level and keep it more even all day. What better than oatmeal with cinnamon? Yum.

oh I forgot, exercise changes the proportion of HDL to LDL in your blood. If you exercise, you make more HDL (which is the good cholesterol), so get up and go for a walk. :)

Doesn't have to be walking, either. Dancing's exercise.

Never underestimate walking as a good source of exercise. My friends doctor, who competes in marathons, goes for a brisk walk once a week as part of the training.

Val, sorry to hear all this. I have previously been victimized by doctors who misdiagnosed my ailments. It almost kiiled me one time when I had two gall bladder attacks and the intern at the emergency room, a woman in her fifties, both times told me I had gastroenteritis. My gall bladder almost exploded a week later before I had to have emergency surgery.
I remember that in pre-1959 Cuba, no one worried about cholesterol, triglycerides, or some of these othe modern ailments.
Last July 4th, I celebrated with former Cuban politico Millo Ochoa his 98th birthday. For lunch he had a plate of fried pork, rice and fried bananas. He finished with cafe cubano that he poured five teaspoons of sugar into. He plans to be around for his 100th birthday.

Val, No lo cojas al extremo - cojelo suave y no te vuelvas loco con la dieta - el ejercisio es lo mas importante y comer y tomar con moderacion. Ahora, lo de incluir el Oatmeal (como decimos los Cubanos) el Quaker - si lo comes al estilo "healthy" olvidate de la leche condensada - y dejame decirte que eso sabe a serrin sin leche condesada. I feel for you - I was in your shoes 2 years ago and what saved me was exercise.

Val I would recommend a supplement called flaxseed oil or fish oil they are both excellent in maintaining good and healthy cholesterol level……

The high fiber content, lignans and omega-3 qualities in flax seed are natural preventative properties for heart disease. Studies prove that when flax seed is added to the diet, harmful LDL cholesterol drops, while good HDL cholesterol remains or increases.
The Good Cholesterol
HDL is the abbreviation for high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. HDL is often referred to as the "good cholesterol". HDL cholesterol helps clear the blood stream of the artery-clogging properties we ingest with too much fried foods, baked goods and red meats. Yet, HDL cannot do an adequate job when the LDL levels in the diet are overwhelmingly high or when we do not take in enough omega-3 fatty acids.
The Bad Cholesterol
LDL is the commonly known abbreviation for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and is sometimes referred to as "bad cholesterol". LDL cholesterol and other substances can build up in the walls of the arteries and form a plaque. As plaque continues to build up, it causes the arteries to harden and narrow, a condition known as arteriosclerosis.
It is often difficult to fully understand which condition precludes the other, but essentially both conditions tax the heart muscle significantly and cause numerous complications in one’s health. The reduction of blood flow affects all of the body’s tissues and compromises the ability of the heart to function properly. At times, the plaque may rupture and a blood clot may form in the artery and partially or totally block blood flow from this vessel. This can eventually lead to damage or death of tissues; thereby causing heart attack or stroke.

i strongly recomend using this method in conjunction with the meds that your health care
provider give you.

you could by this in any viatmin store
like vitamin shop or vitamin world.
i tell you this because my mother has a history of high cholesterol and hearth disease.

take care val and keep the good work

Dare I say it, tofu and green tea violating the sacred ground at mancamp?

Kathleen - that would be like garlic and a cross to a vampire.

Tofu??? Green Tea???? At ManCamp???

that is a sure sign of the apocolypse.

Mis dos kilos:

ManCamp festivities may need to be re-evaluated. Maybe they can take place every month or so, not every weekend (except during football season, OF COURSE!)
I don't think riding the lawn mower counts as exercise, and neither does fishing. Do a few laps in the pool, or walk around the neighborhood every other day or so.

The beer...well, I know that's a whole other issue!

And BTW, isn't pork considered "the other white meat"?! What's up with that?

I too would also get a second opinion.

Love you!
Seriously, whatever you do, take care of yourself!

I read some good recommendations such as the oatmeal, flaxseed and walking. As a person who's had high cholesterol and tryglecerides in my early 40's, I changed my style by walking a lot, eating oatmeal and eating less meat.
There is an article in the Newsweek magazine this week in My Turn where this man at 86 took the decision to change his living and eating habits after a friend of his had a stroke in his early fifties. As a consequence, he has reached the age of 86 without taking any medicine and staying fit. He says that when he goes shopping, 3/4 of the food at the grocery store is out for him; he consumes lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, etc.

"So, from now on, I have to eat like a rabbit. No fatty foods, no pork, no fatty steaks or meat, no coffee, no beans, no milk, no ice cream, no carbohydrates, no sugars, and especially painful: no BEER."

Doctors have been telling me the same thing for years. They want all of us to live lives of desperate ascetisism. I just tell them to go fuck themselves and I will my body not to worry about it eats. The docs mean well, certainly, but they are all full of doodoo.

LO UNICO QUE FALTO GEORGE ...QUE EL DOCTOR TE DIGA .....MIJO NO PUEDES SIN*** TAMPOCO LOL
AHY SI ME DOY UN TIRO ..LOL

No Pork... No CAFE... NO BEEEEER????????

So your doctor WANTS you to die?

Hehehe...

I with George: Only Americans are so highly obsessed with the letter of the law and remember your not American! So take the Doctor's advise with that extra large Cuban grain of salt.

Eat Pork, but only for Noche Buena.

Drink Beer but only during the Super Bowl.

And as for Cafe... bueno here I would really agree with George in telling the Doctor to go fuck himself. However, maybe you can have it only in the morning as a Cafe Con Leche.

Flax Seed Oil is good for lowering Cholesteral as is Aceite de Bacalao.

Everything in moderation, dude, I think doctors say these kind of things only to scare the shit out of us.

Val,

I'm no doctor (not even on TV), but I can tell you about what worked for me back in the beginning of 2004 when I lost over 30 lbs:

The South Beach Diet

It's not a fad diet, as the name may imply. It's a solid, medically-proven diet that was designed to lower cholesterol in heart disease patients.

And it's 26th Parallel approved! ;)

It's not as extreme and dangerous as the Atkins Diet.

Basically, you have to cut out all starches and simple carbohydrates: brown rice/whole grain bread and pasta instead of white rice/bread/ pasta. Sweet Potato instead of baked/mashed white potatoes. No junk food. Meat is good as long as it's lean (pork tenderloin is fine), and beans are OK (I know frijoles negros with brown rice may not be a hit in Little Havana, but it works, trust me). Beer is out (sorry), but like others have said, once in a while is no problem (this way you can enjoy 1 Bass Ale instead of 3 Buds). Oatmeal is highly recommended, the real oats not the instant stuff, put some cinammon in it and it's excellent. I didn't give up coffee, although I drank it with Splenda insted of real sugar for a while.

My cholesterol was in the 160 range when I got it checked last year, it was probably close to 200 before the diet.

Let me know if you're interested in trying it out, I can give you some tips.

Cuidate, blog-papa!

What's wrong with beans? Or beer (in moderation)? I have been eating beans once a day since my dr. put me on a low fat regime + Zocor. Also drinking one can of beer each day. My numbers now meet with his approval.

That's what happens when you mix Cuban food with regular American food! En Cuba BC se comia y no pasaba eso! Eso es el stress de dog eat dog life style de aqui. Le zumba tipo joven como tu. Yo que estoy gordito, poniendome viejo ya y tarajayudo ni llego a las 160. Hay que comer mucho bacalao y pescao! Te tupes, te jo-es y la esposa, pobrecita va a tener que cuidarte. Asi que para de asar puerquitos, y a comer estilo Chino, que estan flacos.

One more thing..... Remember,
tofu or not tofu,
its up to you!

Let me just play devil's advocate for a second. There is no scientific evidence that death is actually unpleasant.

Val,
Listen to Steve and stop smoking before you do anything crazy like closing Steve’s favorite weekend activity. Here is a link to the clinic I went to. They have 86% success rate. ONE SHOT and 2 weeks of pills. Worked for Me!!

http://www.stopsmokingmiami.com/map.htm

Val anoche fui a comer a un restaurant donde me encontre con una jevita amiga mia que es enfermera y le estaba comentando sobre el nivel de la glucosa a 107 y ella me dijo que eso no es considerado como diabetes que no te preocupes .y que debes de hacer es comer de todo pero en pequeñas porciones y no jactarte de arroz que el arroz es como comer aguita como azuca ...
y la cerveza ..bueno con moderacion . y toma vitaminas diariamente chico .

1) Cuidate because surely with God's help you gotta outlive that cretinous, oozing life-form in its kagaSStro lair - I am already looking forward to your blog comments the day it kicks the bucket.

2) My wife's doctor recommended to her, in order to keep her cholesterol down and body chemistry chugging along, she drink 20 oz. red wine per week. Make that DECENT red wine - try the Spanish Peñasol.

So, that's my Cuban brotherly advice for you. As always, talk to your physician first.

GOVERNMENT WARNING: BEING ALIVE MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH. GOVERNMENT STUDIES SHOW MOST IF NOT ALL INDIVIDUALS NOW ALIVE WILL EVENTUALLY DIE.
THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH IS CURRENTLY WORKING ON THIS PROBLEM THANKS TO A GENEROUS GRANT FROM THE VLAD TEPES FOUNDATION, TRANSYLVANIA.

GOVERNMENT WARNING: BEWARE OF GOVERNMENT.

GOOD NEWS VAL

lets drink to this

A pint of beer may help protect against heart disease more effectively than red wine or spirits, researchers have found.

While the health benefits of red wine have long been touted by scientists, a letter in medical journal The Lancet suggests that the odd pint may also be a good idea.

Beer contains vitamin B6 which prevents the build up in the body of a chemical called homocysteine - thought to be linked to an increase in the risk of heart disease.

There are damn sight better ways to protect against heart disease than by drinking beer

Andrew Varley, Institute of Alcohol Studies
However, Dutch researchers have discovered that this may not be the only reason why beer may be good for the heart.

Dr Henk Hendriks and colleagues from the TNO Nutrition and Food Research Institute, studied 111 healthy men who each drank beer, red wine, spirits, and water, for three weeks, with dinner.

They found that homocysteine levels did not increase after beer consumption, but rose after drinking wine and spirits.

Beer drinkers had a 30% increase of vitamin B6 in blood plasma.

Levels of B6 also rose in people who had drunk wine and spirits, although not by the same amount.

Dr Hendriks' team suggests that beer may contain other ingredients that help protect against heart disease.

Dr Hendriks told BBC News Online: "Moderate alcohol consumption affects many processes in the body, one of which is the significant increase in HDL cholesterol - the good cholesterol.

"However, one should not drink alcohol to become healthy."

Andrew Varley, of the Institute of Alcohol Studies, warned against people using the research as an excuse to drink more beer.

He said: "Any research about the various health-giving properties of different types of alcohol is a bit of a red herring as the effect is usually marginal and restricted to a very small group of people under certain circumstances.

"There are damn sight better ways to protect against heart disease than by drinking beer, but people love this sort of thing because it gives them an excuse."

Mr Varley said that drinking large quantities of beer would create far more health problems than it would solve.

A spokesman for the British Heart Foundation said: "At the moment we should all stick to the known facts: one or two units of alcohol a day may have a protective affect on the heart but more than this could do more harm than good.

"Using this study as an excuse to go on a beer binge over the Bank Holiday weekend is not the answer.

Sorry to hear that you have decided to go drastic. Unfortunately (or thankfully) you probably might not be able to maintain such a drastic change in lifestyle. Diets that severely restrict of eliminate whole groups of food are bogus, too hard to stick with and unhealthy.

Perhaps you should contain yourself to nice meals on the weekends, a lot of fun type exercise and healthier meals on the weekdays. That plan worked for me.

About the exercise. I can't "exercise" unless it's fun. Fun for me is hiking and swimming. Fun for me is taking a PE class at the local community college (like volleyball!) They have those things at community centers too.

Joining a gym is a waste if you feel silly doing all that weird exercise and jumping about with people watching.

If you HAVE to buy something then it should be Taebo. You can do it at home alone andf wont feel silly because punching and kicking is fun (even if it is air).

Combine that with healthier eating and little breaks on Sunday for big chocolate sundaes and pork would do wonders for you.

It also takes TIME!!!

Val, You didn't say anything about medication. Didn't your doc prescribe one of the statins? That stuff really works!!! I lowered my cholesterol from 297 to 160, and I have not given up anything. I still eat chocolate and drink coffee every day. So ask him about medication. Good luck.

So, now you have a perfect excuse to take your wife dancing once or twice a week- if your male friends mock you, tell them you have to do it to save your life.

I'll put in another good word for walking too. In the evening after a good meal, it doesn't even seem like exercise, and you sleep like a baby.