Midweek Update
A bonus post for paid-subscribers
I thought I’d do a mid-week update for my paid subscribers and tell you precisely what I’ve been eating and doing this week to get my cholesterol down more quickly.
As you might know from my Saturday post, Shit Just Got Real, even though I’ve been chopping those numbers at every test, it’s taking too long, and there’s plaque building up in my coronary arteries in the meantime. So it has to go low and it has to go now. My next blood draw is mid-November. Doc gave me six weeks to see what I can do without statins. Two weeks have passed. Here’s what I’m doing.
My process
To make it easier on myself, I’m having the same things for breakfast and lunch pretty much every day.
Breakfast: Old fashioned oatmeal, the kind you cook in a pan on the stove. ½ cup rolled oats, 1 cup water, cooked to the consistency I like. While it’s simmering, I fill my bowl with 1 tbsp ground flax seed, about ¼ cup raisins, 1 ripe banana, 10 fat blueberries, 3 or 4 strawberries, 5 to 7 raspberries, and a shake of cinnamon.
Lunch: Huge salad with mixed greens including kale, arugula, baby spinach, radicchio, mizen, beet greens, chard, baby pakchoi, tatsoi, endive, frisee, and several lettuces. To that I add a whole tomato, a stalk of chopped celery, some finely shaved red onion, a little bit of chopped dill pickle, a can of drained and warmed mushrooms, a bit of chopped red bell pepper. Sometimes I’ll add leftover baked sweet potato (diced,) or marinated tofu bites to my salads if I have some on hand. If not tofu, I’ll add a handful of chickpeas, which I heat with the mushrooms. My dressing is a wonderful balsamic vinegar that’s thick and sweet. Not just any will do, but I don’t need the hundred-dollar plus pure must varieties, either. I tried a different kind the other day and it was thin as water and bitter. The best brand I’ve found locally is Sklafani and that’s what I’m using on my salads. I love it.
Dinners and snacks are an entirely different matter. They must be delicious and they must be widely varied.