BIG Sigh of Relief

Okay, I've been freaking out for the last 12 hours or so. When I had my dr's appt on Wednesday, they did all the usual blood work, and my dr. said she would send a letter with all the results - which is the usual routine for this practice. So, I was very freaked out when I got out of meetings at work yesterday to have messages from my dr. on *both* my phones, saying she wanted to talk about my blood test results. I called back but had missed her for the day, so I needed to wait until this morning to learn what's up. PANIC ENSUES. (And a crazy email to my Dr. Friend at one point.)

Well, I just talked to her. And guess what? She called to tell me that my numbers were GREAT! That this blood test showed great improvements over my last round, which was about 18 months ago or so. My glucose was normal (a concern with Dad's diabetes) and all of the other usual stuff stayed normal. And here's all the really good news:

My cholesterol is good! I brought down my total cholesterol from 229 to 203, from high borderline to just above normal - and your good cholesterol (HDL) should be above 60, mine's 74, and the bad cholesterol (LDL) should be under 100, and I brought it down from 135 to 96! Holla! It wasn't very long ago that number was up in the 170's or more, back before I really started paying attention. (here's a handy link that lays out the optimal ranges)

My triglycerides - something to worry about with a family history of heart disease - are a little high - they should be 150 - but I brought them down from 171 to 163.

So -- I was very nervous about this call, but she actually just wanted to talk through these things before I get the letter so she could tell me I was doing a good job. She said "keep doing what you're doing." It's funny, I was thinking last night that if she called to say something was wrong with my numbers that it would almost feel like I'd failed a test, and I have always hated failing tests. Now, it feels like I got an A!

How 'bout that? Cooking works. Healthy ingredients work. Cutting out lots of snacking works. Ta dah! So, even though I'm still at my heaviest weight (blurgh) and need to drop those numbers in order to improve my blood pressure, overall I think this is the healthiest I've been as an adult. Proof that it is, indeed, a lifestyle, right?? :-)